inspired record of Himself and His will. The Bible has always been the ultimate rule of faith and practice for the true church.
4. History and archaeology combine to confirm the accuracy of the Bible. The historical record is obvious and indisputable. Many of the places mentioned in the Bible can easily be identified, even today. Hundreds of archaeological sites have yielded ample evidence to substantiate the Christian's claim that the Bible can be trusted. Many ancient manuscripts of the Bible have been preserved to the present day; among them:
• The Dead Sea Scrolls confirm either fragments of, or the complete text of, all the books of the Old Testament except Esther. Some of these manuscripts go back to the second and third centuries before Christ.
• The Septuagint (Greek Translation of the Old Testament) dates from 250 B.C.
• Codex Sinaiticus, containing the entire New Testament and parts of the Old Testament, dates from about 330 A.D.
All of these documents, and many more, are available for examination to any interested person.
5. Fulfilled prophecies witness to the Bible's accuracy. For instance, people living hundreds of years before Christ predicted that He would:
• Be born of a virgin (Isaiah 7:14; see Luke 2:26–35).
• Be born in Bethlehem (Micah 5:2; see Luke 2:4–7).
• Live a sinless life (Isaiah 53:9; see 2 Corinthians 5:21).
• Be put to death (Isaiah 53:5, 7; see Matthew 27:35).
• Cry from the cross, "My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?" (Psalm 22:1; see Matthew 27:46).
6. The Bible's remarkable unity and coherence confirm its authenticity. It reveals a single author—the Holy Spirit—behind the diversity of its human writers. The Bible is not just a jumble of characters, places, and dates. It has an amazing continuity, as both the fact and the message of the Bible are closely and amazingly interconnected to reveal God's Son, our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, and His part in human redemption and restoration. The sixty-six books comprising the Bible fit together as one book with one theme: Jesus Christ.
7. The Bible is confirmed by its power to transform lives. Its message exploded on the human scene in New Testament times to turn the world "upside down" (Acts 17:6). There is power in the Bible's message. From the apostle Paul's time down to the present day, the power of the Gospel