For PDF Version: Evidence of Biblical Inspiration

Five hundred years ago Martin Luther nailed his “95 Theses” on the church door in Wittenberg, marking a pivotal event in the beginning of the Protestant Reformation. The focal point of the Reformation was the Bible being made available to the common man. Luther and others sought to translate and distribute the Bible because they believed it was much more than just a religious or moral book. To them it was divine.

When we read the Bible we are confronted with a claim that requires a response: that is, that this book is the Word of God, the Word of the Almighty One who created and sustains all things. In the Bible God reveals and declares Who He is and how we are to live. We can reject the claim or believe it, but to ignore it is foolish. If it is what it claims to be, the Word of God, then our adherence to its requirements is essential for life, here on the earth and in the eternal hereafter.

Can we know that the claims of the Bible are true? Is there any evidence of its divinity and infallibility? The answer is a resounding YES! In my recent booklet – The Bible, Divine or Human? – I present numerous arguments for Biblical inspiration. One of those is the Bible’s social influence.

The Bible’s Social Influence

The Bible has changed world history. No book has had such a positive impact on society. Wherever the Bible has gone and taken root and grown, it has changed cultures and nations. There are myriad examples, from the advance of Biblical Christianity in the first few centuries, to the transformation of Ireland and Western Europe via Patrick and his Biblical training schools, to the central role of the Bible in the birth and development of America.[1]

A microcosm of the Bible’s transformational impact can be seen in the history of Pitcairn, an island in the South Pacific. After a group of mutineers took over the English ship HMS Bounty in 1789, some of them sought to hide on Pitcairn along with some natives they had befriended while in Tahiti. They were a motley crew — 9 white sailors, 6 Tahitian men, 10 women, and a girl of 15. One sailor discovered how to distill alcohol — drunkenness and fighting resulted. Soon only one white man was left with some of the native women and children. Alexander Smith found a Bible in a chest from the ship, and began to read it and teach what he learned. His life and everything on the island changed. When the U.S. ship Topaz landed on the island in 1808, they found a thriving, prosperous community with no whiskey, no jail, no crime, and no insane asylum. The application of the Bible changed this place from hell on earth to a good example of what God wants the world to be.

Biblical Christianity has impacted all spheres of life. Its transforming work has been like a mustard seed (Matt. 13:31-32) — it began small, but has become greater and greater throughout history. The impact the Bible has had upon the world is an indication of its divinity. No writing, religion, philosophy or person has ever even come close to affecting things as the Bible has. These have not just been “spiritual” or “religious” matters, but all areas of life. Some of those areas include:

1. The value of the individual

An engineer once asked his students, “What is the most important thing to come out of a mine?” Answers included gold, silver, copper, and diamonds. The teacher’s response was “The most important thing to come out of a mine was the miner.”[2] The Bible teaches that all men have great value because all men are created in the image of God. It teaches the equality of all men before the law. This Biblical view led to the end of slavery, the elevation of women, and representative government.

2. Compassion for the poor and needy

The Bible teaches that we are to love our neighbor as ourselves. Acting upon this precept motivated Christians to care for the poor, establish hospitals, and set up charitable organizations to meet the needs of fellow citizens. After serving those nearby, Christians went throughout the world doing similar acts of love. In fact, Christians are by far the greatest philanthropists in the world.

3. Education

The Bible teaches that everyone should have access to and know the truth, beginning with the Bible. This Biblical philosophy of education has motivated thousands of Christians to translate the Bible into myriads of languages, and where no written language existed, to first construct it. This idea is also the reason the church and Christians have established schools and universities wherever they go. In America, 106 of the first 108 colleges were started by the church or Christian community.

4. Development of civil government

Civil liberty is a product of the Bible and Christian people. The great civil documents of liberty were almost universally written by Christians who looked to the Bible as the source of law.[3] In fact, the Bible being made available in the common language of a people preceded civil documents of liberty. Biblical ideas also gave rise to the framework of free governments, including such concepts as constitutionalism, separation of powers, limited government, separation of jurisdictions, and election of representatives.

5. Emergence of individual rights and liberty

A Biblical view of man and government gave rise to the recognition and protection of God-given inalienable rights for mankind, including the rights to life, liberty, and property, as well as freedom of worship, speech, assembly, and the press. These freedoms are secured by the constitutions and civil documents originating in Christian societies.

6. Science and technology

The greatest scientists of all time were Christians or were a product of Christian societies (such as Newton, Kepler, Bacon, Maxwell, Herschel, Boyle, and Faraday). The Bible provided the worldview necessary for them to make their discoveries. The greatest inventions in history were also a product of Biblical men and thought, including the printing press, the steam engine, the reaper, the telegraph, and the electric motor, just to name a few.

