Premise 1: The Bible Itself Claims To Be Supernatural

Websters Dictionary defines the word “supernatural” as of or relating to an order of existence beyond the visible universe. This is what the Bible itself claims to be.

No prophecy of Scripture comes from someone’s own interpretation. For no prophecy was ever produced by the will of man, but men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit

2 Peter 1:20-21

All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness

2 Timothy 3:16

Prophecies Fulfilled Confirm the Divine Origin of the Bible

One of the most significant tools that God has provided for us to authenticate the Scriptures original nature is predictive prophecy (a prediction of something to come).

The reason why prophecy is an indication of the divine authorship of the Scriptures, and hence a testimony to the trustworthiness of the Message of the Scriptures, is because of the minute probability of fulfillment.

Anyone can make predictions. Having those prophecies fulfilled is vastly different. In fact, the more statements made about the future, and the more the detail, then the less likely the precise fulfillment will be. For example:

What is the likelihood of a person predicting today the exact city in which the birth of a future leader would take place, well into the 22nd century?

This is indeed what the prophet Micah did 700 years before the Jesus’s birth. (Micah 5:2) Further, what is the likelihood of predicting the precise manner of death that a new unknown religious leader would experience, a thousand years from now – by a manner of death presently unknown, and to remain unknown for hundreds of years? Yet, this is what David did in 1000 B.C concerning the crucifixion of Jesus. (Psalm 22:16-18)

What is the likelihood of predicting the specific date of the appearance of some great future leader, hundreds of years in advance?

This is what Daniel did, 530 years before Christ. (Daniel 7:13)

About one-fourth of the Bible is related to predictive prophecy, or predictions which, at the time of their utterance, were still future.

Only an all-knowing God is able to foreknow and foretell the future with perfect accuracy.

God has revealed His power to foretell in the pages of Scripture as a witness that Scripture is divinely inspired and ordained much the same way the minutest events and details of fulfilled prophecy were also supervised by Him.

God Himself claims this divine ability:

Remember the former things long past,

For I am God, and there is no other; I am God, and there is no one like Me,

Declaring the end from the beginning And from ancient times things which have not been done,

‘My purpose will be established, And I will accomplish all My good pleasure’

Isaiah 46:9-10 (New International Version)

The Bible is filled with these unique proofs of being inspired by the Holy Spirit. Hundreds of detailed prophecies were written centuries before the events they accurately described.

Here are just a few of the 351 messianic prophecies the Old Testament foretold centuries in advance:

The Messiah Jesus was born of a virgin (Isaiah 7:14) in Bethlehem (Micah 5:2), as a descendant of Abraham (Genesis 12:1–3), Isaac (Genesis 17:19), and Jacob (Genesis 28:14). He was betrayed by a friend (Psalm 41:9) for 30 pieces of silver that were used to purchase the potter’s field (Zechariah 11:13). Then he was mocked and ridiculed, pierced in his hands and feet, and lots were cast for his clothing (Psalm 22:7, 16, 18). He died (Daniel 9:26) as a sacrifice for our sins and was buried in a rich man’s tomb (Isaiah 53:8–10). After a short time in the grave, he lived again (Psalm 16:10; Isaiah 53:10).

The probability for any one of these prophecies having been fulfilled by chance averages less than one in ten (figured very conservatively) coupled with the fact that the prophecies are for the most part independent of one another makes the odds for all these prophecies having been fulfilled by chance without error is less than one in 10²⁰⁰⁰ (that is 1 with 2,000 zeros written after it)!

Peter Stoner was a mathematician and astronomer, and professor emeritus of science at Westmont College, Santa Barbara, California. In his book “Science Speaks” he details the probability of these 8 of the 351 messianic prophecies found in the Bible being fulfilled:

Prophecy and Details	Location in Bible	Years Before Event Occurred	Probability of Fulfillment
Jesus born in Bethlehem	Micah 5:2	ca. 768 years	1 in 105 or 100,000
A messenger will prepare the way for the Messiah	Malachi 3:1	ca. 466 years	1 in 103
Jesus will enter Jerusalem on a donkey	Zechariah 9:9	ca. 513 years	1 in 102 or 100
Will be betrayed by a friend and suffer wounds in His hands	Zechariah 13:6	ca. 513 years	1 in 103
Betrayed for 30 pieces of silver	Zechariah 11:12-13	ca. 513 years	1 in 1011
Betrayal money be used to purchase Potter’s field	Zechariah 11:13	ca. 513 years	1 in 105
Messiah will remain silent while afflicted	Isaiah 53:7	ca. 772 years	1 in 103
Messiah will die by having His hands and feet pierced	Psalm 22:16	ca. 963 years	1 in 104

Multiplying all these probabilities together produces a number (rounded off) of 1 x 10²⁸. Dividing this number by an estimate of the number of people who have lived since the time of these prophecies (88 billion) produces a probability of all 8 prophecies being fulfilled accidentally in the life of one person. That probability is 1 in 10¹⁷, or one in one hundred quadrillion!

