How Reliable Is The Bible?

Part III: Why Should I Trust The Bible?

From reading horoscopes to visiting fortune-tellers, people have been fascinating with predictions of the future. Yet, in general, most people are skeptical of those who make predictions and prophecies. However, most people do not realize that the Old Testament (completed from 250-450 BC) contains many predictions and prophecies concerning the future.

Specifically, there are over 300 prophecies concerning the coming of Jesus, the Messiah. To make matters more complicated, these predictions were not made by one person but written by different people from different times.Jesus’ life from AD 3-33 – almost 250 years after the predictions – followed many of predictions of a special king or the “One.”

The critical ones include:

1) Jesus’ place of birth : “But you , Bethlehem…One will come the leader who will shepherd Israel..” (Micah 5:2)

2) Jesus’ manner of birth : “A girl who is a virgin will get pregnant. She’ll bear a son and name him Immanuel. (Is 7:14)

3) Jesus’ betrayal by his followers : “One look at him and people turned away. We looked down on him, though he was scum.” (Is 53:3)

4) Jesus’ purposeful and painful death: “But it was our sins that did that to him, that ripped and tore and crushed him…he was beaten, he was tortured, but he didn’t say a word…” (Is 53:5-7)

5) Jesus’ burial : “They buried him with the wicked, threw him in a grave with a rich man…(Is 53:9)

What can explain this matching of predictions? Some suggest that Jesus engineered his life to self-fulfill the predictions of the Old Testament. Jesus could have influenced people to cause his betrayal, death, and burial. Yet, how can one explain the place and manner of birth? Certainly, it would be hard to predict ones birth place and birth mother. Another inescapable explanation is that there is something “divine” and supernatural that fulfilled these prophecies in the life of Jesus. If these prophecies are indeed true and were fulfilled, this would give the Bible more reliability and trustworthiness to its readers. There is something special and mysterious about the Bible.

As one of the New Testament writers states, “What I received I passed on to you as of first importance, that Christ died for our sins according the Scriptures [Old Testament], he was buried, that he was raised on the third day, according to the Scriptures, and that he appeared to Peter, and then to the Twelve. After that he appeared to more than 500 hundred of the brothers at the same time, most of whom are still living…” (1 Corinthians 15:3-8)

We have seen how the Bible is unique in its authorship, accurate transmission, and prophecies in the last 3 sessions. It was written by eye-witnesses who knew that Jesus fulfilled many of the predictions from 250 years earlier. As we conclude this series, the final question remains, “How convinced are you that the Bible is reliable and how willing are you to read it for yourself?”