CHAPTER FOUR

BIBLE CLAIMS

In the previous chapters of this book we saw how vitally important it is for us to be able to prove the existence of God. In this chapter we will consider some of the fantastic claims that are made by the Bible, and in the following chapters we shall show that an abundance of solid scientific evidence proves these claims to be true.

The Bible claims that there is a God, that He created the heaven and the earth, that the Bible is His Word, and that the earth is less than 10,000 years old.

THERE IS A GOD. GOD CREATED THE HEAVENS AND THE EARTH. We need to read no further than the first 10 words of the Bible to learn of the claim that, “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth” Genesis 1:1. The Bible does not begin with a defense of God’s existence, but rather it appears that its author took for granted that everyone would already know that there is a God. The word “God” is mentioned 3,954 times in the NIV Bible,¹⁷ and it is stated at least 53 times that “God created”.^{18 (17}James Strong, The Exhostive Concordance of the Bible, Riverside Book and Bible House, Iowa Falls, Iowa, p 410. Your author counted them.
¹⁸James Strong, The Exhaustive Concordance of the Bible, Riverside Book and Bible House, Iowa Falls, Iowa, p 225. Your author counted them.)

THE BIBLE IS GOD’S WORD: In the New Testament we find many verses that make the claim that the Bible came from God. In II Peter 1:21 we find, “...men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit”. In II Peter 1:25 we read, “But the word of the Lord stands forever. And this is the word that was preached to you.” In II Timothy 3:16, “All scripture is God-breathed...” I Thessalonians 2:13, “...you received the word of God which you heard from us, you accepted it not as the word of men, but as it actually is, the word of God...” Galatians 1:11, 12, “...the gospel I preached is not something that man made up.  I...received it by revelation from Jesus Christ.”  I Corinthians 14:37, “...what I am writing to you is the Lord’s command.” Matthew 10:20, “...it will not be you speaking, but the Spirit of your Father speaking through you.” These verses show clearly that the New Testament claims to be God’s Word. In the Old Testament we find expressions such as, “The word of the Lord came”, “The Lord spoke”, and “The Lord said.” Expressions like these are found no less than 3,800 times.^{19 (19}Earl T. Favro, How Do We Know The Bible Is The Word Of God? “There are 4,000 expressions in the Bible such as: ‘Thus saith the Lord’ ‘And God said’ ‘God said’ ‘The Lord commanded’ Such expressions are found 700 times in the first five books of the Bible.) Thus we see that both the Old Testament and the New claim that the Bible is God’s word.

We need to remember that one of America’s fastest growing religions, “Humanism” does not agree with these Bible claims. Indeed, Humanism denies the deity of God, the inspiration of the Bible, and the Biblical account of creation.

Since the Bible has not only made these claims, but has repeatedly emphasized these claims, we are forced to stand on one side or the other. There is no middle ground. The Bible is either a big, bold lie and a book to be destroyed, or it is the word of God. May I repeat, there is no middle ground! Each of us must decide to stand with God and the Bible, or against God and with the Humanist society. The decision must be made.

THE EARTH IS LESS THAN 10,000 YEARS OLD: The clearest proof of this claim is seen in the study of Biblical genealogy; therefore, before we can properly consider the claim, we must take a quick look into the genealogical lists in the scriptures. As we consider these lists we must keep four things in mind. First, we need to notice that Matthew’s account of Jesus’ genealogy is recorded on the very first page of the book of Matthew and therefore the most likely page in the whole New Testament to become smudged or torn. Second, the Bible was copied by hand for many years and therefore, there are copyists’ mistakes to be found in it. Third, we have the promise from God that, “The Word of the Lord stands forever” I Peter 1:25. From this verse we must conclude that God has placed safeguards in the Scriptures to insure that even if a careless scribe changed His message, other passages would show what the truth really is. Forth, we need to be reminded of Jesus’ own words when he said, “Every matter may be established by the testimony of two or three witnesses.” (Matthew 18:16, cf. Deuteronomy 17:6; 19:15) When we find passages in the Bible that seem to disagree with each other, we must carefully study all other passages that deal with that subject. The weight of the evidence will then establish what the truth is. With these four thoughts fixed in our minds let us proceed with our study.

