The Historical Accuracy of the Bible Revealed

May 20, 2011| Legion of Skills
Historical Accuracy of the Bible

Historical Accuracy of the Bible Revealed

Historical Accuracy of the BibleHistorical Accuracy of the Bible Revealed – To be divinely inspired, a book must be historically accurate.  For if its credibility cannot be established on the basis of known events, it certainly cannot be relied upon as an adequate guide in matters beyond our ability to check.  On the other hand, if we can demonstrate that such a book is correct in historical matters, to an extent unknown among human writings, then we have strong evidence that the authors were inspired by God.  In this lesson we shall learn that this is true of the Bible.

The Bible is it’s own best defense – John McArthur

Down through the centuries, enemies of the Bible have attacked its historical accuracy.  Time after time, the Scriptures have been thus questioned, only later to be shown correct by archaeology.  Archaeology is a study of relics, monuments, tombs, artifacts, etc., of ancient civilizations.  Peoples and events, known before only in Biblical accounts, have been brought to light by the excavations of ancient cities. Always, the Bible has been proven right.  Let us consider a few of the cases of such findings:



 

Historical Accuracy of the BibleGrapes In Egypt

In Genesis 40 we are told how Joseph interpreted the dream of Pharaoh’s butler.  In this dream grapes are mentioned.  But the ancient historian, Herodotus, states that the Egyptians grew no grapes and drank no wine, and many therefore questioned the accuracy of the Biblical account.  However, paintings discovered on the ancient Egyptian tombs, show the dressing, pruning, and cultivating of the vines, and also the process of extracting the juice of grapes, as well as scenes of drunkenness. There can be little doubt then that Herodotus was wrong and the Bible right.

 

Historical Accuracy of the BibleThe Bricks Of Pithom

In Exodus 1:11, we are told that the children of Israel built the treasure cities of Pithom and Raamses for Pharaoh.  In Exodus 5, we are informed that they made bricks first using straw, and then using stubble, because no straw was furnished them for that purpose.  In 1883, Naville, and in 1908, Kyle, found at Pithom, one of the cities built by Israel, that the lower courses were built of bricks filled with good, chopped straw.  The middle courses have less straw including stubble.  The upper courses were made of pure clay, with no straw whatever.  It is difficult to read the Biblical account and not be astonished at the amazing confirmation which archaeology here has given to the Bible.

 

Historical Accuracy of the BibleThe Hittites

Forty-eight times in the Scriptures, a people called the Hittites are mentioned.  We find them blocking Israel’s path as it sought to enter the promised land.  We read of Uriah, the Hittite, whom David sent to his untimely death. However, in all the records of antiquity, not a reference to those people was to be found, and therefore, the skeptics attributed them to the imagination and fiction.  In 1876, George Smith, began a study of monuments at a place called Djerabis in Asia Minor.  This city proved out to be old Carchemish, a capital of the ancient Hatti.  We now know that the Hatti were the Hittites of the Bible, who, according to Prof. A.H. Sayce, “contended on equal terms with both Egypt and Assyria.”  The Hittites not only proved to be a real people, but their empire was shown to be one of the great ones of ancient times.

 

Sargon

In Isaiah 20:1, we read, “In the year that Tartan came unto Ashdod, (when Sargon the king of Assyria sent him)…” This is the only mention of King Sargon in the Bible, and the only one in ancient literature.  His place in history was severely questioned on this account.  But in the years, 1842-1845, P.E. Botta, uncovered the tremendous royal palace of Sargon.  Among the other things discovered was an account of the siege of Ashdod mentioned in Isaiah.  Once more the Bible was right, the critics wrong.

 

The Flood

Genesis 7 and 8 tell us of the destruction of the world by a great flood.  To many, the story of the flood is actually a recording of ancient myths.  However, we have much evidence outside the Bible to show that the flood was a reality and that the Bible is true.  Notice the flood traditions of ancient peoples.  One scholar lists 88 different traditional accounts.  Almost all of these agree that there was a universal destruction of the human race and all living creatures by a flood.  Almost all agree that an ark or a boat was the means of escape.  Almost all are in accord in saying that a seed of mankind was left to perpetuate the race.  Many add that wickedness of man brought about the flood.  Some even mention Noe.  Several speak of the dove and the raven, and some discuss a sacrifice offered by those who were saved.  To anyone familiar with the Biblical account, the similarity is astounding.  The universality of this tradition is such as to establish that the Biblical flood was not a figment of someone’s imagination.

In 1872, George Smith, discovered the now famous Babylonian flood tablets.  In these, a certain person was told to build an ark or ship and to take into it seed of all creatures. He was given the exact measurements and was instructed to use pitch in sealing it.  He took his family into the boat with food.  There was a terrible storm which lasted six days.  They landed on Mt. Nazir.  He sent out a dove.  It came back.  He sent out a swallow.  It came back.  He sent out a raven and it flew back and forth over the earth.  When these people were safely out of the boat, they offered sacrifice to the gods.  The account differs from the Bible in some particulars, but is so much in agreement with the Scriptures as to make one wonder how the historical nature of the flood could be questioned.

Furthermore, archaeology has found positive evidence of a great flood in some ancient cities.  At Susa, a solid deposit of earth five feet thick was found between two distinct civilizations.  The nature of the deposit establishes beyond doubt that Susa was completely destroyed by a flood which was not merely local.  At Ur, the ancient home of Abraham, a similar deposit of water laid clay eight feet thick was found.  This deposit clearly shows that Ur was destroyed by a flood of such proportions that is must have been a vast flood such as the one of the Bible.  Further evidence could be presented, but this should be sufficient to demonstrate that the Biblical flood was a reality.

Fossil Evidence for The Flood
The fossils in the fossil records show a vast amount of sediment encasement which was laid down by water. The fossil records are evidence of how rapidly humans, animals and plants were destroyed by the world wide flood, not evidence of slow change. With the mass amount of fossils found all over the world, there is not a single example of a continuous fossil sequence showing progressive stages of evolution. Why Believe in Genesis – Part 2

 

Jericho

Joshua 6, tells how Israel conquered the walled city of Jericho. For six day they marched once around the city.  On the seventh day they went around it seven times. The priests blew their trumpets, the people shouted, and when they did, “The wall fell down flat” (Joshua 6:20). The people then rushed strait way into the city and burned it.  They took none of it to themselves.  They saved Rahab who lived in a house upon the wall and who had helped them previously.

Starting in 1929, Dr. John Garstang, excavated the ruins of ancient Jericho.  His discoveries corresponded remarkably with the Biblical account.  Jericho, he found, had a double wall, with houses built across the two walls.  This explains how Rahab’s house could have been built upon a wall.  He learned that the wall was destroyed by some kind of violent convulsion such as that described in the Bible, and that when the wall feel that it fell outward, down the hillside, or as the Bible says, it fell down flat.  Had the wall been destroyed by the battering rams of an enemy army, the walls would have fallen inward instead of outward. Furthermore, the city had been burned.  Once again, the spade of archaeology has established the accuracy of the Bible.

 

Sergius Paulus, The Proconsul

In Acts 13:7, mention is made of Sergius Paulus, the proconsul of Cyprus.  For a long time, skeptics contended that Luke should have called him propraetor instead of proconsul since this was the usual title. However, coins discovered on Cyprus, have positively established that the governors of Cyprus  were proconsuls.  One such coin found at Soli on Cyprus bears the inscription, “Paulus the Proconsul”, very possibly referring to the very man mentioned in Acts.

 

Confirmation By Non-Biblical Writers

Some Biblical accounts have been substantiated by non-Biblical writers. For example: the Jewish historian Josephus has said many things concerning facts in the Bible.  For example: in Matthew 14:3,4, we are told that Herod put John the Baptist to death for the sake of Herodias, his brother  Philip’s wife, because John had informed Herod that it wasn’t lawful for him to have her as his wife.  Josephus tells us why it was unlawful.  Herodias had originally been married to Herod’s brother, Philip. But she divorced Philip and married Herod.  this unlawful marriage was the occasion of John’s rebuke.  The account of Josephus and the Bible are in perfect accord.

 

Apparent Inconsistencies

Apparent inconsistencies fade away whenever the Bible is studied with an open mind. An example is found in regard to the ruling family of Palestine In Matthew 2:1, we read of “Herod the King” who was reigning when Jesus was born. Matt. 2:19 records his death.  Yet in Acts 12:12, we read once more of “Herod the King” putting James to death.  How could he do this if he were already dead?  Does the Bible contradict itself?  Josephus, an unbeliever in Christ, explains the difficulty by showing that Herod of Acts 12, was actually the grandson of the Herod mentioned in Matthew 2. The Bible agrees perfectly with the facts.

Again, Luke 2:1, mentions “Caesar Augustus” as the ruling monarch of the Roman Empire.  In Luke 3:1, we are told that John the Baptist began his ministry in the fifteenth year of the reign of Tiberius Caesar. This shows that Augustus was no longer on the throne.  Still later in Acts 25:21, we find Paul appealing his arrest to Augustus.  A superficial reading might lead us to suppose that the Bible contradicts itself.  But on close examination, with other known facts, we find that the emperor at that time was Nero, whose full name was Caesar Augustus Nero.  Luke, the author of both books in question, does not explain this because the first century readers were familiar with the fact that there were two different men named Augustus.

The attacks upon the credibility of the Bible have served to make stronger, not weaker, the conviction of every lover of the true Word of God.

[ilink url=”http://lavistachurchofchrist.org/LVarticles/HistoricalAccuracyOfTheBible.htm”]The Historical Accuracy of the Bible by Jim Sasser[/ilink]

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90 thoughts on “The Historical Accuracy of the Bible Revealed”

  1. Lujack Skylark

    Modern writers are rewriting history blotting Biblical Israel’s ancient history out of modern textbooks. This research shows Israel history linked to five other ancient nations. Pass around the research. E-mail me! Have a great day!
    -Lujack Skylark

    Historical connections are solidly made when we correlate Assyrian, Babylonian, Biblical, Cushite,Egyptian and Elamite cross references together showing where Israel’s history coincides with five other ancient nations.

    The people who love Israel, those who like ancient history or some who are curious could find this history interesting.

    The three key years are: 711 B.C., 653 B.C. and 586 B.C. These three dates help lock in the chronological order in this research as we close the gaps in this time period.

    The year 711 B.C. is the actual year Assyrian king Sennacherib attacked Jerusalem in his first year as we shall witness. His reign did not start in 705 B.C. Babylon’s king Merodach-Baladan wrote Israel’s king Hezekiah letters in 711 B.C. Cushite/Ethiopian king Tirhakah soldiers marched against Assyrian king Sennacherib and the Lord destroyed 185,000 Assyrian soldiers outside Jerusalem. Elamite king Shutruk-Nahhunte tried to secure Merodach-Baladan on Babylon’s throne but he failed. Merodach-Baladan who had fled Assyrian king Sargon II in his later years now reigns 711-709 B.C. flees for a second time to Elam.

    The year 653 B.C. The Assyrian king Ashur-Banipal destroys his brother king of Babylon Shamash-Shum-Ukin’s army. Elamite king Tammaritu II who joined Shamash-Shum-Ukin’s rebellion is also defeated. Egyptian king Psamtik I’s southern border with Cush is quiet since Cushite king Tanutamun died in 656 B.C. so Psamtik I in 653 B.C. declares independence from Assyria. The Assyrian king Ashur-Banipal sends no soldiers to fight Psamtik I. Egypt has won its freedom.

