Some Merry Musings...
One of the most compelling proofs for the divine inspiration of the 66 books of the Bible is that of their interconnectedness - and which is the festive focus of this post.
Although the Bible was written over a period of approximately 1,500 years and by around 40 contributors, the Bible self-affirms its credentials by stating in 2 Timothy 3:16 that ‘All Scripture is God-breathed’.
In essence it is saying that the Bible may have been penned by humans but each person was inspired by God as to what they wrote.
This is a bold statement to make but do we simply take it on trust or is there any evidence to support this claim? My answer to that would be yes and yes.
Yes, experientially - my spirit convinces me that the Bible is true and to be trusted. If the Holy Spirit can bear witness with my spirit that I am a child of God, surely he can give me a similar assurance that the Bible is indeed the word of God.
And yes because of the interconnected nature of the Bible. One such example of this is the prophecies regarding the life of Jesus. Even from a conservative perspective there are estimated to be at least 300 prophecies about Jesus which were fulfilled in his earthly ministry. It being the Christmas season we’re going to focus on those that relate specifically to his birth and his early life.
I’ve cherry-picked some Old Testament prophecies about Jesus and the record of their fulfilment in the New Testament. In all we have nine writers, at different times and in different locations, all coming together to bring a cohesive revelation concerning Jesus. Feel free to check the Bible references to confirm the veracity of what I'm saying.
*Micah 5:2 and Luke 2:1-7 reveal Bethlehem as the place of Jesus’ birth.
*Isaiah 7:14 and Matthew 1:18-22 agree on the truth that Jesus was born of a virgin.
*Isaiah 9:6, Luke 1:31-33, John 1:1-4, Romans 1:1-4 and Colossians 2:9 speak of Jesus’ divine authority.
*Psalm 72:10,11 and Matthew 2:1-12 record the visit of the Magi.
*Jeremiah 31:15, Hosea 11:1 and Matthew 2:13-18 tell us of the slaughter of the innocents and Jesus’ sojourn in Egypt.
Developing this theme about the interconnectedness of the Bible, in his book, ‘Science Speaks’, Professor Peter Stoner outlines the mathematical probability of one person in the first century fulfilling just eight of the most clear and straightforward Messianic prophecies.
The maths looks like this: 1 in 1017 (1 in 100,000,000,000,000,000). I’ll take his word for it!
I’ll leave you to work out the maths on 300 prophecies.
I don’t know about you but I find this kind of thing fascinating. On a personal level I need nothing to convince me that the Bible is true and to be trusted but such facts certainly add weight to this conviction.
Another interesting exercise in helping us trust in the Bible because of its interconnectedness is this amazing image.
It’s a visual representation of over 63,000 cross references found in the Bible. The bar graph at the bottom represents all the chapters. Each of the 63,779 cross references is depicted by an arc. (Find out more by clicking here).
Commenting on this amazing graphic, psychologist and author Jordan Peterson described the Bible as ‘the first hyperlinked book’.
This Christmas, as we re-read the familiar Bible passages that foretell of Jesus’ coming, may we be people who have complete confidence in the trustworthiness of the word of God.