A DOCTRINAL EXEGESIS
OF THE "WE BELIEVE" STATEMENT
OF THE ASSOCIATION OF MESSIANIC
CONGREGATIONS

A Compendium of Messianic Bible Studies

By Norman Manzon

PAGE 6 OF 6:
ADDENDUM STUDIES, Page 1


MAJOR TOPICS IN SYSTEMATIC PROGRESSION
:
PAGE 1:
The Scriptures; God the Triunity; Angels; Satan and Demons; The Doctrine of Man; Salvation
PAGE 2: Israel; The True Roots of Anti-Semitism; The Believer and the Law of Moses
PAGE 3: The Church or Body of Messiah; The Ministries and Gifts of the Holy Spirit; Divine Healing: Another Perspective
PAGE 4: The Future, the Afterworld and Eternity
PAGE 5: The Future, the Afterworld and Eternity - continued from
page 4.
PAGE 6: ADDENDUM STUDIES, Page 1

 
PLEASE NOTE: The studies in this compendium are copied from Shofars 1 - 52. Updates to this Compendium have been discontinued and not all Shofar studies by the author are in the Compendium. For links to all studies by the author, please go to the most up-to-date Library page (of Shofar 53) and find the author's studies under "NORMAN MANZON."
 

16. All Scripture is inspired by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness; 17. so that the man of God may be adequate, equipped for every good work.

~ 2 Timothy 3:16-17 ~

CONTENTS: PAGE 6 OF 6

ADDENDUM STUDIES, Page 1
FOREWORD
1. THE AMBASSADORIAL BAND

2. EVIDENCE UPON EVIDENCE: THE BIBLE IS THE WORD OF GOD, PART 1
3. EVIDENCE UPON EVIDENCE: THE BIBLE IS THE WORD OF GOD, PART 2



~ ADDENDUM ~

FOREWORD

Dear Friends,

In 2005 we began our series of a detailed exposition of the We Believe statement of The Association of Messianic Congregations which we completed in January of 2017 with "The Heavenly Ages." Little did anyone know when I began, including me, that it would turn out to be a fairly well developed systematic theology, a topical exposition of the Scriptures presented in a logical sequence. To use formal terminology, we've covered Bibliology, the doctrine or study of the Scriptures that addresses such questions as how we know that the Bible is the written, inerrant, infallible word of God and how He composed it through human writers; Theology Proper, the study of God, which includes, but is not limited to, the study of the Trinity and God the Father; Christology, the study of the Son; Pneumatology, the study of the Holy Spirit; Angelology, the study of angels; Satanology, the study of Satan; Demonology, the study of demons; Anthropology, the biblical study of man (not to be confused with the sociological science of anthropology); Hamartiology, the study of sin; Soteriology, the study of Salvation through the ages; Israelology, the study of Israel; Ecclesiology, the study of the Body of Messiah or the Church; and finally, Eschatology, the study of future events.

Though the sequence has been completed, the author has found it necessary to back up and fill in some blanks, which he has done with the first study to follow, "The Ambassadorial Band" which, in theological sequence, fits right after "The Local Church."

It has been my great privilege and blessing to do this.


For Yeshua and you,
Nachum ben Avraham,
Norman Manzon

WE BELIEVE
~
THE AMBASSADORIAL BAND

By Norman Manzon

In theological sequence, "The Ambassadorial Band" fits in right after "The Local Congregation" on  Page 3.

The harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few. Therefore beseech the Lord of the harvest to send out workers into His harvest.

~ Matthew 9:37-38 ~

20. Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God were making an appeal through us; we beg you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God. 21. He made Him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.

~ 2 Corinthians 5:20-21 ~


TABLE OF CONTENTS

AMC STATEMENT: EXCERPTS
THE CALL OF THE AMBASSADORIAL BAND
THE NECESSITY TO ACCOMMODATE
THE ACTIVITIES AND PERSISTENCE OF THE AMBASSADORIAL BAND
THE NECESSITY OF A CLEAR UNDERSTANDING OF THE MISSION
THE AMBASSADORIAL BAND AND LOCAL CONGREGATIONS
THE AMBASSADORIAL BAND AND MODERN TIMES
CONCLUSION
FOOTNOTES


As always, we will lay a foundation by considering relevant sections of the We Believe statement of The Association of Messianic Congregations.

AMC STATEMENT: EXCERPTS (1)

Salvation

We believe that anyone who by faith trusts Messiah Yeshua as Savior and Redeemer is immediately forgiven of sin and becomes a child of God. This salvation is not the result of any human effort or merit, it is the undeserved favor of God. Further, there is no other way of salvation apart from faith in Messiah Yeshua for any person, whether Jewish or Gentile. We believe that Messiah Yeshua died as the sacrifice for man's sin and that all who believe in Him are declared righteous on the basis of His shed blood alone. We believe that all believers are kept eternally secure by the power of God through the new birth and the indwelling and sealing of the Holy Spirit. (Genesis 15:6; Leviticus 17:11; Deuteronomy 9:4-6; Habakkuk 2:4; John 1:12,13; Acts 2:37-39; Romans 1:16,17, 3:28, 8:9,15-17; Ephesians 1:7, 2:8,9,19; Titus 3:5)

The Body of Messiah

We believe that all believers in Yeshua are members of the universal body (community) and bride of the Messiah. The body of Messiah began at Shavuot (Pentecost) with the baptism of the Holy Spirit after the ascension of Yeshua. Membership in the body is based solely on faith in Messiah. This body is distinct from Israel and is composed of both Jews and Gentiles made one in Messiah. These members are under the solemn duty to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of love. We believe that the ordinances of the local congregation are water immersion and the Lord's Supper. We believe that the purpose of the local congregation is to glorify God through worship, instruction, accountability, discipline, fellowship and outreach. Its eldership is open to men who fulfill the qualifications for elder as set forth in the New Covenant. The Scriptures encourage the active participation and regular assembly of believers in the local body. (Matthew 16:15-18 Luke 22:24-27; Acts 1:5, 2:14-36; 1 Corinthians 12:13; Galatians 6:1; Ephesians 2:11-18, 5:23-27; Colossians 1:18, 3:14,15)

~

THE CALL OF THE AMBASSADORIAL BAND

It is the call of the body of Messiah as a whole to Go and make disciples of all nations (Matthew 28:19), but it is the pronounced call of particular evangelists (Acts 8:5; 26-35) and the ambassadorial band as a whole to do the actual taking of the gospel to regions it had never touched before. As Paul said to the Romans,

I aspired to preach the gospel, not where Christ was already named, so that I would not build on another man's foundation; but as it is written, THEY WHO HAD NO NEWS OF HIM SHALL SEE, AND THEY WHO HAVE NOT HEARD SHALL UNDERSTAND (Isaiah 52:15).

~ Romans 15:20-21 ~

And to the Corinthians: to preach the gospel even to the regions beyond you, and not to boast in what has been accomplished in the sphere of another (2 Corinthians 10:16).

20. Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God were making an appeal through us; we beg you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God. 21. He made Him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.

~ 2 Corinthians 5:20-21 ~

THE NECESSITY TO ACCOMMODATE

Within the limitations of holiness, Paul strove to accommodate to every culture and individual to establish common ground for communication.

19. For though I am free from all men, I have made myself a slave to all, so that I may win more. 20. To the Jews I became as a Jew, so that I might win Jews; to those who are under the Law, as under the Law though not being myself under the Law, so that I might win those who are under the Law; 21. to those who are without law, as without law, though not being without the law of God but under the law of Christ, so that I might win those who are without law. 22. To the weak I became weak, that I might win the weak; I have become all things to all men, so that I may by all means save some.

~ 1 Corinthians 9:19-22 ~

In Colossians 4:6, he wrote, Let your speech always be with grace, as though seasoned with salt, so that you will know how you should respond to each person; and in Acts 17:22-23, we see Paul walking out that exhortation as he used the Athenians' altar with the inscription, "To the unknown god" as a springboard for communicating the gospel to them.

THE ACTIVITIES AND PERSISTENCE OF THE AMBASSADORIAL BAND

Paul and his band preached the gospel, established churches, appointed elders and trained new believers to carry on and multiply the Word and the work of the Lord in all of its aspects (2 Timothy 2:2). They preached in hostile areas as readily as safer ones, not hesitating because of what may befall them (Acts 4:19-20, 23-29; 2 Corinthians 11:21-33). The Lord changed their plans in mid-stream (Acts 16:7-9) and they had strong disagreements among themselves (Acts 11:2; 15:36-40; Galatians 2:12-14); yet, the urgency of their mission superceded all resistance and human shortcoming, and they persevered, trusting that God would do His work through them; and He did. As Yeshua promised, so He performed: I will build My church; and the gates of Hades will not overpower it (Matthew 16:18).

THE NECESSITY OF A CLEAR UNDERSTANDING OF THE MISSION

Paul’s band had a clear understanding of their mission: It was the mission of their leader, to be an apostle to the Gentiles. It is noteworthy that although God called Peter to the Jews and Paul to the Gentiles (Galatians 2:7), yet, wherever the apostle to the Gentiles went he always preached to the Jew first (Romans 1:16) because it was necessary (Acts 13:46) for the fulfillment of God's promise to Abraham: in you all the families of the earth will be blessed (Genesis 12:3). As God used the Jews to bring forth the Law of Moses and the Messiah; as He used them to establish and lay the foundation for the body of Messiah (Romans 15:20; 1 Corinthians 15:10) and bless the world with the writings of the New Covenant; as He will yet use them to complete the evangelization of the world (Revelation 7:1-9); so God desires for individual Jews to receive the gospel first in every locale so that they may have the privilege of being the first to share with others. This is not to say that we are to ignore others until we have first shared with every Jew in a particular locale, but it is to say that it is biblical to focus on them first. It is consistent with God's promise to Abraham. A careful reading of the Book of Acts will affirm that Paul always preached to the Jew first. Even when he returned to a place in which he had previously ministered he again preached to the Jew first (Acts 18:19; 19:1-8). To the Jew first is a principle that has never been rescinded, and if the apostle to the Gentiles' practice and proclamation mean anything, it is still necessary for the gospel to be brought to the Jew first in every outreach in every locale where there are Jews.

THE AMBASSADORIAL BAND AND LOCAL CONGREGATIONS

The local congregation and the ambassadorial band each recognized the other as an authorized and specialized form of the Lord’s work. They recognized each other as equals in authority and responsibility, and served each other. When the Holy Spirit said, Set apart for Me Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called them, the leaders of the congregation at Antioch sent them out with fasting, prayer and the laying on of hands (Acts 13:1-3). When Paul’s journey was diverted by the Lord from Bithynia to Macedonia, he immediately. . . sought to go into Macedonia (Acts 16:7-10), not requiring the permission of either the Antioch or Jerusalem elders.

Members of local congregations joined Paul’s band (Acts 12:12; 16:1-3; 20:1-4), opened their homes to them (Acts 16:14-15), prayed for them (Colossians 4:13; Ephesians 6:19), assisted them financially (2 Corinthians 8:3,5, 11:9; Philippians 4:14-16), and took great risks for them (Romans 16:3-4). Conversely, the ambassadorial band established local congregations and remained with or returned to them for long periods of time, when necessary, to ensure that they were well-trained and established in the Word.

And [Paul] was traveling through Syria and Cilicia, strengthening the churches (Acts 15:41).

He settled [in Corinth] a year and six months, teaching the word of God among them (Acts 18:9-11).

To the Ephesian elders, he wrote, night and day for a period of three years I did not cease to admonish each one with tears (Acts 20:31).

To Titus, he wrote, For this reason I left you in Crete, that you would set in order what remains and appoint elders in every city (Titus 1:5.)

Also, Acts 20:28-32; Romans 16:17-19; Philippians 3:15-16; 1 Corinthians 5; 1 Thessalonians 5:12-22.

Paul also ministered to local congregations by means of letters, and he and his band assisted in meeting the practical needs of congregations, as well. When the saints in Jerusalem needed practical assistance, members of his band received donations from local congregations for that purpose (Acts 11:29-30; 1 Corinthians 16:1-3).

THE AMBASSADORIAL BAND AND MODERN TIMES

Times have changed, and modern ministries have arisen: Bible translation ministries, mercy ministries, modern evangelistic organizations and the like. In addition, we can now spread the Word through means of communication that would seem inconceivable to Paul and his company. These are well and good; yet, according to the Joshua Project of the U.S. Center for World Mission (joshuaproject.net, 2017), the world is still forty-two per cent unevangelized, and ambassadorial companies akin to Paul’s are still needed.

CONCLUSION

What Yeshua said two thousand years ago still applies: The harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few. Therefore beseech the Lord of the harvest to send out workers into His harvest (Matthew 9:37-38).

