How I Know the Bible is the Word of God

The Bible has many areas that are highly controversial and are subjected to heavy interpretation. This tends to lead skeptic to think that the Bible is unreliable.

The way to verify that the Bible is authored by God Himself is to look at prophesy. Some were fulfilled to the exact day, something that no man could predict.

There are many prophesies about the various Jewish captivities, the fall of Jerusalem, etc. that have been foretold by prophets such as Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel and others and then later fulfilled. These are easy to find and to verify through any archeological commentary. Nevertheless, I’ll give you three off the top of my head starting with the most important of any OT prophecy, the first coming of the Messiah.

In Daniel 9:25 we are told that from the time of the command to restore the walls of Jerusalem, to the arrival of Messiah, there would be 69 weeks of years (the Hebrews used the term “week” to refer to a 7 year period much like we use the term “decade” to refer to a 10 year period) and these Biblical years were 360 days in length.

The command was given March 14, 445 BC. Counting forward the required 173,880 days we arrive at April 6, 32 AD. The exact day that Jesus Christ entered Jerusalem on the day we call “Palm Sunday”.

It is important to realize that this is a very clear and very specific prophecy (not one of the more obscure or complex ones we can find here and there but one that is very straight forward). It is so clear that Jesus actually said that the city of Jerusalem would be destroyed because its people did not specifically acknowledge the prophecy. Because they disregarded it, His prediction was fulfilled in 69 AD. The Romans had their way with the symbol of the Jewish religion, Solomon’s temple, and at that moment, Israel was no more.

Now, if you are asking whether there is an independent record of the April 6, 32 arrival date, there is no need. All four gospels record the event and all four gospels were in circulation shortly after the crucifixion. Many of the early readers of the gospel accounts certainly would have been present during the events of the first Palm Sunday. It defies logic or reason to accept that FOUR false accounts of Jesus’ entry into Jerusalem with such supposed fanfare would have withstood the scrutiny of the many Jewish skeptics who were alive at the time.

The reality is, that everyone knew that Jesus came into town on the prophesied day. This is why there is no record of the Gospel accounts being challenged.

Furthermore, in all the ancient writings available to us, only Jesus Christ is recorded to have fulfilled the prophesy of Daniel 25:9. While there may have been others who might have thought to be pretenders to the fulfillment of that prophecy, only Jesus actually fulfilled it.

A couple of other amazing prophecies:

In chapter 4 of his book, Ezekiel predicted that the tribes of Israel would shortly be sent into servitude/captivity but also prophesied that Israel would rise again 907,200 days (2,520 Biblical years) after this “servitude of the nation” (which occurred on July 17th, 606 BC.) Counting forward 907,200 days we land on May 14, 1948, the day David Ben-Gurion announced on international radio, the name of his rebirthed country, “Israel”.

This prophesy references the servitude of the nation and then it’s rebirth. They are connected events both in time and in type. The period begins with the nation going into captivity and ends with it being reborn. Ezekiel predicted it exactly and I think there are plenty of independent sources to verify the date that modern day Israel came into being.

What is even more provocative is that the same prophesy by Ezekiel (Ezekiel 4:3-6) talks about the “desolation” of Jerusalem (which happened 19 years later in 587 B.C.) where they lost control of the city (going into Gentile hands) and then the subsequent recapture of Jerusalem 2,520 years later.

Would it be any surprise to learn then, that Jerusalem was recaptured by the Israelies from its Arab enemies exactly 19 years after Israel was birthed and exactly 907,200 days after the desolation of Jerusalem in 587 BC?

Probably just a coincidence.