    The year 586 B.C. is when Babylon’s king Nebuchadnezzer army storms Jerusalem and the Jews are now escorted to Babylon where they will remain until Cyrus the Persian wins victory over the Babylonians.

    Assyrian kings: Tiglath-Pilesar III 753-735 B.C. Shalmaneser V 734-729 B.C. Sargon II 728-712 B.C. Sennacherib 711-688 B.C. Esarhaddon 687-676 B.C. Ashur-Banipal 675-633 B.C. Ashur-Etil-ilani 632-629 B.C. & his brother Sin-Shum-Ishkun fight against general Sin-Shum-Lishir in a bloody civil war. Ashur-Eitil-ilani is slain by his brother Sin-Shum-Ishkun only having one year of peace 628-627 B.C. Sin-Shum-Ishkun then reigns over Assyria 626-612 B.C. Ashur-Uballit II 611-605 B.C.

    (Sennacherib’s reign actually began in Judah’s king Hezekiah’s 14th year 711 B.C. Jerusalem was his first priority. Merodach-Baladan wrote Hezekiah letters (Isaiah 39:1) hoping the Hebrews might form a military alliance with him some historians believe to fight the Assyrians. From Sennacherib’s reign backwards and forward Assyrian chronology is formulated.)

    Babylonian kings: Merodach-Baladan 728-716 B.C. Sargon has control over Babylon 716-712 B.C. Merodach-Baladan fights Assyrian king Sennacherib 711-709 B.C. The Assyrians win victory and Sennacherib appoints Bel-Ibni to govern north Babylon 709-706 B.C. Ashur-Nadin-Shum 706-700 B.C. Sennacherib’s son taken prisoner by Elamite king Hallutush-Inshushinak 707-700 B.C. who appoints Nergal-Ushezib as Babylonian king in 700 B.C. Nergal-Ushezib is taken captive by the Assyrians.Babylonian king Mushezib-Marduk 700-695 B.C. unites forces with Elamite king Humban-Nimena 700-694B.C. against Assyrian king Sennacherib who destroys their army, yet the Babylonian chronicles state Humban-Nimena won the war stating Humban-Nimena died a natural death. Sennacherib completely destroys Babylon 695-687 B.C. Its inhabitants return when the city is rebuilt. Esarhaddon reigns over both Assyria and Babylon 687-675 B.C. Esarhaddon rebuilds Babylon. Shamash-Shum-Ukin 675-653 B.C. Kandalanu 653-632 B.C. Sin-Shum-Ishkun 632-626 B.C. has control over Babylon. Came to power in Assyria in 626 B.C. Loses Babylon to Nabopolassar in 626 B.C. Nabopolassar 626-605 B.C. reigns over Babylon. Nebuchadnezzer 605-562 B.C. reigns over Babylon.

    Biblical Judean kings: Ahaz 741-725 B.C.(2 Kings 16:2) Hezekiah 725-696 B.C. (2 Kings 18:2) Manasseh 696-641 B.C. (2 Kings 21:1) Amon 641-639 B.C. (2 Kings 21:19) Josiah 639-608 B.C. (2 Kings 22:1) Jehoahaz 608 B.C. (2 Kings 23:31) Jehoiakim 608-597 B.C. (2 Kings 23:36) Jehoichin 597 B.C. (2 Kings 24:8) Zedekiah 597-586 B.C. (2 Kings 24:18) Israel kings: Pekah 758-738 B.C. (2 Kings 15:27) Hoshea 738-729 B.C.

    Cushite kings: Piankhi 759-728 B.C. Shabaka 728-714 B.C. Shebitku 714-698 B.C. reigns over Egypt. Tirhakah 714-698 B.C. reigns over Ethiopia. (2 Kings 19:9) Tirhakah reigns over both Ethiopia and Egypt 698-672 B.C. Egyptian king Necho I 672-664 B.C. slain by Tanutamun who flees when the Assyrians invade Egypt, he resides in Ethiopia reigning there 664-656 B.C.

    Egyptian kings: Necho I 672-664 B.C. Psamtik I 664-610 B.C. Necho II 610-595 B.C. Psamtik II 595-589 B.C. Apries (Hophra) 589-570 B.C.

    Elamite kings: Humban-Nikash 750-725 B.C. Shutruk-Nahhunte II 725-707 B.C. Hallutush-Inshushinak 707-700 B.C. Kudur-Nahunte 700 B.C. Humban-Nimena 700-694 B.C. Humban-Haltash I 694-687 B.C. Humban-Haltash II 687-681 B.C. Urtaki 681-669 B.C. Tempt-Humban-Inshushinak 669-659 B.C. Elamite king Ummanigash 659-657 B.C. set upon the Elamite throne by Assyrian king Ashur-Banipal betrayed the Assyrian leader.Ummanigash is dethroned by Elamite king Tammaritu I 657-654 B.C. of Hidalu. Tammaritu I also becomes anti-Assyrian. He prepares to go to war against Ashur-banipal and prince Indabibi 655-654 B.C. defeats Tammaritu I’s army before it reaches the Assyrians. Elamite king Tammaritu II 654-653 B.C. slays Indabibi and rebels against the Assyrians and he is captured. Humban-Haltash III 653-649 B.C. Egyptian king Psamtik I in 653 B.C. declares independence from Assyria. Egypt is free from Assyrian rule. The Assyrians completely destroy Elam in Humban-Haltash’s III reign in 649 B.C.

    Cushite king Piankhi 759-728 B.C. 21st year invades Egypt in 738 B.C. at the same time Israel’s king Hoshea in 738 B.C. assassinated Pekah. (2 Kings 15:30) Judah’s king Ahaz 741-725 B.C. had joined a military alliance with Assyrian king Tiglath-Pileser III in 740 B.C. (2 Kings 16:7) Assyrian historians recorded Tiglath-Pileser III 753-735 B.C. had witnessed Hoshea 738-729 B.C. becoming the Israel king. Assyrian king Shalmaneser V 734-729 B.C. then came up against Hoshea. (2 Kings 17:3-4) Cushite king Piankhi controlled Egypt and Osorkon IV (So) 740-725 B.C. was his vassal reigning in Egypt’s delta. Hoshea wanted So to help him wage a war against Shalmaneser V. (2 Kings 17:3-4) Hoshea’s plot is discovered and the Assyrians put an end to Hoshea’s kingdom as most of the population is carried off to Assyria. Judah’s king Hezekiah 725-696 B.C. invites those who escaped out of Assyria’s hands to turn to the Lord. (2 Chronicles 30:6) Osorkon IV later brings Sargon II 728-712 B.C. horses as tribute.

    Assyrian king Sargon II 728-712 B.C. goes to war against Elamite king Humban-Nikash 750-725 B.C. and Babylon’s king Merodach-Baladan at Der in 727 B.C. The Elamites and Babylonians win victory. Sargon II then wars against the Egyptians and Ethiopians lead by Egyptian Cushite king Shabaka 728-714 B.C. Sargon II wins victory against Shabaka in 726 B.C. (Isaiah 20:1-5) Sargon II had skirmishes with Babylon’s king Merodach-Baladan 728-716 B.C. Merodach-Baladan becomes friends with Elamite king Shutruk-Nahunte 725-707 B.C. Sargon invades Babylon in 716 B.C. and Merodach-Baladan flees to Elam. Merodach-Baladan later in Assyrian king Sennacherib’s reign sent letters to Judah’s king Hezekiah 725-696 B.C. around 711 B.C. (2 Kings 20:12)

    Assyrian king Sennacherib 711-688 B.C. 1st year 711 B.C. he attacks Israel in Hezekiah 725-696 B.C. in Hezekiah’s 14th year in 711 B.C. (2 Kings 18:13) ETHIOPIAN king Tirhakah did not do much to help Judah’s king Hezekiah.Tirhakah‘s army was defeated at Eltekeh. (2 Kings 19:9-10)It was the Lord who slew 185,000 Assyrians. (2 Kings 19:35) Elamite king Shutruk-Nahunte II 725-707 B.C. generals and staff officers are killed by Sennacherib’s army trying to place Merodach-Baladan back on the Babylonian throne 711-709 B.C. Merodach-Baladan flees again to Elam. Elamite king Hallutush-Inshushinak 707-700 B.C. makes poor judgement taking Sennacherib’s son Ashur-Nadin-Shum 706-700 B.C. as prisoner. Elamite kings: Hallutush-Inshushinak had fled his throne when he saw the Assyrian army coming. Kudur-Nahhunte briefly reigns over Elam in 700 B.C. Humban-Nimeana 700-694 B.C. army drove their chariots over dead soldiers to get away from the Assyrians. Humban-Nimeana suffers a stroke and the Assyrians win victory against the Elamites in Babylon. Elamite king Humban-Haltash I 694-687 B.C. tries restoring diplomatic relations with Assyria but he fails.

    Assyrian king Esarhaddon 687-676 B.C. goes to war against EGYPTIAN king Tirhakah 698-672 B.C. and the Assyrians win victory. Esarhaddon takes Judah king Manasseh 696-641 B.C. as prisoner. (2 Chronicles 33:11) Elamite king Humban-Haltash II 687-681 B.C. goes about robbing, raping and pillaging while on his way to attack Sippar while Esarhaddon was fighting other enemies. Tirhakah rebels when Assyrian troops leave Egypt. Esarhaddon and Elamite king Urtaki 681-669 B.C. live in peace. Esarhaddon dies enroute to do battle again against Tirhakah.

    Assyrian king Ashur-Banipal 675-633 B.C. defeats Tirhakah in 672 B.C. Tirhakah flees Memphis. Necho I 672-664 B.C. is placed upon the Egyptian throne. (Egyptian priest Manetho stated Necho I had an 8 year reign.) Elamite king Urtaki 681-669 B.C. receives grain from Ashur-Banipal during a famine striking Elam.Urtaki is ungrateful. Urtaki sees the Assyrians are having trouble with Egypt. Urtaki attacks Babylon in 669 B.C. The Assyrian army chases Urtaki and the Elamite king collapsed and died. Cushite king Tanutamun rebels against Assyria by invading Egypt’s delta slaying Necho I and Ashur-Banipal places Psamtik I 664-610 B.C. on the Egyptian throne as Tanutamun flees to Ethiopia reigning there 664-656 B.C. Ashur-Banipal sends soldiers to the King of Lydia and they defeat the Cimmerians in 663 B.C. Psamtik I expels Assyrian garrisons in Egypt’s delta 660-653 B.C. starting stirring up unrest while Ashur-Banipal is fighting Elamite king Tempt-Humban-Inshushinak and Psamtik I drives them completely out when the same year Babylon’s king Shamash-Shum-Ukin’s government falls in 653 B.C. Psamtik I declares Egypt totally independent in 653 B.C. Ashur-Banipal learns the King of Lydia had betrayed him by supporting Psamtik I and Ashur-Banipal lets the Cimmerians take over Lydia in 652 B.C.