GENEALOGY OF JESUS.

In the genealogical list that we have just considered, we found that with the exception of one name, the three lists are exactly the same.

There are differences, of course, in spelling due to changes in time and languages, but the people are the same. Let’s notice now “Cainan” in Luke 3:36. Why is Cainan mentioned in Luke and not in Genesis or I Chronicles? I don’t know the answer to this question, but I know some very possible explanations. First, the scribe may have had his mind on Cainan (see KJV), the fourth generation from Adam, and absent-mindedly recorded it a second time at this location. Second, in Old Testament times, if a man died without producing children, his brother was required by law to produce children with the deceased brother’s wife. The descendants were to be considered the children of the deceased (Deuteronomy 25:5; Mark 12:20). If Cainan’s brother died, it would be easy to see how the names of both the biological father and the legal father could be recorded in the same list. Third, some authorities suggest that Shelah, the thirteenth descendant, was simply a shortened form of Shelahcainan, and that the scribe mistakenly divided the name making it appear to be two different people. May I hasten to add that whether or not we count Cainan as an additional generation, it makes very little difference to our study of the age of the earth. At the most, this would change the time period not more than a 100 years.

Now let us consider another portion of the genealogical record.

It is easy to see, when we compare the above lists, that from Abraham to David the lists are exactly the same.

Now let us consider the genealogy from David to Zerubbabel.

We need to note that Luke’s account does not agree with Matthew’s account because Luke is listing the ancestry of Jesus’ stepfather, Joseph while Matthew is listing Mary’s ancestry. The I Chronicles account and the Matthew account, however, do agree with the exception of six names. Let us carefully consider these names.

In I Chronicles 3:15 we find that Jehoiakim was the son of Josiah but Jehoiakim is not included in Matthew’s account. We learn from Jeremiah 25:1 and I Chronicles 36:4, however, that Jehoiakim should be included in this list.

 Again, “Every matter may be established by the testimony of two or three witnesses” Matthew 18:16. It is also interesting to observe that many of the ancient manuscripts of Matthew DO include Jehoiakim’s name.^{20 (20}Adam Clarke, LL.D., F.S.A., &c., Clarke’s Commentary, Abingdon-Cokesbury Press, New York, Nashville, Vol. 1 p 37. “But all these difficulties disappear, by adopting a reading found in many MSS... And Josias begat Jehoikim, or Joakim, and Joakim begat Jechonias... Josiah was the immediate father of Jehoiakim (called also Eliakeim and Joakim)...” The evidence clearly shows that a copyist mistakenly left Jehoiakim’s name out of the genealogy of Matthew. Next let us notice Pedaiah and Shealtiel, the 52^nd generation. In I Chronicles, Pedaiah is shown to be the father, while in Matthew it is Shealtiel. A careful reading of I Chronicles shows that these two were brothers. Quite possibly, as stated earlier, the one brother produced children for the other, but at any rate we cannot add even one more generation here for both brothers are mentioned in the same verse.

 Finally, we need to consider the three missing generations of Matthew 1:8. Why Ahaziah, Joash, and Amaziah were left out of Matthew’s account, I could not establish. But I found that these men’s names are listed in many other places in the Old Testament. (Ahaziah - I Chronicles 3:11; II Chronicles 22:1; II Kings 8:24, 25; 12:18; Joash  - I Chronicles 3:11; 22:11; II Kings 11:2; 13:1; 14:13; II Chronicles 22:11; 24:1, Amaziah - I Chronicles 3:10; II Chronicles 25:25; II Kings 12:21; 13:1; 14:1,13,17). These references show us clearly that these three men, who are left out of Matthew’s account, were left out by mistake.

