Top Reason Why We can Trust Bible Archeological & Historical Evidences

 Top Reason Why We can Trust Bible

Hello, everyone welcome back to another Blog The Verdant Christian. The Bible is clearly an incredible book. It is the bestselling, most quoted, most published, most circulated, most translated, most influential book in the history of mankind. No other book even comes close, but I know that there are many Bible skeptics out there with lots of questions. Questions like. How can we know the Bible isn't just an ancient book of fiction and folklore? Haven't the contents of the Bible been tampered with down through the centuries? What makes the Bible any different than any other religious book? What makes the Bible so special? These are all great questions and they will be answered in this Blog. So let's take a look at seven reasons why we can trust the Bible. 

 1. Reason number one: Fulfilled prophecy.

Unique among all books ever written, the Bible accurately foretells specific events in detail many years and sometime centuries before they occur. There are 100 and 100 of prophecies in the Bible, and many of them have already been fulfilled. You can do a quick Google or a Yahoo Search and see for yourself the 100 of prophecies that have come true, but let me show you four of my favorite fulfilled prophecies.

 (A) Jesus. Born in Bethlehem in approximately 700 BC, the prophet Micah named the tiny village of Bethlehem as the birthplace of israel's Messiah. The prophecy in Micah, chapter five, verse two. But you. Bethlehem. Ephrata, though you are little among the thousands of Judah, yet out of you shall come forth to me the one to be ruler in Israel, whose goings forth are from old, from everlasting.700 years later this was fulfilled in Matthew chapter two. Verse one. Now, after Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea, in the days of Herod the King. Behold wise men from the East came to Jerusalem. 

(B) Jesus born of a Virgin. Also around 700 BC. Isaiah wrote in Isaiah chapter seven, verse 14, here's the prophecy. Therefore the Lord Himself will give you a sign, behold, the Virgin shall conceive and bury Son, and shall call his name Emmanuel again 700 years later this was fulfilled in Matthew chapter one, verse 24 and 25. When Joseph woke up, he did what the angel of the Lord had commanded him and took Mary home as his wife, but he did not consummate their marriage until she gave birth to a son, and he gave him the name Jesus. 

(C) Jesus performs miracles. The prophecy. Then the eyes of the blind shall be opened, and the ears of the deaf shall be unstopped. Then the lame shall leap like a deer, and the tongue of the dumb sing, for water shall burst forth in the wilderness and streams in the desert. This was fulfilled in Matthew chapter 9 verse 3. Then Jesus went about all the cities and villages, teaching in their synagogues, preaching the gospel of the kingdom and healing every sickness and every disease among the people.

(D) The destruction of Babylon by Cyrus. The prophecy. Babylon, the jewel of kingdoms, the pride and the glory of the Babylonians, will be overthrown by God. Like Sodom and Gomorrah, the Bible foretold the destruction of the ancient city of Babylon some 200 years in advance. 

(E)The Bible also accurately predicts the exact person who would conquer Babylon, which was Cyrus. Here's the prophecy. This is what the Lord says to his, anointed to Cyrus, whose right hand I will take hold of to subdue nations before him, and to strip kings of their armor to open doors before him, so that gates will not be shut. Fulfillment. Despite babylon's remarkable defenses, which included moats and walls that were more than 70 feet thick and 300 feet high, and 200 and 50 watchtowerss. Cyrus was able to enter the city and conquered. 

Numerous other Bible prophecies were also fulfilled, down to the smallest detail. What else would you expect from God in the Bible? 

2. Reason number two on why you can trust the Bible. Archaeological evidence.

Many critics who brush off the Bible as a compilation of folklore and legends do so, overlooking the fact that thousands of archaeological discoveries over the past century have verified the historical reliability of the Bible. The more they dig, the more it confirms the Bible. Here are three of the more important discoveries that have been found. The House of David inscription. Until 1993, not a shred of evidence could be found anywhere outside the Bible that David, the King of Israel, ever existed, and so it had become fashionable in some academic circles to dismiss the David stories as mere invention. The critic's verdict was that David was nothing more than a figure of religious and political mythology. Well, their skepticism regarding David collapsed overnight in 1993 when a nearly three thousands year of inscription was unearthed in Israel, mentioning David, the King of Israel. This was a tremendous discovery and helped to verify for the first time outside the Bible that David was an actual historical figure. In light of the discovery, time magazine stated. The skeptics claim that King David never existed. 