May God raise up strong, bold, wise and gifted men and women to perpetuate the ambassadorial band and send it to regions beyond. Let us be open to a call beyond the people and places that are closest and most familiar to us, even as Paul reached far beyond his own Jewish brethren.

1. The entire We Believe statement of the Association of Messianic Congregations may be found at http://www.messianicassociation.org/believe.htm.

~

The Ambassadorial Band
~ a messianic Bible study ~
© Norman Manzon, 2017.
All rights reserved.

Scriptures chosen by the author are in the New American Standard version unless otherwise noted. Scriptures in quotes by others may be in different translations. Names, titles and other terms within quoted scriptures and elsewhere may have been changed from the English to the Hebrew form for the sake of cultural sensitivity.

~

WE BELIEVE
~
EVIDENCE UPON EVIDENCE: THE BIBLE IS
THE WORD OF GOD, PART 1

By Norman Manzon


In theological sequence, the placement of this study ought to be the very first in this entire sequence, which begins on Page 1.

Please note: This study originally appeared on the author's website, www.BibleStudyProject.org, and was written to a non-believing, as well as to a believing, audience. This edition contains exactly the same content, but certain names and terms have been changed for appropriateness for a messianic readership.

~

All Scripture is inspired by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness; so that the man of God may be adequate, equipped for every good work.

~ 2 Timothy 3:16-17 ~


TABLE OF CONTENTS

INTRODUCTION
DEFINING TERMS
I. THE TESTIMONY OF THE BIBLE ITSELF
A. The Bible Claims it is the Word of God

1. The Bible Refers to Various of Its Sections as the Word of God
2. The Bible Claims that It Is, in Its Entirety, the Word of God
B. The Bible Claims to Contain Ver Batim Statements Made by God

C. The Bible Claims to Tell Us How God Conveyed His Word to Us
II. EVIDENCES
A. The Bible Stands Alone in its Uniqueness

1. The Bible Is Unique in the Way It Was Written
2. The Bible Is Unique in Its Subject Matter
a. The Bible Alone Declares How the Universe Came to Be
b. The Bible Alone Declares the Existence of Only One God
c. The Bible Alone Declares a Loving God
d. The Bible Alone Identifies Sin as a Condition of the Human Spirit
e. The Bible Alone Declares that Deliverance from Sin Is a Work of God
f. The Bible Alone Declares that One’s Favor with God Is Predicated on Faith in God, Not on Good or Penitential Deeds

Part 2 of Evidences will appear in our Winter 2017 Shofar with further evidences of divine inspiration from the Bible, and also from the physical and sociological sciences and other areas.

As always, we will lay a foundation by considering relevant sections of the We Believe statement of The Association of Messianic Congregations.

AMC STATEMENT: EXCERPTS (1)

The Scriptures

We believe that the Scriptures, both the Tenach (Hebrew Scriptures) and the Brit Hadasha (New Covenant), are fully inspired and are God's complete and final revelation to man until the Messiah returns. The 66 books of the Bible are inerrant in the original autographs. They are true and authoritative in every category of knowledge to which they speak. (Proverbs 30:5,6; Isaiah 40:7,8; Jeremiah 31:31; Matthew 5:18; John 10:35; 2 Timothy 3:16; 2 Pet.1:19-21)


INTRODUCTION

If there is no authoritative word from God, then, for all intents and purposes, we are but flotsam and jetsam cast about without known purpose or direction on a vast and turbulent sea. But if there is an authoritative word from God, then it stands to reason that, by listening to it, we will gain insight into the nature and reason for our existence and how we stand in relationship to God and all else.

In this study, I present evidence far beyond the threshold of proof that the Bible is the Word of God. Attorneys have studied the Bible to disprove it, and have come away believers! If you are not yet convinced that the Bible is the Word of God, I implore you to give these evidences serious consideration as the consequences for believing or disbelieving the Bible could not be more profound. Your eternal destiny and the quality of your earthly life are at stake. If you do know that the Bible is the Word of God, these evidences will strengthen your faith and increase your ability to launch a strong defense against attacks on your faith, and to logically present a defense to everyone who asks you to give an account for the hope that is in you (1 Peter 3:15).

It is because the authorship of the Bible is such a critical and fundamental issue that I have piled evidence on top of evidence that it is the Word of God. I will present evidence from within the Bible itself and from the natural and sociological sciences.

Faith Pushed Aside?

The believer may wonder if I push faith aside by appealing to evidences, an intellectual consideration. That is not the case. God appealed to evidences to convince Job to trust Him (Job 38-40). Furthermore, to the intellectual, we must be as the intellectual. Paul said,

20. And to the Jews I became as a Jew, that I might win Jews; . . . 21. to those who are without law, as without law. . . that I might win those who are without law. 22. To the weak I became weak, that I might win the weak; I have become all things to all men, that I may by all means save some.

~ 1 Corinthians 9:20-22 ~

and in Colossians 4:5-6, Conduct yourselves with wisdom toward outsiders, making the most of every opportunity. Let your speech always be with grace, seasoned, as it were, with salt, so that you may know how you should respond to each person.

The study is extensive, but - How do you eat an elephant? One bite at a time!

Happy dining!

DEFINING TERMS

If I am to prove that the Bible is the Word of God, I must first define what I mean by “the Bible,” “God” and “the Word of God.”

The Bible. I define “the Bible” as that compilation of sixty-six books that comprise the Protestant Bible, is included in the Eastern Orthodox and Roman Catholic Bibles, and includes all of the thirty-nine books held sacred by Jews.

God. I define “God” as the one true God of the Bible who eternally exists as three divine Persons in one Supreme Being. He is divine spirit, is everywhere present (omnipresent), knows all things past, present, and future (omniscient), and is all powerful (omnipotent). God has other attributes, but the ones I have noted include all of the attributes necessary for Him to have authored the Bible.

The Word of God. One of the biblical uses of “the Word of God” is in reference to the total content of the Bible itself. As such, “the Word of God” is the total message that God spoke to chosen men who, under His initiative, power and superintendence, wrote that message in the sixty-six books of the Bible infallibly (with unfailing accuracy) and inerrantly (without error).

I. THE TESTIMONY OF THE BIBLE ITSELF

Dr. Charles Ryrie said, "The Bible, . . . like any other witness, has the right to testify on its own behalf." (2) If the Bible declared that it was not the Word of God, then the matter would be settled out of hand. If it made no declaration at all, then its lack of testimony would lend no strength to any claim that it is the Word of God. But the Bible repeatedly and emphatically claims that it is the Word of God and contains in its narrative actual statements made by God. It even goes so far as to tell us how God conveyed the biblical narrative to us. These claims are repeated strongly and unwaveringly and need to be examined and reckoned with.

If you believe that the Bible has been authored by God, the scriptures that declare God’s authorship will serve as affirmation to you. If you do not yet believe that the Bible has been authored by God, you can be sure that I will not say to you, “Believe that the Bible is the Word of God because it says that it is, and the Word of God can be trusted.” To do so would be a begging of the question as the matter in question would be presented as a presupposition. If you are in the latter category, then accept these scriptures as the testimony of the defendant in your court of judgment. Then consider the evidence that will follow.

Before we examine extrabiblical evidence from various fields, please consider the Bible’s affirmation to believers and testimony to all:

A. The Bible Claims it is the Word of God

1. The Bible Refers to Various of Its Sections as the Word of God

Some examples are as follows:

a. Sections of the Old Testament

1) The Law of Moses
In Deuteronomy 1:6, Moses said, The LORD our God spoke to us at Horeb, saying, "You have stayed long enough at this mountain [Sinai].”

The words spoken to Moses by God at Horeb, which were concluded by this declaration, constitute the Law of Moses, which comprises a major portion of the books of Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy. Yeshua referred to the Law of Moses as the commandment of God and the word of God (Matthew 15:3,6). He also quoted the Law of Moses three times when the devil tempted Him. In Matthew 4:4, He quoted Deuteronomy 8:3; in 4:7, He quoted Deuteronomy 6:16; and in 4:10, He quoted Deuteronomy 6:13.

2) The Entire Old Testament
Yeshua held the entire Old Testament to be the Word of God. He spoke of all the righteous blood shed on earth, from the blood of Abel to the blood of Zechariah the son of Berechiah [not the prophet Zechariah] (Matthew 23:35). Abel was killed in Genesis (4:8), the first book of the Old Testament, and Zechariah was killed in 2 Chronicles (24:20-22), the last book of the Old Testament according to the Jewish arrangement. Thus, by this declaration, Yeshua declared the entire Tanach (Old Testament) to be the Word of God.

b. Sections of the New Testament

1) All of Paul’s Letters
In 2 Peter 3:15-16, Peter referred to all of Paul’s letters as Scripture:

15. just as also our beloved brother Paul, according to the wisdom given him, wrote to you, 16. as also in all his letters, speaking in them of these things, in which are some things hard to understand, which the untaught and unstable distort, as they do also the rest of the Scriptures, to their own destruction.

~ 2 Peter 3:15-16 ~

Paul wrote thirteen of the twenty-seven books of the New Testament. The apostle Peter called them Scripture.

2) The Book of Revelation
John declared the Book of Revelation to be the Word of God: The revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave Him to show to His bond-servants, the things which must shortly take place; and He sent and communicated it by His angel to His bond-servant John (Revelation 1:1).

2. The Bible Claims that It Is, in Its Entirety, the Word of God
In light of all the Old Testament scriptures quoted in the Book of Hebrews, and all the New Testament teachings alluded to in it (Hebrews 4:2, for example), it is clear that the phrase, the word of God in Hebrews 4:12 (For the word of God is living and active) refers to the entire Bible. Paul wrote to Timothy, All Scripture is inspired by God (2 Timothy 3:16). Peter referred to the Bible as the Word of the Lord :

23. You have been born again not of seed which is perishable but imperishable, that is, through the living and enduring word of God. 24. For, "All flesh is like grass, and all its glory like the flower of grass. The grass withers, and the flower falls off, 25. but the word of the Lord abides forever (Isaiah 40:6, 8)."

~ 1 Peter 1:23-25 ~

John recognized the entire Bible as the Word of God:

18. I testify to everyone who hears the words of the prophecy of this book: if anyone adds to them, God shall add to him the plagues which are written in this book; 19. and if anyone takes away from the words of the book of this prophecy, God shall take away from his part in the tree of life and from the holy city, which are written in this book.

~ Revelation 22:18-19 ~

"This book" refers to the Book of Revelation, if not the entire Bible, and its dire warnings can only be predicated upon John’s belief that the Book of Revelation is the Word of God (He declared that it is prophecy); but inasmuch as the Book of Revelation alludes to hundreds of Old Testament prophecies and to the core teachings and prophecies of the New Testament, it is clear that John recognized the entire Bible to be the Word of God.

B. The Bible Claims to Contain Ver Batim Statements Made by God

It stands to reason that, if the Bible is the Word of God, it would likely contain actual statements made by God. If all such statements were compiled, they would fill a large volume; but here are some examples:

1. From the Old Testament
In Genesis 1, the words God said appear eleven times and are followed by the words that the writer claims God said (Genesis 1:3, 6, 9, 11, 14-15, 20, 22, 24, 26, 28, 29-30). Exodus 9:1 declares, Then the LORD said to Moses, "Go to Pharaoh and speak to him, 'Thus says the LORD, the God of the Hebrews, "Let My people go, that they may serve Me.'" In Joshua 1:1, The LORD spoke to Joshua . . . saying. . . . In 1 Chronicles 17:3, The word of God came to Nathan, saying . . . .

Exodus 24 refers to the Law of Moses as All the words which the LORD has spoken (vv. 3, 7) and all the words of the LORD (v. 4). In fact, God is said not only to have spoken the Ten Commandments (which appear in Exodus 20:2-17), but to have written them (Exodus 24:1, 32:16).

In numerous instances, the prophets professed to record actual declarations made by God. Some examples: Thus says the LORD . . . (Isaiah 56:1); Thus says the LORD of hosts. . . . introduces a statement purported to be made by God forty-nine times in Jeremiah (Jeremiah 6:6, 9, et al); Then the word of the LORD came to me saying. . . (Ezekiel 12:1). Bible teacher Winkey Pratney writes, “‘The LORD spoke’ appears 560 times in the first five books of the Bible and at least 3800 times in the whole of the Old Testament!" (3)

2. From the New Testament
The New Testament contains numerous statements purported to have been made by God. For example, the four Gospels are filled with the words of Yeshua, which He Himself recognized as divine: Heaven and earth will pass away, but My words will not pass away (Matthew 24:35). In Acts 9:11 we read, the Lord said to him . . . . In 2 Corinthians 12:9, Paul testifies, And He has said to me . . . . In Revelation 1:8, John writes, as the oracle of God, “I am the Alpha and the Omega," says the Lord God, "who is and who was and who is to come, the Almighty.”

