Can I find good reason to accept its ancient perspectives? It's an old book in a world where age is no longer considered a virtue. If I'm going to trust it, I have to have good reason to do so. At stake are issues as timely as my approach to sexuality, marriage, work, and worship.
If such thoughts go through your mind from time to time, then we would like to offer some help. These materials have been written by our staff to show the ongoing reliability of the Bible. We hope that it will give you a new appreciation for this Book, which countless generations have found to be more than worthy of their trust.
Martin R De Haan II
OUTLINE
Objections to the Bible's Reliability
This Book Is Different
You Can Trust the Biblel
Its Personal Claims
Its Protected Text
Its Proven Accuracy
Its Profound Impact
How We Got Our Bible
We Tried to Prove It Wrongs
Thinking It Over
OBJECTIONS TO THE BIBLE'S RELIABILITY
More than 50,000 different books are published in the United States each year. They cover every subject imaginable, from artichokes to zucchini, from anthropology to zoology, from Afghanistan to Zimbabwe. But people who trust the Bible say it is different from any other book ever published. They say it is the only book authored by God and thus the only book that shows us how to know Him, how to live, and how to receive eternal life.
Many people don't agree. They think the Bible is flawed and unreliable, and obviously not written by God. Here's what some of them are saying:
"The Bible is not scientifically reliable." A person who thinks this way feels that the Bible is full of scientific errors and therefore cannot be trusted in spiritual matters either.
Because of their naturalistic assumptions, many scientists take issue with the miracles in the Bible. They question the scientific validity of the accounts of the sun standing still, the Israelites being fed with quail, or Jonah surviving in the belly of a huge fish for 3 days.
"The Bible is historically inaccurate." People who believe the Bible insist that it comes from God and is error-free. That's why those who do not agree often point out what they feel to be historical inaccuracies. Whenever they find something in archeology or ancient records that seems to contradict a biblical statement, they jump to the conclusion that the Bible is wrong. Unless every biblical name is authenticated through research and every fact verified by historical study, they assume that the Bible is in error.
"The Bible is outdated." Not too many books are still being printed today that were finished 2,000 years ago. But that very mark of the Bible's greatness is interpreted by some as a point of weakness and disinterest. Modern-day thinkers who have developed new philosophies and theories about life claim that no book written so many centuries ago could have anything relevant to say to our modern world - especially on such specifics as sexuality, marriage, ethics, and business.
"The Bible is the work of man." The people who say this think that the Bible is the product of man's fertile imaginations and ancient mythological traditions. They place it in the same category as the Greek stories of the gods on Olympus or the writings of Confucius or Muhammad. To them, the Bible is just another religious book.
So, many people reject the claim that the Bible is God's Word. And they object to the idea that it is a book we can trust with our life and destiny. But to reject the Bible, as we will see in the pages to follow, is to close one's eyes to an overwhelming amount of evidence in its favor. And more important, it is to ignore the reality of mankind's own spiritual need - and the rescue offered in its message.
THIS BOOK IS DIFFERENT
The Bible is not different just because it claims to have come from God. The Koran was supposed to have been revealed to Muhammad by the archangel Gabriel. Similarly, Joseph Smith, the founder of Mormonism, claimed to have been given a special revelation from God engraved on golden plates. Other religions also maintain that their sacred writings were revealed by God.
The Bible is totally different, however, in its view of God, its view of man, its view of salvation, and its view of truth.
1. ITS VIEW OF GOD. The Bible presents God as Sovereign Lord of all (1 Chronicles 29:11); as a God of mercy, love, and goodness (Psalm 145:9), and as one God (Deuteronomy 6:4). The Koran depicts God as strict, capricious, and without compassion. Mormon doctrine teaches that there are many gods, that God Himself was once man, and that man has the potential of becoming God.
By contrast, the Bible claims that the one true God became a man in the incomparable Person of Jesus Christ. A British expert on comparative religions, J. N. D. Anderson, wrote:
Other religions may indeed include the belief that God, or one of the gods, manifested himself once, or many times, in human form. . . . But Christianity alone has dared to claim that "the one, omnipresent, omniscient ground of all existence" has uniquely intervened in His creation, not by assuming the mere form or appearance of a man, but by actually becoming incarnate (Christianity and Religion, p.51).
2. ITS VIEW OF MAN. While the holy books of many other religions either exalt man or debase him, the Bible gives a more balanced and realistic picture. First, it does not make man out to be more than he is, as did the ancient Greek Heraclitus who said, "The gods are immortal men, and men are mortal gods." Second, it does not make man less than he is, as psychologist B. F. Skinner did by saying man is nothing more than a complex organism controlled by his environment.
