The Crimson Thread: Tracing the Gospel Through Scripture

By Way of Introduction

Dear brother or sister in Christ, welcome to the inaugural series of articles on Christianly.com! Our mission here is to share the unadulterated Gospel of Jesus Christ, equipping you with wisdom to live out your faith to God’s glory. We invite you to send us your questions about the Bible, God’s all-sufficient Word, to help prompt or shape future articles and resources.

The Crimson Thread series will trace the Gospel through Scripture, revealing God’s sovereign plan woven across redemptive history. We’ll explore rich biblical truths, including those that are not always clear or obvious. We pray that this journey through the Scriptures will deepen your adoration and love for God, and strengthen your daily walk with Him. Join us below as we begin with Part 1, discussing the seemingly impossible miracle of the Bible’s existence and preservation.

Part 1: The Miracle of The Bible

The Bible is one of the most extraordinary books in human history. It has shaped civilizations, inspired billions, and stood the test of time. But beyond its influence, the Bible itself is a miracle — from its divine inspiration to its preservation, historical accuracy, and scientific confirmations.

How the Bible Came to Be

The Bible as we have it today was carefully compiled through centuries of deliberation by early Christian leaders. The process of determining which books should be included in the “canon” involved councils such as:

The Council of Hippo (393 AD)
The Council of Carthage (397 AD), which affirmed the books of the New Testament.
The Council of Trent (1546 AD), which reaffirmed the canon in response to the Protestant Reformation.

These councils ensured that the Bible contained divinely inspired, historically reliable, and doctrinally sound writings.

Scientific Confirmations of the Bible

While not a scientific text, the Bible contains descriptions of the natural world that remarkably align with modern scientific discoveries. From archaeology to biology, evidence that supports the historical and scientific credibility of Scripture continues to emerge, often predating human understanding by centuries or millennia.

Archaeology has provided lots of physical evidence supporting biblical events.
Cosmology & Astronomy: The Bible describes the Earth’s round shape (Isaiah 40:22) and its suspension in space (Job 26:7), aligning with modern discoveries.
Physics & Hydrology: The hydrologic cycle (Ecclesiastes 1:7, Job 36:27-28) was described in Scripture long before science formally understood it.
Medical Science: Biblical hygiene laws (Leviticus) predated modern germ theory and sanitation practices. In our next article, I will even discuss the scientific truth about the blood of Jesus, and how it impacts the absolutely divine truth of the Gospel.
Genetics & Biology: The Bible’s assertion that “life is in the blood” (Leviticus 17:11) aligns with modern medical understanding.

The Bible’s Preservation Through Time

The Bible has been translated into over 1,500 languages, making it the most widely distributed book in history. Despite centuries of persecution, wars, and attempts to destroy it, the Bible has remained intact, preserved by the sovereign will of God. And we have plenty of evidence to this fact. The Dead Sea Scrolls, discovered in 1947, confirmed the accuracy of Old Testament texts dating back over 2,000 years.

For the New Testament, over 5,600 Greek manuscripts, such as the Codex Sinaiticus (4th century AD) and Codex Vaticanus, are extant, far surpassing the manuscript evidence for other ancient works like Homer’s Iliad (fewer than 2,000 copies). These manuscripts, some dating to within a century of the original writings, confirm the New Testament’s consistency, with textual variants affecting less than 1% of the text and none impacting core doctrines. This robust manuscript tradition affirms the Bible’s faithful transmission across millennia.

A Perfect Fit

I love figuring out how to make a complicated matter easily understood. In trying to do so, I search my mind for examples from everyday life – which reminds me that our Lord Jesus ever so often used parables to clarify what He wanted to communicate. I will therefore start with the example of a jigsaw puzzle.

Suppose I ask you and someone else to each choose a picture, photo, or painting of any color or size, and cut it into twenty pieces – in whatever pattern you like. We will then have a total of forty pieces. Now, suppose I ask you to fit all those forty pieces into one perfect picture. What will your reaction be? Impossible? Correct!! You will tell me that the patterns, the sizes, the colors, and whatever else don’t fit. They simply cannot match!

