Daily Manna from Heaven

by Dr. Harold Sala

Jesus entered the temple courts, and, while he was teaching, the chief priests and the elders of the people came to him. “By what authority are you doing these things?’ they asked. ‘And who gave you this authority?” Matthew 21:23

Authority is an issue today in science, in business, in government, and even in religion. By whose authority do you do this? And what backs up this authority? At no point is this issue more pronounced than when it comes to the Bible. Is this book simply a collection of religious writings? Or is the Bible different because of irrefutable evidence demanding that its authority be recognized?

To pronounce the Bible authoritative simply because it says it is an authority is circular reasoning. I can say that I am an elephant, but that doesn’t give me a long trunk and tusks of ivory. So there has to be a demonstration of credibility which gives authority to this book, the Bible, outside of the Bible itself. I contend that five disciplines give it that ring of authority: 1. The correlation of prophecies found in the Bible with secular history; 2. The verification of scientific statements with scientific facts; 3.The modern science of archaeology confirming names and geographic places mentioned in the Bible; 4. Manuscript evidence; and 5. The testimonies of men and women whose lives have been powerfully changed by this Book.

Let’s start with a definition. Archaeology is the scientific study of the remains of a past civilization. It’s far more than just digging up relics from the past. There’s no second chance for the archaeologist, and it is a scientific discipline which has added repeated confirmation that what the Bible says is true. “Like what?” you may be thinking. Well, for a starter, take the book of Genesis. Until archaeologists unearthed the extensive finds at Mari, in Syria, some contended that writing hadn’t even been developed by the time of Moses; but the thousands of tablets at Mari demonstrated that names such as Abraham, and Sarah, and David were common 1400 years before Christ. The Mari tablets not only demonstrated conclusively that people could write, but that there were libraries full of tablets containing highly developed language skills. Score one for archaeology.

If the Bible were only a collection of myths and fables, it would be only a matter of time until archaeologists should prove the inaccuracies of its references to geography and culture, but the main findings of archaeologists have only confirmed the statements of Scripture. I can’t help but think of the Hittites whom Moses talked about, whose existence was denied by many because there were no records of them apart from the Bible. Then archaeologists came up with documents proving their existence. “Ah, I guess they existed after all,” they concluded. The person who denies the accurate history of the Bible, considering it only literature, is neither an historian nor a literary critic; he or she, a priori, is prosecutor, jury, and hangman.

Relating to archaeology is the discovery of manuscripts thousands of years old, which can be compared to the biblical texts of our day, and what they reveal only adds to the credibility and authority of the Bible. For almost 2000 years scrolls were buried at Masada in Israel, where the Romans destroyed that last fortress of first century Israel, and then they were unearthed following the establishment of the modern state of Israel. Moshe Perlman says of this, “The Psalms of David as recited in today’s synagogues are the same as those uttered by the Zealots in their synagogue the same Hebrew words, the same sentence structure, the same beginning and end of each chapter.”

Should you be one who has never considered the evidence for the authority of this unique book, don’t depend on what others say with sweeping, categorical statements. Find out for yourself. It is well worth your time to discover that the evidence demands a verdict. Yes, you owe it to yourself to find out what this book is all about.

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