By contrast, the Bible alone does justice to both the high and the low sides of human nature. It tells of his creation in the image of God, is realistic about his sin, upholds his personal responsibility, and gives him hope for the future.
3. ITS VIEW OF SALVATION. The salvation of man as presented in the Bible differs vastly from the cruel and inhumane views of the world's religions. Hindus, for example, often involve themselves in agonizing acts to merit God's favor. Buddhists follow an eightfold discipline of self-denial. Muslims engage in a strict regimen of fasting and prayer to earn God's approval.
The Bible, however, offers man salvation in the God-man, Jesus Christ. It is not a salvation by works, but by grace through faith,
4. ITS VIEW OF TRUTH. While other religious books are filled with unconfirmed claims and philosophies, the Bible supports its claims with historical and geographical facts. This is why the first-century Christians gave so much emphasis to the good news of the resurrected Christ. Their message was to be accepted not merely on the authority of the words but on verifiable evidence.
YOU CAN TRUST THE BIBLE!
If the Bible can give us good evidence that it has come to us from God, then we can see why it makes so much sense to trust its authority. This is the pattern we follow in other areas of life. When we are sick, we don't ask a painter for a diagnosis and a prescription. Instead, we look for someone qualified to give us reliable medical treatment.
And what about the deeper, most basic decisions of life? Where do we go when we want to know what's right and what's wrong? Who do we ask about the origin and meaning of life? Where do we turn when we are overwhelmed with a sense of sin and our terrible weakness? How can we find rescue, information about the future, and hope beyond the grave?
Once again, if we can show that we have good reason to believe that the Bible has come to us from God, then we also have a book we can trust - a book like no other book this world has ever known.
In the following pages, we will organize this evidence for the reliability of the Bible into 4 basic categories: its personal claims, its protected text, its proven accuracy, and its profound impact. More specifically, these categories can be broken down into the following 10 lines of evidence: (1) the Bible's claims for itself, (2) Christ's claims for it, (3) the writers' claims for it, (4) its textual unity, (5) its textual preservation, (6) its historical accuracy, (7) its scientific accuracy, (8) its prophetic accuracy, (9) its social impact, and (10) its personal impact.
As we look at these 10 lines of evidence, which support our conviction that the Bible is the Word of God, our sincere hope is that you too will be convinced that the Bible is a book you can trust.
ITS PERSONAL CLAIMS
The evidence for the reliability of the Bible begins with the unusual claims surrounding it. As you spend time reading the Bible, you will soon find overwhelming evidence that the writers of this book were convinced that it was uniquely God-given. We will look atthree claims in this section: (1) the Bible's claims for itself, (2) Christ's claims for it, and (3) the writers' claims for it.
1. THE BIBLE'S CLAIMS FOR ITSELF. The Bible claims, first of all, to be the Word of God to man (2 Timothy 3:16; 2 Peter 1:20-21). That may not seem to be a very strong reason for us to trust it. But it is a good place to start. If the Bible didn't make that claim for itself, we would have to take it upon ourselves to do so. In this regard, the Bible claims that even though it was written by human authors, it was inspired by God. And if it truly is what it claims to be - a God-inspired book - then it is absolutely trustworthy.
When we say the Bible is inspired, what do we mean? For one thing, we do not mean the kind of inspiration that comes to an author trying to write a book or a mechanic trying to find out what's wrong with a car. As they struggle with a problem, they may suddenly see a solution and say they were hit with a bolt of inspiration.
This is not what we mean when we say that the Bible writers were inspired. Rather, we mean that their writing was initiated and controlled by God Himself. In a supernatural way, the Holy Spirit led Moses, Isaiah, Matthew, Paul, and the other Bible authors to write the message of God to man.
The Bible's unusual claim to be the inspired Word of God is made clear in several key passages. Let's look at three of them. The first is in Paul's second letter to Timothy: "All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness" (2 Timothy 3:16).
The word translated "inspiration" means "God-breathed." This tells us that the Bible originated in the mind of God. The Holy Spirit influenced the individual Bible writers to put down the message God wanted mankind to have.
A second important passage that expresses the Bible's claim to be the Word of God is in one of the apostle Peter's letters: "Knowing this first, that no prophecy of Scripture is of any private interpretation [origin], for prophecy never came by the will of man, but holy men of God spoke as they were moved by the Holy Spirit" (2 Peter 1:20-21).
These verses make a tremendous claim! They say that the Bible prophets did not originate what they wrote. Rather, they recorded what was given to them by God. They were moved (literally "borne along") by the Holy Spirit. Now, that doesn't mean that their individual personality or style of writing was overpowered. It means that they were kept from having any error creep into what they wrote. They were moved by the Holy Spirit to record only what died wanted man to know.