C. The Bible Claims to Tell Us How God Conveyed His Word to Us

We are told in 2 Timothy 3:16, All Scripture is inspired by God. The Greek phrase translated inspired by God is Theopneustos, which means “God-breathed” and emphasizes the exhalation of God. Inspiration, then, is really outspiration, the “outbreathing” of God. God “outbreathed” the Bible through human writers.

2 Peter 1:20-21 makes the concept and process of inspiration even clearer: No prophecy of Scripture is a matter of one’s own interpretation, for no prophecy was ever made by an act of human will, but men moved by the Holy Spirit spoke from God.

"Prophecy" refers to revelation received directly from God - directly, not by means of an intermediate person, such as a teacher, or by means of an intermediate means of communication, such as a scroll or book. Such revelation was spoken by God to prophets, people specially chosen by God to hear revelation from Him infallibly and inerrantly. God inspired some of His prophets to write down their revelations as Scripture. He also inspired some of His compilers of records and researchers to write down the results of their labors as Scripture (See Luke 1:1-4, for example). What Peter says about the prophecy of Scripture - that men moved by the Holy Spirit spoke from God - applies, as well, to the compiled records and research results of Scripture because God inspired the writing of them also.

But what does men moved by the Holy Spirit spoke from God mean? The Greek word for moved is the same word used in Acts 27:15 and 17 to refer to a ship being driven along the water by powerful winds. A prophet was one whom God moved upon in such a way that His Word was both heard and delivered by that prophet infallibly and inerrantly. We can therefore conclude that all who wrote the Scriptures - whether prophets, compilers or researchers - were driven along by the Holy Spirit of God as they wrote their revelations, compilations or research results. God “outbreathed” the powerful Word-bearing wind of His Spirit into the sails of His chosen vessels to drive them along in the writing of His Word.

So we see that the Bible not only declares that it is the Word of God, but explains how God delivered it to us.

Five more points need to be made about inspiration that serve the purpose of this study:
1. Inspiration applies only to the writing of Scripture, not the inerrant hearing of a word from God. The biblical term for inerrant hearing from God is revelation, though not all uses of revelation in the Scriptures have this meaning. Not all inspiration was preceded by revelation (Luke 1:1-4), but most inspiration was. An example of inspiration that was preceded by revelation is: Then the LORD said to Moses, "Write down these words, for in accordance with these words I have made a covenant with you and with Israel” (Exodus 34:27). So under the inspiration of God, Moses wrote the entire Law that God revealed to him - a major part of the Old Testament.

Whether the human author compiled materials through strictly human means or whether he received revelation from God, God inspired him to write down what he compiled or received for the sake of producing an infallible and inerrant record.

2. Inspiration includes superintendence. God did not simply drive His writers to write: He superintended their writing so that they wrote exactly what He wanted them to write. He gave them free rein to write in their own styles and vocabularies, but His superintendence assured that they wrote exactly what He wanted them to write and not one concept or word more or less.

3. On certain occasions, biblical inspiration was accompanied by excited emotional or mental states; but inspiration is not, in itself, an emotional or mental state. It is solely the outbreathing of God upon His chosen writers to write exactly what He wanted them to write.

When we use the word inspiration colloquially, that is, in everyday speech - and I will be using it colloquially later in this study - we do refer to an elevated, excited, and even euphoric emotional state that often precedes or accompanies an insight into the natural world, an invention, the creation of a work of art, etc.; but it is important to remember that the Bible's use of the word is solely in reference to the writing of the sixty-six books of the Bible, that it carries in its meaning the sense of being superintended by God, and that the canon of Scripture is closed (Hebrews 1:1-2; Revelation 22:18-19). People may sense the presence of God as they paint, write music or preach the gospel, but their works or words must never be reckoned to be on a par with Scripture as an authoritative, supervised, infallible, inerrant word or work from God.

4. 2 Timothy 3:16 says, ALL Scripture is inspired by God. Inasmuch as God outbreathed all of the Scriptures, all of the Scriptures are inspired to the fullest degree. Therefore, all Scriptures are equally inspired: the despondent words of Solomon in Ecclesiastes as much as the words of Yeshua in the Gospels. This does not mean that God wants us to be despondent, but that He moved and superintended Solomon to record his despondency infallibly and inerrantly.

5. Inasmuch as inspiration refers to the Lord’s direct work in and through the writers of the Scriptures, it is only the original writings that were inspired. Inspiration did not extend to copies of the original writings, nor does it extend to any translation or any other work. (Nevertheless, the Scriptures that we have today are accurate, as will be explained below.)

To sum up, the Bible’s testimony to its own divine origin is consistent, strong, unwavering and certain.

II. EVIDENCES

Some of the evidences that follow cannot stand on their own as proof of divine authorship, but add to the weight of evidence presented. Others, however, lend much weight to the claim that the Bible is the Word of God, while yet others are sufficient in themselves to stand as powerful proof that the Bible is the Word of God. We will now examine a representative number of them.

A. The Bible Stands Alone in its Uniqueness

1. The Bible Is Unique in the Way It Was Written

No other book was ever written as the Bible was written. It was written over a period of 1600 years in three different languages (Hebrew, Aramaic and Greek) by about forty different men employed in at least eleven different occupations (kings, priests, prophets, soldiers, statesmen, shepherds, fishermen, a tax collector, a tent maker, a doctor, a farmer) and in at least six different countries (Israel, Babylon, Egypt, Greece, Rome, Arabia) spanning three continents (Asia, Africa and Europe). There are many compilations of books in the world, but the Bible is no mere compilation. It is a fully integrated unit of sixty-six books combining to form one Book. Consider the likelihood of the production of such a book over a period of 1600 years. One might think that only God could superintend such a project.

2. The Bible Is Unique in Its Subject Matter

The Bible is unique in much of its subject matter, particularly in its declarations concerning the fundamental issues of existence and life, such as:

a. The Bible Alone Declares How the Universe Came to Be
According to Dr. Henry Morris, “There are only three creationist ‘religions’ in the world - Christianity, Islam and Judaism - and all three base their belief in creation on the record of Genesis [1:1-2:25]. Without exception,” writes Dr. Morris, “all the other religions and philosophies of the world have based their beliefs concerning origins on some form of evolutionism. That is, they all begin with the universe (space, time, matter) already in existence . . . . Only Genesis even attempts to tell us how the universe itself came to be." (4)

b. The Bible Alone Declares the Existence of Only One God
During the entire span of time in which the Bible was written, and throughout the lands in which it was written, the nations surrounding Israel worshiped pantheons of gods. Yet, the Bible declares the existence of but one God.
1) In the Old Testament:
Hear, O Israel! The LORD is our God, the LORD is one (Deuteronomy 6:4).
2) In the New Testament:
We know . . . that there is no God but one (1 Corinthians 8:4).

c. The Bible Alone Declares a Loving God
Paul declared that the so-called gods of the Gentile pantheons were actually demons: The things which the Gentiles sacrifice, they sacrifice to demons, and not to God (1 Corinthians 10:20).

In contrast to the pagan gods, some of whom required child sacrifice of their worshipers, the Bible does not portray God as a monster given over to lusts and jealousies and treacheries, but as One who sacrificed His own Son, not only for His worshipers, but for the whole world.
1) In the Old Testament:

4. Surely our griefs He Himself bore, and our sorrows He carried; yet we ourselves esteemed Him stricken, smitten of God and afflicted. 5. But he was pierced through for our transgressions, He was crushed for our iniquities; the chastening for our well-being fell upon Him, and by His scourging we are healed. 6. All of us like sheep have gone astray, each of us has turned to his own way; but the LORD has caused the iniquity of us all to fall upon Him.

~ Isaiah 53:4-6 ~

2) In the New Testament:
For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish, but have eternal life (John 3:16).

d. The Bible Alone Identifies Sin as a Condition of the Human Spirit
Some religions identify evil in the deeds of men, but only the Bible identifies evil as an inherent (though not original) condition of the human spirit. Paul wrote, 9. Are we [Jews] better than they [the Gentiles]? Not at all; for we have already charged that both Jews and Greeks are all under sin; 10. as it is written, "there is none righteous, not even one.” (Romans 3:9-10)

For out of the heart come evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, slanders. (Matthew 15:19)

e. The Bible Alone Declares that Deliverance from Sin Is a Work of God
Whereas some other religions and holy books prescribe certain disciplines for the overcoming of evil, only the Bible declares that deliverance from the power of sin is a work of God.
1) In the Old Testament
And [a seraph sent from the Lord] touched my mouth with [a burning coal] and said, "Behold, this has touched your lips; and your iniquity is taken away, and your sin is forgiven.” (Isaiah 6:7)
2) In the New Testament
He [the Father] saved us . . . by the washing of regeneration and renewing by the Holy Spirit, whom He poured out upon us richly through Jesus Christ our Savior. (Titus 3:5-6) (Notice how all three Persons of the Godhead are active in the work of salvation.)

I have been crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me, and delivered Himself up for me. (Galatians 2:20)

f. The Bible Alone Declares that One’s Favor with God Is Predicated on Faith in God, Not on Good or Penitential Deeds

I am not ashamed of the gospel for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith; as it is written [in Habakkuk 2:4], "But the righteous man shall live by faith.”

~ Romans 1:16-17 ~

8. For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; 9. not as a result of works, that no one may boast (Ephesians 2:8-9).

In the midst of a pagan world with its wicked gods who required human sacrifice, what or who caused a book to be written that offers a reconciled, loving relationship with the one God on the basis of the sacrifice of His own Son? It is reasonable to believe that if there were such a loving, sacrificial God, He would let us know by means of a permanent written record how we might avail ourselves of the means that He provided for our salvation. *

~


FOOTNOTES

1. The entire We Believe statement of the Association of Messianic Congregations may be found at http://www.messianicassociation.org/believe.htm.
2. Ryrie, Dr. Charles C., Basic Theology, Victor Books, Wheaton, Illinois, 1986, p. 67.
3. Pratney, Winkey, "The Holy Bible - Wholly True," Pretty Good Printing, Last Days Ministries, Lindale, TX., 1985.
4. Morris, Dr. Henry M., The Defender’s Study Bible, World Publishing, Inc., Grand Rapids, Michigan, 1995, p. 1498.

Evidence Upon Evidence:
The Bible Is the Word of God
~ a messianic Bible study ~
© Norman Manzon 1999.
All rights reserved.

Scriptures chosen by the author are in the New American Standard version unless otherwise noted. Scriptures in quotes by others may be in different translations. Names, titles and other terms within quoted scriptures and elsewhere may have been changed from the English to the Hebrew form for the sake of cultural sensitivity.

Evidence Upon Evidence originally appeared on the author's website, www.BibleStudyProject.org.

 

WE BELIEVE
~
EVIDENCE UPON EVIDENCE: THE BIBLE IS
THE WORD OF GOD, PART 2

By Norman Manzon

This study is a continuation of Evidence, Part 1, above. The entire Evidence study originally appeared on the author's website, www.BibleStudyProject.org, and was written to a non-believing, as well as a believing, audience. This edition contains exactly the same content except that the AMC statement on the Scriptures has been added, and certain names and terms have been changed for appropriateness for a messianic readership.

~

All Scripture is inspired by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness; so that the man of God may be adequate, equipped for every good work.

~ 2 Timothy 3:16-17 ~


TABLE OF CONTENTS

B. The Bible is Consistent in its Central Theme
and Continuous in its Development

C. The Bible Contains No Contradiction
1. Apparent Contradiction Due to Lack of Understanding of the Culture
2. Apparent Contradiction Because of Poor Translation
3. Apparent Contradiction Because Studied Out of Context

D. The Bible Does Not Contradict the Proven Facts of Science
1. From Anthropology
2. From History
3. From Chemistry or Nuclear Physics
4. From Biology
5. From Genetics
E. On Matters of Science that are Unobserved or Unobservable, the Bible Offers the Most Plausible Explanation
F. The Bible has Profoundly Influenced the World for the Good

G. The Bible has Profoundly Changed Individual Lives for the Good
H. The Bible is a Literary Masterpiece in a Class of its Own
I. The Bible has Inspired A Great Multitude of the World’s Great Works of Art
J. The Preservation of the Scriptures
1. The Preservation of the Books
a. The Preservation of the Old Testament Books
b. The Preservation of the New Testament Books and the Entire Bible

2. The Preservation of the Accuracy of the Books
a. The Preservation of the Accuracy of the Old Testament
b. The Preservation of the Accuracy of the New Testament

K. The Preservation of the Jew
L. Detailed Prophecy and Detailed Historical Fulfillment
1. The Blueprint of History
2. The Fate of Nations
3. Political and Military Alliances Far Off in the Distant Future
4. Messiah’s Life, Crucifixion and Resurrection
III. ADDENDA
IV. CONCLUSION
V. RAMIFICATIONS
A. The Bible is to be Studied from Cover to Cover

B. The Bible is to be Believed and Embraced from Cover to Cover
C. We Must Conform our Thinking and Ways to God’s
FOOTNOTES

To review, here is the relevant section of the We Believe statement of The Association of Messianic Congregations.