These three men are part of the authentic genealogy of Jesus.

These two lists have little in common because they are tracing two different people’s genealogy, that is, Joseph’s and Mary’s. Both lists, however, are the same from Abraham to David and both lists end with Jesus.

LUKE CHAPTER 3 CLAIMS THE EARTH TO BE LESS THAN 10,000 YEARS OLD.

In Luke chapter 3 we find a listing of 76 generations, (including Cainan) which form a solid chain from Jesus to Adam. If this list of names is anywhere near accurate, there could not possibly be more than 10,000 years between Adam and us today.

Let’s do some figuring. Generations today are about 25 years apart. If we were to allow twice this much time for each generation, that is, 50 years per generation, 50 years times the 76 generations as listed in Luke chapter 3, would equal only 3,800 years. When we add 3,800 to the 2,000 years from Christ to our present day, we find that the Bible seems to show the earth’s age to be at about 5,800 years. At this rate, if we were to assume the earth to be even 11,600 years old we would be forced to conclude that another 76 generations were omitted from the genealogical list of Luke 3. A few names could have been accidentally left out of these lists, as a result of the many times they were copied by hand. But, if we were to believe that as many as 76 generations were left out of the record, we would be forced to conclude that the author of Luke was guilty of purposeful deceit.

If we were to accept the so called scientific view, that man has been on the earth at least one million years,²¹ we would be required to Insert in our Bible no less than 13,000 years  between each and every generation that is listed. (²¹Henry M. Morris, The Remarkable Birth Of Planet Earth, Creation-Life Publishers, San Diego, CA., p 80. “Most geologists insist that the earth is about five billion years old, that life evolved probably three billion years ago, and even human life at least a million years ago.”) This in turn would reduce these Bible genealogies to no more than a lie. If the writer had not intended to give us an accurate, complete list of Jesus’ ancestors ld insert in our Bible no less than 13,000 years between each and every generation that is listed. This in turn would reduce these Bible the third chapter of Luke would hold no value at all.

IS LUKE CHAPTER 3 ACCURATE? Luke chapter three is accurate within a very few hundred years at the maximum. The most difficult portion of Jesus’ genealogical record for us to confirm is the portion from Adam to Noah. One reason this part of the record is difficult to establish is because it deals with the most ancient period of time in our earth’s history. A second reason is because of the world wide flood in the time of Noah. We could believe that the flood wiped the earth clean of all ancient records, therefore, possibly destroying all hopes of establishing the truthfulness of the number of generations from Adam to Noah and the number of years that passed during that period of time. As we consider this problem a little closer, however, we find that the generations from Adam to Noah, as listed in Luke 3, are accurate.

THE GENERATIONS FROM ADAM TO NOAH ARE ACCURATE. This genealogy is listed not just once, but three times. Genesis, I Chronicles and Luke show exactly the same people to be the ancestors of Jesus.

In Genesis chapter five, God, through Moses, recorded the list of generations from Adam to Noah. He gave us not only the list, but He also tells how old each of the fathers were at the birth of the son, who was to carry on the family line. We can simply add these ages together and learn that it was 1,656 years from Adam to Noah. A note of explanation is warranted here. Although there are only ten generations from Adam to Noah, there are 1,656 years between these two men, rather than 500 years that we would have, if we had gone by our 50 years per generation rule. The explanation of this is simple. The age of those living before the Genesis flood was many times longer than the age of those living after the flood, therefore, the generations were much farther apart. See Genesis chapter five. It should also be noted that the life span was so long that Methuselah lived 536 years during the life of Adam and 98 years during the life of Noah’s sons. Because of this, only three men would be required to remember the list of ten men who formed the genealogy from Adam to the sons of Noah.

