Verify Podcast

Have you met someone who says the bible is copied from other religions that came before Christianity? That different bible stories and characters, have striking similarity to those of other ancient texts? These and many more have been said about the bible, and some Christians echo these sentiments too, in the fear that all they’ve ever believed about Christianity is a lie.

Now the truth is that in both the Old and New Testaments, bible authors refer to or quote from several sources in order to make their points clearer. For example, 1 Kings 14:29 quotes from the Book of the History of the Kings of Judah and in Acts 17:28, Paul quotes from a secular Greek poet. So, yes, there are indeed, references in the bible to external texts. The authors of the bible had interactions and shared socio-cultural experiences with the world around them. They were fully human. They didn’t live in a bubble! But this does not take away from the authenticity of the bible because 2 Tim 3:16 tells us that God is behind all of scripture, every word of it.

But what about the allegations concerning Jesus? Is it true that the story of Jesus was copied from the lives of Krishna, Buddha and other religious figures who came before him? The first time I heard this, I did some research and read up about each of these figures, from reliable, scholarly sources and guess what I found. When held up against scholarly documents, all I could see were the differences between these men, more than any similarities.

But you know what, let’s say for a moment that the story of Jesus was similar to Krishna, Buddha and the rest of them. Let’s say they all preached about love and each had 12 disciples and each worked miracles. Would it cancel out the fact that historians, even non-Christian historians, agree that Jesus of the bible was a real person who walked the face of the earth? Would it change the fact that archaeology confirms numerous details from the bible? Would it cancel the fulfilled bible prophecies that secular history confirms?

You know, just as it is today, there have always been attempts to undermine the validity of the bible and to question the deity of Christ. It’s not a new thing. When it happened in the early days of the church, Paul, who himself had previously been a vicious persecutor of Christians until he had a strange encounter, advised the Christians of his day, not to allow anyone deceive them with empty philosophies (See Gal 1:13 & Col 2:8).

The truth is there are people to whom the gospel is utter foolishness! (1 Cor 1:18); people who will seize every opportunity to take pot-shots at the bible, while refusing to acknowledge or explain its historical, archaeological and prophetic features; features which distinguish it from any other text, ancient or modern.

I pray for myself and for you my dear listener, that we will always remember that the Church of Christ will prevail against all odds. I pray that no matter what arguments come against our faith, we will grow to know with unshakeable certainty that Christianity is true. I pray in Jesus name, amen.