AMC STATEMENT: EXCERPTS (1)

The Scriptures

We believe that the Scriptures, both the Tenach (Hebrew Scriptures) and the Brit Hadasha (New Covenant), are fully inspired and are God's complete and final revelation to man until the Messiah returns. The 66 books of the Bible are inerrant in the original autographs. They are true and authoritative in every category of knowledge to which they speak. (Proverbs 30:5,6; Isaiah 40:7,8; Jeremiah 31:31; Matthew 5:18; John 10:35; 2 Timothy 3:16; 2 Pet.1:19-21)


B. The Bible is Consistent in its Central Theme
and Continuous in its Development

The central theme of the Bible is the love of God. This love can be seen in that the angels, the very first created beings, were created with the capacity to experience the joy of God’s wonders. God said to Job, Where were you when I laid the foundation of the earth! . . . . When the morning stars [angels] sang together, and all the sons of God [angels] shouted for joy (Job 38:4-7)? God’s love can be seen, as well, when He created Adam and Eve and entrusted them with a beautiful, perfect, pristine environment to enjoy (Genesis 1 and 2, especially 2:28-31). It can also be seen in the fact that, though His children rebelled against Him (Genesis 2:16-17; 3:1-7) and, indeed, all have sinned (Romans 3:23), He sacrificed His own beloved Son to rescue them from the power and eternal penalty of sin, For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish, but have eternal life (John 3:16). God’s love can also be seen by His creation of the wonderful eternal abode into which He will escort all who love him (John 14:1-3; Revelation 21:1 - 22:5).

From the beginning of the Bible to the end we see the theme of God’s love develop and come to fruition for time and eternity. Is it reasonable to believe that forty or more men spread over a period of 1600 years and six countries on three continents could conceive, compose and compile a sixty-six book unit that is perfectly consistent in theme and seamless in the development of that theme from the first book to the last? It is far more reasonable to believe that there was One overarching Mind in charge of the entire project.

C. The Bible Contains No Contradiction

One would expect that, if the Bible were authored by God, it would contain no contradiction; and indeed that is the case. There may seem to be contradictions, but in every such case it is because the text is not properly understood for some reason, whether it be lack of understanding of the culture or because it is not studied in context or because of poor translation or some other reason; but there actually are no contradictions. Here are some examples of apparent, but not actual, contradictions:

1. Apparent Contradiction Due to Lack of Understanding of the Culture
Matthew 27:5 says, [Judas] went away and hanged himself. Acts 1:18 says, and falling headlong, he burst open in the middle and all his intestines gushed out.

An apparent contradiction, but not an actual one. There are at least two possible explanations:
1) A natural explanation: Judas hanged himself over a cliff and the branch to which the rope was tied, or the rope itself, broke.
2) A cultural explanation, as quoted from Dr. Arnold Fruchtenbaum's Messianic Christology, Appendix 8, The Death of Judas Iscariot, pp. 153-154:

Judas committed suicide at the end of the first night of Passover, before the first day of Passover [the Jewish day begins and ends at sundown, NM] when the morning Passover sacrifice would be offered . . . . According to Jewish law, if there was a dead body in Jerusalem, then the city was to be considered defiled and the morning sacrifice could not be offered. However, Jewish law goes on to say that if the corpse is taken and cast into the Valley of Hinnom . . . then the city is cleansed and the Passover can be offered up. . . . When Judas hanged himself within the walls of Jerusalem, he caused the city to become defiled, thus preventing the morning sacrifice from proceeding. . . . Judas' body would have been taken and thrown over the wall into the Valley of Hinnom, thereby cleansing the city. The fall of Judas' body is what is being described in Acts 1:18.

2. Apparent Contradiction Because of Poor Translation
The King James Version of Exodus 20:13 reads, Thou shalt not kill, but the very next chapter commands, And he who smiteth his father, or his mother, shall surely be put to death (21:15, KJV).

An apparent contradiction; but there are several Hebrew words that can be translated kill. The one used in 20:13 should have been translated, murder. In fact, most recent translations translate it that way: You shall not murder. So, under the Mosaic Law murder was forbidden, but capital punishment was commanded for one who struck a parent. No contradiction.

3. Apparent Contradiction Because Studied Out of Context
In 2 Corinthians 11:8, Paul wrote, I robbed other churches. In Philippians 4:9, he wrote, The things you have learned and received and heard and seen in me, practice these things. Did Paul exhort the Philippians to be church robbers? If he did, that would be contradictory to his exhortation to the Ephesians, Let him who steals steal no longer (Ephesians 4:28).

Let’s look at the statement in context: I robbed other churches, taking wages from them to serve you. No, he didn’t really rob other churches. He spoke figuratively because he received wages from other churches, enabling him to serve the Corinthians from whom he did not receive wages. No contradiction.

At times, the immediate context suffices to clarify a statement, as in this case. At other times, the broader context of a few paragraphs must be considered, or an entire book, or the entire Bible. In any case, considering a scripture in context will often resolve an apparent contradiction.

It is not reasonable to think that the sixty-six volumes of the Bible, so varied in authorship, time, place of composition, etc., would contain no contradiction - unless their composition was superintended by God.

D. The Bible Does Not Contradict the Proven Facts of Science

At the very least, the minimum test that a book must pass to possibly be the Word of God is its consistency with proven natural facts. Any book that fails this test could not possibly be the Word of God inasmuch as any reasonable conception of God must include the premise that only truth proceeds from God’s lips. In fact, the Bible itself declares, It is impossible for God to lie (Hebrews 6:18). I think you’ll see from these amazing examples that the Bible passes this test far more than minimally!

1. From Anthropology
"An astonishingly accurate document." Genesis 10, often referred to as the Table of Nations, delineates - in detail - the lines of descent of the earth’s first nations proceeding from Noah and his three sons. According to Unger’s Bible Handbook, Young’s Analytical Concordance (page 25) declares that Dr. William F. Albright, former director of the American School of Oriental Research in Jerusalem, called the Table of Nations “an astonishingly accurate document." (4) Its accuracy is truly astonishing in light of the fact that it was written by Noah’s son, Shem (Genesis 11:10), about 2300 B.C. and was included in the Pentateuch (the Five Books of Moses) about 1450-1400 B.C. No ancient fable here, but a reliable anthropological document.

2. From History
Joshua's conquest of Jericho took place about 1400 B.C. According to Halley's Bible Handbook, (5) Dr. John Garstang, director of the British School of Archaeology in Jerusalem and of the Department of Antiquities of the Palestine Government, excavated the ruins of Jericho between 1929 and 1936. Let's see how the Book of Joshua (authored by Joshua about 1400-1370 B.C.) matches up with Dr. Garstang's findings.

a. Dr. Garstang found that Jericho's wall consisted of an inner and an outer wall linked together by houses built across the top. Joshua 2:15 says of Rahab, Then she let them down by a rope through the window, for her house was on the city wall, so that she was living on the wall. Rahab's house was on the city wall.

b. Dr. Garstang determined that the city was destroyed around 1400 B.C., and confirmed that the walls fell down flat - not partially, but flat - an amazing phenomenon for a wall of such thickness. Joshua 6:20 states, the wall fell down flat.

c. Dr. Garstang found "great layers of charcoal and ashes and wall ruins reddened by fire" and that "houses along the outer wall were burnt to the ground." Joshua 6:24 says that the lsraelites burned the city with fire, and all that was in it.

d. Under the ashes and fallen walls, Dr. Garstang found storerooms in which there was "an abundance of foodstuffs, wheat, barley, dates, lentils, and such, turned to charcoal by intense heat, untouched and uneaten: evidence that the conquerors refrained from the food." Joshua 6:18 declares that before the conquest, Joshua warned the lsraelites, Keep yourselves from the things under the ban. (Leviticus 27:28b declares, Anything devoted to destruction is most holy to the LORD. The Hebrew word for devoted to destruction is cherem, which means devoted to destruction because of being cursed.)

The conquest of Jericho took place 3,400 years ago. The Bible describes it in detail with unfailing and absolute accuracy! A Hebrew myth? Not at all. Simply more evidence that the Bible was authored by God.

3. From Chemistry or Nuclear Physics
There are many examples of the Bible's accuracy concerning scientific phenomena. Dr. John Morris of the Creation Research lnstitute lists thirty-nine of them from six areas of science. (6) Perhaps the most astounding example is the following:

2 Peter 3:10-13 declares,

10. But the day of the Lord will come like a thief, in which the heavens will pass away with a roar and the elements will be destroyed with intense heat, and the earth and its works will be burned up. 11. Since all these things are to be destroyed in this way, what sort of people ought you to be in holy conduct and godliness, 12. looking for and hastening the coming of the day of God, on account of which the heavens will be destroyed by burning, and the elements will melt with intense heat! 13. But according to His promise we are looking for new heavens and a new earth, in which righteousness dwells.

The literal sense of the passage is that there will be a literal burning of the present heavens and earth. Scripture refers to three heavens: the heaven where God dwells and the two naturally observable heavens, the starry heavens (outer space) and the atmospheric heavens, where the birds fly and the clouds hover. In a future study, I will show God's Heaven will not be destroyed. The passage refers solely to the starry and atmospheric heavens.

Three times the passage declares that the elements will be destroyed by burning with intense heat (to combine the instances). According to Strong's Concordance, two of the meanings of the Greek word translated destroyed in each of the three verses are "break up" and "dissolve." [7] In addition, both Strong's and Young's Concordances give two of the meanings of the word translated elements as "element[s]" and "rudiment[s]." ln other words, the most fundamental particles of the entire physical universe will be dissolved with intense heat.

Fisherman Peter never studied chemistry or nuclear physics; yet, in about 64 A.D., he wrote in the most apocalyptic of tones that the most fundamental of physical particles will one day be destroyed, dissolved with intense heat.

Dr. Morris writes,

Possibly this will be a global atomic fission reaction or else simply a vast explosive disintegration involving transformation of the chemical energy of the elements into heat, light and sound energy. What remains after the global fiery disintegration will be other forms of energy so that, although God's principle of conservation still holds, the solid earth will seem to have fled away" (Revelation 20:11). (8)

Dr. Morris associates this conflagration with Revelation 3:20, which is after the Millennium and before the Great White Throne Judgment. Others consider it a pre-millennial phenomenon. Whatever the case, we catch the point that Dr. Morris is making. Whether the passage refers to atomic fission (as it seems to many Bible scholars) or the explosive transformation of all chemical energy into other forms of energy, Peter speaks of an explosion of a magnitude that would have been unthinkable in the early part of the twentieth century - let alone two thousand years ago. This Scripture was scoffed at early in the twentieth century for that very reason; but since then, mankind has beheld such spectacles as exploding stars through the use of telescopes, and nuclear holocausts - and the lips of scoffers have been sealed.

4. From Biology
ln Genesis 3, we read that the serpent tempted Adam and Eve to disobey God by eating the forbidden fruit, and thereby brought about the Fall of the human race. Because of this, God cursed the serpent, and one of the aspects of that curse was, You shall go upon your belly (verse 14). The implication of this is that the serpent had, until that time, either stood on legs or upright on its tail, like a kangaroo.

To many, the story is but a fairy tale or myth; but consider this article from the lsrael Today newspaper of August 8, 2008:

Study on snake evolution upholds Bible account

An international team of scientists including a professor from lsrael's Technion Institute concluded in a recent study that snakes were once four-legged creatures.

The findings, which were published in the scientific journal Nature, seemed to uphold the account in the biblical Book of Genesis where God curses the serpent for having played a role in deceiving mankind and sentences the creature to thereafter slither on its belly.

The study attributes the change to a slow evolutionary process, but indirectly acknowledges that the loss of limbs was not a positive change for snakes, contradicting the belief of evolutionists that evolutionary changes are always a step forward.

5. From Genetics: Genetic Entropy Points to a Young Creation and Humanity
Genetic entropy is the breakdown of the genome (the complete set of genes or genetic material present in a cell or organism) due to the accumulation of mutations from generation to generation. In an article entitled Genetic Entropy Points to a Young Creation, Ph.D. Jeffrey Tomkins of the Institute of Creation Research reports on data resulting from recent research by both secular and creation scientists:

Shofar editor's note: The following subtitles were added by the compiler of these evidences.

~

Data that confirm a young creation are rapidly emerging from genetic studies performed by both creationist and secular scientists.

