Is the Bible for Real?
Do you believe the Bible? You owe it to yourself to prove it true. The Bible itself says “prove all things” (i Thes. 5:21). Otherwise you have a religion that has no basis except what “feels” right.
Or maybe you believe the Bible cannot be true. It’s just a group of writings from an ancient Jewish race trying to develop a clearer concept of their God. But before you write off the Bible as superstition, you need to prove this theory. Otherwise you are no better than those who “feel” and “just know” the Book has to be true.
Give Me Proof!
Is there proof that the Bible is the inspired, infallible Word of God? Some believe Jesus’s miracles were recorded to prove He was the Messiah. But the skeptics don’t believe those miracles happened. Some say answered prayer is solid proof of inspiration. But the skeptics have never had one prayer answered, and they don’t believe anyone else has.
But there is one irrefutable proof!
“The Bible itself purports to be the infallible, divine revelation of truth, revealed by the very Creator and divine Ruler of the entire universe. In your Bible, one is quoted, claiming that He is God, speaking in the first person, saying that He can make and unmake nations, that He can carry out His judgments over millennia of time, claiming that He can foretell infallibly the future of cities and empires, but that no man can” (Herbert W. Armstrong, The Proof of the Bible).
This Being says there is none like Him (Isa. 46:9-10; 45:21-23), taunting the skeptics to bring their case before Him and prove His non-existence! God wants to know if they can foretell the future centuries in advance and have the power to make it happen exactly as they predicted. Of course, no man has the power to do that. But this disputed literary work dares to claim such ability.
Have its predictions been right? If not, the skeptics have rightfully won this experiment, and we must write off the book as nothing more than a nice piece of literature. But if the Bible has been accurate in its predictions, we must know and be willing to accept above all human pride that there is something greater than human behind those words—an almighty and powerful Being with the ability to predict and make it happen! It means the words about how to live the way our Creator intended were, in fact, inspired and are to be heeded!
So let’s perform this experiment.
The Fate of Cities
New York City, over 300 years old, has grown into a city of millions. What if someone predicted that within 15 years, New York would be completely destroyed, never to be rebuilt again? Well, no man has the power to know if it will happen or not, and no one has the power to make it happen.
What about the one claiming to be God? Could God, if He exists, predict the fall of such a great city and make it happen?
Well, over 2,500 years ago, there was a great city, 1,500 years old, that was the commercial center of the world. No city was more beautiful, more stable, than ancient Tyre.
A man named Ezekiel wrote down what was claimed to be God’s Word: “And it came to pass in the eleventh year [585 b.c.], in the first day of the month, that the word of the Lord came unto me, saying ….Therefore thus saith the Lord God; Behold, I am against thee, O Tyrus, and will cause many nations to come up against thee, as the sea causeth his waves to come up. And they shall destroy the walls of Tyrus, and break down her towers: I will also scrape her dust from her, and make her like the top of a rock. It shall be a place for the spreading of nets in the midst of the sea: for I have spoken it, saith the Lord God: and it shall become a spoil to the nations. And her daughters which are in the field shall be slain by the sword; and they shall know that I am the Lord” (Ezek. 26:1, 3-6).
The one claiming to be God said that many nations would come against Tyre like the waves of the sea—one after the other, as opposed to all together. For 1,500 years, Tyre had survived countless attacks by its enemies. Was this just the imagination of an old Jewish prophet, to contrive such an incredulous prophecy as the fate of such an awesome city?
This prophecy came to pass just as God said it would! You can prove that.
But, the skeptic may say, how do you know the prophecy wasn’t written AFTER all this occurred? That is a valid question. But remember, the prophecy was not only concerning the specific destruction of Tyre, but also that Tyre was never to be rebuilt again! (v. 14). This is quite an authoritative statement from a human being, if that is all that was behind this. But God has seen to it that Tyre has remained, till this very day, “like the top of a rock”(v. 14), uninhabited and for the spreading of fishermen’s nets. The silenced city shouts the proof of God’s existence and the divine inspiration of His Word!
But the skeptics still have a chance! They could still disprove the Bible if they did one thing. Mr. Armstrong states in The Proof of the Bible, “Here is how you can disprove the Bible, and the very existence of God—if there is no God, and if the Bible is not inspired! Just go over and build a small city on the site of New Tyre. A collection of a dollar each from all of the American skeptics alone would be ample. Whoever inspired Ezekiel 26 dares the skeptics to try to do it. Now there is nothing to prevent them from building a city there on the site of New Tyre, except that the Bible they scoff at says they can’t!”
Compare this prophecy to that of a city 30 miles north of Tyre—Sidon. It is an older city. Originally, Tyre was merely one of Sidon’s colonies. While Tyre was gaining in greatness on the world scene, Sidon was declining. The Prophet Ezekiel wrote in 590 b.c. stating that Sidon would be wounded and attacked (Ezek. 28), but never destroyed. And Sidon, today, is populated by approximately 200,000.
Ask yourself! If this were not divinely inspired by a superior being able to understand and foresee events far into the future, then how could any man have known that until a.d. 2002 Sidon would continue to exist, amid many attacks, but that Tyre would be utterly destroyed and never again rebuilt?
The Fate of Nations
Many other prophecies prove the existence of God and His inspiration of the Holy Bible. The Prophet Daniel was inspired to write over 400 years of history before it happened (write for our free booklet History and Prophecy in the Middle East)—a time spanning well beyond his years and concerning the development of major players on the world scene. Could this have been the foresight of a human?
Another proof of the divine inspiration of the Bible is the identity of the United States and Britain in biblical prophecy. Abraham’s two great-great grandsons, Ephraim and Manasseh—known as Israel in biblical terminology—were to be “a nation and a company of nations”(Gen. 35:11; see also Gen. 48:19). And many prophecies for Israel have come to pass in the United States (a great nation) and Britain (a company of nations) today! Please write for a free copy of The United States and Britain in Prophecy for further proof on this subject. This compelling book unveils the identity of the U.S. and Britain in the Bible. It is the most riveting story ever told.
And for Our Day?
The Bible not only prophesies the future of great ancient cities and modern nations but dares to foretell what will happen in our time today! Matthew 24:22 talks about a time when human survival will be at stake—that “except those days should be shortened, there should no flesh be saved.” The Moffatt translation of the Bible reads “saved alive”—the end of humankind! Only since World War ii has the annihilation of the human race been possible. Man is now capable of self-destruction—several hundred times over! Could a man, centuries ago, just guess that such annihilation, such weaponry, would be possible? That it would lead to the greatest time of suffering on Earth? (v. 21; Dan. 12:1). Only God could foresee this. It will be at that time that God’s existence and His divine inspiration of the Bible will be proven to all those skeptics who refused to see the proof previously laid before them.
We don’t have to wait till God smacks the world over the head with a sledgehammer before we accept His existence and His Word in Scripture!
Yes, God does exist. And yes, He inspired every word in the Bible. Write for the free literature offered in this article for further proof. And then, as Christ said in Matthew 4:4, live “by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God.”
