Can The Bible Be Trusted?

The entire Faith of Christianity rests in whether the Bible can be trusted.

The majority of Christians throughout the world claim that the Bible is the Word of God and is the authority of faith and practice. The banner of the reformation was “Sola Scriptura,” which, in English, means “by Scripture alone.” Those who led the Protestant Reformation protested the practice of the Roman Catholic Church of elevating Papal authority, the councils, and tradition above the teachings of Scripture. Sola Scriptura is the doctrine that all truth for our spiritual lives and salvation can be found in the Bible.

If an individual is to base his or her salvation on the Scripture alone then we need to know if the Bible can stand up to the claims that it makes about itself.

Internal claims- The Bible claims to have dual authorship, human and divine. Men wrote as God gave them His Word. This claim of divine authorship is an important statement to make because it puts the burden of proof on the skeptic. I can make any claim that I want, true or not, and the burden of proof falls on those who oppose my claim. If the Bible is not the work of God, then it should be easy for the skeptic to prove the Bible incorrect or not internally consistent. Regarding the Old Testament, the Apostle Peter said, “For the prophecy came not in old time by the will of man, but holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost” (2 Pet 1:21 KJV). The Apostle Paul said, “All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness” (2 Ti 3:16 ESV). Paul claims that when we read the Bible, we literally hear God's voice, the “breath” of God. If these claims are true, then we would assume to find some evidence of divine authorship. That’s what I will examine in this article.

Before examining the evidence, it is necessary for us to understand the claims of the Bible being holy, inspired, and infallible. The Bible that we hold in our hands, bound between the leather covers, is obviously not the original scrolls that the prophets and Apostles wrote. The originals were not written in the English language, nor were they written in King James English. It is a fact that we don’t have the original manuscripts today. They were written on material that decayed, and they were also written before the invention of the printing press. Because of this, we are speaking of the Bible in its original form when we say that the Bible is without error. The skeptic may be able to find small transcription errors or differences in numbers and spelling of places and names. These differences do not discount divine authorship, which we expect to find when something was copied by hand a thousand times. When skeptics, such as Bart Ehrman, a scholar of the New Testament, claim that there are some 400,000 contradictions, he speaks of spelling and punctuation differences. Ehrman knows this and uses numbers like this for the shock factor and not to build a solid argument against the Bible.

If the Bible can be trusted and has divine authorship there must be some evidence that would testify to this statement.

First, if the Bible is divine, given to us by an eternal God, then we expect to find that the author knows the future. Fulfilled prophecy is a powerful piece of evidence that points to the accuracy and reliability of the Word of God. The Bible contains over 2,500 prophecies, of which about 2,000 are already fulfilled to the letter. Just to give an example of the precision of God’s Word, let's examine some of those prophecies.

• More than 500 years before Christ was born, Daniel prophesied that the Messiah would begin a public ministry 483 years after a decree was issued to rebuild Jerusalem. He prophesied that the Messiah would be killed before the second destruction of Jerusalem (Daniel 9:25-26).

• Micah prophesied that the Messiah would be born in Bethlehem (Micah 5:2) 700 years before the birth took place.

• Isaiah prophesied that the Messiah would be born of a virgin, heir to David’s throne, and named Immanuel (Isa 7:14. 9:7). Isaiah also prophesied that He would be silent before his accusers and be spat upon and struck (Isa 50:6, 53:7).

• Jesus prophesied that he would be betrayed by Judas (Matt 26:2, 22) and that Peter would deny Him three times (Matt 26:33, 34). He also predicted his death, resurrection, the coming of the Holy Spirit, and the destruction of Jerusalem (Matt 26:2, John 19:14-16, John 2:18-22) Matt 16:21, John 14:26, Luke 19:43, 44).

Second, if the Bible is divine, we expect it to be historically accurate. The Bible passes all the tests of being a true historical document. Although written by different authors over thousands of years, it is internally in agreement, confirmed by the rest of history, and passes the bibliographic test compared to other ancient documents. The Bible was written before the invention of the internet or the airplane, yet the writers accurately recorded cities and towns and agree on the geography of the places they wrote about. They also use names that were popular during the time and location where they are used. This is an important piece of historical evidence. If I was writing a novel that took place in China, I would research the period the novel took place and the names that were used during that period. Today I can use the internet to do the necessary research to get it accurate, yet this was not a tool at the disposal of the Gospel writers. These are important facts that we can easily overlook. But imagine trying to come up with the Bible before the internet and being accurate 100% of the time on small details such as small-town names, peoples' names, the names of gardens, or whether someone traveled up the road or down. Yet these are the types of details that are contained in the Bible, which testify to its historical accuracy.

The wording of Scripture speaks to its historical accuracy as well. It is not written like a fairy tale. Consider the opening chapter of the Gospel of Luke, “There was in the days of Herod, the king of Judaea, a certain priest named Zacharias, of the course of Abia: and his wife [was] of the daughters of Aaron, and her name [was] Elisabeth” (Luke 1:5 ESV). This information can be verified and proven to be a true historical record of events as they took place. The translations of Scripture that we have today are based on over 23,000 manuscripts. That's more manuscripts than any other ancient literature in existence. Yet, we never call into question the authenticity of other literature because it doesn’t require us to look into ourselves like the Bible does.

If the Bible is true and is God’s Word to Mankind then the message of sin, salvation, coming judgment, and eternity is true.

Finally, if the Scripture has a divine author, we expect the words to be more than just history or science. We expect the words to speak to us differently than any other literature. The writer of Hebrews describes it like this, “For the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart.” (Heb 4:12 ESV). The Bible doesn’t sugarcoat the condition of mankind. Contained in the pages of Scripture is the fall of Adam and Eve, The anger of Moses, the adultery of David, the doubting of Peter, the denial of the resurrection by the disciples, and the struggles of the Apostle Paul. If the Bible was written as a piece of propaganda, it would not have been written to show the honest, ugly side of our sins and struggles.

The writers of the Scripture believed in its divine origin and they were willing to die for their testimony.

The writers of the gospels, along with the Apostle Paul, did not receive fame and fortune for what they wrote. Except for John, they received persecution and death at the hand of their persecutors. All they had to do to live was recant and claim that it was all made up, but they couldn’t because they knew it was true. They had been eyewitnesses to the risen Lord and were willing to die for that.

For you and I, living 2000 years after the events of Scripture took place we have to decide. Do we believe in the divine authorship of Scripture or do we deny it?

If it is true, there is a God, and sin is true, Judgment is true, eternity is true, and the atonement for sin on the cross is true. If it's true, we have so much to gain by heeding the message contained in its pages. We all know that this life is temporary. The only thing that matters is the life that is to come...