The trial had been a long one, and everyone concerned was glad that the end was in sight. Lord Justice Swingingham was summing up the evidence for the prosecution.
"First, we have the evidence of several witnesses that the accused had for years shown a strong dislike for the victim of the crime, and on the evening before the murder he quarrelled violently with him. As he left the public bar of the Royal Oak, several witnesses heard him shout, 'I'll get even with you yet!'"
In a corner of the jury box a small elderly lady scowled at the judge. "Coincidence! Pure coincidence!" she muttered under her breath.
"Next we must note that the following morning, when the murder took place, the accused was unaccountably absent from work," the judge continued. "He has been identified by six witnesses as the man who was seen running away from the victim's house at 10.45 a.m., just after the sound of two shots was heard."
"More coincidences," muttered the old lady.
"Moreover the accused has admitted buying a double-barrelled shotgun at The Sportsman's Emporium at 9.30 that morning. The wounds in the victim's head are consistent with such a weapon having been fired. When seen running away, the accused was carrying a lengthy object in a sack. He disappeared in the direction of the River Thames, and the police have since recovered the accused's shotgun from the bed of the river. The accused was not seen again until the next afternoon, when he was arrested at Rotherhithe Docks, trying to stow away on a Spanish ship bound for Venezuela."
"Coincidences, all the lot of them," muttered the elderly lady.
"They don't mean a thing to me."
Another juror glared at her. "Coincidences be blowed!" he said.
Now let's look back over the previous nine chapters, and list the evidence that has to be faced. As you look at it, take care not to make the little old lady's mistake. Some of the evidence on its own might be the result of coincidence. But it can't all be coincidence.
Chapter 2 looked at some of the Bible's many prophecies about the Jews. Their scattering all over the world, their long years of exile, their unpopularity, their frequent persecution, their continued existence despite attempts to exterminate them, and, at long last, their return to their homeland in an ungodly state-all these things were foretold in detail.
And it has all come to pass, exactly as the Bible said it would. The promise that those who blessed the Jews would be blessed, and those who cursed them would be cursed, has also been fulfilled many times.
Chapter 3 began with prophecies about two great cities, Babylon and Tyre. A very different doom was foretold for each city. In each case the Bible's words came true, centuries after the prophecies were written.
This chapter went on to discuss Daniel's concentrated summary of the future history of the world. There were to be four, and only four, great "world empires". After that, the world would remain divided until the time of Christ's return to the earth. Historians (unbelievers included) agree that the Roman empire was the fourth world empire, and that there has never been another since.
Chapter 4 listed some of the prophecies made about Jesus, long before He was born. The exact place and the approximate date of His birth were prophesied. His altogether unique, righteous life was prophesied. So were His resurrection from the dead and His ascension to heaven.
But, most of all, the Old Testament foretold His crucifixion. Not just the fact, but many of the detailed circumstances of Calvary, were written in advance.
Chapter 5 showed that Jesus had an uncanny foreknowledge of the twentieth century. He foretold the worldwide preaching of God's Word; the return of the Jews to the land of Israel; and the insecurity, the loss of moral sense, the fear of the future, and the sense of impend. mg doom that overshadow our world today.
The apostle Peter also foretold how our generation would scoff at the idea of the Second Coming, and described the particular scientific principle that educated men quote as their reason for scoffing. He also foresaw the kind of destruction (by fire) that another world war would bring upon our cities.
Chapter 6 described how the gospels portray Jesus, and argued that nobody in the world He lived in could have invented such a character. He did things and said things that no normal man of the age would have dreamed of saying or doing.
Consequently, if the gospel records are true, Jesus was a super. human Man, the Son of God. If they are fiction, then the gospel writers must themselves have been superhuman in their powers, to create such an extraordinary "uninventable" character as Jesus.
Chapter 7 examined the evidence that Jesus rose from the dead.
According to the written testimony of many eyewitnesses, Jesus did rise from the grave. Those eyewitnesses were neither cheats nor simpletons. All the evidence points to the conclusion that they were honestly reporting the wonderful truth.
The birth and growth of Christianity in a world that did not want it, the sudden swing from the Jewish sabbath to the Christian Sunday, the bigoted apostle Paul's sudden conversion-all these facts need explaining. There is only one adequate explanation for them: that Christ rose from the dead.
Chapter 8 looked at the Law of Moses. We saw that it was thousands of years ahead of its time. In many respects the world has not caught up with it yet.