The Bible's claim, then, is that it was written by God. It is not man's book, it is God's book. Paul informed us that the spiritual truth he gave was "not in words which man's wisdom teaches but which the Holy Spirit teaches" (1 Corinthians 2:13).
Yes, the Bible claims to be the inspired Word of God - powerful, living, and indestructible (1 John 1:1-3; Hebrews 4:12; 1 Peter 1:23-25). In both the Old and New Testaments, it is the message of God to people of all ages - a book you can trust!
2. CHRIST'S CLAIMS FOR THE BIBLE. While Jesus Christ was on earth, He affirmed the Bible's claims for itself. In what He said about it and in the way He used it, the Son of God showed the Bible to be the Word of God. Consider the following:
a. He used titles for the Bible that showed its authenticity:
* "the Word of God" (Mark 7:13; John 10:35).
* "Scripture" (Luke 4:21; John 5:39; 10:35).
* "the commandment of God" (Mark 7:8).
b. He accepted the persons and events mentioned in the Old Testament as historical:
* Adam and Eve (Matthew 19:4-5) .
* Noah and the flood (Matthew 24:37-39).
* Lot, Lot's wife, and Sodom (Luke 17:28-32).
* Jonah (Matthew 12:38-41).
c. He saw His own words as Scripture and therefore to be believed (John 12:48-49).
d. He held people responsible for what was written in the Scriptures (Matthew 12:3).
e. He used Scripture as conclusive evidence in answering His critics:
* John 10:35, quoting Psalm 82:6.
* Matthew 22:32, quoting Exodus 3:6,15.
* Matthew 22:42-44, quoting Psalm 110:1.
f. He used the authority of Scripture to refute the temptations of Satan in the wilderness (Matthew 4:4,7,10).
In the way Jesus Christ quoted and used the Scriptures, He made it clear that He accepted its claims for itself to be true. While He was on earth, the living Word affirmed the written Word.
3. THE WRITERS' CLAIMS FOR THE BIBLE. The individual writers affirmed the Bible's claims for itself by accepting the other parts of the Bible as the Word of God They also affirmed it by the way they saw themselves as part of God's plan for making Himself known to man.
First, let's look at how the Bible authors viewed the Scriptures:
* When Daniel read Jeremiah's prophecy that the Babylonian captivity would last 70 years, he accepted it as true and began to pray and plan accordingly (Daniel 9:2).
* Peter accepted the supernatural origin of the writings of the Old Testament prophets (2 Peter 1:21).
* Peter also accepted the supernatural origin of the writings of Paul, even though he found them hard to understand (2 Peter 3:15-16).
* John said that the writings of the apostles, along with his own writings, were inspired by God and authoritative (1 John 4:6).
Second, the Bible writers saw themselves as communicating, the Word of God. Look at the following passages:
* The prophet Isaiah began his book by proclaiming, "For the Lord has spoken" (1:2).
* Jeremiah opened his prophecy by saying, "Then the word of the Lord came to me" (1:4).
* God commissioned Ezekiel to go to his people and tell them, "Thus says the Lord God" (3:11).
* Paul claimed that the words he spoke were directly from God (Galatians 1:11-12; 1 Thessalonians 2:13).
Let's sum up what we have said. The Bible claims to be the book of God. Christ affirmed this claim. And the Bible writers themselves affirmed it by accepting as Scripture the writings of their fellow biblical authors and by seeing themselves as writing the words of God.
ITS PROTECTED TEXT
The supernatural protection of the text of the Bible is another reason for trusting it. This protection occurred in two forms: (a) its unity amid great diversity, and (b) the miraculous preservation of the text itself. Let's look at the two ways God has protected the text of His Word.
4. ITS UNITY IN DIVERSITY. The writings of man are marked by disunity and contradiction. Books written by more than one author often contain glaring discrepancies in philosophy, facts, style, or ideas. Even those written by one author may contain contradictions in fact or logic. Those who have given their lives to a study of the Scriptures, however, are continually amazed at its unity and consistency of doctrine.
Josh McDowell, a well-known apologist for Christianity, was approached by a salesman for the Great Books of the Western World series. This set includes the writings of the leading thinkers throughout the history of Western man. McDowell challenged the representative to take 10 of the authors from the same walk of life, the same time period, the same country, and the same language and ask them about one basic subject. "Would they agree?" Josh asked. The man said, "Are you kidding? You would have a conglomeration!"
The amazing unity of the Bible, therefore, merits our trust. From Genesis to Revelation, the Bible tells a single story: the rescue of mankind from sin through the death of Jesus Christ. The Old Testament presents Him as the hope of mankind; the New Testament shows Him to be the fulfillment of that hope.