(A)The Pontius Pilot Inscription. Another fascinating discovery. Concerns Pontius Pilate. The New Testament authors tell us he was the Roman governor of Judea at the time of Jesus, who oversaw his trial, then sentenced him to death by crucifixion, but was Pontius pilot. A real historical figure? In 1961, a team of Italian archaeologists were digging in Caesarea on the shore of the Mediterranean Sea in Israel. While clearing away the sand and overgrowth from the jumbled ruins of a Roman theater, these men made an astonishing find. They uncovered a limestone block that bore an inscription in Latin dating to the early part of the first century that mentioned Pontius Pilate, prefect of Judea. This inscription verifies that Pontius's Pilate was an actual historical person, that he reigned in the very position ascribed to him by the Gospels, and as prefect he would have the authority to condemn or pardon Jesus just as the Gospel accounts report. 

(B) First century crucifixion. Another discovery helped to verify the reality of crucifixion in Israel in the first century. According to the Bible. Jesus hands and feet were nailed to the cross, but at one time critics said crucifixions with nails never took place in Israel. In the first century, no evidence of any crucified victim had ever been uncovered in Israel, so skeptics and scholars dismissed the Gospels accounts as either imagined or inaccurate.

Well critics of the Bible were shown to be wrong again in 1968. It was then that a crew of builders from the Israel Ministry of Housing working in Jerusalem accidentally discovered an ancient Jewish cemetery that contained the remains of several men who were killed during the Jewish revolt against Rome in approximately 70 AD. One of the bone osuraries contained the skeleton of a young man and an inscription on the man's name, Yohanan. What stunned the archaeologist most, though, was how this man died. He was put to death by crucifixion with nails. How was that determined? he still had an iron spike driven through his heel bonne. The Romans typically removed the nails from the victims because iron was expensive, but apparently this nail was too difficult to remove. The tip of the nail had been bent back toward the head, likely the result of hitting a knot in the wood, and so the soldiers left it there. And now we have the solid archaeological evidence that the Romans did crucify people in Israel in the first century with nails, just as the Bible said. So yes, archeological evidence does show the Bible is a reliable part of history and can be trusted.

3. Reason number Three. Historical Evidences: Why We Can Trust the Bible. Outside written sources. Bible skeptics often give you the impression that the only evidence Christians have for the origins of Christianity come from the Bible itself. The implication is that we cannot trust this evidence because the writers are biased in favor of the Christian message, but is this true? No, absolutely not. Here are five reliable written sources for Christianity outside the Bible.

(A) Tacitus- Tacitus was a Roman historian. His annals, written about 100 and 15 AD, mentioned the Emperor nero's persecution of the followers of Christ in Rome in 64 AD. This is what the Roman historian Tacitus said about the first Christians. He said. To dispel the rumor. Nero substituted as culprits and treated with the most extreme punishments some people, popularly known as Christians, whose disgraceful activities were notorious. The originator of that name. Christus, had been executed when Tiberius was emperor by order of the procurator Pontius Pilate. But the deadly cult, though checked for a time, was now breaking out again, not only in Judea, the birthplace of this evil, but even throughout Rome, where all the nasty and disgusting ideas from all of the world pour in and find a ready following. Notice the following from Tacitus. Christ was executed, why Tiberius was. He was executed by order of Pontius Pilate. His movement had its origins in Judea. There were enough followers of Christ in Rome by 64 AD to be made scapegoats by the Emperor Nero, and this all comes from Tacitus, a pagan writer. 

(B) Pliny the Younger. Pliny the Younger was the governor of the Roman province of Bethany in present-day Turkey. In about 100 and 12 AD. He wrote to the Emperor Trash asking for advice on how to deal with the followers of Christ in his province because he was executing so many of them. Pliny says of the Christians, they were in the habit of meeting before dawn on a fixed day. They would recite an alternate verse, a hymn to Christ as to a God, and would bind themselves by a solemn oath not to do any criminal act, but rather they would not commit any fraud, theft, or adultery, nor betray any trust, nor refuse to restore a deposit on demand. This done, they would disperse, and then they would meet again later to eat together. Notice from what Pliny says, by the beginning of the second century there was already a Christian community in Bithynia, large enough to come to the attention of the Roman governor. Also, they worship Christ as a God.

