Can we believe the Old Testament is true?

Question

I have to give my presentation tomorrow and I'm looking for a few supporting facts.

Answer 1

Yes. We can believe the Old Testament is true because it is the foundation upon which the New Testament is built. Jesus the Savior revealed in the New Testament is the same Savior that was represented in types and symbols in the Old Testament.

Jesus, Himself quoted very often from and referred to the Old Testament. Without the Old Testament, you really have no basis to believe in Christ as the fulfillment of prophecy or the lamb slain from the foundation of the world.

Nearly all of the book of Revelation and most of the New Testament would be meaningless without the explanatory texts in the Old Testament.

Either accept the Old Testament with the New Testament and study more to better understand both or deliberately choose confusion when it comes to the birth, life and death of Christ.

2 Timothy 3:16 All scripture [is] given by inspiration of God, and [is] profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness:

Jesus instruction regarding the Old Testament:

John 5:39 Search the scriptures; for in them ye think ye have eternal life: and they are they which testify of me.

The main reason why many choose or even consider choosing to reject the Old Testament is because of their inability to explain difficult texts or to see the harmony between the Old and New Testament.

There is perfect and even beautiful harmony but it is not discerned by the surface reader.

Share these keys with those in your audience.

Wrong motive for reading the Bible = wrong understanding or misunderstanding of the Bible

Right motive for reading the Bible = right understanding of the Bible

A text without context is a pretext to reject text.

Christ is the revelation of God as the New Testament is the revelation of the Old Testament.

Show N Tell

Answer 2

Yes we can.

As some tesimony to the bibles scientific accuracy even though man had the earth everything but round, artifacts found shows man thought the earth was either flat, triangle, totempole shape or could not decern the shape of the earth.

At Job 26:10; Ps, 150:4 and Isaiah 40:22 Gods people were told that the earth is round, which we know today to be scientific true fact.

Who else could of known that some 4000 years ago unless a creator told them.

History also shows that man had the Earth being held up by things like turtles,
poles, gods, stones, pillers, and many other animals.

But at Job 26:7 we find that God told Job that the earth is hanging upon nothing.

How could mere man even conseve that some 4000 years ago?
So that to is scientific true fact.

If you go to the seminars at the Grand Canyon they will show where the earth was covered completely with water at one time as backed up by Gen 6:17.

You wil need to get a New World Translation of the Holy Scriptures rather than trying to understand the old King James Version translated in1610 using old english.

If you want more scriptures as to the evaporation prosses for our water.
How the moon holds back the oceans and how the meteology of wheather system works through the old testament you can E-mail me and I will give you more infomation,

Sincerely yours,

Fred M. Hunter
[e-mail].

Answer 3

The answer to that question can only be a subjective one, and the answers you get here will largely be based on what that individual him, or herself happens to believe. Nobody has enough "hard facts" to support what they believe one way or another. I personally believe that the writings in what has come to be known as "the bible" are those of totally unknown authors who, for whatever reason, wanted people to believe in the existence of a mysterious invisible superbeing. We just don't know, and we may never know the truths behind the writings. I have some well formed thoughts about that, but they wouldn't help you because, once again, I can't back up what I personally think, with solid, unarguable, unquestionable, incontrovertible FACTS, and no matter how passionately and strongly other people may believe a certain thing, they can't do that either, because belief is simply not "fact". I think you ought to be able to make a pretty good presentation on just that theme.

Answer 4

The Bible's accuracy and reliability have been proved and verified over and over again by archaeological finds produced by both believing and no believing scholars and scientists. This included verification for numerous customs, places, names, and events mentioned in the Bible.
One among many examples is the fact that for many years the existence of the Hittites (a powerful people who lived during the time of Abraham) was questioned because no archaeological digs had uncovered anything about them. Critics claimed the Hittites were pure myth. But today the critics are silenced. Abundant archaeological evidence for the existence of the Hittites during the time of Abraham has been uncovered.
Bible scholar Donald J. Wiseman notes, "The geography of Bible lands and visible remains of antiquity were gradually recorded until today more than 23,000 sites within this region and dating to Old Testament times, in their broadest sense, have been located." Nelson Glueck, a specialist in ancient literature, did an exhaustive study and concluded: "It can be stated categorically that no archaeological discovery has ever controverter a biblical reference." Well-known scholar William F. Albright, following a comprehensive studies, wrote: "Discovery after discovery has established the accuracy of innumerable details, and has brought increased recognition of the value of the Bible as a source of History."

Answer 5

Definitely!
The Dead Sea Scrolls put that baby to bed decades back.
Over 60 years ago, a stone thrown by a Bedouin shepherd into a cave led to what some have called the greatest archaeological discovery of the 20th century. The Bedouin heard the stone crack open an earthenware jar. Upon investigating, he found the first of what came to be known as the Dead Sea Scrolls.
The Dead Sea Scrolls are ancient Jewish manuscripts, most of them written in Hebrew, some in Aramaic, and a few in Greek. Many of these scrolls and fragments are over 2,000 years old, dating to before the birth of Jesus
Sir Frederic Kenyon, longtime Curator of the British Museum said:
“THE last foundation for any doubt that the Scriptures have come down to us substantially as they were written has now been removed.”
Professor Julio Trebolle Barrera, a member of the international team of editors of the Dead Sea Scrolls, states:
“The Isaiah Scroll [from Qumran] provides irrefutable proof that the transmission of the biblical text through a period of more than one thousand years by the hands of Jewish copyists has been extremely faithful and careful.”
Concerning the text of the Hebrew Scriptures(OT),
scholar William Henry Green said:
“It may be safely said that no other work of antiquity has been so accurately transmitted.”

Answer 6

It really depends on how it is interpreted, and what facts we are looking for, or in fact are the contents actually fact because there are in all reality no supporting facts for the old testament, it is simply a story written by man, and man today cannot prove it to be true, it all really comes down to mans interpretation and speculation of how much is truth or fiction.

Answer 7

Jesus taught in parables. "Stories" Some of the old testament might also be parables to illustrate a point. Other parts of the Old Testament are the true history of the Jewish people. The Old Testament is included in the Bible because it contains over 300 prophesies that were all filled by Jesus.

Answer 8

Archeology has proven many times that the Bible (O.T.) is correct.
And what the Bible says about things that science can investigate are found to be true (even when evolutionist try and use science to disprove the Bible it does not work. i.e. evolution says man came millions of years after the dinosaurs, the Bible says we lived together. There are places around the world were there are human and dinosaur footprints in the same rock. Evolutionist just over look this simple fact and try to use more difficult facts of science to say evolution is true).

If you believe Jesus, then you should believe the O.T. because Jesus gave witness that the O.T. was true.

Answer 9

If the New Testament is true, then so is the Old Testament, otherwise there wouldn't be a New Testament that is backed up by the Old Testament. But it really isn't the "old" Testament, it is the "First" Testament.

Answer 10

You should read Karen Armstrong's "A History of God". The Old Testament has a lot of authors with very different ideas. Some of it is mythology, even by Christian accounts (such as the tower of Babble.) Other parts, like the formation of ancient Israel, are probably accounts of actual events.