    Elamite king Tempt-Humban-Inshushinak 669-659 B.C. relatives do not want war. They flee to Ashur-Banipal’s royal court. Tempt-Humban-Inshushinak suffers a stroke in the 10th year he reigns. War erupts. An Assyrian soldier cuts off his head. Elamite king Ummanigash 659-657 B.C. betrays Assyrian king Ashur-banipal who set him upon the Elamite throne. Ummanigash joins Babylon’s king Shamash-Shum-Ukin rebellion against Assyria.Ummanigash is dethroned by Tammaritu I king of Hidalu 657-654 B.C. who is also anti-Assyrian and prepares to go to war against Ashur-banipal. Prince Indabibi 655-654 B.C. is pro-Assyrian in this Elamite civil war and he crushes Tammaritu I’s forces before they reach the Assyrians. Elamite king Tammaritu II 654-653 B.C. slays Indabibi. Tammaritu II rebels and he is hauled away to Assyria.

    Assyrian king Ashur-Banipal’s brother Shamash-Shum-Ukin reigning over Babylon since 675-653 B.C. betrays him. Three Elamite kings had joined Shamash-Shum-Ukin’s army. The Assyrians take over Babylon in 653 B.C. Ashur-Banipal appoints Kandalanu as governor who reigns over Babylon 653-632 B.C. Egyptian king Psamtik I declares Egypt independent in 653 B.C. The Assyrians don’t respond and Egypt is free from Assyrian rule.

    Assyrian king Ashur-Banipal defeats Elamite king Humban-Haltash III 653-649 B.C. The Assyrians destroy the Elamite nation. Ashur-Banipal is the Biblical Asnapper. He set the Elamite natives to colonize the cities of Samaria. (Ezra 4:9-10) Ashur-Banipal also let Judah’s king Manasseh return to Israel. Ashur-Banipal goes to war against the Arabs 649-646 B.C. The years 645-633 B.C. Ashur-Banipal’s records are silent.

    Assyrian kings Ashur-Etil-ilani and Sin-Shum-Ishkun 632-629 B.C. fight a bloody civil war against Assyrian general Sin-Shum-Lishir which weakens Assyria. Ashur-Etil-ilani wins victory.Ashur-Etil-ilani is slain by his brother Sin-Shum-Ishkun having only one year of peace 628-627 B.C. Sin-Shum-Ishkun 626-612 B.C. fights Babylonian king Nabopolassar and the Babylonians and Cyaxares win victory. Sin-Shum-Ishkun dies in his burning palace. Assyrian general Ashur-Ballit II 611-605 B.C. army is saved at Charchemish when Egyptian troops lead by Necho II 610-595 B.C. join forces together.

    Necho II was on his way to help the Assyrians when Judah’s king Josiah 639-608 B.C. tried stopping him and Josiah was slain. (2 Chronicles 35:20-26) Babylonian king Nebuchadnezzer 605-562 B.C. destroys the Assyrian nation in 605 B.C. Nebuchadnezzer 8th year he took Jehoichin captive in 597 B.C. (2 Kings 24:12) Nebuchadnezzer took over Jerusalem in 586 B.C. Zedekiah’s 11th year. (2 Kings 25:1-2) Egyptian king Psamtik II 595-589 B.C. fights the Nubians at the fourth cataract. Egyptian king Apries (Hophra) 589-570 B.C. sends troops to help Israel’s king Zedekiah 597-586 B.C. but Hophra’s troops flee Nebuchadnezzer’s forces. (Jeremiah 44:30) Hophra is killed by one of his generals.

    Knowledge will become abundant in the days we live. (Daniel 12:3-4)

  2. Janine Bryant

    I’ve read many of the posts above but not all so please forgive me if someone already mentioned this. I saw several references to science regarding its relationship to religion. In my quest, I had many questions about how the two relate to each other as well. I came across a book in a bookstore one day called The Science of God – The Convergence of Scientific and Biblical Wisdom by Gerald L. Schroeder. Schroeder is a distinguished physicist and biblical scholar who does a beautiful job suggesting that science and religion “need not be seen as conflicting or mutually exclusive.” (Schroeder has written other books as well. I also read The Hidden Face of God. Another incredible read!) Among many other topics, the age of the universe and Earth, evolution, early man, statistical possibilities and dinosaurs are discussed. It’s a truly fascinating read and I STRONGLY recommend it to believers and non-believers alike.

  3. Nicky

    I know that I am a believer, but I sometimes do not know how to respond to certain comments / critics . Thanks for this site. God has surely led me here and I am once a gain motivated to dig deeply so that I could have an answer in due season.

  4. Sharon Hoover

    Thanks for this abundant collection of resources! The continued conversation in the comments added even more to your article. I too am a student of the historical accuracy of the Scriptures. Not that my faith is dependent upon the physical proof but it helps me to respond with gentleness and scholarship to objections people raise to the Bible. Thanks again! I look forward to sharing this article (and related ones on the topic) with others.

  5. Piggspotter

    I come in very late …I have read all your points as to the 6 day creation and I am agreed. It is clear that Genesis means 24 hour days. Now my problem is this. Did God create life….. disappear for a few hundred million years….then come back and create more advanced life…. or how do you explain the timeline.

    1. loswl Post author

      Hi Piggyspotter, thanks for joining in on the conversation. I will try to answer your question as much as I possibly can.

      Question: Did God create life….. disappear for a few hundred million years….then come back and create more advanced life…. or how do you explain the timeline.

      Answer: First let me clarify that all life is etremely complex, science once taught that some cells were simple, but now we know that there is no such thing as a "Simple Cell". A simple cell is more complex that the city of New York with all its moving parts and functions. This being said, the Genesis account of Creation, does not agree with the millions of years evolutionary theory. All life forms were created by God in that six day period of the Genesis accounts. God has never left his creation with "simple life forms" then return a few hundred millions of years to finish the job by creating more advanced life forms. He also did not create "simple life-forms" and leave them to evolve into more advanced life over a long span of time, remember ALL LIFE-FORMS ARE EXTREMELY COMPLEX. God ended all of his creation work on the sixth day and He said it was GOOD!

      "Then God looked over all he had made, and he saw that it was very good! And evening passed and morning came, marking the sixth day." Genesis 1:31

      There in Genesis we have a general review and approval of everything God had made, at the close of the six days’ of creation.

      The Bible teaches that the Heavens, Earth, and ALL life on Earth was created by direct acts of God during a relatively short period, calculated to be sometime between 5,700 and 10,000 years ago, by Biblical scholars. The Genesis accounts of Creation teaches us that God created the Earth in six 24-hour days, taking a literal interpretation of the Genesis accounts of creation. Here is one scientific proof that the universe is young. Our sun produces the energy of about 1,000,000,000 hydrogen bombs per second. By doing that it is converting the smallest form of atomic elements, hydrogen, and radiating that out into space. The sun is therefore consuming itself. There are stars that are 1,000,000 times brighter than our sun. That means that they are using a phenomenal amount of matter to produce this much energy, and they are radiating this energy out into space. If you take the present size of those `superstars`, and extrapolate back 2,000,000,000 years, those stars would have had to be implausibly large to be the size they are today. In fact, one of them would have had to have been big enough to occupy almost the entire universe! What does that suggest? A young universe. Read my post called "Evolutionary Tales Exposed: Part 7 -The Young Earth "

      There is much debate between evolutionist and Bible believers about how old the earth really is. Creationist believe that based on many evidence, the earth is actually young, young compared to what we have been told. Clearly, the many contributions made by the scientific community are staggering indeed. In one way or another everyone undeniably has benefited from their research and technological discoveries. However, the fields of paleontology and fossilology are highly prone to error. In the last century we have witnessed countless examples of “ground-breaking” discoveries that have ultimately been proven wrong. Take for example, the Coelacanth, declared extinct for about 70 million years, this fish was thought by scientists to have been the fish that first walked out of the ocean on its way to becoming the ascendant of modern man. One can only imagine the disappointment in the scientific community when a fisherman caught one off the island of Madagascar in 1938. No lungs, no legs. Interestingly, many evolutionists believed the reason this fish disappeared from the fossil record is because they evolved into land-dwelling tetrapods. And here they are, still swimming in and around the Indian Ocean. No lungs, no legs. Yet how many fossils were dated to be roughly 70 million years old simply because their fossilized remains were found in the same strata as the fossilized remains of the “70 million-year-old” coelacanth. This is one example why using the geologic timescale to date the age of the Earth does not work. There are also many other errors related to dating the age of the earth, eg. Carbon Dating, which has a lot of eroneous results, living snails have been dated at 2,300 years old by the carbon-dating method, we know that a living snail could NOT be 2,300 years old. Wood from living trees has been dated at being 10,000 years old and we know that a tree could not live for 10, 0000 years. Hawaiian lava flows known to be about 200 years old have been dated by potassium argon dating as being 3,000,000,000 years old. Those are just a few of the eronious results given by the dating methods that scientist currently use. Please read my post "Evolutionary Tales Exposded: Part 6 -Billions of years" to get a clearer understanding.

      One of the things we have been pounded with is the amount of time necessary to allow mutations to produce modern-day species. The evolutionists are desperately looking for time, because if you can produce enough time, you can hide the many weaknesses of the theory of evolution. But eons of time are an absolute necessity, simply because of the amount of mutations necessary to produce the AMAZING results of the extreme complexity of life and the universe. Those who abide in the truth of God’s inerrant Word do not need to base our world view on the un-proven millions of years theory of evolution. God’s creative ability does not rely on time, He created time and He is also the creator and sustainer of all life.

      For by him all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things were created by him and for him. He is before all things, and in him all things hold together. Colossians 1:16-17

      Answers Source: gotquestions.org and The Theory of Evolution: composed by Dr. L., D.D.S

  6. FaithDesigner

    This article is very impressive. Thanks for taking so much time and effort in this article as well as your comments. It so important to give Bible believing Christians great resources that allow us to defend the faith in away that is more practical then people may be used to hearing. I have enjoyed your site please keep this ministry going strong. God bless you

  7. Robby

    Chaos theory ACTUALLY MAKES SENSE. Something as small as not picking something up off the floor could cause you to trip over hit your head on something and possibly die. Little things things that don’t seem important are important. Like Newton said very action has a reaction. Weather it is good or bad. If a small piece of information got left out of the bible we wouldn’t fully understand why things happened the way thy did.

    1. loswl Post author

      I see what you are saying, but remember Chaos Theory is just that…a theory, just like evolution, they are coming from a very creative mind of a man. I am sure there is some cause and effect going on in the universe, but it is not completely chaotic, God is a God of order and if you study the universe you will find that it is very orderly in its actions, planets stay in their orbits, comets stay on coarse, so much that we can tell when we can see them in the night sky years before they even enter our solar system, the earth spins on its axis, the sun sets, we have constant seasonal changes etc, etc,

      Yes, Chaotic behavior has been observed in the laboratory in a variety of systems including electrical circuits, lasers, oscillating chemical reactions, fluid dynamics, and mechanical and magneto-mechanical devices, as well as computer models of chaotic processes. Observations of chaotic behavior in nature include changes in weather, the dynamics of satellites in the solar system, the changes of the magnetic field of celestial bodies, population growth in ecology, the dynamics of the action potentials in neurons, and molecular vibrations. There is some controversy over the existence of chaotic dynamics in plate tectonics and in economic Their is a bit of chaos in everything to allow a limited amount of change and adaptation, but not so much that it takes over the order of time and life as we know it. It is like building a Bride, the Engineer has to allow for changes in temperature, so that the Bridge can expand and contract, so that it does not crack under such pressure. But those minor allowances for changes has their purpose in the grand scheme of things.

