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By Hank Walker | Pastor at Peach City Fellowship

Recently, I was encouraged to write “an” article addressing the unique features that set the Bible apart from all other religious texts. Given the breadth of this subject, however, I see no way to address the question in a single article. Scholars have written whole volumes on this subject, so although I hope to provide a meaningful summary, suffice it to say that what I write over the next several weeks will not be exhaustive.

To kick this series off, I will address the subject of the Bible’s AUTHENTICITY—meaning that the Bible is what it claims to be: a “God-breathed” (2 Timothy 3:16) self-revelatory message from God.

Arguments for biblical authenticity tend to follow two lines of evidence: (1) INTERNAL evidence, and (2) EXTERNAL evidence. Today’s article considers internal evidence, while next week’s article will examine external sources. After that, we will examine the Bible’s divine Authority, its remarkable Accuracy, and its Reliability for knowledge about God, man, sin, salvation, the church, and eternity.

Internally, the “Argument of Consistency” provides compelling evidence for biblical authenticity. Averaging over 1,500 pages, the Bible is comprised of 66 different but interrelated books. Taking nearly 1600 years, it was written by 40 different men of vastly different backgrounds and stations in life (kings, prophets, priests, poets, fishermen, shepherds, scholars, a tax collector, a physician, and a military general). It was penned on three different continents (Africa, Asia, Europe), in three different languages (Hebrew, Aramaic, Greek), under six very different world powers and dominant cultures (Egyptian, Assyrian, Babylonian, Medo-Persian, Greek, Roman). Representing multiple genres (law, poetry, historical narrative, practical proverbs, prayers, prophecies, theological treatises, and ecclesiological instruction), the Bible exhibits nothing less than a miraculous degree of internal agreement and theological coherence.

63,779 direct cross-references https://www.chrisharrison.net/index.php/Visualizations/BibleViz have been identified in the Bible. No other book in the history of the world—ancient or modern—even comes close to this degree of internal consistency. What, after all, might be the astronomical odds that a “merely human” document could spring into existence with all these disparate people, locations, centuries, circumstances, and cultures—while having no contradictions in its facts, assertions, or instruction?

By the time we conclude these articles, I hope that readers will have a newfound appreciation for and confidence in the Scriptures with which God has graced us.

Grace and peace, y’all. Soli Deo Gloria