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Saturday, November 19, 2011

The Bible Alone is Inerrant

Isaiah 41:22 Let them bring forth and declare to us what is going to take place; As for the former events, declare what they were, That we may consider them and know their outcome.  Or announce to us what is coming;

In yesterday's blog we considered the test of infallibility, whereby we are testing to see whether or not a book with the claim of Divine authorship can lead us to an accurate knowledge of truth on any matter.  We saw yesterday that the Bible alone fulfilled this.  Today we want to look at a closely related idea - inerrancy.  If infalliblity has to to with the character of revelation, then inerrancy has to do with the contents - the words of a given text.  In short - are they without error.

Accuracy in all matters past or future
Isaiah mentions "former events" and "outcomes" as criteria for the inerrancy test.  Does the text in question accurately tell you the facts of a past event and can it predict accurately what is yet to be?  The ability to predict the future accurately is the harder of the two tests, since only a supernatural, Divine Mind could ever deliver 100% accurate information about predicted outcomes. 

Fulfilled prophecy as the greatest mark of Divine authorship
According to Isaiah's test, if a given book, claiming to be from God, can accurately predict the future, then it is proof of it being God's word.  The question is, do any religious books contain fulfilled examples of prophecy or prediction?

The Koran, touted by Islam to be God's word, contains not one example of predictive prophecy.  Neither does the Book of Mormon, and its attendant volumes the Pearl of Great Price and Doctrines and Covenants.  The Hindu writings such as the Upanishads and the Bhagavad-gita does not, neither does the writings of Buddah and Confucius. 

Furthermore, of those organizations that claim to be the voice of God, they at some point have been wrong in their predictions.  The Jehovah Witnesses for instance have wrongly predicted the second coming of Jesus at least three times (1914, 1920's and in the seventies).

Does the Bible have examples of predictive prophecy?
According to studies done by Biblical scholars, there are over 600 general prophecies in the Bible.  Jesus Christ is the subject of 334 of them.  Micah 5:3 for instance predicted that the Messiah would be born in Bethelehem Epaphratha.  700 years later, we find in the birth accounts of Matthew and Luke Jesus Christ born in this same town!  Zechariah 9:9, written over 500 years before Jesus, declared that the chosen one, Messiah, would ride into Jerusalem on a donkey.  Jesus does so the week of His crucifixion in the Gospel accounts. 

The most remarkable proof of the Bible's inerrancy
Daniel 9:23-27 tells us that in God's way of reckoning time, from the moment that a decree was issued to rebuild Jerusalem to the cutting off of Messiah would compute to exactly 483 years.  We know that Cyrus, King of Persia, issued such a decree in March of 445 b.c.  The Old Testament Jews counted their years in 360 day periods.  If we multiply 360 days times the 483 year period spoken of in Daniel, we come up with 173,880 days.  If we count those days from Cyrus' decree (spoken of by the way in Ezra 1:2-4) we arrive at the date of April 15, 29 A.D.  That is the exact day when Jesus Christ was crucified on the cross! 

No other book, alleged vision, dream or any other claim to Divine authorship has this mark of inerrancy.  The Bible alone not only has it, but has hundreds of examples wherein it demonstrates its unique quality as God's word.