  9. Mark

    I thank you for this article and the aplomb with which you handle yourself. It is always refreshing to see a Christian handle themselves so. I also am a Christian that was alive in the age of Dino’s lol but only recently rededicated my life and still struggle so it is good to read of others searching for the truth.
    I stumbled across your article and enjoyed it but think I enjoyed the discussion, on both sides, even more!
    On a worldly level I would suggest to any which accept much of what they are taught about evolution to study the differences between Operational (Observational) Science and Historical (Origins) Science. Historical theory used in origins science is an explanation of past events based on the interpretation of evidence that is available in the present. That means to accept evolution without study you are accepting a theory which is not based on observational (provable< my word) science. Just as many say Christians do when we accept the truth of our Lord. So how you believe comes down to Faith, just as the Bible teaches ..again.
    However in my humble opinion I see the Lord in every Tree, Bush, Cloud, etc. and Human I observe, they all reflect in my eyes as plans of the great I AM.
    I am neither a writer or a very godly man and want only to help others to make an intelligent choice so if these words offend please remove.
    God Bless

    1. loswl Post author

      Thanks for checking out the post, happy that you found it…. I love your point about faith, it does take faith to believe both in The Creator God and Evolution, but because evolution cannot be observed, I think it takes a whole lot more (blind) faith to place our trust in it. Everything that God created can be discovered, observed and studied, so it takes faith as small as a mustard seed. We are all sinners and in need of a savior, none of us is perfect except Christ, so you are in good company 🙂

  10. NevahNu

    What up g? I haven’t read the comments yet. I like your piece here so I’m not knocking it but am curious, has anyone mentioned the discrepancy and somewhat contradiction between the age the bible says the earth is and what science says earth is? If someone already spoke to this, let me know and I’ll read thru. Otherwise, isn’t that one huge variance?

    -NevahNu (the ultimate Nubian Prince of Timbuktu)

    1. loswl Post author

      Thanks for checking out the post NevahNu, someone did ask that question in the comments and I touched on it briefly, I will be posting an article on that topic soon, subscribe to the RSS Feed if you want to be notified.

    2. Robby

      It says in the bible that god created the earth in six days and rested on the seventh. This explains why there are seven days in a week. But it never said how long a day for God is. A day is defined by one rotation of the earth. If you lived on any other planet in the solar system a day for you would be longer or shorter than a day on earth. Therefore a day for God could be millions of years and explain why scientists say the earth is millions of years old. Which it could be.

      1. loswl Post author

        We do not need to try to change what the Bible says to match up with the evolutionary theory of millions of years. The Bible says God created the heavens and the earth in 6 days and that what it is… 6 days, not six millions years or 6 billions years, in fact evolution would need much more time than that if it was even possible. The fact is, Evolution is a theory, so it is quite fine if the Bible does not match up with it, because evolution is not based on real practical science, infact it goes against all the scientific laws that we know.

        The belief that God “could have” meant millions of years instead of 6 days is a theory called the Day- Age- Theory Basically, this is a belief that the “days” spoken of in the first chapter of Genesis are sequential periods and not literal 24-hour days. Each day, therefore is thought to represent a much longer, albeit undefined, period of time, such as a million or more years. Essentially, it is an attempt to harmonize Scripture with theistic evolution. At the very core of most of these contrived theories is an attempt to remove God from the equation. And one of the unfortunate consequences of questioning the historicity of Genesis is that the floodgates burst open for man to question every part of God’s Word that does not agree with our limited intellectual abilities. However, everything Scripture teaches about sin and death requires a literal interpretation of the first three chapters of Genesis.

        Adherents of this theory often point out that the word used for “day” in Hebrew, yom, sometimes refers to a period of time that is more than a literal twenty-four hour day. One scriptural passage in particular often looked upon in support of this theory is 2 Peter 3:8 where it says “With the Lord a day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years are like a day.” However, as with all biblical interpretation, one must look at the context of the entire passage. In 2 Peter 3:3-10 we see that Peter is talking about scoffers in the last days as they question the second coming of Christ. This passage simply reminds us that God stands outside of time and we should not doubt the occurrence of a future biblical event simply because it seems to be taking a long time from our limited human perspective. Accordingly, 2 Peter 3:8 has nothing to do with the length of the creation week, nor was it meant to turn “day” into a mathematical formula.

        Each day in the first chapter of Genesis is described as having an evening and a morning. Indeed, these two words—evening and morning—are used extensively in the Old Testament and each time they refer to normal days. Moreover, outside Genesis yom is used with a number hundreds of times—i.e., “one day” and each time it means an ordinary day. If Moses wanted to convey a longer period of time he could have used either olam or qedem, in place of yom.

        Another reason given for a metaphorical “day” as postulated by this theory is that with the sun not being made until day four, how could there have been ordinary days (i.e. day and night) before this? However, the sun is not needed for a day and night. What is needed is light and a rotating Earth. The “evening and morning” indicates a rotating Earth, and as far as light is concerned, recall that God’s very first command was “Let there be light” and there was light (Genesis 1:3). Separating the light from the darkness was the very first thing our Creator did. Also, remember that in Revelation 21:23 we see that the New Jerusalem “does not need the sun or moon to shine on it” as the “glory of God” will provide the “light.” At the beginning of creation, God’s radiant light would have certainly been sufficient until the luminaries were created three days later.

        if the “days” of Genesis are really long periods of time such as millions or billions of years, then God’s Word is completely undermined at its very foundation as we would then have disease, suffering and death before the fall of man, even though Scripture clearly indicates that “sin entered the world through one man (Adam), and death through sin” (Romans 5:12). Thus, it is clear that there was no death prior to Adam’s act of disobedience in the Garden of Eden. If this theory were true, it would nullify the doctrine of the fall of mankind into sin. Furthermore, it would also render void the doctrine of the Atonement, for if there was no “fall” why would we need a Redeemer?

        Furthermore, God rested on the 7th day from all his work, he set up that principle for us with literal days in the 10 commandments, he told us to work 6 days and take a break to rest on the 7th day, not to rest 7 million or billion years, the principle still stands today.

  11. Darn808pinoy

    I really want to say thank you so much for this article. I have been having some huuuuge doubts in my faith lately. I’ve been praying like crazy for God to reveal himself to me again to confirm everything that I have believed for so long. But this time i wanted solid proof. Historical proof of the Bible. Great explanations. Miracles. He has now been showing me these things lately and stumbling onto this article was the biggest eye opener for me. You have explained things so well for me and provided excellent evidence to support. Scientists always want to test and recreate miracles, but that would take away its tittle as a “miracle”. You aren’t meant to explain these things! That’s the beauty of it! They always try to scientifically explain God himself, but to do so, they lower God to a human aspect. Doing that, they can only see everything from a human aspect. HE is a GOD. That’s the point! He wouldn’t be GOD if all the things he did were things we could have all on our own.

    This article has reaffirmed my faith in such a strong way. And at 1:48 a.m. to add to that lol. Thank you so much and may God bless all that you are doing. I hope this article blesses the lives of others as it has mine.

    1. loswl Post author

      You are welcome, happy that you found the article of much use and answers to your prayers, I hope that studies like these would become the norm in all churches, it really help to strengthen our faith, especially in a world that teaches us that the Bible is a myth!

  12. Steven Anthony

    Yes Jbarry, the new age/occult is very demonic. I practiced as a professional psychic/medium/healer/witch and if the entities I was interacting with were benevolent, then I do not know why I was so cursed. There is, in my experience nothing good about it. Although I had a truly devastating time with it, I am glad because at least the deception was revealed to me – however traumatically. One major problem with it is the way they don’t encourage you to take responsibilty – “You are this way because so-and-so did that to you.” My problems were never dealt with all the time I was passing the buck, but when Christ made me face up to myself then the healing began.

    loswl – paranoia was my best subject!! Because I did the drugs and fell for all these different conspiracy theories – as well as running from my own sin, I was a paranoid wreck. I have been on medication for many years, and it is only now since coming to faith that I am able to come off the tablets. Christ is the best (or only) true healer. But that is so true that there is no peace in paranoia. It is the most lonely, frightening, restless condition I ever knew.

    1. MacManess98

      Wow…this is perhaps the best thing that I’ve stumbled upon so far. I have read the entire article as well as ALL the comments, and my faith has grown so much through doing so! I have been raised in a Christian family and I have gone to the same church my entire. I am very involved in my youth group at my church and I will soon be taking the position of chairman of my youth council. I have been growing steadily in my faith the past couple of years and I have really been into the scriptures and my relationship with God has become much closer. However, the past couple of weeks I have been very much off the path of righteousness and I even got to the point where I wasn’t praying. It’s not that I was “losing my religion,” I guess it was just a phase. Thankfully, I am out of it now, and this article/page really helped to rekindle my love of Christ. As a young person, I have many questions and doubts as do all Christians, and this helped me realize that I am on the right track.

      Thanks so much for this soul food!

      1. loswl Post author

        I praise the Lord for you, as a past youth leader, I can relate to you, we have to keep on learning new and interesting truths about God to relate to the youths today. Happy that the article helped to rekindle that burning love for Christ and His living Word, keep going on the right track 🙂

  13. Steven Anthony

    No, I said in MY experience. I was heavily into the new age and occult prior to finding faith in Christ. Not only is that riddled with conspiracy theories, but that scene is also riddled with drug use. I know for me, when I was into that scene, I was paranoid in every area of my life, not only conspiracy theories.

    Yes you are right, we must pray for them. I am relatively new to the faith so forgive me if I come across as somewhat zealous. I have a passion for our Lord but still at times need to tone my pride down. I too have witnessed breakthroughs of non-believers listening to believers.

    I also firmly believe one major reason for paranoia is when someone is trapped in sin, you do not (however subconsciously) want to get caught out. Also with these conspiracy theories, as with the new age movement, they seem to think the systems are at fault. And while this largely is true, they should be working on changing the hearts of individuals, after all that is where it starts. There is no point changing a system if the people running it are corrupt.

    1. jbarry

      Ok, cool Steven – thanks for clarifying. Thank you also for sharing your testimony, God is awesome and it’s a good thing to be zealous for God. These days a lot of us are sitting back expecting things to happen without us doing anything 🙂

      About the New Age movement – you are right, I’ve been watching and reading up on it and yes, they are looking the wrong direction and to the wrong source for change – and it’s a silently demonic movement even though it looks and sound pleasant to the itching ears. Unfortunately, because of this, it’s also moving its way into some Christian churches.

      1. loswl Post author

        Very interesting insight Steven, it is interesting that what when we turn to other things to take the place of God in our lives, we have no peace, Paronia is so far away from the peace that passes all understanding, given to us through Jesus. I rejoice and thank God for delivering you from the bondage of new age and the occult, Praise God!!

  14. Steven Anthony

    Oh and as for the conspiracy theory on the Bible being created to manipulate mankind, I have two points; 1, they didn’t do a very good job if that is what it is with the amount of doubt in this world. 2, from my experience of people who come up with these conspiracy theories they are simply paranoid through taking too many drugs.