(C) Gaius Sattonius- Sattonius was a Roman historian and an official under the emperor Hadrian. In his writings Life of Claudius he says. As the Jews were making constant disturbances at the instigation of crests, he Claudius expelled them from Rome. This expulsion took place in 49 AD and is identified with the event described by Luke in Acts chapter 18, verse two. Then, in his Lives of the Caesars. Suetonius says of the Fire of Rome in 64 AD that punishment by Nero was inflicted on the Christians, a class of men given to a new and mischievous superstition. Here Sotonius provides evidence for the existence of a significant Christian community being punished in the capital of the Empire by the 60 S. Ad.

(D) The Talmud- The Talmuds were rabbinic commentaries on the Jewish scriptures, that is, the Old Testament. The Talmud was most likely completed around the 6th century. Here's what the Talmud says, on the eve of Passover, they hanged yeshu, and an announcer went out in front of him for 40 days saying he is going to be stoned because he practiced sorcery and enticed and led Israel astray. Anyone who knows anything in his favor let him come and plead in his behalf, but not having found anything in his favor, they hanged him on the eve of the Passover. From this we can take away Yeshu. The Nazarene is described as someone who engaged in sorcery. This is a typical way that Jewish writers accounted for the miracles of Jesus. Also, he was put to death. His death took place at the time of the Passover. His death was by hanging, which was often used by Jews to describe crucifixion. 

(E) Flavius Josephus- Flavius Josephus was a Jewish historian.

He wrote around the end of the first century AD and his two most significant works were The Jewish War and The Antiquities of the Jews. Josephus became the Roman emperor's advisor on Jewish affairs and in his writings he mentions Pontius Pilate. John the Baptist. Jesus and James the brother of Jesus. In Book 18 of the Antiquities, the text of Josephus says about this time, there lived Jesus a wise man, for he was a performer of wonderful deeds, a teacher of such men as are happy to accept the truth. He won over many of the Jews and many of the Gentiles, when Pilate, at the suggestion of the leading men among us, had condemned him to the cross. Those who had loved him at the first did not forsake him, and the tribe of Christians so named for him are not extinct to this day.

Notice what this passage tells us about Jesus. He was a real historic person, he was a teacher, he was a worker of wonders. He gathered a band of followers who continued to follow him after his death. However, there is a second reference to Jesus in the works of Josephus in Antiquities. He describes how in 62 AD, the High priest Annus was deposed and Josephus said. Convene the Sanhedrin, the highest Jewish religious court governing body. He had brought before them the brother of Jesus, the so-called Christ, who was called James, and some other men whom he accused of having broken the law and handed them over to be stoned. Notice the following points from this quotation from Josephus. Jesus had a brother called James. James was executed by the Jewish leaders in 62 AD. There were claims that Jesus was the Messiah, that is, the Christ.

So there you have it. Five reliable written sources for Christianity outside of the Bible.

4. Reason number four on Why You can trust the Bible. Manuscript evidence: Old Testament reliability. First, let's talk about the three Gray Uncle courses, the Codex Syineticus, the Codex Vatickinus, and the Codex Alexandrus. The three great Units are the only remaining unicical codex that contain the entire text of the Greek Bible, the Old, and the New Testament. They are written in a certain unical style of calligraphy using only capital letters. All these manuscripts were made at great expense of material and labor written by professional scribes. Based on the most accurate text in their time, let's take a closer look at each one. 

(A) The Codex Synaticcus was written between 300 and 25 and 300 and 60 AD. It was discovered at Mount Sinai in 1844 and is now located at the British Library in London. 

(B) The Codex Vaticanus was written between 300 and 30 to 300 and 6080, was discovered in 1400 and 81, and is now located at the Vatican Library.

(C) The Codex Alexandness was written between 400 and 400 and 40 AD. It was discovered at the Patriarchal Library in the 14 th century and is now located at the British Library. 

(D) Next we have the Dead Sea Scrolls. The Dead Sea Scrolls were discovered in 11 caves along the northwest shore of the Dead Sea between the years 1947 and 1956. The scrolls can be divided into two categories, biblical and non-biblical. Fragments of every book of the Old Testament have been discovered, except for the Book of Esther. The Dead Sea Scrolls were most likely written by the Ecenes during the period from around 200 BC to 68 AD. They have been called the greatest manuscript discovery of modern times. 

Now let's move on to the new Testament. New Testament reliability. First, let's talk about ancient manuscripts for the Testament. There are over 24 thousand manuscript copies or portions of the New Testament. These are dated anywhere from only 25 to 50 years after the originals were written. Here is a chart that shows that the New Testament just blows away the other ancient writings in terms of.

