Reliability of the Bible: Part II

The Bible: The Most Bibliographically Verified Source in History

continued from Reliability of the Bible: Part I

Archaeology

Jay Winslow pointed to three (among many) archaeological discoveries which confirmed what the Bible says: Hittites, Assyrians, and Jericho.

Hittites

Joshua 1:4, “From the wilderness and this Lebanon as far as the great river, the River Euphrates, all the land of the Hittites, and to the Great Sea toward the going down of the sun, shall be your territory.”

In 1906, Hugo Winkler found the Hittite civilization. These people are spoken of in the Bible, but people had previously said that the Hittites didn’t exist.

Assyrians

Isaiah 19:23, “In that day there will be a highway from Egypt to Assyria, and the Assyrian will come into Egypt and the Egyptian into Assyria, and the Egyptians will serve with the Assyrians.”

Similar to their disbelief of the Hittites, people also thought the Assyrians didn’t exist. Since then, the entire city of Nineveh (one of the major, ancient Assyrian cities), has been unearthed.

Jericho

Hebrews 11:30, “By faith the walls of Jericho fell down after they were encircled for seven days.”

In the Bible, Jericho is famous for its miraculous destruction. The Israelites marched around the walls once a day for six days, then on the seventh day marched around it seven times. After the final march, the priests blew trumpets, the people shouted, and the walls fell down.

In a normal siege, the walls would fall inwards as the attackers surged in that direction. Garstang, the archeologist who excavated Jericho, said, “As to the main fact, then, there remains no doubt: the walls fell outwards so completely that the attackers could be able to clamber up and over the ruins into the city."

How can this be? God’s miraculous hand at work.

Prophecy

Isaiah 46:9-10, “I am God…Declaring the end from the beginning, and from ancient times things that are not yet done.”

In the Old Testament, over 2,000 predictive prophecies have been fulfilled. 333 of these prophecies concern Christ. Jay Winslow spoke about a man who decided to research the chances the one man could fulfill just eight of the 333 prophecies that Jesus fulfilled.

I wasn’t able to write down all eight, but I do have six of The Eight Coincidental Prophecies:

Born at Bethlehem
Preceded by a messenger
He was to enter Jerusalem on a donkey
Betrayed by a friend for 30 pieces of silver
Money thrown into God’s house and given for potter’s field
Silent before accusers

What are the chances?

1 in 10 to the 17th power. That’s like covering the state of Texas two feet deep in silver dollars, marking one silver coin, and allowing someone in a helicopter to select one of those coins [example from Jay Winslow].

And that’s just eight prophecies. The chances of a man fulfilling 48 prophecies? 1 in 10 to the 157th power.

Jesus fulfilled all 333 prophecies about the coming Messiah.

To be continued...