    1. jbarry

      It’s a bit misguided to say that they are paranoid because of taking too many drugs. Many atheist or paranoid atheist are smart people intellectually and many, like any set of people do not take drugs. Some of them, from my experience are nice people – their belief do not affect there social skills.

      Some people are paranoid because of lack of Biblical and linguistic knowledge or just because they do not practice faith in the Bible like we do and therefore have many misconceptions and question. I don’t think drug use has much, if any, to do with it. We must do our part in praying for them and even becoming friend with some of them – trust me, they are watching us so our lives may be the only witness to them that moves them toward Christ. Pray that God may open their eyes – I’ve seen it happen – there is hope for all.

  15. Steven Anthony

    Excellent article.

    The thing that amazes me is that so many non-believers demand proof, and then when they get it they can’t hack it because it shows them to be wrong. Either you go on proof or you don’t. Make your minds up.

    As Christians though, we need no proof as we go on faith. But at the same time, I for one have got all the proof I need in the form of experiences, and seeing exactly how real the Bibles teachings have been in my own life. What is more likely; a creative and intelligent force creating everything? Or nothing magically explodes into nothing and then the nothing somehow rearranges itself into everything and a bit of that everything evolves into dinosaurs and humans? Eh? I don’t think so somehow.

  16. smartzz

    I Hate to break it all to you guys, but the way you are linking science to the Bible is misguided. What especially got me was claiming that the second law of thermodynamics some how disproves evolution, how nothing can come from nothing and degradation and such. No one argues that the universe will eventually stop expanding, but how does that have to with evolution.

    Claiming that simple things can not become complex over time is ridiculous, chaos theory is just that, the flapping of a butterfly wings in china effect the weather in England, everything is related and every action ripples out throughout the whole universe.

    1. loswl Post author

      Hi Smartzz, let me explain what I mean when I say the 2nd Law of Thermodynamics goes against Evolutionary Theory….Evolutionary Theory says:

      “Random change over a loooooooong period of time can transform simple systems into ever more complex systems”

      First there is no such thing as a “simple system” The simplest cell that we know is more complex than the city of new york, because of all its working parts. Second no systems changes over time to make itself better. A lizard will never, ever over any period of time decide to change into a bird because it is in danger, a lizard has all it needs to survive in its environment. As far as the 2nd law of Thermodynamics is concerned if you look at the environment around you, you can easily notice that things do not evolve, they tend to degrade, just leave a banana in the sun and it begins to degrade, it does not evolve into something to prevent it from degrading, if you build a bridge and do no maintenance on it to keep it strong, it will degrade, rust and break down, it does not evolve to protect itself. Do you see anything in nature evolving over time and becoming more complex? The Chaos Theory is just that…a theory, just like evolution, just a theory, not a scientific law.

      Theory: A proposed explanation whose status is still conjectural, in contrast to well-established propositions that are regarded as reporting matters of actual fact.

      Evolution is not a fact of nature, it is a Theory made up by a man called Darwin, it cannot be studied, unless you have a couple millions of years to spare.

      Scientific Law: A phenomenon of nature that has been proven to invariably occur whenever certain conditions exist or are met; also, a formal statement about such a phenomenon; also called natural law.

      A natural/scientific law can be studied, like the law of gravity, etc.

      1. Godserv

        Once you are dealing and arguing a scientific theory, you must keep in mind that it was never proven and as not been repeated in a lab. If you argue a scientific theory to be fact (scientific law) then you are moving away from the very thing which we depend on to hold our scientific studies accountable. Also if a theory cannot be researched further by those who are learning it, because they are taught it as a law – then might as well I start writing science books even though I’m not a scientist (I just studied science). We must be careful how we push the evolutionary theory to make it paramount above all other ideas that could actually point to the truth.

        Evolution is just one man’s way of putting a rational behind how we and all life came to be – it’s his theory which I assume he would appreciate if we study and find the right conclusion in the lab by throwing out all the false science behind it and moving forward and I assume also that he would not have a problem studying the probability that God had something to do with it – the parts that we can see and those we have not seen yet.

  17. Shovelslayer

    loswl, great article! God has blessed you with many gifts. While I agree it’s important to question and seek the truth, I simultaneously chuckle and get frustrated by skeptics that seem to knit-pick the most minute details while ignoring larger truths.

    If people will study the Bible with an open mind, they will find it to be accurate because it is the TRUTH in every way – historical, spiritual etc.

    There were plenty of skeptics even in Jesus’ time and they came at him from every direction, but not one was ever able to disprove his truths, even as they tried to use his own words and actions against Him.

    I pray that God will continue using the Holy Spirit to work through your posts!

    1. loswl Post author

      Thanks Shovelslayer, that was very encouraging, it’s good to know that this blog is making a difference. Yes, skeptics are always here, I laugh too, even when I read the Bible and see how clever Jesus was when answering his skeptics of the day. I think for me, the skeptics serve the purpose of strengthening my Faith in God and the Bible, His Word, because it helps me to do a little more research on what the Bible teaches, and the questions I get help me to see that the Word of God is Holy, Powerful and True, withstanding anything that comes against it!! ….Even the difficult questions 🙂

  18. Jeannine Wingard

    The truth that you are telling is the reason why when people ask me my favorite scripture I say “and the disciples found it just as he said.” He is who he said he is (I AM) and we are who he says we are..is is not a what. I am sorry the educated elite cannot conjugate the verb to be but except that I AM nothing is…He is not a man that he should lie…
    Thank you for your dedicated work shown here

  20. Kaleb

    Just wanted to share a perspective on the apparent contradictions within the bible. I read it by Charlie Campbell: http://www.alwaysbeready.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=108&Itemid=43

    “One of the mistakes that critics commonly make when interpreting the Bible is this: They assume that a partial report is a false report.

    There are many instances in the Bible, especially in the Gospels, where one author chose to leave out certain details in his account of an event that another author chose to include. The critic comes along and assumes the author has erred or contradicted another writer. But this is an error on the part of the critic. Even in today’s society, it is perfectly acceptable for reporters and biographers, who are writing about the same event or person, to include or omit details that others do not. When I read the news online, at let’s say Foxnews.com and then perhaps CNN.com, I expect to read some different details about the same story. If the Gospels had all said exactly the same thing in the same way, they would have been discredited long ago on grounds of collusion. The fact that the gospels offer both consistent yet perspectivally differing views helps explain why they remain worthy of serious scholarly attention even after nearly two thousand years of scrutiny.”

    Loswl, great article and discussion!

    1. loswl Post author

      I agree, from a journalistic point of view, it makes the Bible more acceptable and believable. If you ask 5 persons about the 911 event, they will all give you their story from their perspective and they will not include all the events that happened that day. Some may report that people were jumping out of the windows of the highrise buildings, some may not report that, but the fact that some do not report, does not mean it did not happen.,..If all were to report the same details, then we then would have to investigate if they, contacted each other and made their stories up, it would be very suspicious!!.. thanks for the link 🙂

  21. ned morlef

    Thanks for having enough love to put this together for all of us to share. I stumbled here and will mark in my favorites.

    1. loswl Post author

      Thanks for checking out the article, big thanks to the La Vista Church of Christ for supplying the article with a Creative Commons license, so that we can use it here 🙂

  22. ned morlef

    You see books & movies on a bible code. Many think it’s a number sequence that, you can feed into a computer.Or there’s a special pair of glasses hidden separately from a secret document that, when brought together reveal the origins of man inscribed on the wall of a cave in a desert in the middle east.

    All this stuff is mythology & witchcraft.

    There is a bible code that, if found by the lost & undone will allow the interpretation of the scriptures. It will give those unbelievers understanding as to why a Christian with limited education and knowledge can put so much faith into something they can’t possibly explain.

    Ye must be born again.

    You must humble yourself with the faith of a little child and God will reward you with mercy & sight as, the scales fall from your eyes and truth is revealed.

    When we are “lost” we think backwards. All of our responses to life are destructive and depraved.We pervert every law & rule to fit our comfort.Chipping away at the heart until the scar tissue has left it hard and calloused.

    Satan is subtle in all his ways.He manipulates the flaws in your thinking.

    He that hath ears let him hear.

    He doesn’t give you a chance to put up defenses by announcing he has arrived to ruin your life.

    You can dig & study and debate but, only when the Spirit moves will you receive the code. Ye must be born again. He that hath ears to hear, let him hear.

    Well spoken Stephenson.

  23. Skeptic

    This is an excellent argument, and can be explained once the fossilization process is examined a little closer. Fossils are formed only in extremely rare circumstances, especially on land. The process requires “rapid and permanent burial/entombment – protecting the specimen from environmental or biological disturbance; oxygen deprivation – limiting the extent of decay and also biological activity/scavenging; continued sediment accumulation as opposed to an eroding surface – ensuring the organism remains buried in the long-term; and the absence of excessive heating or compression which might otherwise destroy it.” (http://www.discoveringfossils.co.uk/whatisafossil.htm)

    Since these conditions are so unique and exist for only short amounts of time in a single area, the strata of fossils found in an area are essentially a “snapshot” of the time period AND geographical region.

    Also, the strict breeding conditions required for evolution (think of a dog breeder breeding a weiner dog to extend it’s belly) require that the process occur in a very localized region, and then the new species spread out to new areas. For validation here we can again look at the Galapagos islands, where evolution has sped up dramatically because the islands have become isolated from each other and thus strict breeding conditions were enforced. Other examples come from domesticated animals where, by selective breeding, humans have forced the hand of evolution and created new species of animals such as dogs, cats, and birds. All of this means that most of the process will inevitably not be recorded, as only a small fraction of the progression will be captured.

    Still, we have managed to gather an incredible array of fossils which lets us connect the dots and discover the rich history of our planet. Maps like this: http://www.earthhistory.org.uk/wp-content/cats.jpg, which attempt to describe the process, should be continually analyzed and revised, but also used as an important learning tool to help us understand where we come from and where we are headed.

    As for the flood, there would have to be a single, continuous layer of sediment encircling the planet, which there is not. If you have evidence of such a layer, please cite it. There is still not enough water on the earth to flood it’s surface, even when taking into account the ice caps, glaciers, and ground water. See: http://science.howstuffworks.com/environmental/earth/geophysics/question157.htm

    1. Godserv

      Sorry, but there is no proof that the theory of evolution is evident on the Galapagos islands. Theory being that change occur from one animal to another to form a different specie over time. What you are talking about is micro evolution which is not the same as the Theory of evolution. Any dog breeder or farmer will tell you that, yes changes can occur when cross breeding is done, but not evolution (A new specie does not arrive from such activity). The word evolution is used broadly in documentaries and certain books. We must differentiate between micro evolution and evolution. Micro evolution does not lead to evolution and some micro evolution is used to claim certain specie differentiation with no scientific proof also, so, be careful how you mix the two thoughts.

    2. loswl Post author

      You touch on a few topics that may need a whole other blog post to discuss. I don’t know if evolution and fossilization has changed since I left school, but I was taught that they were both long processes that took millions of years here is a snippet of an article on fossilization as it relates to sediment and the flood:

      There are numerous evidences that fossils formed fast, not slowly over millions of years: (1) the catastrophic circumstances of their burial; (2) the immense amount of sediments often involved in burial; (3) the preservation of delicate imprints in mud; (4) the preservation of other delicate things; and (5) the preservation of microscopic details.

