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Have you ever considered how wondrous it is that even though the 66 books (or more) of the Bible, written by over 40 different authors over almost 2,000 years integrate into a cohesive message? Let’s explore why and how.
“For no prophecy was ever produced by the will of man, but men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit.”
–2 Peter 1:21
Skeptics often argue the Bible is made up. Yet, many make such comments without consideration to the mind-blowing integration all the books of the Bible have. Let’s look at a few facts.
· The Bible contains 66 books (Catholic Bible has 73 books, Protestants removed seven books).
· Written by over 40 different authors.
· Written over nearly 2,000 years.
Many are unaware of, even a lot of Christians who read the Bible, that there are patterns so interconnected that it would be impossible considering these factors of origin for such integration to be planned.
The late Dr. Chuck Missler often preached about the unique integration the books of the Bible had with one another.
“It’s an integrated message,” Missler said. “You discover that every detail…I don’t mean just that there’s a theme in the Old Testament –every number, every place name, every detail is there by deliberate design.”
“It was written by over 40 guys who didn’t even know each other,” Missler said in a video entitled “The Integrated Message System.”
“The message system that is specifically designed it’s skillfully designed as an integrated package,” Chuck says. “And I don’t mean fanatically. There’s a theory, a theme in the Old Testament fulfilled.”
“You discover that it’s been designed that skillfully so that every piece is required for every other piece,” Missler points out. “Once you discover that, you stumble into a second discovery that’s even more staggering.”
“The origin of that package had to come from outside time because it describes history before it happens with a precision that’s flabbergasting,” Missler adds.
“Declaring the end from the beginning and from ancient times things not yet done, saying, ‘My counsel shall stand, and I will accomplish all my purpose,'”
– Isaiah 46:10
“The origin of that message [the Bible] had to come from outside time and space,” Missler states. “Because the designer, the author of it, he’s drawing on an attribute that he alone enjoys – namely, that he’s outside time and space.”
“The great discovery of 20th-century science is that time itself is a physical property,” said Missler, an engineer who served in the U.S. Navy as a captain overseeing guided missiles. “Time varies with mass acceleration and gravity.”
“God is not somebody who has, we think of eternity, as having lots of time,” Missler continued. “That’s nice poetry, but bad physics. Because eternities being outside the restrictions of the dimensionality of time and space – He [God] demonstrates his origin by writing history before it happens.”
“People often talk about the four hundred years between the New
Testaments,” Missler added. “It’s all in there, in Daniel chapter 11 verses 5 to 35. It lays out those four hundred years in such detail that skeptics say, ‘Well that must have been written later.'”
“Above all, you must understand that no prophecy of Scripture came about by the prophet’s own interpretation of things.”
–2 Peter 1:20