There are three periods of time that we must define in order to determine the Bible’s claim of the age of the earth. The first is the period of time from Adam to Noah; the second, the period from Noah to Christ; and the third, the period from Christ to our present day. We have two of these three periods defined. The first period is defined in Genesis chapter 5 which reaffirms Luke chapter 3, and shows that there were ten generations from Adam to Noah. And, it also shows that this was a period of 1,656 years. The third period, the time from Christ to our present day, is agreed by all, to be about 2,000 years The only problem, therefore, that exists in dating the earth’s beginning, is the amount of time that transpired between Noah and Christ.

Turning again to Luke 3 we learn that there were 66 generations from Noah to Christ. At our above rate of 50 years per generation, we find this period of time would equal 3,300 years.  When we add this figure to our other figures, we must conclude that the earth is no more than 7,000 years old. Again, the big question is, are the generations from Noah to Christ as recorded in Luke 3 accurate?

THE GENERATIONS FROM NOAH TO CHRIST AS RECORDED IN LUKE 3 ARE ACCURATE. We can safely conclude that Luke chapter 3 accurately records the generations of Jesus for the following reasons.

Paul wrote in II Timothy 3:16, “All scripture is God-breathed...” Everything in the Bible was written at God’s direction and, therefore, was 100 percent accurate at the time of the writing.

 Peter said, “The Word of the Lord stands forever.” I Peter 1:25 No one can destroy God’s Word.

Various portions of the genealogy of Jesus are recorded in many places in the Bible. They are shown individually with just father and son; and they are shown collectively in group listings. Lists of genealogies are found in Genesis, Numbers, I Chronicles, Matthew, Luke, and many other places in the Bible. These lists are recorded with ages, dates and historical facts. The records can be checked against each other to establish their accuracy.

In the past 100 years the Bible’s historical information and chronology have been established as being true by archaeological research, at least as far back as the time of Abraham, or about 2,000 B.C. Although there are some that hold one opinion and others that hold another, there is no real argument anymore as to the general accuracy of Biblical history from Genesis 12 forward. ^{23 (23Henry M. Morris, The Remarkable Birth Of Planet Earth, Creation-Life Publishers, San Diego, CA., p 81.)}

The Pharisees of Jesus’ day had two interesting characteristics that have a bearing on the accuracy of Luke 3. First, they were extremely jealous of Jesus. With a bitter hatred they plotted, tried, and finally succeeded in putting Jesus to death. The Pharisees would have done anything, anything, to destroy him. The second characteristic of the Pharisees was, they were fastidiously accurate with regard to everything they did that pertained to the law.

For example, they would not so much as carry a needle on the Sabbath because the law required that the Jews were to carry no burdens on that day. Jesus rightly said of them that they would “strain at a gnat.” Their hatred of Jesus drove them to continually search for ways to destroy him. They  knew very well that in order for Jesus to be the Christ that he would have to prove his genealogy. Not only would Jesus be required to show a solid line of ancestry all the way to Abraham, but his ancestral line also had to go through specific individuals such as David and Solomon. The genealogical lists were kept by the Pharisees, therefore, they had easy access to them for careful examination. The Pharisees could not tamper with these lists for they were matters of public record. We can rest assured that the Pharisees spent many hours minutely examining these records with the hope of proving that Jesus was not the Christ. The silence of the Pharisees about Jesus’ ancestry cries out very loudly that the records were accurate and they, the Pharisees, knew it.²⁴ (²⁴ Albert Barns, Notes On The New Testament, Matthew and Mark, Baker Book House, Grand Rapids, MI., p. 1-3.)

SUMMARY:

The Bible claims that there is a God with 3,954 references to His name.

The Bible claims that God created the heavens and the earth, with 53 references to God as the creator.

The Bible claims that the Bible is God’s word, with 3,800 references to this fact in the Old Testament alone.

The Bible claims that the earth is less than 10,000 years old.

Luke chapter 3 claims the earth to be less than 10,000 years old and does this by way of listing 76 generations from Adam to Christ. Seventy-six generations, at as much as 50 years each, would equal no more then 3,800 years, and this would show the earth to be about 5,800 years old.