We take 100,000,000 silver dollars and lay them on the face of Texas. They will cover all of the state two feet deep. Now mark one of these silver dollars and stir the whole mass thoroughly…Blindfold a man and tell him…he must pick up the marked silver dollar…What chance would he have of getting the right one? Just the same chance that the prophets would have of writing…eight prophecies and having them come true in any one man.

Peter Stoner; Science Speaks, Moody Press, 1963 p. 100-107

To declare a thing shall come to pass long before it is in being, and to bring it to pass, this or nothing is the work of God

Justin Martyr

Discussion Question 1: Unique among all the books ever written, the Bible accurately foretells specific events with detail many years, sometimes centuries before they occur. Approximately 2,500 prophecies appear in the pages of the Bible, about 2,000 of which already have been fulfilled to the letter—no errors. How can this be explained?

Premise 2: Jesus Christ Himself Validated Scripture

And he came to Nazareth, where he had been brought up. And as was his custom, he went to the synagogue on the Sabbath day, and he stood up to read. And the scroll of the prophet Isaiah was given to him. He unrolled the scroll and found the place where it was written, “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim liberty to the captives and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.” And he rolled up the scroll and gave it back to the attendant …today this Scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing

Luke 4:16-20

The most compelling authentication of the Bible is that Jesus read, memorized, quoted and taught from it Himself

Jesus also said that all of Scripture was centered around Him and His redemptive purpose. At least 19 of the 39 books of the Old Testament have direct prophecies foretelling important and precise details about Jesus Christ. And all 39 books have foregleams or allusions to Christ.

He said this to the Jewish leaders in John 5:39:

You search the Scriptures because you believe they give you eternal life. But the Scriptures point to me!

John 5:39 New Living Translation

Jesus validated the Old Testament

During Jesus’s ministry He told people that He was the fulfillment of the numerous prophecies they had been studying for years in their Old Testament.

How foolish you are, how slow you are to believe everything the prophets said! Was it not necessary for the Messiah to suffer these things and then to enter his glory?” And Jesus explained to them what was said about himself in all the Scriptures, beginning with the books of Moses and the writings of all the prophets.

Luke 24:25-27

A number of times during His earthly ministry, Jesus responded to questions with, “It is written…”  (7 times in Matthew, 4 times in Mark, 5 times in Luke, 1 time in John). 

In fact Jesus quoted the Old Testament 78 times in the Gospels

Here are sample quotes from the 16 Old Testament Books Jesus quoted from directly:

Old Testament Book And Sample Scripture	Subject	Scripture Reference	Quoted in New Testament From Book
Genesis 1:27, 5:2	Marriage	Mark 10:6-8	4 times
Leviticus 19:12	Holy Living	Matthew 5:33	6 times
Numbers 30:2	Keeping Oaths	Matthew 5:33	1 time
Exodus 20:12-16	Ten Commandments	Luke 18:20	30 times
Deuteronomy 5:16-20	Ten Commandments	Luke 10:26-28	45 times
1 Samuel 21:1-6	The Sabbath	Mark 2:25	1 time
1 Kings 10:1-9	Judgement	Matthew 12:42	1 time
Psalms 118:22-23	Messianic Prophecy	Mark 12:10	26 times
Isaiah 6:9	Messianic Prophecy	Matthew 13:13-14	21 times
Daniel 9:27	End Times	Matthew 24:15	8 times
Jeremiah 7:11	God’s house	Mark 11:17	3 times
Hosea 6:6	Salvation	Matthew 9:13	3 times
Jonah 1:17	Death, Burial, Resurrection	Matthew 12:40	1 time
Micah 7:6	Jesus would cause division	Matthew 10:35-36	1 time
Zechariah 13:7	Betrayal	Matthew 26:31	2 times
Malachi 3:1	John The Baptist Prophecy	Matthew 11:10	3 times

Jesus also referenced Old Testament people as having existed, here are sample references:

