FreeTruth

I have said that Christianity has done much to advance scientific and creative endeavor throughout history. This is because biblically informed Christians see the world as God's world and therefore to be studied and celebrated in science, song, and art.

Since the world is God's world, it should not surprise us to know that when the world is studied in fine detail (the work of science) it reveals the existence and character of God. This too we have already stated. What has been left unstated to this point is this related reason for faith in the Bible as God's Word: Modern sciences, such as cosmology and archeology consistently validate the historical data of the Bible.

For a fascinating look at how cosmology (the study of the universe) supports biblical claims read the relevant sections of Norman Geisler's Why I Don't Have Enough Faith to Be an Atheist. It will show you how much faith it takes to deny the Bible's claims regarding the origins of history.

Regarding archeology, I'm going to let the following quote serve as a sample presentation of a few of the many facts that could be marshalled in defense of the Bible's historicity. I'm not sure who the author of the following is, but I've checked and verified the claims made:

-- Critics used to believe ...that Moses could not have written any of the books of the Bible because they believed that writing did not exist that early in history... but then ...in 1902, archaeologists discovered the Code of Hammurabi which was written long before Moses was born.

-- Critics used to believe ...the Bible was wrong because they felt that King David was a myth. They pointed to the fact that there was no archeological evidence that King David was an actual historical figure... but then ...in 1994 archaeologists discovered an ancient stone that was inscribed with the references to King David and the "House of David."

-- Critics used to believe ...that the Bible was wrong because there was no evidence (outside of the Bible) that a group of people called the Hittites ever existed. Thus, they felt this proved that the Bible is a mythical creation of ancient Hebrew writers... but then ...in 1906, a German archaeologist named Winckler was excavating in Turkey and discovered the capital city of the Hittite empire, the entire Hittite library and 10,000 clay tablets documenting the Hittite history. Scholars translated these writings and discovered that everything the Bible said about the Hittite empire was true.

-- Critics used to believe ...the book of Acts was not historically accurate. A man named Sir William Ramsay, one of the greatest historical/archaeological scholars in history, decided to try to disprove the Bible as the inspired Word of God by showing that the book of Acts was not historically accurate... but then ...after 30 years of archaeological research in the Middle East, Ramsay came to the conclusion that “Luke is a historian of the first rank; not merely are his statements of fact trustworthy... this author should be placed along with the very greatest historians.” He wrote a book on the trustworthiness of the Bible based on his discoveries and converted to Christianity based on his research. Sir Ramsay found no historical or geographical mistakes in the book of Acts. This is amazing when we realize that in the book of Acts, Luke mentions 32 countries, 54 cities, 9 Mediterranean islands and 95 people and he did not get one wrong. Compare that with the Encyclopedia Britannica. The first year the Encyclopedia Britannica was published it contained so many mistakes regarding places in the United States that it had to be recalled.

-- Critics used to believe ...that the Old Testament could not be reliable because they felt that over a long period of time the Old Testament writings would have been changed, altered, edited or corrupted... but then ...in 1947, the Dead Sea Scrolls were found. These scrolls contained, among other writings, every book in the Old Testament (except Esther). Until the Dead Sea Scrolls were found the earliest copy of the complete Old Testament was from 900 A.D. Scholars compared this copy with the Dead Sea Scrolls (produced around 1,000 years earlier) and found that the Old Testament had been handed down accurately through the centuries.

-- The great Jewish archaeologist, Nelson Glueck (who is known to be one of the top three archaeologists in history) said this... "No archaeological discovery has ever contradicted a single, properly understood Biblical statement."

To add one other concluding summary from an unlikely source (TIME Magazine) note this:

After more than two centuries of facing the heaviest scientific guns that could be brought to bear, the Bible has survived – and is perhaps the better for the siege. Even on the critics’ own terms – historical fact -- the Scriptures seem more acceptable now than they did when the rationalists began the attack. Noting one example among many, New Testament Scholar Bruce Metzger observes that the Book of Acts was once accused of historical errors for details that have since been proved by archaeologists and historians to be correct ("The Bible: The Believers Gain," Time, 30 Dec. 1974, 34).

Ladies and gentlemen: as the science of archeology continues its work the histroical reliability of the Bible becomes ever more sure. How did the ancient writers get it all right about people and places and events--many of which they were not even there to see, if not for a Divine mind who knows history (because He rules it) revealing it to them for them to record?

You decide.

Labels: Apologetics, archeology, Bible, The Word of God