How Long Could the Human Genome Have Existed?
One of the most important finds in recent years came from modeling the accumulation of mutations (genetic code errors) in the human genome over time using computer simulations. Researchers found that this buildup of mutations can only reach a certain level before the genome completely deteriorates and humans go extinct. This process of degradation, called genetic entropy, fits perfectly with a recent creation of six to ten thousand years ago. . . .

How Long Did It Take for Today's Diversity of Races to Develop?
These new studies use demographic models of human populations over known historical time and geographical space. The resulting data showed a very recent, massive burst of human genetic diversification—mostly associated with genetic entropy. One author stated, “The maximum likelihood time for accelerated growth was 5,115 years ago.”5 This places the beginning of the period of genetic decline close to the Genesis Flood, when the earth began its repopulation through Noah’s family and humans rapidly diversified.

Decline in Human Life Expectancy
Amazingly, this recent explosion of human genome variation, mostly associated with genetic entropy, also fits the same pattern of human life expectancy rapidly declining after the Flood as recorded in the Bible. . . .

How Long Ago Was Animal Life Created?
By comparing [mutation] rates [of mitochondrial DNA] in a few very different animals, Dr. Jeanson demonstrated that a creation of not more than 10,000 years ago is confirmed by these genetic clocks.

Conclusions Affirm Scripture
The results of these genetic studies fit perfectly with the predictions of a young-earth creation timeframe but make no sense when millions of years are added to the mix—the clocks simply cannot have been ticking that long.

In the case of humans, Adam and Eve were originally created with perfect, error-free genomes—no mutations present. Then sin entered the world, and the whole creation became cursed. The human genome has essentially been on a downhill slide ever since. We are not gradually evolving better genomes. Instead, the recently measured degradation patterns and rates clearly match the biblical model and timeframe.

Dr. Tompkins then presents a curved line graph that shows an amazing correlation between "human genome variation, mostly associated with genetic entropy" and "the declining lifespans of Noah and his descendants" over the generations from the 950-year lifespan of Noah to today's average lifespan of seventy years. (9) Once again, science affirms the Bible.

The Bible's amazing accuracy in all scientific phenomena that it touches on must reasonably be recognized as the signature of God.

E. On Matters of Science that are Unobserved or Unobservable,
the Bible Offers the Most Plausible Explanation

Not only is the Bible accurate in its scientific presuppositions and declarations, but it offers the most plausible explanation in those matters that are unproven or unprovable by direct observation. The most glaring example involves the most fundamental, central and critical of all scientific issues: the origin of the universe and natural life
.
1. Only Two Possibilities: Evolution or Creation
Dr. Henry Morris says, "lt is axiomatic that there are only two possible basic models of the origins of the universe, of the earth, of animate life, of human life and of all the basic systems of the cosmos. These are, in simplest terms, evolution or creation." (10)

The two are mutually exclusive, and it must be one or the other as there is no other possibility. Some entertain the possibility that the universe existed from eternity past, but this is an impossibility. The Second Law of Thermodynamics states that all the energy in the universe is coming to a place of balance, or rest, as when the heat from a glass of water flows into a cold object placed in it. The heat flows until the water and the object are the same temperature; then, net heat flow from the water into the object ceases. At this moment, however, energy still moves, often on massive scales, from location to location in the universe on both microcosmic and macrocosmic scales - but if the universe had existed from eternity past, net energy flow would have ceased an eternity ago. Therefore, the universe could not possibly have existed from eternity past. lt had to have a beginning, and "there are only two possible basic models . . . . evolution or creation."

Nothing has done more since the mid-nineteenth century to destroy people's faith in the Bible than the so-called theory of evolution except, perhaps, the skepticism concerning the Bible itself that arose in some German seminaries in the middle of the nineteenth century. (Some German theologians declared that the Bible was not a divine book at all, but a mere fabrication of man.) Evolution, propounded by Charles Darwin in 1865 in regard to the origins of life, has been extrapolated to include the very origins of the universe itself. lt holds that, by means of continuing natural processes unguided by any divine Person, the universe simply popped into existence from the absolute vacuum of empty, endless space, and evolved into all of its present forms, inanimate and animate. These twin doctrines, born in Hell, have ruined the faith of hundreds of millions of people and of entire denominations and nations. Having robbed life of its Creator, they set the stage for the devaluation of life and the multiple holocausts that characterized the twentieth century even unto the murder of a million and a half unborn babies a year in the United States since 1973.

Let us now pick the evolutionary fantasy to pieces and observe the logic of believing the Bible's creation account.

2. Examining the Theory of Evolution
The so-called theory of evolution is no theory at all. There are two methods by which scientists discover facts. One is by strict observation, as is carried out by those who observe wildlife with a minimum of human interference. The other is termed the scientific method, which involves identifying an issue to be resolved, hypothesizing and experimenting. A hypothesis is a reasonably possible explanation for an observed phenomenon. Experiments are formulated and carried out to test a hypothesis. If the results of the experiments support the hypothesis, the hypothesis is elevated to the status of a theory. If further experimentation by other scientists supports the theory, the theory is elevated to the status of a fact.

How does evolution shape up in relation to these procedures and standards? Evolution has never been observed occurring naturally nor has any observation or experiment ever provided any evidence that it has ever occurred at any time. In fact, scientists have run computer simulations of original cosmic conditions and duplicated billions of years of random variations in the hope of proving evolution - and have embarrassingly admitted that all that such computer simulations have generated was CHAOS. (11) Nevertheless, the vast majority of the educational institutions in the world teach evolution as fact though it has never met the qualifications of a theory and should have been rejected even as a hypothesis many thousands of observations and experiments ago. It is most scientific to call it a fantasy.

Did you know that a single human brain processes more information per given unit of time than all of the computer systems in the world combined? In light of the fact that it took the cumulative efforts of the finest scientific minds until the middle of the twentieth century to invent the electronic calculator - let alone the computer! - do you think that a human could possibly have evolved by the random sloshing about of cosmic mud? But a human is far more than a brain! The human body is composed of over ten billion cells, each of which contains about forty-five internal organs called organelles that function together with greater complexity than a major city, and far more efficiently. The cells, in various specific combinations, compose the body’s tissues which, in turn, form all of the organs in each of the body’s systems: skeletal, muscular, nervous, endocrine, cardiovascular, lymphatic, respiratory, digestive, excretory, reproductive (half a system in males, the other half in females, each perfectly complementary to the other!), all of which work to sustain the whole and perpetuate the race. But a human is more than a body! He or she is alive and thinks and experiences emotions and searches for ultimate answers. The product of matter times movement times time? Unthinkable! The odds against it are infinitesimal beyond imagining.

According to Dr. Scott M. Huse, the chance development of a system composed of 200 integrated parts is 1 in a number written as 2 followed by 270 zeroes, which is 2 followed by 190 zeroes times greater than the number of electrons in the universe (1 followed by 80 zeroes)! (The likelihood of just spelling the word “evolution,” containing a mere nine integrated parts [in this case, alphabet letters] by randomly selecting nine letters from the alphabet is one in 5,429,503,080,000.) “And yet,” says Dr. Huse, “a 200 part system is ridiculously primitive compared with living systems." (12) Keep in mind that even bacteria qualify as living systems. How preposterous to think that a human could evolve by chance!

Dr. Morris writes,

There is no evidence whatever that evolution is occurring today - that is, true vertical evolution, from some simpler kind to some more complex kind. No one has ever observed a star evolve from hydrogen, life evolve from chemicals, a higher species evolve from a lower species, a man from an ape, or anything else of this sort. Not only has no one ever observed true evolution in action, no one knows how evolution works, or even how it might work. . . . No one has ever seen it happen (despite thousands of experiments that have tried to produce it). . . .

There is no evidence at all that evolution ever took place in the past. . . . All known vertical changes seem to go in the wrong direction. An average of at least one species has become extinct every day since records have been kept, but no new species have evolved during that time. Stars explode, comets and meteors disintegrate, the biosphere deteriorates, and everything eventually dies, so far as all historical observations go, but nothing has ever evolved into higher complexity.

The story is one of extinction, not evolution. . . . No fossil has ever been found with half scales/half feathers, half legs/half wings, half-developed heart, half-developed eye, or any other such indicator. . . .

If evolution were true, there should be millions of transitional types among these multiplied billions of fossils - in fact, everything should show transitional features: But they do not!

In living organisms, true vertical changes go down, not up - mutations cause deterioration, individuals die, species become extinct. In fact, everything in the universe seems to be headed downhill toward ultimate cosmic death. (13)

Drs. Duane Gish and Richard Bliss write, "Life appears abruptly and in complex forms in the fossil record, and gaps appear systematically in the fossil record between various living kinds." (14)

When I was a boy I was fascinated by portraits of my hunched-over, hairy "missing link" ancestors. I gaped with wonder as I noted family resemblances in Java Ape-Man, Neanderthal Man, Piltdown Man, Heidelberg Man, Nebraska Man, Peking Man and Cro-Magnon Man. But how disappointing! The skeletons or skeletal fragments from which these “men” were constructed all turned out to be either distinctly human or another completely distinct specie. Not a one was a missing link! Nebraska Man, who played the leading male role in the Scopes Trial of 1925 (which opened American public schools to the teaching of evolution), was eventually found to have been built up - very scientifically, I might add - from the tooth of an extinct pig! One Java Ape-Man was built up from the knee-bone of an extinct elephant! Missing link Lucy, accorded posthumous celebrity status after her discovery in Ethiopia in the 1970's, was probably just an ape. Nothing personal, Ma’am. That’s Byron Nelson’s conclusion based on computer analyses of the positional relationships between your bones. (15)

“‘The fossil record,’ says Douglas Dewar, a British naturalist and once an ardent evolutionist, 'cannot be regarded as other than a HOSTILE witness against evolution; the earliest known fossils of each class and order are not half-developed but have all the essential characteristics of their class and order." (16)

Consider this poignant confession after a lifetime of labor:

As we look at the main group of fossil flora, we find there that at definite intervals they are all at once and quite suddenly there, in full bloom in all their manifold forms. Any change is entirely lacking. This all stands as crass a contradiction to the evolution theory as could possibly be imagined. . . . All my investigations have led to incredible contradictions . . . on account of which the theory of evolution ought to be entirely abandoned . . . it is a serious obstruction to biological research. My attempts to demonstrate evolution by experiments carried out for over 40 years have completely failed. (17)

One more consideration: Have you ever considered the concept of devolution, evolution in reverse? If, indeed, viruses can evolve into Einsteins, why, in all my years of formal and informal study (until I read the Israel Today article on snake "evolution") have I never heard of even one scientist who believed that Einsteins can devolve into viruses?!! Apart from that article, have you ever heard or read of even one advocate of devolution in the sense of a complex specie changing into a less complex one? Given that all of nature is in a state of breakdown and decay (the Law of Entropy or the Second Law of Thermodynamics), is not devolution infinitely more likely than its heralded opposite? And yet, evolutionary evidence supposedly abounds everywhere!

Renaissance genius Leonardo da Vinci - painter, anatomist, civil engineer and inventor - was a religious skeptic all his life; but in his last days he exclaimed, “This earth, it’s all so perfect! It’s all so perfectly designed! It’s impossible that a single mind didn’t create it, that there’s no plan to it!” One of his last paintings was of a lady pointing upward to a cross. (18)

The evidence is in. Mindless, purposeless, random evolution did not create the complex systems and wonders of the universe. No, the patriarch of your bloodline was not a baboon, nor were you descended from a pond scum as my high school Biology teacher told me I was, or even something as sophisticated as a mutated fish. It is as the Bible says: In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth (Genesis 1:1). Then the LORD God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living being (Genesis 2:7).

On matters of science that are unobserved or unobservable, the Bible offers the most plausible explanation. Powerful evidence, indeed, that the Bible is the Word of God!

F. The Bible has Profoundly Influenced the World for the Good

A bright light shone in the ancient Middle East. It was the Law that God gave to Israel through Moses. The light brightened dramatically with the life, atoning death and resurrection of Yeshua and the teachings that flowed from his life and lips. This biblical light has been monolithic in its influence around the world for respect for human life in general, for spouses, women, parents, the elderly, children, the poor and strangers. It declares, You shall love your neighbor as yourself (Leviticus 19:18; Matthew 22:39) and even “Love your enemies, and pray for those who persecute you” (Matthew 5:44). It has upheld the beauty and blessing of marriage and the family and has condemned all that would threaten these most wonderful of human relationships.