1. Adam and Eve (Matthew 19:4-6)
2. Moses (Matthew 19:7)
3. Cain and Abel (Matthew 23:35)
4. Noah (Luke 17:26)
5. Jonah (Matthew 12:39-41)
6. Abraham (John 8:39-42)
7. Lot (Luke 17:28-32)
8. Isaac (Matthew 22:31-32)
9. Jacob (Luke 20:37-38)
10. David (Mark 12:35-37)
11. Solomon (Matthew 12:42)
12. Isaiah (Matthew 12:15-21)
13. Daniel (Matthew 24:15)
14. Elijah (Mark 9:11-13)
15. Elisha (Luke 4:27)
16. Zechariah (Matthew 23:34-36)
17. Queen of Sheba. (Matthew 12:39-41)

Here are the references He made about historical events in the Old Testament:

1. The giving of the Law to Moses (Matthew 8:4)
2. Moses being an Old Testament writer of the Law (Matthew 8:4)
3. God providing manna in the wilderness (John 6:48-50)
4. Old Testament prophets persecution (Matthew 5:11-12)
5. Popularity of false prophets in Old Testament times (Luke 6:26)
6. Lot’s wife’s death at Sodom and Gomorrah (Luke 17:28-32
7. The destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah (Luke 17:28-32)
8. The destruction of Tyre and Sidon (Matthew 11:21-22)
9. Adam and Eve (Matthew 19:4-5)
10. Cain and Abel (Luke 11:50-52)
11. The flood in Noah’s day (Matthew 24:37-39)
12. Jonah and the whale (Matthew 12:38-41)

Jesus validated both the authors of Scripture, and the events that happened just as predicted. He also validated Old Testament figures and events as historically real. Most of all Jesus validated the accuracy, and the supreme importance of the Bible itself.

You examine the Scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life; and it is those very Scriptures that testify about Me

John 5:39

Discussion Question 2: Jesus quoted the Old Testament 78 times, and referenced the events and people contained in it as being historically accurate. How does Jesus’s high view of Scripture impact your belief in the authenticity of Scripture?

Premise 3: Consistency, Coherency and Honesty Validate Scripture

The fact that 66 different authors of Bible books who were from different time periods, socio-political, and socio-economic backgrounds, different regions, and often centuries apart could write history, biography, poetry, and prophecy with the same exact coherent theme and person at the center of the narrative is nothing short of miraculous.

The Bible, at first sight, appears to be a collection of literature —mainly Jewish. If we enquire into the circumstances under which the various Biblical documents were written, we find that they were written at intervals over a space of nearly 1400 years. The writers wrote in various lands, from Italy in the west to Mesopotamia and possibly Persia in the east. The writers themselves were a heterogeneous number of people, not only separated from each other by hundreds of years and hundreds of miles, but belonging to the most diverse walks of life. In their ranks we have kings, herdsmen, soldiers, legislators, fishermen, statesmen, courtiers, priests and prophets, a tent making Rabbi and a Gentile physician, not to speak of others of whom we know nothing apart from the writings they have left us. The writings themselves belong to a great variety of literary types. They include history, law (civil, criminal, ethical, ritual, sanitary), religious poetry, didactic treatises, lyric poetry, parable and allegory, biography, personal correspondence, personal memoirs and diaries, in addition to the distinctively Biblical types of prophecy and apocalyptic.

FF Bruce, Professor of Biblical Criticism, University of Manchester

Consider for a moment …What if multiple authors had each written a single page of the Bible? What if each author wrote in different genres, in different centuries and in different countries, with no “master plan” for them to consult? What is the likelihood that it would make any sense at all?

“For all that, the Bible is not simply an anthology; there is a unity which binds the whole together. An anthology is compiled by an anthologist, but no anthologist compiled the Bible.”

FF Bruce, Professor of Biblical Criticism, University of Manchester

The Bible although written by different authors in different centuries, it has a single theme running all the way through it, like rings in the trunk of a tree. It tells the unified, coherent story of humanity’s creation by God, humanity’s rebellion against God, and God’s redemption of his people.

It’s like flicking between 66 different stations and finding that each is advancing the same story. As well as having a single theme, the Bible has a single hero. Each of these 66 documents, even the ones written hundreds of years before Jesus’ birth, are all singing the same song. And the song, consistently, is about Jesus. As Jesus said: “These are the very Scriptures that testify about me” (John 5 v 39). What are the odds?

Barry Cooper, Can I Really Trust The Bible

Premise 4: The Bible includes elements that make no sense if it was made up

Compared to other “holy books,” the Bible is distinct. Not only was it written by at least 40 writers , on several continents, over a time period of 1,500 years, it is not what we would expect if it were a fabricated book.