Now let's look at early fragments that have been found. 

(A) The Rylands fragment is the earliest known New Testament document. This fragment, found in Egypt in 1920, has writings on both sides. It has been identified as part of john's Gospel John 18 on the front and verses 37 and 38 on the back. Experts have dated this fragment to between 100 and 25 AD and 100 and 50 AD. 

(B) Next we have the Bodmer Papyri. The Bodmer Papyri are a group of 22 papyri discovered in Egypt in 1952. The papyri contains most of the Gospel of John and experts agree it dates back to 200 AD. 

(C) Let's move on to the next one. The Chester Beattie Papyri are a group of 11 manuscripts that contain writings for many of the books of the New Testament. They were first announced in 1931 and experts date them to 200 and 25 AD. So is there manuscript evidence from history that supports the Bibles we read today as being reliable? Yes, absolutely.

5. Reason number five on why We can trust the Bible. The persecution of Early Christians. The Bible does not expressly give details about the ways in which the apostles died. We must rely on early church historians and secular historians as well, but thankfully both are in agreement and both are reliable men such as Tacitus. Pliny. Suetonius. Josephus like I mentioned earlier plus many other church historians. Because of this, we have no reason to disbelieve these accounts as the vast majority of them agree on the method of the apostles death. So let's take a look at how these apostles of Christ were persecuted and killed. 

(A) We are told by the early church historians that Matthew was slain with an axe in a city of Ethiopia. (B) Mark died in Alexandria in northern Egypt after having been cruelly dragged through the streets of that city. (C) Luke was hung to death in Greece. John was tortured and then banished to the island of Patmos. (D) James the brother of John was beheaded in Jerusalem. James the Less as he's called in Mark chapter 15 verse 40 was thrown from a pinnacle of the Temple and then stoned. (E) Philip was hung up against a pillar in Hioppolis and then stoned. Bartholommulle was flayed alive, andrew was bound to a cross and left to die, jude was shot to death with arrows, matthias was first stoned and then beheaded, barnabas was stoned to death, (F)thomas was speared to death in southeast India, and finally (G) Peter was crucified upside down in Rome. 

So I have a question for you were these men lying when they were spreading the good news of Jesus Christ? I find it very hard to believe that men willing to die excruciatingly painful deaths for telling people about Jesus were just making up a story about him. Nobody willingly endures persecution and these kinds of deaths for something they are just making up. Jesus's disciples traveled all over the Roman Empire and beyond. They endured persecution, torture, martyrdrum, claiming all the way to the end that the long-awaited Messiah and Savior of the world lived among them, became a sacrifice for our sins, and that he rose from the dead. That to me is compelling evidence that these men were telling the truth about Jesus and the Bible.

6. Reason number six on why we can trust the Bible, math and probability. The Bible is very clear on where we came from and who created everything God did. With that in mind, you really only have two choices, either we were created by an intelligent designer or we evolved over billions of years. The theory of evolution wants us to believe that the origin of life, the first living cell in which we all evolve from began four billion years ago. In that probiotic soup, they want us to believe that DNA. RNA, amino acids and other chemicals all became available at the same time, and they magically came together to form the first living cell. But is this even mathematically possible? What is the probability of this happening? Well? Here are two quick videos. I will link that you can go watch later that explains the probability in full detail. The first one is called DNA by design, doing the math. And the second ones called Probability of a Cell Evolving Programming of Life.

I will let the videos speak for themselves, but I will at least say this. Did you know that there are only ten to the 80 th power of elementary particles in the entire universe, and to build just one functional protein, the probability is ten to the 100 and 64 th power. With these numbers, the probability of the first living cell to come about by chance are operationally impossible. No serious scientist thinks that life began by chance. So if you're open to the truth and willing to learn these videos are quick. 1 seven minutes, 1 eight minutes. You have to take the time to watch these videos if you want to know the truth about evolution, so to all you Bible critics who say that there is no God and the Bible is just a fairy tale, then what you are saying to the world is I believe in evolution and I don't understand math and probability and finally reason number seven on why we can trust the Bible. Brilliant quotes on God and the Bible. Here are some quotes on God from some of the greatest minds and scientists in the history of world. Here are two quotes from Albert Einstein. God created everything by number, weight and measure.

