I believe the Bible is the word of God. It is God's instruction for mankind. It's many things, including an instruction manual, a poetry book, a history, an explanation, a great story book, a financial planner, a wedding planner and a nature guide. But most importantly, it is a book offering salvation to sinners, pointing to a savior in Jesus Christ. There are many reasons to trust the bible, but here is one that works well for me: Israel.
If I really wanted to disprove the Bible, it would be helpful if the Jewish people were no longer with us. I could say that perhaps they never existed or that they were no different than any other group long gone from history's pages. The Normans, the Saxons, the Celts, the Spartans, The Pyramid Building Egyptians or the column building Greeks are all gone and if the Jewish people were gone, it would be so helpful. Because if the Jewish people were gone, they would be like any other people or society long gone, assimilated into another group, forgotten or forever lost and then we could say that the promise was broken and the relationship given to them by God, according to the Bible, was just a story and not to be trusted. The only problem with that idea is that the Jewish people are still here.
Not only are they here, they have taken back the biblical promised land. No matter the politics, no matter our opinion of the conflict in the Middle East, it still makes us wonder. We know that Israel is a people of the Bible. We've watched Hollywood recreate the exodus and the parting of the Red Sea. We know the story of David and Goliath. We know that Jesus was a Jew and brought up keeping the law and attended synagogue. Most of us are familiar with the Jewish people of the Bible, and it's hard not to wonder, being amazed that a nation mentioned in an ancient text is still here. These "mythological" people are very real.
I don't like to think about prophecy, and sometimes I don't understand it, but I know this: God promised a special relationship with Abraham, and as far as I can tell, it still stands. I think Israel's existence is fulfilled prophecy in itself.
It would be so helpful to me, if I was trying to prove the Bible wasn't true, that Israel didn't exist. But Israel does exist, and after only six days (a war whose strange case for divine intervention is an example in itself of the relevance of the Bible) the Jewish people were able to take back a land from the pages of history. I've heard explanations for this, some conspiratorial, or racist, or both, but none of them take away from the fact that we are still talking about a very real people group, still in existence today, a people group at the center of the Bible's narrative.
One of the main characters in the Bible is Israel. It's amazing, but Israel is still here, more or less. They, after a couple thousand years, even have their country back, and for the most part they still have their faith. To me, this is one amazing piece of evidence in the case for the Bible's divinity.
If Israel was gone, or more specifically if the Jewish people were gone like the Philistines or the Babylonians or the Hittites or the other groups mentioned in the Old Testament, that would be one thing, but the Jewish people are still here. Some people will scoff and mock this; oh well. To me it's amazing that Israel is still here, a living testimony to the truth of the Bible. Some might argue that other groups are still here as well, the Egyptians for example, but most people agree that the Egyptians of today are not the same people who built the pyramids, and what's more, they no longer worship Anubis or Ra; they're not the same people. But Jewish people still worship the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. The Jupiter worshipping Romans are gone. The Greeks with all they gave to civilization are gone too, victims of countless conflicts, invasions and emigrations. But the Jewish people remain. On a simple level, they are a real people who are mentioned in the Bible, and that is enough evidence for me.
What about the messy situation in the Middle East? Oddly enough, to me, this situation is even more evidence of the Bible's credibility. When we read the Bible, we read about very real people who still exist today. The conflict in the Middle East is not between new groups who only came to be recently. The conflict in the Middle East is neither between Spartans and Goths, Samurai and Ninja, Greeks and Romans, Philistines, Vikings, Vandals or any other forgotten people of history--but it is between two sons of Abraham: Ishmael and Isaac. The conflict in the Middle East today is centered on the central nation of the Bible, Israel. The three great faiths of the world all come from Abraham, a character in the Bible.
Why does this conflict carry on after so many thousands of years? Where is the conflict between the Spartans and the Persians? Where is the conflict between the Vikings and Rome? How about the Saxons and Normans? All of these are relics of the past, left only to the pages of history.
The Jewish people themselves are evidence of the trustworthiness of the Bible. Their resilience in the face of persecution, their ability to overcome and their ability to restore the land promised to them in the Bible are all evidence to me of something divine. The fact that Israel, regardless of the politics, would end up back on that same soil is amazing to me. Anyone who has read the bible is familiar with the importance of Jerusalem and the promises God made to Abraham. Obviously, the Jewish people have taken the Bible quite seriously. If the bible is only a metaphor, a myth or a story then what a coincidence that Israel has taken back the very land promised to them by God, in a so called myth.
The Jewish people were given the Law, according to the Bible, and like all of us, they sometimes had trouble keeping that law. But nonetheless, they had it. They were given an instruction manual from God, and though history is marked with their troubles, they have thrived and succeeded. Perhaps it's their relationship with God and His intervening more than their keeping of the Law, I'm not sure, but God established a special relationship with the Jewish people many years ago, and it seems to me, God has kept His promise, regardless of how well they kept theirs.
There are those who create fantastic excuses for the resilience of the Jewish people and some might descend into lies or racism to explain the ongoing success of Israel and the Jewish people, but deep down we know it's all bunk. They are a resilient, successful, intelligent people that have maintained family bonds, all the while having the Word of God as a blueprint for success and remain today as evidence of that ancient book's credibility. I'm hardly saying they're a perfect people anymore than any other people, or more than anyone else of any faith, but if they had a divine blueprint to begin with and a divine relationship to begin with, a divine relationship with the Creator of the universe, it might help explain their success and survival, while other groups have long been forgotten.
No group in the Bible still exists today in the same way Israel does. To me, the Jewish people are a testimony to the Bible's credibility. There are many more pieces of evidence that tell me the Bible is something special, but Israel is one of the most important ones.
The Jewish people lived through centuries of turmoil to remain today, a resilient people and a relevant people, unfortunately at the center of one of the the gravest conflicts of our time. Regardless of your political opinions or even regardless of your opinion of the Jewish people themselves, their relevance today in world affairs proves they are no myth. The people themselves, as well as the nation of Israel, speak to the credibility of the Bible.
Here are just a few scriptures that point to the importance of Israel's relationship to God and their connection with the Bible:
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Isaiah 61:4 They will rebuild the ancient ruins and restore the places long devastated; they will renew the ruined cities that have been devastated for generations.
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Isaiah 65:21 They will build houses and dwell in them; they will plant vineyards and eat their fruit.
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Jeremiah 12:15 But after I uproot them, I will again have compassion and will bring each of them back to his own inheritance and his own country.
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Jeremiah 33:7 I will bring Judah and Israel back from captivity and will rebuild them as they were before.
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Ezekiel 28:26 They will live there in safety and will build houses and plant vineyards; they will live in safety when I inflict punishment on all their neighbors who maligned them. Then they will know that I am the LORD their God.'"
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Ezekiel 37:21 and say to them, 'This is what the Sovereign LORD says: I will take the Israelites out of the nations where they have gone. I will gather them from all around and bring them back into their own land
New International Version