More than a thousand years before Christ it taught Christian love, love of neighbour and of stranger alike. In an evil idolatrous world it condemned idolatry, and insisted that there was only one God. While other nations worked their slaves to death, the Law made the Jews give both their slaves and themselves a day's rest every week.
The Law of Moses anticipated many modern discoveries: isolation of infectious diseases; the principles of hygiene and sanitation; the avoidance of disease borne by unsuitable foodstuffs; the conservation of resources; the importance of a stable family life and sound education.
In Chapter 9 we looked at a more subtle kind of evidence. We saw that the Bible "rang true". It reads like a true book, not a book full of falsehoods. The contrast between it and other ancient religious books is tremendous.
It makes no attempt to whitewash its heroes or to flatter its readers. Ordinary writers try to cover up the truth when it is unpleasant. But the Bible tells the honest truth, however painful that may be to its readers.
We also saw some examples of the "undesigned coincidences" that abound in the pages of the Bible. They are another mark of the simple truthfulness of its writers.
In Chapter 10 we saw how the sixty-six separate books in our Bible have a common theme. Threads of harmony join them all together, into one complete unit.
This harmony is far too remarkable to have occurred by accident. It is so deep-rooted that the authors could not possibly have created it on their own. This is evidence that one Master Mind must have guided the pens of all the forty authors of the Bible.
A diehard unbeliever would say that it doesn't "prove" anything. In one sense this is right. The truth of the Bible is not something that can be proved like a theorem in mathematics. But the guilt of a criminal cannot be proved mathematically either. Yet we still say that a criminal is "proved guilty" when there is so much evidence of his guilt that it is unreasonable to doubt it.
This book has marshalled some of the evidence that the Bible is what it claims to be. If you have digested this evidence it will stay with you for the rest of your life, whether you finally accept the Bible or not.
The evidence is not something that can be explained away. To put it all down to coincidence would be as silly as the behaviour of the little lady in the jury box. However you look at it, one fact is inescapable. There is a very great deal of evidence to support the Bible's claim to be a message from God.
This is where faith comes in.
Faith is not, as a cynic once said, "believing in something you know to be untrue". Faith comes when evidence convinces you that something must be true. The New Testament defines it like this:
"Faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen."1
If you can accept the evidence put before you, and say, "Yes, I am convinced that there must be a God, that the Bible must be His Word, and that Jesus must be His Son" - if you can say that, then you have what the Bible calls faith.
But perhaps you cannot say that yet. Perhaps you can only go half. way, and say something like this:
"Yes, the evidence is impressive. It does seem as if there might be something in it. But I don't know. There are so many things to be said against the Bible, as well as for it."
If that's how you feel you have no need to be depressed about it. Many other men and women have felt like that. We read of one such man who came to Jesus, asking for his epileptic child to be healed.
Jesus told him, "If thou canst believe, all things are possible to him that believeth."
The man replied, "Lord, I believe; help Thou mine unbelief."2
This sounds rather a contradictory statement to European ears. But it was evidently a Hebrew's way of saying, "Lord, I almost believe. I want to believe. But I find it hard to believe unreservedly. Lord, help me to believe with all my heart!"
Jesus apparently did help him, because there was a happy outcome. The man's prayer was answered; his child was healed.
There is good practical advice in this story. Part Two of this book will try to deal with all the main obstacles to wholehearted belief in the Bible. Now you know the best way to tackle Part Two.
Read it with this prayer in your heart:
"Lord, I (want to) believe; help Thou mine unbelief!"
This will help you to have an attitude of respect for the Bible. It does not mean that you should suppress your reason. Far from it; God invites you to "gird up the loins of your mind"3 (that is, to use every ounce of intelligence you possess) when you study the Bible.
What God wants us to suppress is our pride. We can come to the Bible, and to Part Two of this book, in two very different ways.
We can say: "The Bible is probably a man-made book. I shall feel free to treat it with contempt, to ridicule it, or to ignore it. I don't think the Bible has anything for me." And we shall be right; the Bible will not have anything for us, if we approach it like that.
Or we can say: "The Bible might possibly be what it claims to be - a message from God Almighty. In case it is, I must treat it thoughtfully, humbly, respectfully, to see what I can learn from it."
That way, you are sure to benefit. Even if you finally decide the Bible is not the Word of God, you will still learn more by adopting the humble approach.
And if-as I believe-the Bible is the Word of God, you will gain an infinitely greater blessing. For God has said:
"This is the man to whom I will look: he that is humble and contrite in spirit, and trembles at My Word."4