God is the author of the universe and the free established of the laws of motion. Abraham Lincoln said this about the Bible, the best gift God has given to man.

Sir Isaac Newton, who is widely regarded to have been the greatest scientist the world has ever produced. He said, both religion and science require a belief in God. For believers. God is the beginning, and for physicists he is at the end of all considerations. He also said. I have a fundamental belief in the Bible as the Word of God written by men who were inspired. I study the Bible. Daily George Washington said. It is impossible to rightly govern the world without God and the Bible.

Max Plan the noble prize- winning physicist considered to be the founder of quantum theory and one of the most important physicists of the 20 th century. He said. As we conquer peak after peak, we see in front of us regions full of interest and beauty, but we do not see our goal. We do not see the horizon in the distant tower, still higher peaks, which will yield to those who ascend them to wider prospects and deepen the feeling, the truth of which is emphasized by every advance in science, that great are the works of the Lord. Theoorrea Roosevelt said. It is necessary for the welfare of the nation that men's lives be based on the principles of the Bible. No man, educated or uneducated, can afford to be ignorant of the Bible.

Physicist and chemist Robert Boyle, who is considered to be the founder of modern chemistry, said. It may seem bizarre, but in my opinion, science offers a surer path to God than religion. Ronald Reagan said of the many influences that have shaped the United States into a distinctive nation and people, none may be said to be more fundamental and enduring than the Bible. Astronomer, physicist and founder of nasa's Goddard Institute of Space Studies. Robert Jasttro said. If you study science deep enough and long enough, it will force you to believe in God. Sir Joseph J. Thompson. Noble, prize-winning physicist and discoverer of the electron and the founder of atomic physics, said. The gift of mental power comes from God divine being, and if we concentrate our minds on that truth, we become in tune with this great power. Nicola Tesla, the inventor and scientist known for numerous inventions but best known for his contributions of the modern AC electrical system, he said. Science is incompetent to reason upon the creation of matter itself, out of nothing, we have reached the utmost limit of our thinking faculties when we have admitted that because matter cannot be eternal and self-existent, it must have been created. He also said. I have looked into most philosophical systems, and I have seen that none will work without God.

Joseph H. Taylor Jr. Who received the 1993 Noble Prize in Physics for his 1974 discovery of the first known binary pulsar. He said. The more I study science, the more I believe in God.

And here is one more quote by physicist and mathematician James Clerk Maxwell, who is credited with formulating classical electromagnetic theory and whose contributions to science are considered to be the same magnitude to those of Einstein and Newton. He said. For myself, faith begins with a realization that a supreme intelligence brought the universe into being and created man. It is not difficult for me to have this faith, for it is incontrovertible that where there is a plan, there is intelligence. An orderly unfolding universe testifies to the truth of the most majestic statement ever uttered in the beginning. God. So there you go a few quotes on God from some of the greatest minds and greatest scientists in the history of the world. So you can choose to believe what these brilliant men said. Or you can continue to be a Bible skeptic. It's up to you.

So there are seven reasons why we can trust the Bible. Let me finish this video by saying this, if you are already a Christian and trust the Bible. I hope these seven reasons will strengthen your belief even more. But if you are a Bible skeptic and don't trust the Bible. I would like to talk to you a second about faith. You have faith that when the trees are blowing outside, it's the wind, but you can't see the wind. You have faith that when you turn the light switch on in your house that the lights will come on, but you can't see the electricity. You have faith that when you go through a green light that the other drivers will stop at the red light. But you don't know for sure.

You have faith that the meat you buy at the grocery store won't make you sick when you eat it, but you don't know what they really do to prepare that meat. I could go on and on with 100 examples of things that you have faith in on a daily basis. Yet you lack faith in the Bible. I just gave you all kinds of evidence that you can see with your own eyes, fulfilled prophecy, archaeological evidence, historians that were not Christians, manuscript evidence, etc. Etc. These are all things that you can verify. Yet you still lack the faith to trust the Bible. I don't get it. What's your excuse? Please comment below and let me know so that I can try to understand. The only logical explanation I can come up with is that if these Bible skeptics choose to believe and trust in the Bible, then they would have rules to follow that have consequences, and people in today's world like to do whatever they want. And they don't want to have to answer to anybody, especially God.

So thank you very much for watching this video. Don't forget to subscribe to my channel. You can do so by clicking the link on the screen now and also share this video with your friends and family to help spread the truth of Jesus Christ. God Bless and I'll see you next time.