The origin of the Bible is another reason why I believe the Bible is God’s Word. The Bible’s unity, structure, and subject matter argue for a supernatural authorship. Have you ever imagined how all of this could possibly come together? It would have to be miraculous.

It had to be the strangest publishing project of all time. No editor or publishing house was responsible for forty independent authors representing twenty occupations, living in ten countries during a fifteen-hundred-year span, working in three languages with a cast of two thousand nine hundred and thirty characters in fifteen hundred and fifty places. And together they produced sixty-six books containing eleven hundred and eighty-nine chapters. And from every conceivable form: prose, poetry, romance, mystery, biography, science, and history. What was the final product? The Bible. One evidence that the Bible is a supernatural book is the unity that it displays, despite such wide differences among authors, cultures, and forms of expression.6

For over fifteen hundred years, the central theme from Genesis all the way to Revelation was the Messiah. The Old Testament pointed to the Messiah’s coming, the New Testament revealed His presence and His name, Jesus Christ. The Gospels told His story and the book of Acts showed us how the apostles followed through with Jesus’ Great Commission. The letters told us how the early church, a revolutionary movement, took the love of God to the ends of the earth. Jesus’ return and the fulfillment of His promises climax in the book of Revelation. The Bible is a one-of-a-kind book.

Let’s take a minute to let that sink in and put it in perspective. Can you think back to your high school, college, or graduate school days? Do you remember group projects? A huge assignment would be handed out to your group of four or five people. Everyone would tackle a portion of the work, do research, write a paper, and collaborate together to successfully finish the project.

It is very difficult to do your research and get four other people on the same page so that the project is done well and completed on time. There is always that one person who doesn’t pull their weight. Did you ever feel that it would just be easier to do the work yourself?

God did not choose to drop an impersonal book of words from heaven. Instead, He inspired authors throughout fifteen hundred years, twenty different professions, multiple cultures, thousands of miles from one another, with an amazing alignment that even prophecies made over a thousand years earlier would be fulfilled. God is an eloquent, powerful, and personal communicator. God supernaturally inspired and preserved the Bible that you hold in your hands. It is an amazing phenomenon. In fact, it is miraculous.

Ingram, Chip. 2017. Why I Believe: Straight Answers to Honest Questions about God, the Bible, and Christianity. Grand Rapids, MI: Baker.

We have just completed a 6-Week Bible Study Lesson Series on Chip Ingram’s book, Why I Believe. It is available on Amazon in both print and Kindle versions, as well as part of Good Questions Have Groups Talking Subscription plan. The idea is to invite each participant to purchase their own book and discuss it each week.

Topics include:

Why I Believe, Lesson #1
Chapters 1, 2
Why I Believe in the Resurrection
Did Jesus Really Die?

Why I Believe, Lesson #2
Chapters 3, 4
Why I Believe the Bible
Don’t Take My Word for It

Why I Believe, Lesson #3
Chapters 5
Why I Believe in Life After Death

Why I Believe, Lesson #4
Chapters 6, 7
Why I Believe in Life Creation
Science or God?

Why I Believe, Lesson #5
Chapter 8
Why I Believe in the God of the Bible

Why I Believe, Lesson #6
Chapter 9
How is that Working for You?

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