#4 – The Bible's survivability proves that it is trustworthy

As further evidence of the supernatural origins of the Bible, we can point to the Bible's indestructibility, despite thousands of years or relentless attempts to do away and/or discredit it.

150 A.D.
A noted Greek writer, rhetorician, and satirist by the name of Lucian, wrote two books in the second century to ridicule the Bible. These books were named The Dialogue of the Gods and The Dialogue of the Dead. There’s an extremely good chance that you don’t have a copy of either of these two books in your personal library. Yet you probably have a Bible somewhere around the house, which is a testimony to the Bible’s ability to “out survive” its attackers.

And Lucian is just one of the many people who, throughout history, have tried to ban, burn, destroy, outlaw, restrict, ridicule or discredit the Bible.

299-311 A.D.
The Roman Emperor Diocletian issued an edict to stop Christians from worshipping Jesus Christ and ordered the destruction of all their Scriptures. He had churches razed, Christians thrown in prison, flogged and decapitated. Despite all the power of the Roman Empire, these measures failed totally, and twenty-five years later his successor, Constantine, changed course and issued another edict ordering fifty Bibles to be published at government expense.

300's AD
The Greek writer, Porphyry, tried to destroy the credibility of the Bible around 300 years after the birth of Christ. In the process he wrote fifteen books against the Bible and Christianity in general. Did he succeed? Apparently not. The Bible is still around. And as for Porphyry, well, let’s put it this way; can you name his fifteen books? Can anybody name just one?

1150 A.D. Though 1844 A.D.
One of the greatest dangers the Bible faced was the period when the Popes of Rome controlled the world. Pope Innocent III, 1199, had French Bibles burned and would not permit the people to have more. Pope Gregory IX, 1234, ordered the burning of Bible. Wyclif was condemned for heresy in 1383 for translating the Bible into the common language. 10,000 Bibles were burned on August 8, 1600, by order of Ferdinand II. Pope Clement II, 1713, condemned the reading of the Bible. Even as late as 1844, Pope Gregory decreed those favoring Bible societies were guilty of the greatest crime before God and the Church.

1700's A.D.
In the eighteenth century the famous Bible skeptic & French writer Voltaire said, “Within 100 years, the Bible and Christianity will be swept out of existence, and pass into history.” In 1778 Voltaire was swept out of existence, but the Bible still stands. In fact, within 26 years of Voltaire’s death the age of the Bible Society was initiated with the founding of the British & Foreign Bible Society, and Bibles began to be distributed throughout the world in a manner heretofore unprecedented.

In-fact, by 1939 the Bible had been translated into it 1000th language!

1800's A.D.
General Lew Wallace was a Territorial Governor following the days of the U.S. Civil War. He had been a Senator in Indiana at the age of 29 and was considered a very scholarly man. He had no confidence in Christianity or the Bible, so he set out to write a skeptical book to disprove both. In his study he instead found the Bible and Christ to be true, and became himself a devout Christian. General Wallace never wrote his book against the Bible. He wrote instead the classic Christian novel Ben Hur.

Sir William Ramsey, the English scholar went to Asia Minor with the expressed purpose of proving the Bible was historically inaccurate. As he painstakingly poured over the ancient artifacts and details, to his amazement he found that the Bible was accurate down to the tiniest detail. The evidence was so convincing that Sir Ramsey himself became a Christian and a biblical scholar.

20th Century
Under Hitler, the Nazi party tried to remove the entire Old Testament from the Bible, and alter the rest of the Bible to fit Nazi ideology. In the 1930's Hitler went as far as trying to Nationalize every church and ordered the arrest of any clergy that didn't fall in line. Of course, Nazism was destroyed and discredited – while the Bible remains.

The rise of communist dictatorships around the world in the 20th century - from Russia to China and beyond – had, as one of their primary goals, the eradication of the Bible and Christian belief. They believed that Christianity would crumble as an outdated "opiate of the masses" when at last people were free from the evils of capitalism. Of course, by the late 1980's, communism was the one collapsing and crumbling all over the world and the Bible survived as strong as ever.

Down through the years, the Bible has been a mighty anvil that has worn out many of the puny hammers of the scoffers. The Bible survives every day through criticism. No other book has been so chopped, knived, sifted, scrutinized, and vilified. No other book has been subjected to such mass attacks. Nevertheless, it remains the book most read and most cherished until this very day. If this criticism was ever effective in the past, it would have rendered the Bible unworthy of the critics' attention today. The fact that critics continue to target the Bible proves that their past criticism did nothing less than strengthen the belief in the Bible itself!

But we still have ONE more reason we should trust the Bible…
Keep reading for the last of our top 5 reasons:
#1 - The Resurrection of Jesus Christ proves that the Bible is trustworthy
#2 – Fulfilled Prophecy proves that the Bible is trustworthy
#3 – The Bible's factualness & candor prove that it is trustworthy
#4 – The Bible's survivability proves that it is trustworthy
#5 – Jesus Christ believed in the Bible, and told us it is trustworthy

Special thanks, for some of the information above goes to: "Why We Believe the Bible," By George Dehoff, and "The Christian Home Bible Course."