By Curt Blattman of Bible Apologetics
Over the last 2,000 years no book has come under more scrutiny than the Bible. Over the centuries men have tried their best to get rid of the Bible. But today the Bible can boast that it has sold more copies than any other book ever written. It has also been given away for free to more people than any other book ever printed. And finally, the Bible has caused more people to be burned at the stake, brought before firing squads, sent to prison, beheaded, stoned, sawn in two, subjected to scourgings, mocked, and made a public spectacle of than any other book known to man.
And the more people have attempted to disprove the veracity of the Bible, the more it has proven to be a book of timeless truth. Attacks from history, archaeology, science, and philosophy have failed to disprove the accuracy of the Bible. So-called scholars have used their intellect to find flaws in the Bible, and they too have failed. And no book has been banned from being read than the Bible but yet it continues to find a way to reach the hearts of all who sincerely attempt to find the truth about life.
My friends since the Bible is a book of absolute truth, was written by the hand of God, and boasts it will last forever as we read in (Isaiah 40:8): “The grass withers and the flowers fall, but the word of our God endures forever,” we can be confident that no amount of pressure by man to stamp out this one amazing book will ever succeed. You see truth can be denied, suppressed, and hidden, but can never be eliminated or overturned. (Proverbs 12:19 TLB) expresses this thought well when it says: “Truth stands the test of time; lies are soon exposed.”
May the following quotes help give you a flavor for the attacks the Bible has had to endure on its veracity and its amazing ability to survive:
“Infidels of eighteen hundred years have been refuting and overthrowing this book, and yet it stands today as solid rock. Its circulation increases, and it is more loved and cherished and read today than ever before. Infidels, with all their assaults, make about as much impression on this book as a man with a tack hammer would on the Pyramids of Egypt.
“When the French monarch proposed the persecution of Christians in his dominion, an old statesman and warrior said to him, ‘Sire, the church of God is an anvil that has worn out many hammers.’ So, the hammers of infidels have been pecking away at this book for ages, but the hammers are worn out, and the anvil still endures. If this book had not been the book of God, men would have destroyed it long ago. Emperors and popes, kings and priests, princes and rulers have all tried their hand at it; they die and the book still lives.”1 – H. L. Hastings
“A thousand times over, the death knell of the Bible has been sounded, the funeral procession formed, the inscription cut on the tombstone, and committal read. But somehow the corpse never stays put. No other book has been so chopped, knifed, sifted, scrutinized, and vilified. What book on philosophy or religion or psychology … of classical or modern times has been subject to such a mass attack as the Bible? With such venom and skepticism? With such thoroughness and erudition? Upon every chapter, line and tenet? The Bible is still loved by millions, read by millions, and studied by millions.”2 – Bernard Ramm
“The BIBLE — banned, burned, beloved. More widely read, more frequently attacked than any other book in history. Generations of intellectuals have attempted to discredit it, dictators of every age have outlawed it and executed those who read it. Yet soldiers carry it into battle believing it more powerful than their weapons. Fragments of it smuggled into solitary prison cells have transformed ruthless killers into gentle saints.”3 – Charles Colson
“For eighteen centuries every engine of destruction that human science, philosophy, wit, reasoning or brutality could bring to bear against a book has been brought to bear against that book to stamp it out of the world, but it has a mightier hold on the world today than ever before. If that were man’s book it would have been annihilated and forgotten hundreds of years ago.”4 – R. A. Torrey
“It is not too much to say that it was the rise of the science of archaeology that broke the deadlock between historians and the orthodox Christian. Little by little, one city after another, one civilization after another, one culture after another, whose memories were enshrined only in the Bible, were restored to their proper place in ancient history by the studies of archaeologists …. The overall result is indisputable. Forgotten cities have been found, the handiwork of vanished peoples has reappeared, contemporary records of biblical events have been unearthed and the uniqueness of biblical revelation has been emphasized by contrast and comparison to newly understood religions of ancient peoples. Nowhere has archaeological discovery refuted the Bible as history.”5 – John Elder
“Skeptics may mention biblical cities that haven’t been discovered–though lots have been! –and conclude that Scripture is unreliable. But in the past ‘absence of evidence’ arguments were used to deny the factuality of Abraham’s camels, the Hittite people, and the Davidic dynasty. But with new discoveries in archaeology, the skeptics were proven wrong, and Scripture was confirmed.”6 – Paul Copan
“Archaeological work has unquestionably strengthened confidence in the reliability of the Scriptural record. More than one archaeologist has found his respect for the Bible increased by the experience of excavation in Palestine.”7 – Millar Burrows
“If you want to look very wise in the world’s eyes and are willing to risk looking foolish years from now, you can make a reputation for yourself by pointing out the ‘errors’ in the Bible. But these things tend to become explained. As time passes and the data from archaeology, historical investigations, numismatics [coins], and other disciplines accumulate, these alleged ‘errors’ tend to explode in the faces of those who propound them…”8 – James Boice
“Mythical books like Homer’s Odyssey are never banned and burned. Why is that? Because they’re never seen as a threat.
“And yet over the millenniums man has systematically tried to destroy the Bible. It’s exactly why we found the Dead Sea scrolls. They were hidden away in sealed jars, preserved from those who sought to destroy it forever.
“When the communist took over China the first thing they did was to try and destroy the Bible. They burned them in city squares. Many of the Chinese believers took their Bibles and carefully buried them in their back yards.”9 – Ron Bontrager
“The tooth of time gnaws all books but the Bible… Nineteen centuries of experience have tested it. It has passed through critical fires no other volume has suffered, and its spiritual truths have endured the flames and come out without so much as the smell of burning.”10 – W.E. Sangster
“The Bible is the most well-known book in the history of the world, and no book has been attacked more. Skeptics have tried to destroy the authority of the Bible for the last eighteen hundred years. It has undergone every kind of scrutiny possible from archaeology, science, philosophy, and computers. Yet, despite all these attacks, the Bible proves itself to be true again and again. Each time the skeptics have been wrong, and the Bible has proven itself true. Just the fact that the Bible has remained steadfast in its authority after two thousand years is another piece of evidence supporting its divine origin.”11 – Patrick Zuckeran
1 The Anvil that Has Worn Out Many Hammers › The Forerunner
2 Microsoft Word – 020804a_The Uniqueness of the Bible2_.doc (truthchasers.com)
3 The Word of God – Quotations and Illustrations | Precept Austin
5 Charlie H. Campbell, Apologetics Quotes (Carlsbad, California: The Always Be Ready Apologetics Ministry, 2020), p. 32.
6 Charlie H. Campbell, Apologetics Quotes (Carlsbad, California: The Always Be Ready Apologetics Ministry, 2020), p. 30.
7 Charlie H. Campbell, Apologetics Quotes (Carlsbad, California: The Always Be Ready Apologetics Ministry, 2020), p. 16.
8 Charlie H. Campbell, Apologetics Quotes (Carlsbad, California: The Always Be Ready Apologetics Ministry, 2020), p. 30.
9 The Bible Has Survived All Attacks of Man | (wordpress.com)
10 Charlie H. Campbell, Apologetics Quotes (Carlsbad, California: The Always Be Ready Apologetics Ministry, 2020), p. 83.
11 https://www.cru.org/content/dam/cru/legacy/2012/02/Authority-of-Scripture.pdf