by Terry Wane Benton<\/p>\n
Atheists laugh when a Christian uses the Bible to “prove” it is the word of God by appeal to the fact that the Bible claims to be the word of God. Of course, it is not just the fact that the Bible claims to be the word of God, but the internal and external evidence that backs up the claim. Those laughing start with an assumption that the Bible cannot prove itself. Their laughter is misguided. How do they know that the Bible cannot prove itself?<\/p>\n
Let’s start with the fact that the Jews still believe the Old Testament is inspired or God-breathed. Yet, these 39 books do not give them a glowing picture of their people. In fact, it calls them “stiff-necked” and stubborn. Why would they make up such a terrible story about themselves, even showing serious flaws in their great heroes of faith, while holding before them a promise of a Savior-Messiah? Could <\/b>they write this story? A bad story about themselves, and many prophecies of a coming Savior-Messiah? Would <\/b>they write the story this way?<\/p>\n
In looking at the evidence of the Bible itself, I find that the Jews wouldn’t <\/b>write the Old Testament this way if it was totally in their control to do as they wished, and with all the types, shadows, and prophesies of Jesus, they couldn’t <\/b>write such amazing interconnected stories, genealogies, with types and shadows and prophecies and see that they were fulfilled in one that would be a “stone that the builders rejected<\/strong><\/em>” (Psalm 118:22; Acts 4:10). They would not write about their own rejection of the Messiah, and they could not get right the lineage, place of birth, and other details that fit only Jesus.<\/p>\n So, yes, Jesus gets the last “laugh” (Psalm 2). The Bible not only makes the claim of being God’s word, but it proves itself to be the product of superhuman wisdom that can predict and see to the fulfillment while using “stubborn” and “stiff-necked” people in the process. Being dismissive of the Bible without really investigating the claims and inherent proof will prove to be the ultimate embarrassment of each person of that mindset. Don’t be dismissive! Search the Scriptures to see what is so (Acts 17:11).<\/p>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" by Terry Wane Benton Atheists laugh when a Christian uses the Bible to “prove” it is the word of God by appeal to the fact that the Bible claims to be the word of God. Of course, it is not just the fact that the Bible claims to be the word of God, but the…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[37,219],"class_list":["post-33419","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-article","tag-apologetics","tag-bible"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":40441,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/on-using-the-bible-to-prove-the-bible\/","url_meta":{"origin":33419,"position":0},"title":"On Using the Bible to Prove the Bible","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"September 30, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"by Doy Moyer via\u00a0Mind Your Faith The charge is sometimes made against biblical apologists that they just use the Bible to prove the Bible. The implication, of course, is that this is circular reasoning and, therefore, erroneous. They want other sources outside the Bible that verify it, not the Bible\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":38161,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/how-do-i-prove-that-jesus-exists-and-the-bible-is-true\/","url_meta":{"origin":33419,"position":1},"title":"How do I prove that Jesus exists and the Bible is true?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"March 28, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: How do I prove to an atheist that Jesus exists and that every word in the Bible is true? He believes in \"om\" and the energy runs the world. That life is made of energy. Answer: This person is not an atheist. An atheist does not believe in any\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":62827,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/is-it-circular-reasoning-to-use-the-bible-to-prove-god-gave-it\/","url_meta":{"origin":33419,"position":2},"title":"Is It Circular Reasoning to Use the Bible to Prove God Gave It?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"September 20, 2023","format":false,"excerpt":"\u00a0by Terry Wane Benton No! It might be circular if it was all written at one time. But we can demonstrate that the Old Testament was completed long before Jesus came. Therefore we get to consider the prophecies and how Jesus fulfilled them. The New Testament is eyewitness testimony of\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":81327,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/can-inspiration-of-the-bible-be-proven\/","url_meta":{"origin":33419,"position":3},"title":"Can inspiration of the Bible be proven?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"December 8, 2024","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: I know II Timothy 3:16: \"All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness.\" I had a discussion with a person who is not a member of the Church of Christ and, therefore, not a Christian. I\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":49663,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/all-the-bible-doesnt-prove-anything-if-it-did-how-could-we-walk-by-faith\/","url_meta":{"origin":33419,"position":4},"title":"All the Bible doesn’t prove anything. If it did, how could we walk by faith?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"December 29, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: All the Bible doesn't prove anything. If it did, how could we walk by faith? Answer: It appears that you think faith is unreasoning and based on nothing. But you cannot have faith without knowledge of the Bible. \"So then faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":7235,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/do-historical-facts-make-the-bible-true\/","url_meta":{"origin":33419,"position":5},"title":"Do historical facts make the Bible true?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"August 9, 2019","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Brother, How would I handle the difference between the inspired text that makes claims and a comic book that someone can use to make claims? I was told this: \u201cFor instance, I can claim the existence of Spider-Man because he is from Queens, NY, and that is a real\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33419","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=33419"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33419\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=33419"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=33419"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=33419"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}