"All scripture is given by inspiration of God"
2 Timothy 3:16
There is something about the Bible that separates it from all other forms of human expression. Something that demonstrates that it is declaring God to us. We are dealing with the evidences that show beyond any shadow of a doubt that the Bible is a supernatural Book, authored by God, and therefore perfect, infallible, and trustworthy. See for yourself. The following make up a list of the larger issues surrounding the Bible's production. See if you can find another book that matches these qualifications!
Claims of the Bible Itself
Over 3,800 times, the writers of the Bible claim that God spoke what they wrote (i.e., "thus saith the Lord..."). Either these prophets were liars, or, what we can hold in our hands is the very words of God (2 Timothy 3:15,16; 1 Thessalonians 2:13)!
Unity
Over 40 authors wrote the 66 books of the Bible in different lands, and at different times, covering a period of over 1800 years (from 1700 B.C. to 95 A.D.), and yet never contradicting each other! Try to duplicate that!!! No matter what you have been told, none of the writings were "sanctioned" by some church council, or commanded to be written by some church leader. They were all written by the direct inspirational hand of God, and preserved from any human error, in spite of the fact that myriads of religious efforts were made to destroy both the prophets and their message! Also, concerning Apocryphal books. These were later added by the "church councils," and only show their desire to make the Bible into a complex, and contradicting book, instead of the perfect, and supernatural one that it always has been! Jesus Christ never used, or even alluded to anything ever written in any of the Apocryphal books. This goes in the face of the fact that Christ and His apostles quote from every other Old Testament Book! Doesn't that strike you as very interesting?
Its Influence on the World
No other Book has so influenced the course of human events like the Bible - the Bible has never been imposed upon a people. Think about it! No matter what culture a person lives in, one thing has always been true - Religion has always been forced upon people on a collective basis, while Biblical Christianity has always been chosen on an individual basis. This one piece of "literature" has brought about the greatest nations, and greatest freedoms that no sword or any other means could! See for example the effect the word of God had upon the people of first century A.D. (Acts 17:6), the people of the Reformation, the Renaissance, and compare those people's lives with the effects Dark Ages (the Bible banned from being read or believed), and the effects of Humanism (the Bible mocked at), Stalinism (the Bible banned), Marxism (the Bible banned), and all other forms of tyrannical dictatorship! Because the Bible's revelation is individual in nature, no dictator, pope or prince can allow it to turn their subjects away from complete devotion to THEM, so they ban it! Don't let someone take away your access to that Book!
Supernatural Preservation
As it has already been said, whole kingdoms and religions have sought in vain to destroy the influence of the Scriptures, and yet it still reigns victorious, and indestructible (Matt 24:35). It has, and always will out-last all religions and kingdoms of this world!
Fulfilled Prophecy
One of the most important areas of proof that God wrote the Bible involves the fact that almost 3,300 verses of prophecy have been fulfilled to the letter. These prophecies were predictions made hundreds and even thousands of years before their fulfilment (i.e., the prediction in Micah 5:2 of the birthplace of Jesus was made 750 years before the event). Not one detail has failed, and there are some 3,000 more verses yet to be fulfilled!!! See Deuteronomy 18:20-22, where God promises that everything that His prophets speak will be fulfilled, and if not, then the prophets were false prophets, and should die!!! No human authored book would dare to make that many predictions, so far in advance, and therefore subject its authenticity to such chance - yet God did!
Scientific Accuracy
The Bible describes the earth as a round ball (Isaiah 40:22), suspended in space (Job 26:7). And it did this without the aid of an orbiting satellite. And it expressed this As FACT and not conjecture over 2200 years before Columbus found out it was right! It was the Church that suppressed the readings of the Bible, and instead fed the lie that the earth was flat! Don't let anyone fool you into thinking that Jesus believed in a flat-earth science, when the issue is that He was ahead of the game from the beginning! The Bible also explains the division of the languages (Genesis 11:1-9) at the Tower of Babel. It reveals that there are "paths," or currents in the seas (Psalm 8:8). Again, Columbus "discovered" that this was true when he sailed to the New World on one current, and then back to Spain on another. The Scriptures in Psalm 102:25-27, and Hebrews 1:10-12 declares the Second Law of Thermodynamics (which states that everything wears out)! It also reveals the process by which all of life occurred on this planet (Genesis 1 and 2), and much, much more! You can't beat that Bible, no matter how much education you obtain - its always at least 500 years ahead of science!
Historical Accuracy
Noah's flood (Genesis 6-9) is attested to by Babylonian tablets written in 650 B.C., as well as in almost all ancient histories. Most of the places named in the Bible have been identified through archaeology, thus validating the historical accuracy of the Bible again and again! The same cannot be said however about other religious books.
The facts surrounding the Bible point to an Author who is not limited to human understanding, and frailties, but to one who knows the end from the beginning, and has revealed it all in one place, so that anyone could get a hold of it, and examine it, and test it, and come to trust its message that Jesus Christ truly is the Son of God who died for our sins (John 20:31)!