7. Economics

Individual enterprise, private property, and free market principles are rooted in the Bible. Where these principles have been applied, economic prosperity has followed. The American Pilgrim founders demonstrated that Marxist socialist policies do not work. Their ability to reason from the Bible to economic affairs caused them to put aside communistic policies and embrace a free market system which elevated them out of poverty and set the foundation for great economic advancement. A father of the free market system and author of the classic Wealth of Nations, Adam Smith, was a Christian who derived his worldview from the Scriptures.

8. Medicine

Advancements in medical care and discoveries occurred primarily in Christian societies. The discoverer of antiseptic surgery, Joseph Lister, was motivated by his Christian faith to find a way to limit hospital deaths due to infection.[4] The Biblical admonition to care for the sick prompted the establishment of hospitals and nursing, as well as groups like the Red Cross.

9. Moral advancement

Civilization has followed the spread of the Bible. Barbaric and primitive cultures have been civilized by Christianity, as witnessed in the early centuries of the Christian era in England, Ireland, and Scotland, and up through modern history as remote tribes have encountered Biblical Christianity. Oppressive societies have also been liberated by Biblical precepts.

10. Literature, arts and music

Where the Bible has gone, arts and the media have progressed. The father of modern musical notation, Monk Guido of Arezzo (995–1050), used a familiar hymn to teach notes via a mnemonic device (doh, re, mi, fa, sol, la). These notes were to music like the alphabet is to language. This instruction allowed the development of western music because now men could compose and pass on music, and explore music theory, harmony, and polyphony.[5] Many of the leading musicians and composers have been Christians, such as J.S. Bach and George F. Handel. Likewise, western art and painting developed out of a Christian worldview. The great authors of literature, history, theology, and politics were primarily Christians expressing the true nature of man and the universe in their writings.

The majority of people who made a significant contribution to advancements in all these fields have been Christians or a product of a Christian culture. The Bible shaped their lives and worldview, as well as the society at large.[6]

The Scripture informs us, “The unfolding of Thy words gives light; it gives understanding to the simple” (Psalm 119:130). The Bible gives laws for human relationships that have never been excelled or equaled. Where they have been taught and lived, they have transformed nations (Ireland, England, and the United States are examples). In languages where the Bible has been freely circulated, it has released astonishing power for good, overthrowing superstition and opening doors to progress in science, arts, humanities, inventions, and more. (South Korea is a modern example.[7])

The truth of the Bible has delivered hundreds of millions of people from fear, sickness, and sin. It has been and is the most powerful book for the renewal of man. Comparing the progress of nations in relation to their honoring the Bible and its Author shows: when they ignore, forget, or reject Him they have little growth and prosperity; when they love and apply the Bible to all of life, the nation advances, is exalted, and becomes prosperous.

To the degree that a people or nation applies the principles of the Bible is the degree to which that people or nation are free, prosperous, and advance in every sphere of life. Father of American Scholarship and Education, Noah Webster, stated:

Almost all the civil liberty now enjoyed in the world owes its origin to the principles of the Christian religion….The religion which has introduced civil liberty, is the religion of Christ and his apostles, which enjoins humility, piety, and benevolence; which acknowledges in every person a brother, or a sister, and a citizen with equal rights. This is genuine Christianity, and to this we owe our free constitutions of government.[8]

To summarize, “Happy is the nation whose God is the Lord” (Psalm 33:12).

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To learn other reasons for Biblical inerrancy, see The Bible: Divine or Human?

[1] To learn about these events and others see Mark Beliles and Stephen McDowell, America’s Providential History, Charlottesville: Providence Foundation, 2010. Stephen McDowell, Monumental: Restoring America as the Land of Liberty, Libertyman Publishers, 2014. Stephen McDowell, Biblical Revival and the Transformation of Nations, Charlottesville: Providence Foundation, 2013.

[2] D. James Kennedy and Jerry Newcombe, What If Jesus Had Never Been Born? Nashville: Thomas Nelson Publishers, 1994, p. 9.

[3] See Stephen McDowell, The Bible: America’s Source of Law and Liberty, Charlottesville: Providence Foundation, 2016.

[4] See Stephen McDowell, Transforming Medicine and Business with Biblical Principles, Charlottesville: Providence Foundation, 2010.

[5] Kennedy, p. 182-183.

[6] For a list of many of the leaders see Stephen McDowell, Building Godly Nations, Chapter 1, Charlottesville: Providence Foundation, 2003.

[7] See McDowell, The Bible: America’s Source of Law and Liberty, pp. 72-75.

[8] Noah Webster, History of the United States, New Haven: Durrie & Peck, 1833, pp. 273-4.