      Biological materials ordinarily decay rapidly unless they are buried and preserved quickly. For a specimen to be preserved, the speed of burial and fossilization must have exceeded the rate of decay. For certain specimens below, as a guide to the speed of preservation, the approximate time for decay to commence is indicated in minutes, hours, days, or months. Finally, a few examples of post-Flood fossilization are discussed. It is shown that post-Flood fossilization has happened under catastrophic circumstances. This confirms that during the Flood fossilization must also have been catastrophic.

      The fossils described below are not exceptional or rare, and this compilation of evidences is only a sample. It could be expanded many times over. Most of the cited sources have photographs of these fossils.

      Evidence #1: The Catastrophic Circumstances
      Fossil formation requires unusual conditions unlike those commonly existing today. This is shown by the fact that fossils rarely form today. Under the catastrophic circumstances of fossilization, huge tracts of millions of bones called “fossil graveyards” blanketed sometimes hundreds of square miles, testimony to the power of the Flood catastrophe.

      1. There is a fossil graveyard in Agate Springs, Nebraska, with about 9000 complete animals of all kinds are in one hill; the entire deposit covers a wide area (Nelson, 99). Another fossil graveyard includes rhinos, horses, and camels buried in volcanic ash. The ash covers several hundred square mi. and is 10 feet deep in places. The eruption was 100 times larger than that of Mt. St. Helens. It happened during or possibly soon after the Flood (Michael R. Voorhies, “Ancient Ashfall Creates a Pompeii of Prehistoric Animals,” National Geographic, Vol. 159 no. 1, January 1981, 71).

      2. In the Caribbean island of Guadeloupe was unearthed the “Lady of Guadeloupe,” an articulated skeleton found around 1812 in “Miocene” limestone. This person was overtaken in a sudden catastrophe. The person is in a reclining position as she were felled and swept along by raging currents of water and sediment (Taylor, 1987a, 218).

      There are also “polystrate trees (sometimes called “polystratic trees”) showing the extremely catastrophic circumstances of most fossil formation. Polystrate trees are fossil trees piercing through many rock layers (strata). In many cases, evolutionism claims that millions of years would be required to deposit the strata surrounding the upright tree! But how could a tree keep standing for millions of years while the strata were building slowly and gradually up around it? What really happened is that many layers of sediment were catastrophically and suddenly deposited around such a tree, encasing it and quickly fossilizing it.

      More From This Article: http://creationconcepts.org/resources/FOSSILS.pdf

      We cannot use breeding as a source for scientific study of evolution, animals breed different types within their species, just as the Bible tells us.

      “And God made the beast of the earth after his kind, and cattle after their kind, and every thing that creepeth upon the earth after his kind: and God saw that it was good.” Genesis 1:25 KJV

      “God made all sorts of wild animals, livestock, and small animals, each able to produce offspring of the same kind. And God saw that it was good.” Genesis 1:25 NIV

      Dogs will give rise to other dog species. Cats can breed and over a short time give rise to other cat species. But you will never, ever, ever, find in nature one species evolving into another type. A lizard will not eventually turn into a bird, just because its survival depends on it, a lizard has all it need to survive in its environment.

      The Radiation of cats image you linked, only prove that animals change within the species, excellent diagram. 🙂

      We cannot actually study evolution in the real sense of hands on study. It takes a large amount of faith and assumptions from man. Man make these assumptions under the name of science to fit their story of how life began and developed over time on this planet we call earth. Evolution is a looooooooooooong process, it takes “millions of years” which none of us can ever prove, because not one of us can live that long to ever see it happen.

    3. steven

      The only things fossils prove, is that something died. You can’t prove the thing that was these fossils gave brith! let alone birth to something different than it’s own kind. -Dr. Kent having

      Your religion of evolution takes more faith than any other. It’s not science, Science is about the observability and repeatability of a certain phenomenon. Evolution has never been observed nor repeated plus any scientific model is only as good as the assumption in which the foundation is laid on. Evolutions Foundation is that life came from non-life and the genetic code just happened. you cannot prove these assumption, what we can observe is plant life producing same plant life, animal life producing same animal life and human life producing same human life. before you even get into fossil record you must first demonstrate proof that nothing+no one= something. when you have observed and repeated these things then address fossils, until then it is your faith that you have put into this religion of evolution

  24. Bard

    I would just like to say that this was a brilliant read. I find it greatly refreshing to finally stumble upon a site pro-christianity instead of all the negative-oriented sites I’ve found about christianity. Thanks alot for all the research and work that has been put into this. Brilliant!

  25. Skeptic

    sidenote: there are many examples in the fossil record of gradual evolution. (see: the galapagos islands)

    1. loswl Post author

      Thanks for commenting Skeptic, we did not disallow your comment, our blog is protected by many levels of anti-spam software that gives us some false positives at times, sorry for the misunderstanding.

      The fossils found on Galapagos and and other places like China (Archaeopteryx- half reptile, half bird ) are not “Missing Links” or transitional stages between species, they are actually a defined specie just like a Platapus, which is a egg-laying, venomous, duck-billed, beaver-tailed, otter-footed animal. If there were transitional species, there would have to be millions of them, just like we find millions of fossils in such abundance all around the world indication of a world wide flood.

  26. Skeptic

    I think you guys misunderstand what people are trying to say when they say that the bible is not factual.. I don’t think anyone I know is upset over whether a succession of kings is in the correct chronological order, or whether a depiction of an ancient city is based on fact. I think the skeptics are more concerned with the articles that are known (and provable through tests that can easily be reproduced) to be physically impossible, such as miracles and creation.
    Ie: there is not enough water on the earth to flood the whole thing. Rain comes from the oceans and lakes, not from some magical rain-land. Correlation does not automatically imply causation. The fact that some cities (in the same area) were flooded does not imply that the whole world was.

    1. loswl Post author

      I cannot blame an unbeliever for not accepting the miracles in the Bible, that is fine, but you cannot at the same time dismiss the entire Bible on the basis that you cannot prove scientifically that miracles did happen, there are many things in the world we cannot understand, eg we cannot understand how a bee can fly scientifically a bee should not be able to fly, yet..it flies. The world we live in is not just a physical world it is also spiritual, the problem comes when we try to dismiss the spiritual aspect of life, miracles cannot be proven, they are actually supernatural events that occur when God wants to show us His Glory, that is why we have to have a certain amount of Faith like a little child. Now faith is not enough for the skeptic and I cannot force my faith on others, we have to come to a point in our own lives where we 1. Believe that God Exist 2. Have faith in His Word 3. Accept that He sent His son to die for our sins.

      Yes there is not enough water on the earth today to flood the earth, although that may be an assumption, we still do not understand everything about the earth, we live on a different earth than pre-flood era, so we don’t really know scientifically how the flood could have happened, but I believe in an All Powerful God that can do anything he wants, if He can feed a crowd of hundreds with five loaves and two fishes, make wine from water etc, etc, He can more than make the earth flood with ease. I know that is not scientific, but not everything that comes off the lips of a scientist we can trust, scientist used to believe that if they drained the blood out of a sick person, the person would get better, the Bible says Life is in the Blood. Leviticus 17:14

        1. loswl Post author

          That is a great article Tomi, the bee is more complex than I thought, the fact that someone really placed some serious research into it and came up with a reasonable explanation is very good, I actually like that about science. What I don’t like is when evolutionist (which I don’t believe is scientific) say…Oh this insect\animal took millions of years to develop these amazing attributes, that’s like saying wow what a beautiful designed watch, it must have taken millions of years for this watch to have all the necessary parts to function!! and we don’t believe that there possibly could be a watch maker and we don’t want anyone to even investigate that possibility!! or else!! plus it is mythical to believe that there is a watch maker!!

    3. breezybest

      Inner Earth May Hold More Water Than the Seas
      By Ben Harder
      for National Geographic News

      March 7, 2002
      Molten rocks deep in the earths interior may be surprisingly wet, Japanese researchers say. From lab experiments, they have concluded there may be more H2O deep underground than in all oceans, lakes, and rivers combined.

      The scientists first heated “mineral cocktails” to a white-hot 1600 degrees Celsius (2900 degrees Fahrenheit) and squeezed them until the pressure reached more than three million pounds per square inch (200,000 kilograms per square centimeter). Then they cooked the samples for an hour.

      Based on what they witnessed in their lab, the researchers concluded that more water probably exists deep within the Earth than is present on Earth’s surface—as much as FIVE TIMES more.

      The rest of the article is here -vvv-

      http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2002/03/0307_0307_waterworld.html

      I can post NUMEROUS other articles, ALL from secular, scientific sources that say the same thing, some even believe there is more water within the earth than this National Geographic article states.

      ——————————————-

      Genesis 7:11-24 In the six hundredth year of Noah’s life, on the seventeenth day of the second month—ON THAT DAY ALL THE SPRINGS OF THE GREAT DEEP BURST FORTH, and the floodgates of the heavens were opened. 12 And rain fell on the earth forty days and forty nights.

      13 On that very day Noah and his sons, Shem, Ham and Japheth, together with his wife and the wives of his three sons, entered the ark. 14 They had with them every wild animal according to its kind, all livestock according to their kinds, every creature that moves along the ground according to its kind and every bird according to its kind, everything with wings. 15 Pairs of all creatures that have the breath of life in them came to Noah and entered the ark. 16 The animals going in were male and female of every living thing, as God had commanded Noah. Then the LORD shut him in.

      17 For forty days the flood kept coming on the earth, and as the waters increased they lifted the ark high above the earth. 18 The waters rose and increased greatly on the earth, and the ark floated on the surface of the water. 19 They rose greatly on the earth, and all the high mountains under the entire heavens were covered. 20 The waters rose and covered the mountains to a depth of more than fifteen cubits.[a][b] 21 Every living thing that moved on land perished—birds, livestock, wild animals, all the creatures that swarm over the earth, and all mankind. 22 Everything on dry land that had the breath of life in its nostrils died. 23 Every living thing on the face of the earth was wiped out; people and animals and the creatures that move along the ground and the birds were wiped from the earth. Only Noah was left, and those with him in the ark.

      24 The waters flooded the earth for a hundred and fifty days.

      ——————————————-

      There are actually other references to springs within the earth under the seas in the Bible…
      Job 38:16, 33:6-9, Proverbs 8:22-28.

      How would the writers of the Bible know that there was water inside the earth UNDER the seas?! God said there was and now science has proven it CORRECT! Grow up and REALLY read the Bible instead of throwing out that you’re some supposed expert…HOW could you be if you didn’t know any of THIS?!

      1. loswl Post author

        That is an excellent article, love how it relates to what the Bible says about “The Fountains of the Deep”. It’s interesting that mainstream scientist are saying this. I will read up on it 🙂

    4. Steve

      This is people putting God in a box. Seriously, if he’s GOD, he isn’t bound by the rules of nature. If he wanted to triple the amount of water on earth for 24 hours, or stop the earth from rotating, which he did, he can. Makes sense doesn’t he. He isn’t bound by the rules he created. He is above them.

