External Evidence: Manuscript

God has recorded in the Scriptures sufficient evidence of their reliability to convince any reasonable seeker, and has preserved and seen to it that the Scriptures enjoy greater authentication than any other classical writings or events in history.

External evidence: Archeological

Not a single archeological find has contradicted the Bible. Over a hundred finds collaborate information which at one time was found only in the Scripture, e.g., Hittite empire, King Sargon, Sodom and Gomorrah, walls of Jericho, etc. A number of non-biblical writings (even those by his enemies) validate the historicity of Jesus.

Internal Evidence:

The Bible claims to be God's revelation, as well as historical fact, recorded by eyewitnesses.

Unity:

The Bible is a "library" comprised of 66 books:

It was developed over a period of fifteen centuries (1,500 years).

Written in three different languages (Hebrew, Greek, and Aramaic)

Written on three continents (Asia, Africa, and Europe)

Written by forty different human authors. Their occupations included: kings, fisherman, tax collectors, sheperds, prophets and a doctor. Their level of education ranged from formal training in palaces by the wisest men of the time to no formal schooling, except what was passed down through families (i.e., fishing techniques). Their circumstances were very different: Paul wrote from a prison in Rome, Moses from the desert in Sinai, Daniel from the palaces in Babylon and James from Jerusalem.

These 66 books are written about the most controversial issues of life and diverse theological matters (the nature of God, His purposes, the nature of man. It is often difficult enough to get ten men to agree on one theological issue, much less forty men from varied backgrounds agreeing on matters about which others can only speculate. Amazingly these books are not self-contradictory, but present a unified whole.

Science:

In 1861 the French Academy of Science published a brochure of fifty-one "scientific facts" which supposedly contradicted the Bible. No scientist would accept any of those "facts" today.

It's taken science over two thousand years to "discover" some of the facts indicated in the Scriptures such as:

• the spherical earth (Isa 40:22)
• the earth is suspended in space (Job 26:7)
• the stars are innumerable (Jer 33:22)
• mountains and canyons in the ocean (2 Sam 22:16, Jon 2:6)
• springs and fountains in the sea (Gen 7:11; 8:2, Pr 8:28)
• ocean currents (Maury started searching for them after reading Ps 8:8)
• the hydrologic cycle (Job 36-38)
• animals reproduce after their kind rather than spontaneous generation (Gen 1:21; 6:19)
• principles of contagious diseases and quarantine (Leviticus) which the Church finally asserted in stopping the plagues of the Dark Ages
• principles of sanitation and public health (Dt 23)
• link between circumcision and cervical cancer and the "best" time for circumcision (vitamin K and maximum prothrombin -Gen 17:9)
• life is in the blood cx bloodletting (Lev 19:11)
• First and Second laws of Thermodynamics (conservation and deterioration of energy - Gen 2:1-3; Ps 33:6-9; 102:26; Rm 8:18-23; Heb 1:10-12)

Prophecy:

The Scriptures contain dozens of prophecies concerning individuals, places, and nations. Many have been literally and accurately fulfilled; others await a future fulfillment. All of them are evidence that the God of the Scriptures knows the future, and that His words are trustworthy.

Jesus claimed to be "from the other side", authenticated His words by His works (miracles), and promised that His words would not pass away, but would judge people at the end of history.

A few notable's opinions of the "Good Book"

• A respectable book, but I should hardly call it one whose philosophy is of the soundest. All truth, especially historic truth, requires cool investigation, for which the Jews do not appear to have ever been famous. G Borrow
• A collection of different legends, mutually contradictory and written at different times and full of historical errors, issued by churches as a "holy" book. Dictionary of Foreign Words, Soviet Government, 1951
• It is impossible to rightly govern the world without the Bible. George Washington
• The Bible is for the Government of the People, by the People, and for the People. General prologue to the Wycliffe translation of the Bible, 1384
• The Bible makes the best people in the world. Thomas Jefferson
• But for this Book we could not know right from wrong. I believe the Bible is the best gift God has ever given to man. Abraham Lincoln
• No educated man can afford to be ignorant of the Bible. Theodore Roosevelt
• I have known ninety-five great men of the world in my time, and of these, eighty-seven were followers of the Bible. William Gladstone
• We rest with assurance upon the impregnable rock of the Holy Scripture. Winston Churchill
• We account the Scriptures of God to be the most sublime philosophy. I find more sure marks of authenticity in the Bible than in any profane history whatsoever. Sir Isaac Newton
• Young men, as you go forth, remember that I, an old man, who has known only science all his life, say unto you that there are no truer facts than the facts found within the Holy Scriptures. James Dwight Dana
• I believe the Scriptures of the Old and New Testament to be the will and the Word of God. Daniel Webster
• Young men, my advice to you is that you cultivate an acquaintance with, and firm belief in, the Holy Scriptures. Benjamin Franklin
• This is a Book worth more than all the others that were ever printed. Patrick Henry
• [A book which] teaches man his own individual responsibility... dignity, and... equality with his fellow-man....A book of faith, and a book of doctrine, and a book of morals, and a book of religion, of special revelation from God. Daniel Webster
• I never had any doubt about it being of divine origin. Point out to me any similar collection of writings that has lasted for as many thousands of years and is still a best-seller, world-wide. It had to be of divine origin. Ronald Reagan
• Scrutamini scripturas [Let's look at the scriptures]. These two words have undone the world. John Selden 1654
• No public man in these islands ever believes that the Bible means what it says; he is always convinced that it says what he means. George Bernard Shaw
• The unchangeable word of God to which man must bend himself, and not something which he can bend to his own personal ideas. Jean Danielou
• This is the best Book that ever was or ever will be in the world. Charles Dickens