Now let us compare: the Bible was written over a period of approximately 1,500 years, by more than forty authors, most of whom didn’t even know each other. Yet the Bible, from first to last, tells us about only one divine plan of salvation, and points to only one Person who would fulfil that plan, namely Jesus Christ. How could so many authors, over thousands of years, have written down so many divine truths that all fit together like a beautiful, breathtaking picture, without any contradiction at all? How did this happen? The example of our jigsaw puzzle showed us that not even two people could corroborate with each other!

To put the solution into everyday words: God is the Chief Author of His Word, the Bible. He instructed His chosen ones to write down certain truths – in their own style and vocabulary, yes, but the basic truths they wrote down, were those which God commanded them to say and to write. Usually, we call these messages “divinely inspired” – which means “this is what God said”. And that is only one of the many divine miracles of the Bible! Please read on, and I’ll show you some more.

To Believe or Not to Believe

Have you ever wondered if God is real and if the Bible is true? I have, and it took me on a journey of searching, discovering, and, eventually, an unquestioning faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. You see, one either believes and welcomes facts, or doesn’t want to believe and consequently looks the other way when the real facts are presented.

I have found that true, impartial scientific data supports the biblical narrative 100%. At first glance, the findings published by atheist scientists that would “prove” the Bible in error seem utterly compelling, but in the end, it would turn out to be wanting the true perspectives. Bible facts are supported throughout by archeology, recorded human history, and even psychology. When practiced honestly, all true science supports the biblical accounts about the existence of humanity and the universe.

The Preservation and Impact of the Bible

The Bible as we know it today, was miraculously preserved over thousands of years, and had a profound historical impact globally. Notably, it is the best-selling book of all time (estimated 5–7 billion copies circulated) and one of the most translated works in history (the complete Bible in 756 languages and portions thereof in over 3,700 languages as of 2024).

It stands out as a unified work written by 40+ authors over 1,500+ years with a consistent message – something often seen as a miracle itself. Around 2,000 biblical prophecies in the Bible have already been fulfilled exactly as foretold. Now, can you see the numerous “parts of the jigsaw puzzle” coming together in one perfect picture?

The discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls showed that 2,000-year-old manuscripts match the modern Hebrew Bible text almost exactly, affirming the reliability of transmission. Additionally, the New Testament is backed by over 5,600 Greek manuscripts (some within decades of the originals) — far more than any other ancient text — with about 99.5% textual consistency across copies. This wealth of manuscripts (which would stack a mile high vs. only a few feet for typical classics) is often cited as evidence that the Bible we read today is essentially unchanged from the original writings.

Various anecdotes and historical accounts illustrate how the Bible’s survival against all odds is considered miraculous. For example, scholars once doubted the existence of ancient peoples mentioned only in the Bible (like the Hittites), but eventually archaeology vindicated these biblical records by unearthing lost cities and inscriptions. This is why courageous individuals like William Tyndale and others risked or even gave their lives to translate and preserve Scripture, reinforcing the sense that a higher power was working to ensure the Bible’s continuity.

Cultural and Historical Impact

The Bible’s teachings have shaped language, law, art, and ethics globally. Many everyday idioms (e.g. “the writing on the wall,” meaning an omen of doom, originating from the Book of Daniel) come straight from biblical stories. Influential figures across history have drawn inspiration from the Bible — as when Abraham Lincoln called it “the best gift God has given to man” because it teaches right from wrong.

The Bible is indeed a “miracle book” — tying together its survival, influence, and belief in its divine origin. Throughout history, millions of individuals credit the Bible with personal transformation or guidance and with inspiring moral growth. William Tyndale, who died as a missionary, once said; “whoever reads it will become every day better and better.”

Conclusion

The Bible is more than just a religious text — it is a miracle of divine inspiration, historical accuracy, and scientific confirmation. Its survival, influence, and truth continue to shape lives worldwide.