How can we prove the Bible is Inspired by God?
When people go in search of real, factual Truth, they need to first ensure that their sources are reliable. The Bible makes claims in many places that it is a message revealed from God above. For instance:

“But as for you, continue in what you have learned and have firmly believed, knowing from whom you learned it and how from childhood you have been acquainted with the sacred writings, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus. All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work.” (2 Timothy 3:14-17 ESV)

“Knowing this first, that no prophecy of scripture is of private interpretation. For no prophecy ever came by the will of man: but men spake from God, being moved by the Holy Spirit.” (2 Peter 1:20-21 ASV)

Either these claims are true, or they aren’t. The whole book stands or falls together. It is either a true revelation from God to man, or a very clever deception by human beings. There are several convincing proofs that the Bible is indeed a message given directly from God – health regulations, consistency, archaeological evidence, fulfilled prophecy, and so much more.

Health Regulations
Health regulations in the Bible are based on knowledge far in advance of scientific discoveries of the times. One has only to read through the Law of Moses in the Old Testament (Exodus to Deuteronomy) to discover that at the very beginning God, the Creator of our world, understood what was best for humans to avoid disease and illness. The extensive use of water to cleanse, the avoidance of close contact with those who had sicknesses, isolation of the diseased, the regulations against eating “unclean” animals prone to parasites, and so much more, was not even properly understood by doctors in the 1800’s, yet the Law of Moses had it right thousands of years ago!

* See this article on Disease and the Law of Moses by Dr. Stephen Palmer

Consistent Message
The Bible was written over a period of about 3000-4000 years, with many different messengers receiving God’s word and carefully recording it. The message, the theme, the symbols, the hope, and the lessons are all consistent from beginning to end. Such consistency would be very difficult, if not impossible for human beings to get right over such a long period of time.

Archaeology
We could look into the numerous ways in which archaeology proves the historical aspects of the Bible stories and characters, or the way in which the geographical accounts have helped people discover ancient cities and sites that had been ‘lost’

* See this excellent You Tube message from world-renowned Archaelogist Leen Ritmeyer
* And a helpful You Tube video Incredible – The Silent & Exciting Witness of Bible Archaeology by Stephen Whitehouse.

Psychological Help
We could consider the powerful message of good overcoming evil, the character building and the true psychological understanding of human nature. So many of the helpful sayings, and idioms of today are based upon Jesus’ words in the Sermon on the Mount, or the Psalm and Proverbs.

Fulfilled Prophecy
However, prophecy alone proves the author of the Bible to be Divine. Old Testament prophecies, given 2000 to 3000 years ago, have been remarkably accurate and detailed. In Ezekiel 26-28 we find a prophecy about the ancient nation of Tyre, detailing both the invasion by Babylon which destroyed the old city of Tyre on the mainland (Ezekiel 26:1-11), and also the later invasion of Alexander the Great (Ezekiel 26:3-4, 12-18). Read the detail and examine the historical accounts – and you will be amazed. The same applies to the prophecy in Ezekiel 29 of Egypt, and Babylon in Isaiah 13, about which God says, “it will never be inhabited or lived in for all generations.” Although Saddam Hussein tried to restore Babylon, God’s Word proved true and his attempts were thwarted; Babylon is still in ruins today. Daniel 2 accurately predicts the four successive major Empires of the world, while still in the time period of the first. The visions Daniel had in chapters 7 and 8 give details of these Empires that are amazingly accurate and could not just be someone’s ‘lucky guesses’.

*See this informative You Tube presentation on The Biblical Prophecy about Tyre https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K24uwdc-ato

* And this article A Prophecy about Babylon Confirms the Accuracy of the Bible by Beyond Today

Bible Prophecy About Israel
Exceeding all the prophecies about other nations, the details given concerning the Jewish people, their scattering, regathering and what is in store for the future, are amply recorded in many books of the Bible. This is such an extensive proof of the inspiration of Scripture, that we will examine this one aspect alone in the next blog. 3000 years ago in Ezekiel 39 God said that His dealings with the Jewish people will show the world that He is God. “And the nations shall know that the house of Israel went into captivity for their iniquity, because they dealt so treacherously with me that I hid my face from them and gave them into the hand of their adversaries…, when I have brought them back from the peoples and gathered them from their enemies’ lands… Then they shall know that I am the Lord their God, because I sent them into exile among the nations and then assembled them into their own land.”