Brian T. Collidge, opponent of the public display of the Ten Commandments, “concedes that the Commandments reflect universal teachings that are beneficial to a civil society." (19) Thomas Huxley, nineteenth century agnostic and outspoken defender of Darwin’s theory of evolution, argued for the reading of the Bible in the public schools with these words:

By the study of what other book could children be so much humanized, and made to feel that each figure in that vast historical procession fills, like themselves, but a momentary space in the interval between two eternities, and earns the blessings and the curses of all times, according to its effort to do good and to hate evil, even as they are also earning their payment for their work? (20)

Sherwood Wirt, former editor of Billy Graham’s Decision magazine, wrote of the changes effected throughout the Roman Empire after the conversion of Constantine to Christianity:

Many permanent legal reforms were set in motion by Emperors Constantine (280?-337) and Justinian (483-565) that can be laid to the influence of Christianity. Licentious and cruel sports were checked; new legislation was ordered to protect the slave, the prisoner, the mutilated man, the outcast woman. Children were granted important legal rights. Infant exposure was abolished. Women were raised from a status of degradation to that of legal protection. Hospitals and orphanages were created to take care of foundlings. Personal feuds and private wars were put under restraint. . . . Branding of slaves was halted." (21)

The specific reforms of Constantine mentioned by Mr. Wirt were all in keeping with the teachings of Scripture. In those areas of life and thought in which Constantine properly applied the Bible’s teaching he wrought tremendous good, confirming the wholesomeness of the Bible's teachings and providing more evidence for its divine origin. On the other hand, in certain other matters, Constantine established policies and set precedents that contradicted the Bible’s teachings and wrought harm even to this day. One example is his official references to the Jews as "a nefarious sect" (22) and other such epithets spoken in conjunction with exhortations to ostracize them. Such actions by Constantine fueled the fire set by many before him for the incessant and virulent persecution of the Jews, and demonstrates the great evil that follows when biblical exhortations and examples are transgressed. This, too, in a roundabout way, provides evidence of the Bible's divine origin!

In the Middle Ages, it was the Bible that inspired believers to establish hospitals and universities, the latter of which were established for the propagation of the gospel and Christian service. It is because God intended the Bible to be read and practiced by all people everywhere that believers have been motivated to promote literacy and education in the farthest reaches of the earth. It is the Bible that motivated believers in Messiah to fight for the abolition of slavery in England and the United States and, in our present day, some Muslim and other nations. Martin Luther King, leader in the fight for civil liberties in the 1950's and ‘60's, continually appealed to the God of the Bible as his source of direction and strength.

What magnitude of change can the Bible bring to a people? In 1876, Mary Slessor left Scotland to bring the Word of God to the interior of Nigeria, where lived four million cannibals.

Witchcraft and drunkenness were rampant. The savages worshiped fetishes; they murdered twins; they turned the mother of twins out into the jungle to be devoured by beasts because they believed twins were brought about by a conjunction with a demon. Almost half of the population were slaves. When a man died, they would eat fifty slaves; twenty-five more would have their hands tied behind them and their heads would be whacked off. Unmarried women were chattel. They could be raped, tortured, or murdered at will. . . . Children were considered no better than animals, often simply left to die.

Mary’s heart was touched by the plight of twins always left to die or ground to pieces in a pot. She would snatch them up and take them in. . . .

One after another the chiefs of the various tribes yielded their lives to Christ. One after another the tremendously horrible customs plaguing these people for years were abolished; the murder of twins, infanticide, the slaughter of wives and slaves, the trial by poison and boiling oil, and all other terrible customs.

Through her ministry, thousands from the Ibo tribe became Christians and abandoned their degrading ways. (23)

To what depth can a nation sink when the Bible’s influence is removed? In a Breakpoint radio byte, Chuck Colson quoted South African Anglican Bishop Desmond Tutu as saying, “Africa is bleeding.” In the same context Bishop Tutu said, “The awful truth is that in Africa there was far greater freedom in the colonial days than there is now.” Alluding to historian Paul Johnson’s authority on the subject, Colson went on to say,

The colonial days were not perfect by any means. Yet the colonial powers were Christian in culture, if not in personal belief. And wherever the colonial powers went, around the globe, they brought with them basic principles derived from biblical faith: things like the rule of law, individual responsibility, political freedom, care for the weak, respect for learning.

Colson pointed out that Uganda, which had been “Christianized by Anglican and Catholic missionaries” was not long ago considered “the most delightful country in all of Africa,” but after it threw off colonial rule it fell victim to [Muslim] military dictator Idi Amin “who choked the rivers of Uganda with his victims.” He also spoke of Ethiopia, a Christian country from ancient times until its Christian leader, Haile Selassie, was assassinated in 1974. It then fell victim to a Marxist regime and has, since that time, been stricken with famine, civil war and wars with its neighbors. (24)

U.S. Supreme Court Justice Joseph Story, wrote, in his Commentaries on the Constitution of the United States (1883),

The promulgation of the great doctrines of religion, the being, the attributes, and providence of one Almighty God; the responsibility to him for all our actions, founded on moral freedom and accountability; a future state of rewards and punishments; the cultivation of all the personal, social, and benevolent virtues; these can never be a matter of indifference in any well ordered community. It is, indeed, difficult to conceive, how any civilized society can well exist without them. (25)

The world would be far more wicked than it is now were it not for the Bible. I’ve heard more than one well-traveled missionary say how much more respect there is for life and how much more livable life is in those countries in which the Bible’s influence is the strongest. Certainly, the immeasurable beneficial effect that the Bible has had on the nations of the world is powerful evidence of its divine origin.

G. The Bible has Profoundly Changed Individual Lives for the Good

It is impossible, of course, for nations to be changed without individual lives being changed. Living conditions for the Ibo could not have changed were it not for the radically changed lives of many individual Ibo.

The message of the Bible has changed lives wherever it has gone. John Newton (1725-1807) earned his living as a captain of slave ships. During a storm, he cried out to God for protection. His survival marked the beginning of his conversion. Several years later, because of his Christian convictions, he abandoned the slave trade and eventually became pastor to William Wilberforce who led the fight in the British Parliament against the slave trade. Newton wrote a hymn that contained the following words:

"Amazing grace! How sweet the sound that saved a wretch like me!
I once was lost, but now am found, was blind, but now I see!"

Chuck Colson, whose underhanded activities as President Nixon’s “hatchet man” landed him in jail, was subsequently touched by the Bible’s message of salvation through Messiah Yeshua. He now spends his life ministering to all aspects of prisoners’ needs and speaking out against injustices and atrocities and destructive philosophies and policies of governments and societies.

The power of the Bible’s message to convert lives from evil to good is further evidence that the Bible is the Word of God.

H. The Bible is a Literary Masterpiece in a Class of its Own

One would think that if the Bible were authored by God it would be a superlative literary work. Indeed it is. The Bible contains at least eight different literary forms: historical narratives, biographies, letters, sermons, proverbs, drama, poetry, psalms. Its stories have become ingrained in Western thinking: the Creation, the Garden of Eden, Noah’s Ark, the Tower of Babel, the Exodus, the Giving of the Law at Sinai, David and Goliath, Jonah and the “Whale,” the Christmas and Easter stories, the Sermon on the Mount, the Feeding of the Five Thousand. The 23rd Psalm is universally acclaimed for its lyrical, pastoral beauty; the Beatitudes for its gentle, poetic cadences. Yearning for adventure on the high seas? The gripping account of the shipwreck in Acts 27 has been touted as the most realistic rendering of a shipwreck in all literature. Dying for apocalyptic drama? Read the Revelation; then find, if you can, a more captivating or intriguing tour de force.

Where can you find a more intriguing plot? God, in the presence of the holy angels, creates a magnificent universe, forms man of the dust of the ground and breathes into his nostrils the breath of life. The man sins, the earth and the universe become cursed and the human race becomes separated from God. God, who justifiably could have wiped out the human race, sets in motion a rescue plan that involves the virgin birth of His Son, His Son’s living a sinless life, dying for the sins of the world, being resurrected, setting all things in the spiritual and material universe in order and presenting to His Father a perfected universe crowned by the church in all her glory, having no spot or wrinkle or any such thing; but . . . holy and blameless (Ephesians 5:27) which, with the saved of all ages, will live in the presence of the holy angels and the Triune God forever. Search all literature and let me know if you find a more original and thrilling and wonderful plot at the end of which the reader is lifted to join in such a gleeful chorus of never-ending Hallelujahs!

No other book comes close to the Bible in literary quality! It is the kind of masterpiece that one would expect from the Master Creator of the endless wonders of the universe, Himself.

I. The Bible has Inspired A Great Multitude of
the World’s Great Works of Art

If God were to write a book, one would expect that its theme would be so lofty and its artistry so consummate that it would inspire copious amounts of the world’s most wonderful works of art. The Bible has done just that.

The great cathedrals of Europe lift their spires in expressions of heavenly adoration and aspiration. The Last Supper of Da Vinci; the great paintings of Michelangelo on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel in Rome, and his great sculptures - the Pieta (the body of the deceased Yeshua draped across His mother’s lap), the Moses, the David - all were inspired by the Bible. The inspiration for the Praying Hands so often seen on wall plaques and greeting cards and in magazine articles, came to Albrecht Durer (1471-1528) as he beheld a friend in prayer. The Messiah, by George Frederic Handel (1685-1759), perhaps the most wonderful of all musical compositions, was written in less than twenty-five days during which Handel felt he was under the inspiration of God. The manuscripts of Johann Sebastian Bach (1686-1750), contain copious inscriptions which reveal the source of his inspiration: “S.D.G.,” Soli Deo Gloria: “Solely to the Glory of God;” “J.J.,” Jesu Juban: “Help me, Jesus;” “I.N.J.,” In Nomine Jesu: “In the Name of Jesus.” According to Dr. James Kennedy, “[Bach] told his pupils that unless they committed their talents to the Lord Jesus Christ, they would never be great musicians, for music, according to Bach, was an act of worship." (26) The Pilgrim’s Progress is among the world’s great literary masterpieces. Written by John Bunyan during his imprisonment for his faith, it contains wonderful allegories of the believer's walk and of the pitfalls which believers must beware. Next to the Bible, more copies of The Pilgrim’s Progress have been printed than any other book. Among the most inspiring of Hollywood productions are stories taken from, or inspired by, the Bible: The Ten Commandments, Ben-Hur, Chariots of Fire.

What other book, or any other medium of communication for that matter, has inspired so many wonderful works of art? None. No other book comes even close. This fact constitutes even more evidence that the writing of the books of the Bible was initiated and divinely controlled by the God of the Bible, the Creator of the endless natural wonders of the universe, which themselves inspire breathtaking works of art.

J. The Preservation of the Scriptures

If God wrote the Bible for the enlightenment of all people for all time, one would think that He would preserve it - and preserve it He did. As far as we know, He did not preserve the original autographs. (If He did, He has not yet revealed where they may be found.) Nevertheless, many times more early manuscripts of the Scriptures have been preserved than the manuscripts of any other ancient document.

1. The Preservation of the Books
a. The Preservation of the Old Testament Books
It can be inferred from the Bible that Adam was not a grunting, troglodytic knuckle-walker. He was an intelligent man who spoke in a fully developed language, conversed with God and named the animals. Adam and some of his descendents wrote much of what was later to be included in the Book of Genesis. In Genesis 2:4, we see the phrase, These are the generations of . . . . (KJV, ASV) This phrase is also found in Genesis 5:1; 6:9; 10:1; 11:10,27; 25:19; 36:1,9; 37:2.

In all except Genesis 2:4, the name of a specific patriarch is attached. Parallels with the terminology of ancient Babylonian tablets indicate that these names are actually the signatures of the original writers of the particular tablets. That is, each of these primeval patriarchs kept the narrative records of his own generations, inscribing them on stone or clay tablets and then appending his name at the end when he was ready to turn over the tablets and the task of writing the toledoth (Hebrew. these are the generations of) to the next in line. (27)

In Genesis 5:1, we read, This is the book of the generations of Adam, indicating that Adam wrote the second half of Genesis 2:4 through the first half of 5:1, and similarly with the other sections. These tablets eventually came into the possession of Moses, who included them in the book we call Genesis.

Despite its history of loss due to Israel’s disobedience to God, God preserved His Scriptures intact and repeatedly returned them to His people. (For examples, see 1 Samuel 6:21-27:1 and 2 Kings 22:8.) As late as the fifth century B.C. we read, in Nehemiah 8:8, that Ezra and his assistants read from the book, from the law of God . . . . Dr. Morris writes, The book of the law of Moses (Joshua 8:31; 23:6; 2 kings 14:6; Nehemiah 8:1) undoubtedly included all the Pentateuch, and possibly is used here generically for all the Scriptures which had been received by this time. Ezra is generally believed to be largely responsible for organizing the canon of the Old Testament Scriptures. (28)

So, we see that the Law of Moses, which contained even the writings of Adam, was intact and in the possession of God’s people in 444 B.C. By the time of Ezra or thereabouts, the entire Old Testament had been written and compiled.

