"If the faith shall be destroyed in England, it will not be by open assailants, but by those who think that they defend it, while they themselves have lost it. So it was in Germany. Rationalism was the product, not of the attacks on the Gospel but of its weak defenders."
Jesus Christ Himself declared: "If they hear not Moses and the prophets, neither will they be persuaded, though one rose from the dead" (Luke 16:31).
"A close examination of the history of Christianity over the last 2,000 years reveals the greatest attacks that occurred during the first centuries following Christ came from the pagans outside the Church. However, during the last 150 years, the most effective enemies of the Cross arose from those false Christians who profess to follow Christ while denying the authority of the Bible and His identity as the Son of God."
INTRODUCTION:
Not one religious book outside of the Bible contains detailed predictions about future events. The Bible is written by 44 men over 16 centuries. The Greek word translated "inspired" literally means "God breathed" indicating the Lord's direct supervision of the writing by the biblical writer.
The accuracy of Bible Manuscripts:
Example: Out of 78,064 Hebrew letters in the Book of Genesis, there are precisely 4,152 *(certain Hebrew letter in book that I can't replicate here, ha) letters and 8,448 * letters. These sages were so precise in counting the exact number of letters in the Scriptures that they were able to pinpoint the middle verse of Genesis (Genesis 27:40). If an error was found, the mistaken copy was destroyed to prevent it ever being used as a master copy in the future. Despite separate transmissions and copying of their Torah manuscripts, a thousand years later only 9 Hebrew letters, out of 304, 805 letters in the Yemenite Torah manuscript, differ from the accepted Hebrew Masoretic text of the Torah. Not one of these 9 variant letters in the Yemenite Torah change the meaning of a significant word. This proves how incredibly careful, over a thousand year period, Jewish scribes were in copying their original Torah manuscripts.
Authority of the Old Testament Confirmed by Jesus Christ:
The Lord confirmed Moses was the writer of the first 5 books of the Law (Luke 24:27, John 5:46, 47).
He stated that Isaiah was the author of the Book of Isaiah (Matthew 13:14, citing Isaiah 6:9, 10).
He declared Daniel wrote the Book of Daniel (Matthew 24:15).
He spoke of Adam, Eve, and their son Abel as real personalities (Matthew 19:4,5; 23:35).
He confirmed the Bible narrative about Abraham (John 8:56-58).
He confirmed the accuracy of the Genesis account about creation (Mark 10:6-9) and the worldwide flood (Matthew 24:37-39).
The Early Date of the Writing of the New Testament:
It is acknowledged that the New Testament Gospels and Epistles were written and widely circulated throughout Christian communities of the Roman Empire within 40-50 years of the events they describe. Thousands of people who witnessed the events of Jesus Christ's life, teaching, death, and resurrection were still alive when the disciples composed and distributed the Gospels and Paul's Epistles to the various churches. Although the Christians were subject to terrifying tortures and martyrdom, we cannot find evidence of a single eyewitness to these Gospel events ever denying their truthfulness. When you consider that millions of these converts died horribly as martyrs rather than deny their Lord it stands to reason that they were convinced with all their mind, soul, and spirit that the Gospels spoke the truth about Jesus Christ as the Son of God.
Once the original Greek manuscript of the New Testament was translated into Hebrew, Syriac, Egyptian, Coptic, Latin, and other languages between A.D. 60-70, it would have been impossible to counterfeit text on the Christians. A counterfeit text alterations would be compared against the countless other widely available Greek manuscripts and translations. The love of the saints for the New Testament during the first centuries of the Church age assure us that they were vigilant in their defense and preservation of the integrity of the Scriptures.
Critics have suggested that such a dry desert area as Sinai couldn't have supported huge flocks of sheep of the Israelites as recorded in Exodus. In 1860, W.Holland explored most of the Sinai peninsula. Despite present desolate and dry condition of the barren land, he found that some areas would still support large flocks of sheep. If the temperature or level of rainfall was only slightly changed, the amount of available pasturage would've been much greater than today's conditions.
King Nebuchadnezzar's Inscription About the Tower of Babel:
Moses recorded God's subsequent judgment and destruction of the Tower of Babel and the city of Babylon. The remains of the Tower of Babel are vitrified (melted to form a kind of rough glass) which indicated that God used a huge amount of heat to destroy this tower that was erected at the dawn of time by men in their sinful pride to reach up to the heavens in defiance of God. Scientists who study the origin of languages have concluded that it is probable that the thousands of dialects and languages throughout the planet can be traced back to an original language in man's ancient past.
The French government sent Professor Oppert to report on the cuneiform inscriptions discovered in the ruins of Babylon. Oppert translated a long inscription by King Nebuchadnezzar in which the king referred to the tower in the Chaldean language as Barzippa, which means Tongue-tower. Also in this translation, the pagan king Nebuchadnezzar confirms details that "a former king built it, but he did not complete its head," confirming the truthfulness of the Genesis account that God stopped the original builders from completing the top of the Tower of Babel. The king's inscription also declares that, "Since a remote time, people had abandoned it, without order expressing their words." In other words, they lost the ability to control their language and communication.
Joseph and the Seven Years of Famine:
A rich tomb was found of a wealthy Yemenite woman who died during the time of the Egyptian famine recorded in Genesis 41. The tomb was discovered around 1850 after being exposed following a flood that uncovered the grave site. The woman's body was covered in beautiful jewels. Seven collars of pearls surrounded her neck; her hands and feet were covered with seven bracelets, armlets, rings, and ankle-rings displaying costly jewels. Her tomb also contained a coffer filled with rich treasure. The ancient inscription (ask for it if you want to read it please! It's in the book) reveals the woman's sincere complaint that she could not purchase Egypt's grain with her gold. It also reveals Joseph's determination to resist any appeal from a stranger offering gold in return for Egypt's precious grain reserves.
