“All scripture is inspired by God” (2 Timothy 3:16).

Throughout the ages, men have argued whether the Bible is the true word of God. What does it mean that all scripture is given by inspiration of God? In a sense, the Bible itself tells us.

The Old Testament states in specific words that it tells us the exact words of God 3,808 times*. The Pentateuch (the first five books) makes this point 420 times. For example, Exodus 17:14 says, “Then the Lord said to Moses, ‘Write this in a book as a memorial and recite it to Joshua.'” See Exodus 19:6, 7; 20:1; and 24:4 for more examples.

The prophets told us that their message was the word of God. They used such expressions as “Hear the word of Jehovah, Jehovah spoke unto me, Jehovah hath spoken.” These words and like phrases are found in Isaiah 120 times, Jeremiah 430 times, Ezekiel 329 times, Amos 53 times, Haggai 27 times, and Zechariah 53 times.

There are 278 exact quotations from the Old Testament that are found in the New Testament, and there are 613 allusions to the Old Testament that are found in the New Testament. Jesus’s teachings and the books of Romans, Hebrews, and Revelation contain the most.

The forty plus authors of the Bible were fishermen, a doctor, shepherds, kings, statesmen, poets, fishermen, a tax collector, prophets, and historians. They came from many walks of life over hundreds, if not thousands, of years. Yet the unity of the message and doctrine of the Bible stayed the same.

Surely these facts tell us that the Bible is the living Word of God. How wonderful is our heavenly Father and God Who does not hide from us, but keeps His Word through all generations.

Donna Wittlif,

*Statistics taken from The Inspiration and Authority of Scripture by Rene Pache.