The generations from Adam to Noah, as listed in Luke 3, are accurate because Genesis 5 and I Chronicles 1 list these same generations and show that the time span was 1,656 years.

The generations from Noah to Christ as listed in Luke 3 are accurate because: The writer either meant the passages to be accurate and complete, or he was guilty of deception and the passage would have no value at all. God directed the writing of all scripture (II Timothy 3:16), therefore, it was recorded accurately.

When small inaccuracies occur as a result of hand copying these lists, the difficulties can be resolved by a careful comparison of the various genealogical lists recorded in many places in the Bible.

The Pharisees were very precise in all their actions. They kept the genealogical lists but they showed no inaccuracies in the genealogy of Jesus. If they could have shown one inaccuracy, they could have proven that Jesus was not the Christ which would have destroyed their enemy, Jesus. Archeology has proven beyond any shadow of doubt that all the events of the Bible from Abraham forward are set in a framework of accuracy.

THE BIBLE DOES CLAIM THAT THERE IS A GOD, THAT GOD CREATED THE HEAVEN AND THE EARTH, THAT THE BIBLE IS GOD’S WORD, AND THAT THE EARTH IS LESS THAN 10,000 YEARS OLD. The task now set before us is to see if these claims can be proven true.

We Can Know . . .

  1. We can Know God made America Great!

2. We can know that evil people and evil nations will be punished if they don't repent.

 3. Faith and Knowledge

  4. The Bible claims there is a God, He created the Heaven and the earth, the Bible is His word, and that the earth is less than 10,000 years old. We can know the Earth is less than 10,000 years old!

  5. We can Know the gap theory and the million years per day theory are unfounded.

  6. We can know scientific evidence proves God's existence.

  7. We can know prophetic evidence proves God's existence.

  8. We can know why a young earth looks so old.

  9. We can know the answers to flood questions such as: Where could all the water necessary to flood the whole earth come from; where could it go; how could a boat be built large enough to hold all the animals; how could the animals get from one continent to another?

 10. We can know what it was like before the Genesis flood.

  11. We can Know why many methods to date the earth are unreliable.

 12. We can know our Bible is accurate.

  13. Final summery and conclusion.

 14. Common questions such as:

• Which came first the chicken or the egg?

• Was sex the forbidden fruit? Was prostitution the first profession?

• Were did Cain get his wife?

• Could God have created other people beside Adam and Eve?

•  Does "replenish the earth" mean there were people on the earth before Adam?

• Where do cave men fit into the Bible picture?

• Is there life on other planets?

• Where does the Ice Age fit into the Bible picture?

• Why do good people suffer?

We Can Know . . .

  1. We can Know God made America Great!

2. We can know that evil people and evil nations will be punished if they don't repent.

 3. Faith and Knowledge

  4. The Bible claims there is a God, He created the Heaven and the earth, the Bible is His word, and that the earth is less than 10,000 years old. We can know the Earth is less than 10,000 years old!

  5. We can Know the gap theory and the million years per day theory are unfounded.

  6. We can know scientific evidence proves God's existence.

  7. We can know prophetic evidence proves God's existence.

  8. We can know why a young earth looks so old.

  9. We can know the answers to flood questions such as: Where could all the water necessary to flood the whole earth come from; where could it go; how could a boat be built large enough to hold all the animals; how could the animals get from one continent to another?

 10. We can know what it was like before the Genesis flood.

  11. We can Know why many methods to date the earth are unreliable.

 12. We can know our Bible is accurate.

  13. Final summery and conclusion.

 14. Common questions such as:

• Which came first the chicken or the egg?

• Was sex the forbidden fruit? Was prostitution the first profession?

• Were did Cain get his wife?

• Could God have created other people beside Adam and Eve?

•  Does "replenish the earth" mean there were people on the earth before Adam?

• Where do cave men fit into the Bible picture?

• Is there life on other planets?

• Where does the Ice Age fit into the Bible picture?

• Why do good people suffer?