The Bible is not a single book in the normal sense of the word.  It is more properly thought of as a collection of writings, an anthology, or, better yet, a library.  This library is remarkable in the diversity of the works found within.  The writings in this collection were composed over the course of 1500 years, representing the work of more than 40 authors, writing on three continents, in at least three different languages.  The writings include historical accounts, legal codes, collections of hymns and poems, biographies, personal letters and works of prophetic vision.  Their original intended audiences are as diverse as the writings themselves, as are the circumstances which surrounded their composition.  However, the library is even more remarkable in its essential unity.  The various books that make up the library are in perfect harmony with one another, unified in theme and world view.  More amazing, a single unifying story threads itself through the entire collection, spanning not only the entire library but also reaching from eternity past to eternity future, beyond the edges of human existence, beyond even the edges of all creation.

The mere fact that the Bible exists, argues for its divine origin.

Those 40 authors were not only writing on different continents and in different languages and in different centuries, but they were writing from distinctive points of view to dissimilar audiences for diverse purposes.  These were not what one would expect as “additions” to a holy book.  This was not like a long “campfire story” where each teller adds to the central tale.  The writers were not theologians and philosophers working to complete a body of religious thought.  Each book of the library we call the Bible was written for a particular, independent purpose at the time of its authorship.  These were compilations of law which were expected to be obeyed at the time.  They were hymnals of songs which were expected to be sung at the time.  They were physical, moral and spiritual warnings expected to be heeded by those who read them in the first instance.  They were personal letters to real people about real events of their particular time.  And yet they are imbued with a singular theme.

The authors not only came from a variety of vocations, but also they came from diverse points of view.  Some were insiders and people in charge.  Some were outsiders and aliens.  The writings came from palace rooms and prison cells and everywhere in between.

Despite the 1500 year span of Bible writing, there is no growth in the maturity of the thought or sophistication of the theology.  It does not progress from a primitive or childlike belief system to a refined and cogent philosophy.  The God of the desert nomads traveling from ancient Ur is the same God of the erudite scholar contending with the philosophers in the agora of Athens.  Job, probably the first book written, and Revelation, the last, strike remarkably similar notes, “I know that my redeemer lives, and that in the end he will stand on the earth. And after my skin has been destroyed, yet in my flesh I will see God; I myself will see him with my own eyes—I, and not another. How my heart yearns within me!” (Job 19:25-27).  From beginning to end, in every time or place or circumstance, the God of the Bible is unchanged and unchanging.

I believe an equal attestation to the supernatural nature of the Bible is found in the depth of its teaching.  The sixty-six books actually make up a very small library, but the amount that has been written about those short books undoubtedly exceeds the commentary written about any other collection in history.  Very smart and learned people have long devoted their lives to the study of the Scriptures.  Persons of erudition have invested fifty, sixty years and more to deep reading and diligent study of the Bible and find, at the end of that time, that they are still discovering new truth within the pages.  No other piece of literature can withstand the level of study and scrutiny to which the Bible has been subjected for centuries and yet no one can claim to have reached a complete understanding of its teaching.  Nonetheless, any wise child or any adult of even marginal intelligence can find within the covers of this most remarkable book every truth necessary for salvation and to live an abundant life pleasing to God.  The Bible turns out to be one of the most deep and difficult of books and also one of the most clear, understandable and accessible.

I also consider another aspect of the Bible to be a mark of its divine origin.  For those honest seekers who approach it in faith, the Bible always speaks truth into their lives.  This is not akin to the kind of self-projected “truth” we find in fortune cookies and newspaper horoscopes. Rather, those who engage with the Scriptures encounter profound and piercing truth that challenges and encourages at the deepest levels, that speaks not only to who we are but also to who we wish to be, ought to be and are called to be.  It is commonplace for a student of the Bible, reading a passage for the tenth or hundredth time, to suddenly be moved on an intimate and spiritual level in completely unexpected ways.  The Bible accurately describes itself as “alive and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow…” (Hebrews 4:12).  This remarkable library speaks not only to those who were the intended audiences of the original manuscripts, but also to cultures and societies across the span of history to the ends of the earth, and, most amazing, with freshness and power to every individual reader with every repeated reading.