In about 335 B.C., Alexander of Macedon gained control over Syria and Israel. Upon his death in 323, four of his generals divided his vast empire among themselves. Syria and Israel fell under the rule of the Seleucids. In 167 B.C., Seleucid king Antiochus Epiphanes invaded Jerusalem with the purpose of crushing all vestiges of the worship of Yahweh. Among his measures were the forbidding of the reading of the Law and the ordering of all scrolls of the Law to be confiscated and burned. Compliance was mandatory upon pain of death - but God did not allow His Scriptures to be destroyed. He raised up the Maccabees, a Hebrew family, to lead a revolt against Antiochus. In 164 B.C., against overwhelming odds, the ragtag Jewish army defeated two of Epiphanes’ armies and drove them out of Jerusalem, for which Jews celebrate Hannukah. Not a bad holiday for Christians to celebrate also: God’s Book remained intact!

b. The Preservation of the New Testament Books and the Entire Bible
No ancient classic has nearly as much manuscript representation as does the New Testament. According to the International Standard Bible Encyclopedia, ten or fifteen ancient manuscripts of a classic are generally considered a good representation, but “The manuscripts of whole or parts of the New Testament are reckoned by thousands, the oldest fragment going back to ca. A.D. 150, and several papyri dating from about 200." (29)

No book in history has come under attack like the Bible, yet God has preserved His Book for all who would read it.

  • In 303 A.D., Roman Emperor Diocletian demanded that all sacred books be burned, and declared, “The Christian religion is destroyed and the worship of the gods restored.” However, it was Diocletian’s attack on the Bible that led to the compilation of the twenty-seven books of the New Testament. (30)

  • To turn the tables even more, Emperor Constantine became a professing Christian. Subsequently, in his Edict of Toleration (313 A.D.), Constantine granted freedom of religion throughout his vast Roman Empire. He favored and supported Christians and Christian works in many ways, including the exhorting (in 325 A.D.) of all his subjects to become Christians - and the ordering of the production of fifty Bibles for the churches of Constantinople. (31)

  • In the eighteenth century, French philosopher Voltaire declared, “Fifty years from now the world will hear no more about the Bible.” Exactly fifty years later, the Geneva Bible Society bought the very press that Voltaire used to publish such statements, and used it for the printing of Bibles.

  • In the twentieth century, Richard Wurmbrand was imprisoned for fourteen years for preaching and teaching the Word of God. Today, the organization that he founded, Voice of the Martyrs, uses one of the Romanian prisons in which he was incarcerated under the Ceausescu regime as a warehouse for the Bibles and related literature that they print and distribute.

  • The Soviet Union, the world’s only officially atheistic empire in all of history, collapsed in 1989 from internal decay. Subsequently, its master nation, Russia, opened its floodgates to the influx of millions of Bibles and thousands of Bible teachers.

  • Communist China ruthlessly suppresses its vast number of unregistered (and therefore uncontrolled by the government) churches; but the more the underground church is persecuted the more it explodes in numbers; and millions of Bibles, contraband if not printed and distributed by the government, are printed inside and outside of China, distributed within China and treasured above all possessions by millions of Chinese.

Much persecution has accompanied the translation, production and distribution of the Bible in many of the world’s languages, including English, the language in which most of the Bibles of the world are now translated. Virulent attacks against the Bible have been launched in full force in Muslim, Hindu and Buddhist countries. All have failed! God has been guarding His Word. No one will ever bring it down!

2. The Preservation of the Accuracy of the Books
God, who took such care to preserve His Bible throughout history, took care to preserve the accuracy of its contents.

a. The Preservation of the Accuracy of the Old Testament
Until the middle of the twentieth century, the oldest known copy of the Old Testament was the Masoretic Text.

This monumental work was begun around the 6th century AD and completed in the 10th century by scholars [known as Masoretes] at Talmudic academies in Babylonia and Palestine, in an effort to reproduce, as far as possible, the original text of the Hebrew Old Testament. Their intention was not to interpret the meaning of the Scriptures but to transmit to future generations the authentic Word of God. To this end they gathered manuscripts and whatever oral traditions were available to them. . . . The rigorous care given the Masoretic text in its preparation is credited for the remarkable consistency found in Old Testament Hebrew texts since that time. The Masoretic work enjoyed an absolute monopoly for 600 years, and experts have been astonished at the fidelity of the earliest printed version [late 15th century] to the earliest surviving codices [late 9th century]. The Masoretic text is universally accepted as the authentic Hebrew Bible. (32)

From about 500 A.D. until the present, the standard Hebrew text of the Old Testament has been perfectly preserved; but after 1947, the faithfulness of the Masoretic Text to much earlier Old Testament texts was put to the test. In 1947, about five hundred scrolls dating from about 125 B.C. to 100 A.D. were found in a cave near the Dead Sea. Of these, about 175 were biblical, containing several copies of many of the books of the Old Testament and sections or fragments of others. All Old Testament books were represented except the Book of Esther.

These Dead Sea Scrolls were written, on the average, a thousand years nearer the time of the original autographs than the final Masoretic Text. Naturally, scholars expect older texts to reflect the original autographs more faithfully than later texts. Among the Dead Sea scrolls was a scroll of Isaiah from 125 B.C., 1125 years nearer the original than the final Masoretic Isaiah. Astoundingly, a comparison of the Dead Sea and Masoretic Isaiahs revealed virtually no difference between the two. In speaking of the biblical Dead Sea Scrolls and the Masoretic Text overall, Dr. Arnold G. Fruchtenbaum writes, “Where there is a variation, there is absolutely no change of meaning. For example, one scroll may say, ‘he went to Jerusalem.’ The other scroll may say, ‘he went unto Jerusalem.’ . . . so the text has remained intact." (33)

It is reasonable to conclude that, if God preserved the integrity of the Old Testament for the last two thousand years, He preserved it from the time of the original autographs.

b. The Preservation of the Accuracy of the New Testament
As concerns the New Testament, over 20,000 hand-copied manuscripts of the Greek text are in existence. (34) According to Dr. Fruchtenbaum, “by virtue of these many Greek texts it is possible to determine what the original Greek New Testament was." (35)

Peter wrote,

You have been born again not of seed which is perishable but imperishable, that is, through the living and abiding word of God. For, "All flesh is as grass, and all of its glory like the flower of grass. The grass withers, and the flower falls off, but the word of our God abides forever (Isaiah 40:6,8)." And this is the word which was preached to you.

~ 1 Peter 1:23-25 ~

Peter addressed this letter to Jewish believers (1 Peter 1:1, 2:12) to whom the Word of God and the Word of the Lord referred not only to specific messages that God spoke or revealed to individual prophets, but to the entire body of Hebrew Scripture.

God promised through Peter that His Bible, whether written on tablets of clay or stone or parchment or paper or digital media or in the glorified memories of the saints in the eternal ages, will always be preserved forever!

Amazingly, despite attempts to destroy them, all sixty-six books of the Bible have been preserved, and their faithfulness to the original writings has been confirmed to a far greater degree than has any other book of antiquity. Sir Isaac Newton said, “There are more sure marks of authenticity in the Bible than in any profane history." (36)

It’s as if the Bible enjoys supernatural protection. Yes, the preservation of the sixty-six books and of their accuracy is even further evidence that the writing of the Bible was inspired - initiated and superintended - by God.

K. The Preservation of the Jew

The preservation of Jewish national identity is powerful evidence of the Bible’s divine authorship. Consider this assessment by David Egner of The Radio Bible Class:

By all reckoning, the Jews should have died out long ago. Their survival as a distinct people is a miracle of history. . . .

You cannot talk to a Babylonian today, nor a Hittite. You will not meet a Moabite or a Phoenician on the street. But you can converse with a Jew.

By every measuring stick of history there should not be even one identifiable Jew alive today. For 4,000 years they have endured unbelievable hardships: exile from their land more than 60 per cent of the time; organized efforts to destroy them; the crumbling of the civilizations in which they sought refuge; the sophisticated brutality of the 20th century. Yet the Jews are alive and flourishing. They survive every effort to destroy them. (37)

How is it that they survive every effort to destroy them? Let’s look to the latter half of the New Covenant:

Thus says the LORD, who gives the sun for light by day, and the fixed order of the moon and the stars for light by night, who stirs up the sea so that its waves roar; the LORD of hosts is His name: If this fixed order departs from before me, declares the LORD, then the offspring of Israel also shall cease from being a nation before me forever. Thus says the LORD, If the heavens above can be measured, and the foundations of the earth searched out below, then I will also cast off all the offspring of Israel for all that they have done, declares the LORD.

~ Jeremiah 31:35-37 ~

For I, the LORD, do not change; therefore you, o sons of Jacob, are not consumed (Malachi 3:6).

These Scriptures, written in 597 B.C. and 397 B.C., respectively, purport that God declared that He would preserve Jewish national identity for as long as there are sun, moon and stars and until the universe is fully measured and the foundations of the earth fully searched out. Despite the repeated fury of Satan and the nations to destroy the Jews, there are still 13,000,000 of them alive and identifiable today, 2400 and 2600 years after these passages were written.

Were these purported declarations by God the hallucinations of heat struck Hebrew holy men - or were they the Words of God? Look to history - and decide.

L. Detailed Prophecy and Detailed Historical Fulfillment

Perhaps the most amazing phenomenon in the Bible is its containment of hundreds of detailed prophesies that have come to fulfillment - in detail: prophecies as broad as the blueprint of history and as focused as the details of Messiah’s life and crucifixion; prophecies of the destruction of specific nations, of the endurance of others, of the scattering and gathering of Israel and of political and military alliances in the distant future.

1. The Blueprint of History
In about 601 B.C., an amazing dream was given to Nebuchadnezzar, King of Babylon, and its interpretation to his Hebrew advisor, Daniel (Daniel 2:1-45). The dream and its interpretation revealed the succession of the world empires central to Bible and world history and prophecy: Babylon, Medo-Persia, Greece, Rome, the split of Rome into eastern and western divisions, and an empire consisting of ten kingdoms which will, in turn, be crushed and replaced by a kingdom which the God of heaven will set up . . . which will never be destroyed (v. 44). The first five of these elements have already come to pass in world history!

2. The Fate of Nations

  • Around 850 B.C., Obadiah prophesied the destruction of the then mighty Edomite nation (southeast of the Dead Sea), saying, There will be no survivor of the house of Esau (Obadiah 1:18). Between 450 and 400 B.C., God declared through the prophet Malachi, I have made [Esau’s] mountains a desolation (Malachi 1:1-3). Today there are no known surviving Edomites.

  • In about 625 B.C., God declared through Zephaniah, O Canaan, land of the Philistines; . . . I will destroy you, so that there will be no inhabitant (Zephaniah 2:5). Today the Philistines are gone without a trace.

  • In Deuteronomy 28, written about 1400 B.C., Moses declared that if Israel will not obey the LORD, The LORD will scatter you among all peoples, from one end of the earth to the other end of the earth (v. 64). In 135 A.D., Israel was crushed by Rome and scattered to the four corners of the earth.

  • About 600 B.C., God declared,

    “As I live,” declares the Lord GOD, “surely with a mighty hand and with an outstretched arm and with wrath poured out, I shall be king over you. I will bring you from the peoples and gather you from the lands where you are scattered.”

    ~ Ezekiel 20:33-34 ~

735 years before Israel’s most profound scattering (by the Romans, in 135 A.D.) God declared that He would gather her. Has this prophecy of the gathering of Israel yet been fulfilled? Yes. Its milestone was the year 1948, when Israel became a modern nation.

2,540 years after Ezekiel’s prophecy, 1800 years after being scattered from their homeland and immediately following Satan’s greatest effort to annihilate them (1939-1945), God gathers them! Compound the odds against this gathering of Jews to their national homeland with the odds against Jewish survival, as described above; then consider whether these Biblical declarations were the creative inventions of men - or revelations of future history declared by God.

3. Political and Military Alliances Far Off in the Distant Future

4. They have said, "Come, and let us wipe them out as a nation, That the name of Israel be remembered no more." 5. For they have conspired together with one mind; Against You they make a covenant: 6. The tents of Edom and the Ishmaelites, Moab and the Hagrites; 7. Gebal and Ammon and Amalek, Philistia with the inhabitants of Tyre; 8. Assyria also has joined with them; They have become a help to the children of Lot.

~ Psalm 83:4-8 ~

Dr. Fruchtenbaum writes,

Edom is in southern Jordan; Ishmael was the father of one segment of the Arab world; Moab is in central Jordan; the Hagarenes were from Egypt. . . . Gebal is up in Lebanon; Ammon is in northern Jordan; Amalek was in the Sinai Peninsula; Philistia is in the Gaza Strip; Tyre is up in Lebanon. . . . Assyria comprises all of what is today Iraq and quite a bit of Syria. [Lot was the father of Ammon and Moab.]