Is is a well known that many writers, recorders, and teachers of history have done so from a biased position. In many countries, history textbooks, and religious books are sponsored by the national government and are written to put the national heritage and national heroes in the most favorable light. This is the opposite of what the Bible does:

The Old Testament was the national book of Israel. It was revered and considered holy, and sacred. It was commanded to be memorized, and rigorously taught to children.

Yet when you read the Old Testament you realize that a large portion of text contains vivid historical documentation of Israel’s repeated stubborn disobedience resulting in punishment from God.

Israel was chosen by God to be a representative nation and was often blessed and protected. However, every book in the Old Testament contains major incidents of Israel’s disobedience, and lapses in judgment. Many of which resulted in severe warnings from prophets, leaders, and God Himself.

Many writers chronicle God’s chastisement of Israel which often included being over taken and humiliated by pagan countries in order to humble, correct, and get them to return to God.

The whole book of Lamentations is primarily an outcry by the prophet Jeremiah because of the sorrow, embarrassment, and disillusionment caused by Israels’s moral failures and God’s judgment on them.

Here is how Lamentations begins:

How lonely sits the city That was full of people! She has become like a widow Who was once great among the nations! She who was a princess among the provinces Has become a forced laborer!

Lamentations 1:1

In the Old and New Testaments God inspired writers to purposely include Israel’s and the early church’s failures alongside stories of blessings and successes to show objectively the parallel effects of both.

No other religious or historical narrative has been written with such moral and objective transparency. Here are just one of many other examples from the following books of the Old Testament:

Book of the Bible	Moral Failure of Israel	Scripture Reference	Punishment and or Humiliation
Genesis	Moral corruption, Wickedness	Genesis 6:9-13	God flooded the earth, only 8 people survived
Exodus	Idolatry	Exodus 32:1	3,000 men were killed
Numbers	Disobedience, Unbelief, Complaining	Numbers 14:22-23	Forced to wander in the wilderness 40 years
Joshua	Devotion to other religions, Deception	Joshua 7:10-11	God allowed Israel to be defeated in Battle
Judges	Unbelief, disobedience, idolatry	Joshua 2	God allows Israel’s enemies to defeat them
1 Samuel	Failure of Spiritual Leaders, Idolatry, Disobedience	1 Samuel Chapter 4	God allows Israel’s enemies to defeat them
2 Samuel	King David commits adultery	2 Samuel Chapter 11	King David is punished

1 Kings, 2 Kings and 1 Chronicles, and 2 Chronicles are records of all the Kings and the their conduct. All four books are replete with accounts of the Kings of Israel, and Judah who were either wicked or righteous, and either brought harm or blessing to themselves and to the nation.

The 14 books of the prophets from Isaiah to Malachi that contain contain numerous prophecies of judgements that were to befall on the nation if they didn’t repent, many contain precise accounts of these negative prophecies being fulfilled.

The Bible is also transparent about the moral failings of its heroes, leaders and icons

Hebrews Chapter 11 is sometimes called the Hall of Faith because it includes heroic testimonies about some of the most well known people in the Bible.

However, while the names mentioned in Hebrews Chapter 11 are certainly famous for stories of their courage and faithfulness, some of the people in the Hall of Faith also had moral failures. Some severe enough that God punished them. The Bible provides as much honest detail about their failings as to their heroic deeds.

Here are some of the Bible’s Icons and a list of their moral failings:

Person In The Bible	Most Known For	Moral Failure Because:
Noah	Righteousness, Building Ark	Drunkeness and nakedness
Abraham	Father Of Many Nations	Lying, lack of trust in God
Sarah	Mother of 12 Sons of Israel	Lack of Trust , Let her husband sleep with another woman
Lot	Nephew of Abraham	Chose to live in a sinful place for reasons of comfort
Jacob	Patriarch of Israel	Deception and cunning
Moses	Leader of Israel, Author of Penteuatuch	Pride and disobedience
Rahab	Protected Israel Men	Harlotry
Sampson	Judge, Warrior	Pride, Independence
David	King, Biblical Writer	Adultery, Accessory to Murder

Abraham who is known as the “Father of Many Nations” is mentioned 230 times in the Bible and by Jesus Himself many times as a man of faith and obedience. Yet twice he failed to trust God, and lied to foreign rulers telling them his wife was his sister in order to protect Himself. (Genesis 12:10-20), (Genesis 20:1-13)

Noah was called the most righteous man living on earth when he was alive, was a preacher, and built the ark. In Genesis 9:20-23 Noah got slovenly drunk one night and his two sons found him passed out naked.

