Have Confidence In Your Bible 6

"Your word is truth."

John 17:17

The Bible contains a lot of history: history that spans a very long period. There are names of places that existed long ago. There are names of people, many of them world-famous in their day. There are accounts of events that affected not only Israel but also its neighbours. Much of that history has been verified by archaeological evidence. Even from as far back as the times of the patriarchs Abraham, Isaac, Jacob and Joseph, there are inscriptions confirming that customs and practices described in the Bible were indeed typical of the time.

This is not the place to list examples but there are many. There is a vast amount of archaeological evidence that corroborates the biblical records and even secular scholars agree that there is not a single incontrovertible archaeological fact that disproves anything written in the Bible.

There have been many attempts to disprove the Bible and, from time to time, findings have surfaced that appear to contradict it, but time has revealed further evidence to show those findings wrong. For example, Luke 3:1 states that Lysanias was the tetrarch of Abilene in about 27AD. For years scholars said it was common knowledge that Lysanias was not a tetrarch but had been ruler of Chalcis about 50 years earlier. In 1912 an inscription from the time of Tiberius was found naming Lysanias as the tetrarch in Abila near Damascus at the time Luke said he was: there had been two people named Lysanias, and Luke was right. Critics doubted that Nazareth in Galilee ever existed until archaeologists found a first-century synagogue inscription at Caesarea proving its existence.

The Bible has to be recognised as an accurate historical document and as such no other document compares to it in both its accuracy and the period it covers. Yet more evidence that you can have confidence in your Bible.

Adapted from Evidence That Demands A Verdict by Josh McDowell. Available to purchase at ICM Books.