Dear Editor,

In the past, we have responded to many professing atheists, including Mark Wignall and Michael Dingwall, who use their perceived learning to bash the notion of God and the claims of the Bible. Despite their efforts, the Bible — the most examined and challenged book in history — will survive, as it has done for centuries.

The Bible is unique in continuity – written by over 40 different authors from every walk of life over a period of 1500 years. These writers generally did not know each other personally and wrote from very different circumstances – Moses in the wilderness, the Prophet Jeremiah in a dungeon, the Apostle Paul in prison and under house arrest, Daniel in a palace and Luke while travelling. It was written on three continents: Asia, Europe and Africa, and in three different languages: Hebrew, Aramaic and Greek. Yet it addresses hundreds of controversial subjects with an amazing degree of harmony. What plausible explanation is there for this consistency?

The Bible contains prophecies that were fulfilled hundreds of years after being made and has influenced the course of human history more than any other book. Moreover, through all its different literary genres it presents a single unfolding story: God’s redemption of human beings. And it has one leading character throughout – God himself, made known through Jesus Christ.

With billions of copies sold, the Bible is the most widely circulated book in history by a landslide. It has been translated into more than 2200 languages. No other book, ancient or modern, comes close. It has survived through time. For most of its history the Bible existed on perishable materials and has been copied for hundreds of years before the invention of the printing press, without being diminished in style or correctness, and it has never been threatened with extinction. There are over 5000 manuscripts. Only something supernatural can attest to this.

What then is the viable alternative to Christ? We all long for truth, hope and love, but these don’t exist outside of an absolute moral framework that explains the origin of everything. If there is no God, then why tell a victim of some traumatic experience to hope for the best? As Steve Turner says in the postscript of his poem Creed, “If chance be the Father of all flesh, disaster is his rainbow in the sky, and when you hear State of Emergency! Sniper Kills Ten! Troops on Rampage! Whites go Looting! Bomb Blasts School! It is but the sound of man worshipping his maker.” So the alternative is not to deny the existence of God and the Bible but to consider the validity of claims made by them.

Sheldon Campbell

Paul Lewis

Joel Bain

sonsofthunderja@gmail.com