Why Trust the Bible? - Part 12 by Dr. Joe L. Mott on Dec. 22, 2025

References: (1) For centuries, the Bible has been revered as a collection of documents guiding the beliefs of billions of people worldwide. The field of archaeology is considered as a real-world investigator to the truth of the biblical claims. Critics have asked, “If the Bible is true, then why is there NO EVIDENCE  for David or Solomon, Israel’s two greatest kings? Or the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah? Or the tribe of the Hittites? Or Pontius Pilate, the governor of Judea who turned Jesus over for crucifixion? (2) But several funny things happened on the way to declaring the Bible historically UNRELIABLE. An inscription dating from the 9th century BC was discovered which referred to David as the  king of Israel. An excavation in Megiddo, one of Solomon’s 5 chariot cities, uncovered thousands of chariot stalls. Clay tablets dating back to 2500 BC were discovered in northern Syria that mentioned the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah. There is a museum in Chicago that has artifacts of the Hittite tribe. An inscription found on a stone slab in Caesarea named Pontius Pilate as a Roman governor. (3) All those archaeological discoveries speak volumes concerning the NT’s reliability. However, an article on the internet by Dr. Joshua Schachterle entitled 10 Times Archaeology Has Disagreed With the Biblical Narrative offers a different point of view. (4) I don’t think I want to waste my time reading speculation. Allow me to point out that Bart Ehrman, the skeptical NT professor of theology at UNC wrote a disclaimer saying, “The views and opinions expressed in this article  belong to the author and do not necessarily match my own.” (5) I intend to separate my responses about His deity into 3 CATEGORIES: first, what the OT refers to the Messiah apply to Jesus in the NT. Secondly, I will refer to what the early Christian church says about Jesus’ deity. And finally I will give some of the references that Jesus proclaimed about Himself. Not all of those EXPLICITLY say the Messiah is divine but it can be INFERRED from other references. (6) Many OT passages stand out as proof that Jesus as the Messiah would be God in human flesh. Some references from the OT tell of a coming Promised One, who would have a QUALITY known to NO OTHER  human being. He would be God in human form. Jesus, after all, fulfilled more than 300 OT prophecies and many are specific regarding His claim to be divine. (7) Dan. 9:24-27 is the only Old Testament passage which refers to the Promised One as “Messiah.” For one thing, it is indicated by the titles ascribed to the Promised One. Elsewhere He is called “Shiloh” (Gen. 49:10), God (Ps. 102:24-27), Emmanuel (Isa. 7:14), the “Root of Jesse” (Isa. 11:10), the “Righteous Branch” (Jer. 23:5), etc. But the name by which He is known best, “Messiah,” appears in ONLY ONE PASSAGE: Dan. 9:24-27. This passage is identified as that of the 70 weeks prophecy. If you compute that prophecy by identifying weeks by 7 years, each year of 360 days, then the prophecy that the Messiah would be “cut off” in 69 weeks equals 483 years or 173,880 days from the decree to restore and build the street and the wall. That decree was given on March 14, 445 BC. That will end on Thursday in the Passover week when Jesus was crucified. This is episode 255.