A student recently conducted an experiment. Standing in front of a store, he asked people to sign a petition to outlaw a potentially deadly substance. In excessive amounts this substance inhibits respiration, ruins crops and destroys property, among other things. He called the substance "dihydrogen oxide." A substantial number of adults signed the petition. Finally, somebody recognized the "potentially deadly" substance as water.
If you ask certain questions and speak with certain people, while avoiding evidence contrary to your hypothesis, you can produce any result - regardless of the facts.
But the facts are this: Put the Bible and its claims about Jesus up to the same tests to which any ancient document is subjected, and you will find that the Bible is 100 percent historically, scientifically, and theologically inerrant. What are these tests?
First there's the bibliographical test. The Bible has far more ancient manuscripts to authenticate it than any other piece of ancient literature.
Second, there's the internal evidence test. Again, the Bible is found to be entirely consistent and unified within itself.
Finally, there's the external evidence test. Once again, the truthfulness of the Bible is supported by a mountain of archeological evidence, centuries of fulfilled prophecy and a multitude of ancient historians and other secular sources.
This objective evidence doesn't even include the countless lives that have been changed by the Bible's eternal truth. Those who object to the authority of the Bible usually don't have an intellectual problem, but a moral one. They seek to deny its authority by undermining its credibility.
There have been countless attempts over the past 2,000 years to discredit Jesus and the Bible, but the cause of Christ has continued to thrive.
"Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed" (John 20:29).
Taken from Adrian Rogers' weekly newspaper column. Used by permission. 2001, The Commercial Appeal.