Now, if the Bible had been written by one person at one time, one could understand how it would be unified in general thoughts and specific details. But consider these diversities in its origin:
* It was written by 40 different authors.
* It was written over a period of 1,600 years.
* It was written in three languages: Hebrew, Greek, and Aramaic.
* Its writers came from many walks of life: prophet (Jeremiah), priest (Zechariah), shepherd (Amos), king (David), servant (Nehemiah), doctor (Luke), tax collector (Matthew), and Pharisee (Paul).
* It was written on three continents: Asia, Africa, and Europe.
* A gap of more than 400 years separated the writing of the Old Testament from the New Testament - equivalent to the timespan from the days of Sir Francis Drake to today.
In spite of this wide diversity, the Bible is one book. As branches, roots, trunk, and leaves are part of one tree, so the parts of the Bible make up a single unit. It agrees in doctrine, details of prophecy, what it says about Jesus Christ, and its offer of rescue to mankind. It is a unified book made up of many books. It is a book you can trust!
5. ITS TEXTUAL PRESENTATION. The Bible is also a book to be trusted because its text has been miraculously preserved. None of the original manuscripts written by the biblical authors are still in existence. All of them were either lost or destroyed centuries ago. This has caused some critics of the Bible to question the purity of the texts we now have. But we can be confident that the Bibles we hold in our hands were translated from texts that for all practical purposes are the same as the originals.
THE OLD TESTAMENT. The Old Testament books were written primarily in Hebrew. They were recorded either on papyrus (a grassy reed whose inner bark was dried and glued together to form a paperlike substance) or parchment (the scraped and dried skins of animals). When a copy wore out, a new copy was made and the old one destroyed.
But that was not an easy task. They did not have copy machines like we do today, so it had to be done by hand. Stringent rules were followed by the scribes to keep errors from creeping in. The methods used by the Masoretes had been followed for centuries, from AD 500-900. These dedicated Hebrew scholars had an elaborate counting system for assuring accuracy. First, they would count all the letters on a page. Then, when they finished copying the page, they would count the letters on the copy to see if the numbers agreed. This would keep them from copying a word twice, omitting a word, skipping a line, or copying the same line twice. If the counts did not agree, they would destroy the copy they had just worked over so laboriously and start again.
Because of this system, the Hebrew texts since AD 900 are virtually free from error. But what about the years before 900? Most of the Old Testament was written centuries earlier, and the last book, Malachi, was finished nearly 400 years before Christ was born. Couldn't a lot of errors have crept in during that time?
That question could not have been answered with certainty before the discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls. One hot, dusty day in 1947, an Arab boy threw a stone into one of the hundreds of caves that pocket the cliffs surrounding the Dead Sea. To his surprise, he heard something shatter. When he crawled in to investigate, he found a broken pottery jar and some old manuscripts, including one of the book of Isaiah. This was the first of the collection of what came to be known as the Dead Sea Scrolls.
Word of the discovery spread, and soon archeologists were excavating caves throughout the area. They found fragments of every Old Testament book and some complete manuscripts.
But how did these compare with the Masoretic text? The careful work of textual comparison began, and soon it was found that there was no difference between the text of the Dead Sea Scrolls and those of the Masoretes. Even though these scrolls were copied almost 1,000 years earlier, they were almost identical to the Masoretic text! On the basis of this astounding evidence, we can be assured that the Old Testament text has been accurately preserved and that we can read it as the reliable Word of God.
THE NEW TESTAMENT. What has been said of the Old Testament can also be said of the New. It also has been kept from error over the centuries. Although its books were copied thousands of times and distributed widely among the early churches, it too has been protected from error.
New Testament scholars and textual experts have studied with painstaking care the thousands of manuscripts that have been discovered. They assure us that the texts from which our Bibles were translated are virtually identical to those written by Matthew, Paul, and the other New Testament writers. There are some minor variations, but none of them change the meaning of the passage in which they are found. Most of these differences are variations in spelling, like the British "labour" and the American "labor." A huge number of manuscripts or fragments of the New Testament have been discovered and compared. It is by far the most well-attested document of its era.
Two important finds have been made in recent years that have added significant evidence for the authenticity of the New Testament text. The first, the Rylands Library Papyri, contains a fragment from John 18 that has been dated at AD 125. The second, the Chester Beatty collection of papyri, contains almost all of the New Testament and dates between AD 200 and AD 275.
The meticulous work being done in textual studies of both Testaments by brilliant scholars, most of them non-Christians, has given us every reason to be confident that we know what the original manuscripts said - even though we do not have any of them. True, there are variants, but they are very minor in importance and affect no essential teaching. The protection of the text, both in unity and in preservation, is another reason we can trust the Bible.