      1. Duncan

        I don’t think they were trying to put God in a box. They were illustrating how God’s actions, as described in the Bible, are harmonious with, rather than contradictory to, the world we live in. I also believe that He has the all-power that you describe, but in reality, His greatest miracles are not the physical impossibilities, but the regeneration of souls and the love of which we are allowed to partake. I hope we can all realize that these conversations about Biblical inerrancy are only supposed to point us with greater confidence toward the Truth that saves.

  28. imshandon

    I would less question the historic accuracies of the original authors but more so the “translations” that is now considered historically accurate….

    2. Steve

      Well, we have the originals that we can line up the modern translations with and see if they are accurate. It’s not a game of telephone. I personally read the ESV in my church, but we used to use the NIV.

  29. Brian

    As a major in Biblical Studies at a top Christian college I feel I can say that the Bible is the most accurate ancient text to date. However, there are major discrepancies that one cannot know fully and this is ok. One example is the book of Revelations with which many theologians disagree about the audience of this book.
    My real reason for the comment is that in many cases of the bible, such as the flood, I see accuracy as being what reliability is to validity. Meaning accuracy because there are repetitive stories throughout the world that says the same thing but does not necessarily make it a fully valid and factual story. To be even more clear about what I am saying is that one can create a test for school or something and find out one’s knowledge about a subject. They can have a person take the test more than once and prove its reliability because the scores will be somewhat the same. However, it does not make the test valid because the questions asked in the test can be the wrong questions. And the story of the flood circulating the globe can be just a story.

    My problem that I have with the church as a Christian is our interpretation of much of the scripture. And being real. You know David of whom Jesus is suppose to be the direct descendant (the Davidic Messiah)? Well he as mentioned above murdered someone and stole this man’s wife Bathsheba. But yet we are concerned with whether or not our Government, who should not decide our morals, should not allow gays to be married.

    1. steven

      your mention David and his sin with Bathsheba, is this an attempt to condone gay marriage? If so I think you are vastly mistaken. you’ve taken the descriptive and made it prescriptive. If you continue reading you will see how God fully restored David. yes he sinned greatly but he repented even greater. this “well David was a murderer and stole someone’s wife, so how can the bible’s take on marriage be good”. take for example cnn, because cnn runs articles and stories on murder or rape, does that mean they condone it? No! that would be absurd! but when you read in full context of the bible you see the point that is trying to be made, I mean if I pick and choose, and take the bible out of context I could say “hey the bible condones suicide, check out this ‘then judas hung himself'” that’s ridiculous, but taking thats what taking the descriptive and making it prescriptive does.

    1. loswl Post author

      The Bible does not tell us that the world is 6,000 years old, so you cannot say the Bible is inaccurate on that point. However the 6,000 years is someones calculations of Biblical dates, there are actually more scientific and physical proof for a young earth compared to the Theories we have been brain washed to accept in school about…

      A long, long time ago …in a country far, far away

      The millions of years theory is still a theory, not a scientific fact, even though they teach and talk about it like it is a fact beyond any doubt!

      1. Steve

        I don’t know. I’m a firm Christian and I don’t believe in the “young earth” theory, and neither do most Christians I know. The timeline scientists give can line up with the bible no problem. We don’t know what a “day” was in the Genesis account. It could be 24 hours. It could be millions of years. I tend to lean toward the latter as it doesn’t disagree with the bible and makes a lot more sense scientifically.

        1. loswl Post author

          Hi Steve, thanks for checking out the post and participating in the discussion. Let me share a little on what I believe as far as it relates to the Genesis account of creation and how it does not line up with the Evolutionary Theory of millions of years (which is not based on science)

          The reason most Christians today do not believe in the 6 day creation account is that we all have been taught that the earth is millions and millions of years old. Its taught to us in school, we hear it when we watch movies and television shows like Discovery Channel etc, etc. So it is in our brains, basically we are brain washed by repetition techniques. Why on earth should we even believe that the Bible is true, when it says that God created everything in six “literal” days? Well, the Church started to blend Creation and Darwinian Evolutionary Theory together and some began to say that maybe, just maybe, the 6 days could have meant 6 millions years or more, after all the Bible has to line up with “Science”, right?!?…. This is what we call the Day-Age-Theory.

          Well, does the Bible support this Theory? Everything Scripture teaches about sin and death requires a literal interpretation of the first three chapters of Genesis. That being said, let’s review some of the arguments made by the proponents of the Day-Age-Theory.

          Adherents of this theory often point out that the word used for “day” in Hebrew, yom, sometimes refers to a period of time that is more than a literal twenty-four hour day. One scriptural passage in particular often looked upon in support of this theory is 2 Peter 3:8 where it says “With the Lord a day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years are like a day.” However, as with all Biblical interpretation, one must look at the context of the entire passage. In 2 Peter 3:3-10 we see that Peter is talking about scoffers in the last days as they question the second coming of Christ. This passage simply reminds us that God stands outside of time and we should not doubt the occurrence of a future Biblical event simply because it seems to be taking a long time from our limited human perspective. Accordingly, 2 Peter 3:8 has nothing to do with the length of the creation week, nor was it meant to turn “day” into a mathematical formula.

          Each day in the first chapter of Genesis is described as having an evening and a morning. Indeed, these two words—evening and morning—are used extensively in the Old Testament and each time they refer to normal days. Moreover, outside Genesis yom is used with a number hundreds of times—i.e., “one day” and each time it means an ordinary day. If Moses wanted to convey a longer period of time he could have used either olam or qedem, in place of yom.

          Another reason given for a metaphorical “day” as postulated by this theory is that with the sun not being made until day four, how could there have been ordinary days (i.e. day and night) before this? However, the sun is not needed for a day and night. What is needed is light and a rotating Earth. The “evening and morning” indicates a rotating Earth, and as far as light is concerned, recall that God’s very first command was “Let there be light” and there was light (Genesis 1:3). Separating the light from the darkness was the very first thing our Creator did. Also, remember that in Revelation 21:23 we see that the New Jerusalem “does not need the sun or moon to shine on it” as the “glory of God” will provide the “light.” At the beginning of creation, God’s radiant light would have certainly been sufficient until the luminaries were created three days later.

          Additionally, if the “days” of Genesis are really long periods of time such as millions or billions of years, then God’s Word is completely undermined at its very foundation as we would then have disease, suffering and death before the fall of man, even though Scripture clearly indicates that “sin entered the world through one man (Adam), and death through sin” (Romans 5:12). Thus, it is clear that there was no death prior to Adam’s act of disobedience in the Garden of Eden. If this theory were true, it would nullify the doctrine of the fall of mankind into sin. Furthermore, it would also render void the doctrine of the Atonement, for if there was no “fall” why would we need a Redeemer?

          Martin Luther once said: “But, if you cannot understand how this could have been done in six days, then grant the Holy Spirit the honor of being more learned than you are…since God is speaking, it is not fitting for you wantonly to turn His Word in the direction you wish it to go.” Instead of looking to science to tell us what God really meant, all we really need to do is study Scripture, daily and eagerly, just like the Bereans (Acts 17:11), as all of it was inspired by God (2 Timothy 3:16), and all of it is true (Psalm 119:160).

          Christ Himself spoke of the importance of believing in Moses’ writings (John 5:45-47). And in Exodus 20:11, this is what Moses had to say: “For in six days the Lord made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and rested the seventh day.”

          Real Science agrees with the Genesis account, Theories like Evolution and Day-Age,….Do Not!

          Source: http://www.gotquestions.org/Day-Age-Theory.html

  31. Stephenson

    The authors were actually assumed by the names of some of the books, others were assumed by historians on other historical facts and data. The Bible was copied by third parties called scribes, such care was given in copying the text that if an “i” was not dotted and a “t” was not crossed, they would destroy the copy and start over from the beginning, that’s how much care that was given to make sure the copies were accurate. The fact that the Bible is historically accurate, just put your point of “why and by whom it was written by” to mute.

    The was difficulty in determining the Biblical canon, but the difficulty in determining the biblical canon is that the Bible does not give us a list of the books that belong in the Bible. Determining the canon was a process conducted first by Jewish rabbis and scholars and later by early Christians. Ultimately, it was God who decided what books belonged in the biblical canon. A book of Scripture belonged in the canon from the moment God inspired its writing. It was simply a matter of God’s convincing His human followers which books should be included in the Bible.

    Compared to the New Testament, there was very little controversy over the canon of the Old Testament. Hebrew believers recognized God’s messengers and accepted their writings as inspired of God. While there was undeniably some debate in regards to the Old Testament canon, by A.D. 250 there was nearly universal agreement on the canon of Hebrew Scripture. The only issue that remained was the Apocrypha, with some debate and discussion continuing today. The vast majority of Hebrew scholars considered the Apocrypha to be good historical and religious documents, but not on the same level as the Hebrew Scriptures.

    Here are the books of the Bible along with the name of who is most assumed by Biblical scholars to be the author, along with the approximate date of authorship:

    Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy = Moses – 1400 B.C.
    Joshua = Joshua – 1350 B.C.
    Judges, Ruth, 1 Samuel, 2 Samuel = Samuel/Nathan/Gad – 1000 – 900 B.C.
    1 Kings, 2 Kings = Jeremiah – 600 B.C.
    1 Chronicles, 2 Chronicles, Ezra, Nehemiah = Ezra – 450 B.C.
    Esther = Mordecai – 400 B.C.
    Job = Moses – 1400 B.C.
    Psalms = several different authors, mostly David – 1000 – 400 B.C.
    Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, Song of Solomon = Solomon – 900 B.C.
    Isaiah = Isaiah – 700 B.C.
    Jeremiah, Lamentations = Jeremiah – 600 B.C.
    Ezekiel = Ezekiel – 550 B.C.
    Daniel = Daniel – 550 B.C.
    Hosea = Hosea – 750 B.C.
    Joel = Joel – 850 B.C.
    Amos = Amos – 750 B.C.
    Obadiah = Obadiah – 600 B.C.
    Jonah = Jonah – 700 B.C.
    Micah = Micah – 700 B.C.
    Nahum = Nahum – 650 B.C.
    Habakkuk = Habakkuk – 600 B.C.
    Zephaniah = Zephaniah – 650 B.C.
    Haggai = Haggai – 520 B.C.
    Zechariah = Zechariah – 500 B.C.
    Malachi = Malachi – 430 B.C.
    Matthew = Matthew – A.D. 55
    Mark = John Mark – A.D. 50
    Luke = Luke – A.D. 60
    John = John – A.D. 90
    Acts = Luke – A.D. 65
    Romans, 1 Corinthians, 2 Corinthians, Galatians, Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians, 1 Thessalonians, 2 Thessalonians, 1 Timothy, 2 Timothy, Titus, Philemon = Paul – A.D. 50-70
    Hebrews = unknown, mostly likely Paul, Luke, Barnabas, or Apollos – A.D. 65
    James = James – A.D. 45
    1 Peter, 2 Peter = Peter – A.D. 60
    1 John, 2 John, 3 John = John – A.D. 90
    Jude = Jude – A.D. 60
    Revelation = John – A.D. 90

    If the Bible was written to govern mankind, it would have accomplished that task.It nearly did, The Roman Catholic church did use the Bible to govern people, but they had to read it in Latin, a language that the people could not understand, because they knew that if the masses did understand, then they would know the truth of God and stop paying for forgiveness, which is a free gift from God.