The only time in history that all these nations listed in these verses combined themselves together against Israel has been only since 1948. This was never true in ancient history. Only since 1948 the surrounding Arab states which comprises these names have bound themselves together against Israel. This has been especially true since the Six Day War [1967] when one Arab leader after another clearly stated that the only way of gaining peace in the Middle East is for the total annihilation of Israel as a nation. (38)

Psalm 83 was written about three thousand years ago. What are the odds that the psalmist Asaph could have guessed that the above nations - all ten of them - would covenant against Israel? Some skeptics argue that what the Bible purports to be prophesies were written after the fact. What are the odds that some clever people stuck these verses in Psalm 83 since 1948?

4. Messiah’s Life, Crucifixion and Resurrection
According to Dr. Norman Geisler,

There are at least forty-eight prophecies in the Old Testament about Messiah. These include where he would be born (Mic. 5:2), how he would die (Isa. 53), when he would die (Dan. 9), that he would rise from the dead (Psa. 16), etc. The odds that 48 of these prophecies were fulfilled in one man are about 1/10157. That’s right, a 1 with 157 zeroes after it. (39)

Winkey Pratney, trained as a research chemist, attempts to give us an idea of how infinitesimal these odds are:

We’ll take a very small object, let’s say an electron. (Electrons are so small that if you lined them up, it would take 2 ˝ quadrillion of them to equal one inch.) Now let’s go back to our figure of 10157. If you tried to put this many electrons into a big pile, it would be 10,000,000,000 times larger than the universe as we know it - which scientists calculate to be 6,000,000,000 light-years across. [A light-year is the distance that light travels in one year, moving at the speed of 186,000 miles per second.]

Now, take just one electron out and color it red. Stir it back into this pile for a hundred thousand years with all the others. Then blindfold a man and send him in to pick it out - first time! Impossible? These would be the same odds that one man would live and die according to only 48 of the prophecies about the Messiah, if it were only an accident. (40)

The Bible, alone among books, contains hundreds of detailed prophesies that have already been fulfilled in every detail. Who, but God, could possibly author such a book?

III. ADDENDA

Choice tidbits of evidence keep coming to my attention. Here's one:

Evolutionist Objection: In the Bible, Light was Created Before the Sun Was

According to Genesis 1:3,14-16, God created light on the second day and the sun on the fourth.

In an article entitled, The Light from the Sun, Dr. Henry Morris, Ph.D. of the Institute of Creation Research writes,

One of the traditional “discrepancies” attributed by the skeptics to the Genesis account of creation is the fact that there was “light” (Hebrew or) on the first day of the creation week, whereas God did not create the “lights” (Hebrew ma-or) to rule the day and the night until the fourth day.

However, it is interesting that modern evolutionary cosmologists find no problem in having light before the sun. According to their speculative reconstruction of cosmic history, light energy was produced in the imaginary “Big Bang” 15 billion years ago, whereas the sun “evolved” only five billion years ago. Thus, even in their attempts to destroy the divine revelation of Genesis, they inadvertently find it necessary to return to its concepts.

~ Morris, H. Ph.D./Institute of Creation Research (2015). The Light from the Sun. Retrieved from https://www.icr.org/article/8582/

IV. CONCLUSION

The Bible claims it is the Word of God, stands alone in its uniqueness, is consistent in its central theme and continuous in its development over a period of 1600 years, contains no contradiction, does not contradict the proven facts of science, offers the most plausible explanations in matters of science that are unobserved or unobservable, has profoundly influenced the world for good, has profoundly changed individual lives for the good, is a literary masterpiece in a class of its own, has inspired many of the world’s greatest works of art, has been preserved physically and in accuracy since its first words were written, has promised the preservation of the Jew and has declared hundreds of prophecies that have been fulfilled in detail.

In consideration of all this evidence, how can one still doubt the divine authorship of the Scriptures? We confidently board jet planes with infinitely smaller odds that they will land safely than the odds in favor of the Bible’s having been authored by God. Dr. Lewis Sperry Chafer, founder of Dallas Theological Seminary and author of an eight volume standard work in systematic theology, said, “The Bible is not a book that a man could write if he would, nor is the Bible a book man would write if he could." (41) William E. Gladstone said, “I have known ninety-five of the world’s great men in my time, and of these eighty-seven were followers of the Bible. The Bible is stamped with a Specialty of Origin, and an immeasurable distance separates it from all competitors." (42)

It is reasonable to conclude with absolute certainty that the Bible was written by men under the perfect superintendence of God.

V. RAMIFICATIONS

If you are convinced that the Bible is the Word of God, then at least three important ramifications follow:

A. The Bible is to be Studied from Cover to Cover

It is more than reasonable to study a book authored by our loving Creator. We might just learn something. The Bible, written by God through the hands of men, is a reflection of Yeshua, who Himself is both divine and human. Wouldn’t you like to get to know Yeshua the Messiah?

B. The Bible is to be Believed and Embraced from Cover to Cover

The chief message of the Bible is one of ultimate hope for all that the human heart could possibly long for. It is a message which, when embraced, brings the forgiveness of sins, an eternal infusion of new life from God that fills us with joy and transforms our attitudes and actions to be more godly ones, and the assurance of a most wonderful and blessed eternity in the presence of God forever. This is the message: that God loved us so much that he sent His Son, Yeshua HaMashiach (the Messiah), to die in our place for our sins so that He might forgive us of our sins and, as He raised His Son from the dead, raise us from the death of sin’s power and guilt to live a new life in His embrace forever.

Do you believe? Please pause and answer! If you do, then you, too, have already risen from the death of your old life into new, blessed life in Him. Thank Him. He deserves your praise forever.

C. We Must Conform our Thinking and Ways to God’s

Since the God of the Bible is a loving God, it behooves us to change our thinking and ways to conform to His. It should surprise no one that God’s values and priorities differ from the values and priorities of those who don’t know Him. Even among the nations of the world values and priorities differ tremendously. Which values are to be embraced: the values of one’s own culture? Those of another? What makes one set of values superior to another? Nothing - were it not for the fact that there is an absolute standard: the values and priorities held eternally by God and found in His holy Book! These are the values that the believer - indeed, everyone on the planet - ought to embrace. Embrace them to bless and be blessed.


May God bless you forever in His Word,
Norman Manzon

Scriptures chosen by the author are in the New American Standard version unless otherwise noted. Scriptures in quotes by others may be in different translations. Names, titles and other terms within quoted scriptures and elsewhere may have been changed from the English to the Hebrew form for the sake of cultural sensitivity.

~

FOOTNOTES

4. Unger, Dr. Merrill F., Unger’s Bible Handbook, The Moody Bible Institute of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois, 1966, p. 52.
5. Halley, Henry H., Halley's Bible Handbook, Zondervan, Grand Rapids, Michigan, 1959, pp.160-161.
6. Morris, Dr. Henry M., op.cit., pp. 1523-1525.
7. The New Strong's Exhaustive Concordance to the Bible. 1996.
8. Morris, Dr. Henry M., op.cit., p. 1407.
9. Tomkins, Ph.D./Institute of Creation Research,J.P. (2015). Genetic Entropy Points to a Young Creation. Retrieved from http://www.icr.org/article/8374/
10. Morris, Dr. Henry M., op. cit., p.1496.
11. Pratney, Winkey, "Creation or Evolution? Part II - The Historical Record," Pretty Good Printing, Last Days Ministries, Lindale, TX., 1984, p. 4.
12. Huse, Dr. Scott M., The Collapse of Evolution, Baker Book House, Grand Rapids, Michigan, 1983, p. 67-68.
13. Morris, Dr. Henry M., op. cit., pp. 1496-1497.
14. Gish, Dr. Duane T., and Bliss, Dr. Richard B., Impact, Nos. 95-96 - "Summary of Scientific Evidence for Creation," Institute for Creation Research, El Cajon, California, 1981, p. iii.
15. Huse, Dr. Scott M., The Collapse of Evolution, Baker Book House, Grand Rapids, Michigan, 1983, pp. 96-103; and Nelson, Byron, After its Kind, Bethany House, Minneapolis, Minnesota, 1967, pp. 126-138.
16. Why We Believe in Creation, p. 312, quoted by Pratney, Winkey in "Creation or Evolution? Part III - The Fossil Record," Pretty Good Printing, Last Days Ministries, Lindale, TX., 1984 p. 1.
17. Nilsson, Dr. Herbert, University of Lund, Sweden, quoted by Pratney, Winkey, Ibid., p.1.
18. "The Life of Leonardo da Vinci, Part V." Questar Video, Inc., Chicago, Illinois 60611.
19. Moore, Roy S. “Putting God Back in the Public Square.” Imprimis Magazine, Hillsdale College, Hillsdale, Michigan 49242, September (?) 1999.
20. Ibid. (?)
21. Wirt, Sherwood, The Social Conscience of the Evangelical, quoted in Kennedy, D. James, What if Jesus Had Never Been Born, Thomas Nelson Publishers, Nashville, Tennessee, 1994, p. 13.
22 Egner, David C., Those Irrepressible Jews!, Radio Bible Class, Grand Rapids, Michigan 1983, p. 50.
23. Kennedy, D. James, op. cit., pp. 168.
24. "Breakpoint" with Chuck Colson, December 29, 1995.
25. Moore, Roy S. op. cit.
26. Kennedy, D. James, op. cit., p. 186.
27. Morris, Dr. Henry M., op. cit., , p. 9.
28. Morris, Dr. Henry M., op. cit., p. 546.
29. International Standard Bible Encyclopedia, 1973, v. 1, p. 492.
30. Enns, Dr. Paul P. The Moody Handbook of Theology, Moody Press, Chicago, Illinois, 1989, p.171.
31. Halley, Henry H., op. cit., pp. 759-760.
32. Encyclopedia Britannica CD, 1999, “Masoretic Text.”
33. Fruchtenbaum, Dr. Arnold G., Radio Manuscript 30: The Nature of the Bible, Ariel Ministries, Tustin, California, 1983, p. 5.
34. Morris, Dr. Henry M., op. cit., p. 1989.
35. Fruchtenbaum, Dr. Arnold G., op. cit., p. 5.
36. Halley, Henry H., op. cit., p. 19.
37. Egner, David C. op. cit., back cover.
38. Fruchtenbaum, Dr. Arnold G., Radio Manuscript 8: Arab States in Prophesy, Ariel Ministries, Tustin, California, 1983, pp. 7-8.
39. Geisler, Norman L. and Brooks, Ronald M., Come, Let us Reason, Baker Book House, Grand Rapids, Michigan, 1990, p. 145.
40. Pratney, Winkey, "The Holy Bible - Wholly True," Pretty Good Printing, Last Days Ministries, Lindale, TX., 1985.
41. Chafer, Dr. Louis, quoted by Fruchtenbaum, Dr. Arnold G., Radio Manuscript 30: The Nature of the Bible, Ariel Ministries, Tustin, California, 1983, p. 8.
42. Halley, Henry H., op. cit., p. 18.

~

Evidence Upon Evidence:
The Bible Is the Word of God
~ a messianic Bible study ~
© Norman Manzon 1999.
All rights reserved.

Scriptures chosen by the author are in the New American Standard version unless otherwise noted. Scriptures in quotes by others may be in different translations. Names, titles and other terms within quoted scriptures and elsewhere may have been changed from the English to the Hebrew form for the sake of cultural sensitivity.

Evidence Upon Evidence originally appeared on the author's website, www.BibleStudyProject.org.


All Pages of A Key Doctrinal Exegesis
 

Major Topics in Systematic Progression

Page 1

* THE SCRIPTURES
* GOD THE TRIUNITY
* ANGELS
* SATAN AND DEMONS
* THE DOCTRINE OF MAN
*
SALVATION

Page 2

* ISRAEL
*
THE TRUE ROOTS OF ANTI-SEMITISM
* THE BELIEVER AND THE LAW OF MOSES

Page 3

* THE CHURCH OR BODY OF MESSIAH
* THE MINISTRIES AND GIFTS OF THE HOLY SPIRIT
* DIVINE HEALING: ANOTHER PERSPECTIVE

Page 4 and Page 5

* THE FUTURE, THE AFTERWORLD AND ETERNITY

Page 6

ADDENDUM STUDIES

* THE AMBASSADORIAL BAND
* EVIDENCE UPON EVIDENCE: THE BIBLE IS THE WORD OF GOD, Parts 1 & 2

PLEASE NOTE: The studies in this compendium are copied from Shofars 1 - 52. Updates to this Compendium have been discontinued and not all Shofar studies by the author are in the Compendium. For links to all studies by the author, please go to the most up-to-date Library page (of Shofar 53) and find the author's studies under "NORMAN MANZON."
 

The We Believe Compendium
© Norman Manzon, 2005 - 2018.
All rights reserved.

More of Norm's studies may be accessed at
www.BibleStudyProject.org.

Norman Manzon is a Bible teacher in Hawaii
and may be reached at
Bible Study Project . org @ twc . com

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