David was King of Israel for 40 years. He wrote almost half of Psalms. He was called “a man after My own heart” by God Himself. In 2 Samuel 11:3-17 coveted and slept with another man’s wife, got her pregnant and then had her husband sent to the front in the war so he would die, and he was killed.

These three particular accounts are of three of the most prominent and revered Christian figures you can find in Scripture. It is highly unlikely that such brutally honest and detailed accounts of their moral failures would be included in the Bible if it was made up just to promote Christianity.

Discussion Question 4: Most other national histories, and religions embellish their hero’s accomplishments while omitting failures. If the Bible were made up why would it be written so that it’s hero’s fail and sinners become heroes?

Final Thoughts

The Bible was written for us, by people like us, about people like us

Written over 40 generations, by over 40 authors from every walk of life including kings, peasants, philosophers, fishermen, poets, statesmen, scholars, even a doctor.

Tax collectors, blacksmiths, senior citizens with special needs, tent makers, prostitutes, textile workers, jewelers…people from all walks of life play prominent roles in the Bible

It is a book about both the sublime and the unspeakable, it is a book also about life the way it really is. It is a book about people who at one and the same time can be both believing and unbelieving, innocent and guilty, crusaders and crooks, full of hope and full of despair. In other words it is a book about us.

Frederick Buechner, Wishful Thinking

The Bible is not just human history…it is His Story

Every book of the Bible either alludes to, testifies of, or phrophesies about Jesus Christ.

While it is true that a man can know the “what” about creative wisdom through observation of the physical world and its inner workings, but man cannot know the “who” or the “why” or the without the Bible. The “Who” chose to reveal Himself and His purpose and plan for the mankind and the world through Scripture.

It is Christ Himself, not the Bible, who is the true word of God. The Bible, read in the right spirit and with the guidance of good teachers, will bring us to him.

C.S. Lewis

The Bible is “No Ordinary Book” because it has changed the most lives

All other myths of gods had indestructible gods out of reach of people. What made up religious book would have it’s God send His Son to earth to be born a in a barn, make furniture for a living, then at the age of only 33 years old be maligned, tortured and killed like a common criminal for the the salvation of mankind? With the Bible the phrase “You Can’t Make This Stuff Up” takes on new meaning

This story and the book it’s contained in is the most read book of all time and no other is even close. (Over 5 billion Bibles to 800 million for second closest ) According to Guinness World Records  the Bible is both the bestselling book every year and of all time.

TIME magazine recorded the number one event of the last 1,000 years was the Gutenberg printing of the Bible which made this book available in mass form to all people.

Why has the Bible had such an enormous impact in the world? It is because it has changed lives. Since the 1st century when it was written governments have banned it, burned it, shunned it, and forbid it’s teaching yet it’s message of hope, purpose, and eternal life still spreads like wildfire.

And this is eternal life, that they know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent…I have manifested your name to the people whom you gave me out of the world

John 17:3,6

Why not read it for yourself?

A Barna Research study conducted in 2018 showed that six in ten americans (58%) believe the message of the Bible has transformed their life. Surprisingly, of the remaining 42% who say it has not transformed their life, only 18% of them had actually read any of the New Testament.

Have you ever been misrepresented by a person or group and said to yourself “How can they say these things about me, they have never even gotten to know me?”

How will you or I know if the Bible can be trusted, or if it has the power to change lives if we don’t read it? Skepticism without investigation is like saying a food taste bad without actually tasting it. Skepticism is actually the opposite of searching.

It is possible to be a terrible believer in things, but it is equally possible to be a terrible unbeliever in things.

Augustine of Hippo was always brilliant (IQ 180) , but not always a Christian. In fact he was an renowned skeptic, humanistic philosopher, and famous teacher of rhetoric.  He couldn’t find truth in Christianity because he saw it as a religion for the simple-minded. At the age of 31 he heard a small child’s voice chanting a song “Take up and read, take up and read”

I arose, interpreting it to be no other than a command from God to open the book, and read the first chapter I should find. I seized, opened, and in silence read that section on which my eyes first fell: “Not in rioting and drunkenness, not in chambering and wantonness, not in strife and envying; but put ye on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make not provision for the flesh, in concupiscence.” No further would I read; nor needed I: for instantly at the end of this sentence, by a light as it were of serenity infused into my heart, all the darkness of doubt vanished away.

Saint Augustine

Augustine is now known as a “Theological Father” by protestants and a Saint by Catholics. H is just one of millions and millions of previous skeptics over the centuries who when they finally made a point of reading the Scriptures and were never the same again.

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