    Question: who are these notable historians and professors?!?

    1. loswl Post author

      I agree, for a book that vast and that historically accurate, the “people who made it up” must have had great power to know future events and must have been communicating with each other, since we know that the text was not written by one man, if these authors made it all up, how is it so historically accurate?

  32. Gregg

    It has been made known by notable historians and professors that, in fact, the noted author’s of the “Bible” were not indeed the actual ones. In fact, it has been made known that the “Bible” was, in fact, written by third-parties (anonymous individuals other than those given the credits) based on hearsay and with the church’s influential input of its desired ‘facts’ for use in governing mankind.

    1. Steve

      if you’re gonna make a statement like this, you need to back it up with some sources. and the bible was written by over 40 different people. u need to be more specific. and why place the bible in quotes? that’s what it’s called. anyways, if you what you say is true, it’d be easy to prove, so please do so.

    1. loswl Post author

      Thanks Toni for the link, but it would have been better if you posed a question of your own. Scoffers often ask questions along the lines of “Explain how these verses do not contradict!” or “Look, here is an error in the Bible!” Admittedly, some of the things people bring up are difficult to answer. However, there are viable and intellectually plausible answers to every supposed Bible contradiction and error.

      There are books and websites available that list “all the errors in the Bible.” Most people simply get their ammunition from these places, like youtube…. they do not find supposed errors on their own. There are also books and websites available that refute every one of these supposed errors. The fact is that the Bible is historically accurate and the fact that it is, scoffers has to deal with it, because it is one thing to read the Bible out of context and it is another to dismiss the proof of archeology.

      1. Stephenson

        Most people who attack the Bible are not truly interested in an answer. Many “Bible attackers” are even aware of these answers, but they continue to use the same old shallow attacks again and again. If we read the Bible at face value, without a preconceived bias for finding errors, we will find it to be a coherent, consistent, and relatively easy-to-understand book.

        We must remember that the Bible was written by approximately 40 different authors over a period of around 1500 years. Each writer wrote with a different style, from a different perspective, to a different audience, for a different purpose. We should expect some minor differences. However, a difference is not a contradiction. It is only an error if there is absolutely no conceivable way the verses or passages can be reconciled. Even if an answer is not available right now, that does not mean an answer does not exist. Many have found a supposed error in the Bible in relation to history or geography only to find out that the Bible is correct once further archaeological evidence is discovered.

        For example, when the average Bible critic charges that if the Biblical Exodus really happened it should have been mentioned on some Egyptian stele somewhere. Such a critic needs to know that Pharaohs never document defeat; indeed they sometimes exaggerate their victories.

        Critics as well as lovers of the Bible who desire to be taken seriously must do their homework on reading ancient texts in their literary context and furthermore It seems to be that the Bible is automatically held guilty unless proven innocent.

        Apparent inconsistencies fade away whenever the Bible is studied with an open mind. An example is found in regard to the ruling family of Palestine In Matthew 2:1, we read of “Herod the King” who was reigning when Jesus was born. Matt. 2:19 records his death. Yet in Acts 12:12, we read once more of “Herod the King” putting James to death. How could he do this if he were already dead? Does the Bible contradict itself? Josephus, an unbeliever in Christ, explains the difficulty by showing that Herod of Acts 12, was actually the grandson of the Herod mentioned in Matthew 2. The Bible agrees perfectly with the facts.

        The fact that Biblical accounts have been substantiated by non-Biblical writers is extremely important, because they were not writing with any biblical bias. For example: the Jewish historian Josephus has said many things concerning facts in the Bible. For example: in Matthew 14:3,4, we are told that Herod put John the Baptist to death for the sake of Herodias, his brother Philip’s wife, because John had informed Herod that it wasn’t lawful for him to have her as his wife. Josephus tells us why it was unlawful. Herodias had originally been married to Herod’s brother, Philip. But she divorced Philip and married Herod. This unlawful marriage was the occasion of John’s rebuke. The account of Josephus and the Bible are in perfect accord.

        The Bible is actually the most accurate piece of historical document that man has in his possession, here are the facts, the only book that comes close as far as accuracy is the manuscripts (copies) of “Homer” (writer of the Trojan Horse) These writings were copied 500 years between the times of the original documents. Six hundred and forty three (643) copies still exist and the writings are 95% correct. The original document was written 900 B.C. the earliest copy was done about 400 B.C.

        Compare those stats to the “New Testament” writings of the Bible…

        The “New Testament” Documents were copied less than 100 years between the time of the original documents 5600 copies still exist and the writings are 99.5% correct. The original documents were written 1st Cent. A.D. (50-100 A.D.) and the earliest copy was made 2nd Cent. A.D. (c. 130 A.D. f.). The original copy still exists today. Historians can still compare the copies against the original. Note: The Old Testament is not taken in as a factor yet, in the equation.

        There are thousands more New Testament Greek manuscripts than any other ancient writing. The internal consistency of the New Testament documents is about 99.5% textually pure. That is an amazing accuracy. In addition there are over 19,000 copies in the Syriac, Latin, Coptic, and Aramaic languages. The total supporting New Testament manuscript base is over 24,000. Almost all biblical scholars agree that the New Testament documents were all written before the close of the First Century. If Jesus was crucified in 30 A.D., then that means that the entire New Testament was completed within 70 years. This is important because it means there were plenty of people around when the New Testament documents were penned who could have contested the writings, In other words, those who wrote the documents knew that if they were inaccurate, plenty of people would have pointed it out. But, we have absolutely no ancient documents contemporary with the First Century that contest the New Testament texts.

        Furthermore, another important aspect of this discussion is the fact that we have a fragment of the gospel of John that dates back to around 29 years from the original writing (John Rylands Papyri 125 A.D.). This is extremely close to the original writing date. This is simply unheard of in any other ancient writing and it demonstrates that the Gospel of John is a First Century document.

        A superficial reading might lead us to suppose that the Bible contradicts itself. But on close examination, with other known facts, these questions are usually cleared up.

      2. Tomi

        Actually my reply was in a form of question.

        1st:
        “Scoffers often ask questions along the lines of “Explain how these verses do not contradict!” or “Look, here is an error in the Bible!”
        -> True (not sure about the Scoffers). But by asking questions you´ll find the truth. And if you are an honest person, you are also honest to yourself. Even if the truth you find will not ‘fit’ in your beliefs.

        2nd:
        “However, there are viable and intellectually plausible answers to every supposed Bible contradiction and error.”
        -> Ok, where? Or am I to take your word for it too?

        3rd:
        “There are books and websites available that list “all the errors in the Bible.” Most people simply get their ammunition from these places, like youtube…. they do not find supposed errors on their own.”
        -> And why should they? These errors are the ones where no answers are given. And you quote the Bible all the time. Why not create verses of your own?

        4th:
        “There are also books and websites available that refute every one of these supposed errors.”
        -> I would like to read these sites. Can you give me one ore two best ones, thank you.

        5th:
        “The fact is that the Bible is historically accurate and the fact that it is, scoffers has to deal with it, because it is one thing to read the Bible out of context and it is another to dismiss the proof of archeology.”
        ->Ok, this makes no sense. So if I read the bible and misunderstand the content (archeologywise) therefore scoffers have to deal with it and THEREFORE bible is historically accurate? Wow. Cool.

        3. loswl Post author

          Ok, here is my response:

          1st. I agree that “by asking questions you´ll find the truth.” I have no problems with that at all, I had many questions about where life and the universe came from,the Bible and God and I weighed the answers I got, to the answers that were being drilled in my head at school. I was basically being taught that Life and everything we see around us, came from nothing, at first I believed, but as I investigated further, I found out that, it is actually impossible for everything we see to have come from nothing! actually scientifically it is impossible, math does not agree with evolution, scientific laws does not agree with evolution, for example:

          ” The whole notion that random change over a long period of time can transform simple systems into ever more complex systems runs precisely contrary to one of the most fundamental laws of nature — the second law
          of thermodynamics. The Second Law states that with time, everything in the universe tends to undergo progressive _degradation_. With the passing of time, things do not naturally increase in order and complexity — they _decrease_. Think of what spontaneous change over a thousand years will do to an automobile, or your own body. Scientists tell us that with enough time, this natural degradation process will lead to the “heat death” of the whole universe when virtually everything in nature will run down to the point that even molecular motion will cease!”

          Source:http://www.jesus-is-lord.com/evollawa.txt

          2nd, 3rd and 4th.
          There are many books and website a simple Google search or Amazon search will bring these up, you don’t have to take my word for it, I certainly don’t know everything, really, I don’t.

          Here is one website that came up in my Google search: http://www.philvaz.com/apologetics/bible.htm

          5th
          Seems like you misunderstood my point.

          “The fact is that the Bible is historically accurate and the fact that it is, scoffers has to deal with it, because it is one thing to read the Bible out of context and it is another to dismiss the proof of archeology.”

          This is what I mean:
          Scoffers have to deal with the fact that the Bible is historically accurate, if you look at the facts presented in this article, example: Grapes in Egypt, The Hitties, Sargon, etc. Theses facts would have to be explained away beyond a reasonable doubt by the Scoffer and how can one go up against historical facts? The Scoffer would have to explain away all of the facts. Reading the Bible out of context is usually cleared up when the full meaning of the text is presented, especially when the language is cleared up, because as you should know the Bible was not originally written in the English language, sometimes cross referring the Hebrew or Greek text, gives a fuller meaning of certain verses, sometimes you have to look at the culture of the people to understand the text, that is why Archeology and other areas of study are important.

      3. shadystaton

        Wow Loswl. What an amazing warrior you are! You are well educated to your cause and kind with your rebuttal. I use to be a skeptic and argue the Bible. But God used that. After 7 years of studying the bible and arguing every verse, God showed me the Truth. So keep up your loving education. because no matter why they are in the Word they are in the word!

        2. loswl Post author

          Thanks for the encouragement shadystaton, great to know that people are reading and learning from the blog 🙂

        3. loswl Post author

          Hi shadystaton, Just had a chance to read what you said again and my heart is so filled with joy!! The fact that you said you were once a skeptic and God changed your heart is a very powerful statement! I rejoice with you and for you. Amen!! Just gives more meaning to what we do here, because our goal is to win souls not win an argument, at the end of the day the work belongs to the Holy Spirit to work on the heart of a man or woman. I thank God for you!!

  34. Stephenson

    Great article, very interesting discoveries, this list is actually small, there are many other discoveries, eg.

    -Joshua’s conquest of the Promised Land
    -Historicity of numerous kings mentioned in the Bible
    -Historicity of other Biblical Personalities
    -The Archeological Evidence of the New Testament

    For example, the pool of Bethesda described in John 5:2 has been located in the north­east quarter of the old city of Jerusalem called Betheza.

    The fact that Gallio was proconsul of Archaia as stated in Acts 18:12 has been proven correct through inscriptions found.

    In 1968 the first physical evidence of crucifixion as a form of punishment was found when archeologist discovered heel bones still tranfixed by an iron nail.

    Archeology has been continually proving the Bible to be a reliable source of history. Many people, places and customs spoken of in the New Testament has now been confirmed to be true. People just don’t read enough and no amount of proof will move the heart of the un-believer, it takes the moving of the Holy Spirit on the heart.

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