DaVinci Code: The Truth Behind The Fiction - Part 5

DaVinci Part 5: More External Evidence

In our last blog we left with a piece of statistical evidence for the other-worldly origins of the Bible. And, if you will remember, we are responding to two claims that come from the DaVinci Code: "The Bible is a product of man, my dear. Not of God. The Bible did not fall magically from the clouds. Man created it as a historical record of tumultuous times, and it has evolved through countless translations, additions, and revisions. History has never had a definitive version of the book." (p. 231)

We first addressed the question of whether or not we have accurate translations of the Gospels – Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. We simply don’t have the time here to look at the accuracy of every document in the Bible so I chose the Gospels because they deal most directly and definitively with the life of Christ. So, as we looked more closely at the process by which we received our current translations, we concluded that we can be extremely confident that what we have today is the words of the original authors.

Our second question came from the same quote above and has to do with the divine origins of the Bible. We looked first at the internal evidence, asking whether or not the bible itself claims to have divine origins. And, we concluded that the writers of the Bible saw the Bible as having divine origins – “God-breathed.” (2 Timothy 3:16)

We are now up to our current blog where I will look at other external evidences of God’s hand in creating the Bible. Let’s get to it…

First, the unity of the Bible as a completed work attests to its divine origin. This (along with the previous external evidence I offered regarding prophesies) is one of the more encouraging evidences of God’s hand in producing the Bible as we have it today. The way in which the Bible was brought together argues against even the possibility of unity. For example, the Bible was penned on two (or three) continents, written in three languages over fifteen hundred years. The various parts of the Bible were written in varying circumstances and in different places such as tents, palaces, cities, deserts, and dungeons. Among the writers were kings, priests, prophets, patriarchs, herdsmen, scribes, soldiers, physicians, and fishermen. Yet, behind these myriad of dis-unifying influences the Bible has an unmistakable unity of message. It contains one system of doctrine, one plan of salvation, one code of ethics, and one rule of faith.

Think if we were to plan to accomplish the same feat today by human hand. If we were to somehow bring the same type of people together as described above and have them write a chapter to be placed in a book on theology. They would know neither the profession of the writer nor the topic of the chapters both before and after their specific chapter. When these chapters were collected together what are the chances that there would even a slight sense of unity among the chapters as a whole. As with our last evidence regarding prophesy the chances of the Bible actually coming together with such unity of theology and message is so small as to be virtually impossible.

Yet, what we find when we look at the Bible in its entirety is a book written by forty different people on such diverse themes as to cover nearly the whole range of human inquiry, yet the spiritual, theological, relational, ethical and historical lessons presented in the Bible agree.

Arthur W. Pink has a great analogy:

The more one really studies the Bible the more one is convinced that behind the many human mouths there is One overruling, controlling Mind. Imagine forty persons of different nationalities, possessing various degrees of musical culture visiting the organ of some cathedral and at long intervals of time, and without any collusion whatever, striking sixty-six different notes, which when combined yielded the theme of the grandest oratorio ever heard: would it not show that behind these forty different men there was one presiding mind, one great Tone master? As we listen to some great orchestra, with an immense variety of instruments playing their different parts, but producing melody and harmony, we realize that at the back of these many musicians there is the personality and genius of the composer. And when we enter the halls of the Divine Academy (the Bible) and listen to the heavenly choirs singing the Song of Redemption, all in perfect accord and unison, we know that it is God Himself who has written the music and put this song into their mouths.

The unity of the Bible is a fantastic and irresistibly strong defense of its divine origins. Next week we’ll look at one final piece of external evidence of divine inspiration: The power and influence of the Bible.

Carpe Deum! (Seize God!)
Todd Phillips