If you ever doubted the power of the Bible, then this article is for you. How can we be certain that Bible is accurate and certain in the form that we have? How can we really be certain that it is a representation of what God wanted us to have? People have a hard time in this age of enlightenment, accepting that a book written thousands of years ago could be a perfect guide for us today, especially if we begin to claim that it is absolute truth and that it is God’s Word. Lot of people ask the question- How did we get this Bible, these sixty-six books in our hands?

Daniel Easo

The books of the old testament were written over the course of around 1500 years, starting with the time of Moses back in 2000 B.C. and ending around the time of Malachi or Nehemiah around 400-500 B.C. By the time of Jesus, the 39 books of the Old Testament, were widely accepted by Jews everywhere, that they were inspired by God. Jesus quoted from them, the Apostles did as well and early Jewish and Christian writers from 1st century A.D., were all say that the same 39 books that we hold as Scripture, were accepted commonly at that time as Scripture. And from then on, the books of the old testament were collected, and they were kind of distributed in that grouping of 39. They didn’t have printing press and it wasn’t like what we have now but those 39 books that’s what they look to for the Old Testament. New Testament, like the Old Testament, took some time after it’s actual writing to be compiled into the New Testament. The books of the New Testament were written between 50 A.D. and 95 A.D., and from the time of their writing they were seen as authoritative for Christians. For example, the churches who received the letters of Paul, obeyed them as God’s will for them. In the book of second Peter, the apostle Peter calls Paul’s writings, Scripture, and puts them on par with the writings of the prophets back in the old testament. Many early church leaders and historians wrote lists of the accepted authoritative books which validate our new testament. 27 New Testament Books found their way into our Bible. New Testament books were written by either one of the Apostles or a close friend of an Apostle. Those books clearly tell us that the only way to salvation is through Jesus Christ.

So, there comes a point where we have to trust, that centuries ago God had this figured out, that God unfolded His plan to make His message available to people by inspiring fallible men to communicate this divine book, in which every word is inspired by God. God has always enjoyed using ordinary people in supernatural ways to do extraordinary things.

The powerful Word of God teaches us about the faith. That’s how we learned about the faith. “So, then faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.” (Romans 10:17). The Bible teaches us the Gospel. The Gospel in a nutshell is the death, the burial and the resurrection of Jesus Christ. We learned through God’s Word about the master plan of redemption. The Old Testament describes the coming Messiah and underscores our need for Him. New testament teaches us about the Life of Christ, His death, His burial, His resurrection, His ascension and it challenges us everyday to live for Him. Bible assures us that God made certain that we would be able to know His will for our lives and He did so by inspiring it to be written.

The powerful Word of God shows us Jesus. We see Jesus in the gospels, in God’s Word, and we learned how to live. Bible leads us to holiness. That’s why Jesus says, in John 17:17, “Sanctify them by the truth; your word is truth.”
The powerful Word of God enables us to overcome temptation. There is an account in Mathew 4:1-11, where Jesus has fasted for 40 days, He has not had anything to eat, He is physically weak, and Satan comes to Him and tempts Him 3 different times. Every time when He was tempted by Satan, Jesus Christ answer Him with the same first 3 words, “It is written”. That’s what He says. When He is tempted He refers to Scripture. Why? Because He knows that He is strengthen by Scriptures. He knows that it will helps Him overcome temptation. Psalms 119:11, says, “I have hidden your word in my heart that I might not sin against you.” 1 Corinthians 10:13, “No temptation has overtaken you except what is common to mankind. And God is faithful; he will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear. But when you are tempted, he will also provide a way out so that you can endure it.”

The powerful Word of God comforts us through challenges. The Bible says ‘when’ trials come, it doesn’t say, ‘if’ they come. So, we expect them, and the Bible becomes the safe place to reassurance for us when we face challenges. You can test it in times of doubt, you can quote it in times of difficulty, you can grip it in times of trial, you can trust it in seasons of uncertainty.

The powerful Word of God reveals Gods love for us. God went to a great length to communicate His love for us through this book. God wrote a love letter to you, it’s His Word. “See what great love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are…!” (1 John 3:1).

God went to extreme measures to make certain that you had access to the Scriptures, so that you would know of His love. Back then it was written on animal skins with crude primitive writing instruments and yet we have more manuscript evidence for the Bible than for any other literary work. For instance, we have several documents about Alexander the Great but our earliest biographies of him were written some 400 years after Alexander the Great lived. And yet, no one has any questions about his existence, no one questions the authenticity of those writings. Having several documents 400 years old about Alexander the Great, contrast that to the New Testament where the biographies or Gospel of Jesus were written within 60 years after Christ’s ascension. It’s like God is daring people to check out all the evidence. Did you know this, there are over 20,000 copies of New Testament manuscripts that are in existence today, with some dating back to less than 100 years after Christ’s life. God invites the scrutiny.

You can trust the Bible, Jesus did and so can you. Because this is a powerful book, the author is a powerful God. And He made certain that you would be able to read it and know it. Most Christians don’t really wrestle over whether this book is God’s Word, they wrestle in two other areas, one they fail to read it, and two if they do read it they fail to obey what it says. If we learn to accept that our Heavenly Father knows best and then He wrote us this love letter and we just live by it, it will radically transform our lives. Why did God write the Bible? Let’s wrap up with that, why did God write it? John 20:30-31 answers that question, “Jesus performed many other signs in the presence of his disciples, which are not recorded in this book. But these are written that you may believe that Jesus is Messiah, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name.” May we never forget that the Bible is not addressed to Whom It May Concern but it was written specifically for you and for me.