Is the Bible True?

Have you ever wondered whether the Bible could really be trusted? After all, is everything in the Bible really true? Are we really supposed to believe that Noah filled the ark with every kind of animal? Are we really supposed to believe that Moses parted the Red Sea or that Elijah was carried up into heaven on a chariot of fire? Was Jonah really swallowed by a giant fish? And what about the miracles that Jesus supposedly performed – did they really happen?

These are actually not new questions. Libraries full of books have been dedicated to the integrity of scripture – on both sides of the argument – so it is not likely that I can give a full and complete explanation in a short article. However, I can hit the high spots…

These questions have been around in some form or other since the beginning of time. In recent history, the “Enlightenment” movement of the 18th and 19th century came to the conclusion that the supernatural aspects of the Bible were all fictional. In fact, Thomas Jefferson created his own version of the New Testament that removed all miracles and supernatural aspects of Jesus’ life – leaving only his moral teachings… but was he right in doing this?

Jefferson only dealt with the fantastic things, but even if such amazing things actually happened, how do we know we have the right scriptures. After all, there are ancient works that are not included in our Bible and the works that are included are different if you are Catholic versus Protestant. Who decided that the collection of scriptures we use are the right set of scriptures?

When you consider all these things, it is no wonder that Satan has convinced so many people that the Bible cannot be trusted. To confuse matters, high profile doubters such as Bart Ehrman make it their goal in life to confuse believers about their faith in the scriptures. They write books containing misleading statistics that question the reliability of the texts we call the inspired word of God.

On the other hand, since the first century AD, the organized church has stood firm on the foundational premise that what we now consider the Bible is the inspired word of God. Every major denomination holds to this principle. For example, the very first words of the first article of the Baptist Faith and Message says

The Holy Bible was written by men divinely inspired and is God's revelation of Himself to man. It is a perfect treasure of divine instruction. It has God for its author, salvation for its end, and truth, without any mixture of error, for its matter. Therefore, all Scripture is totally true and trustworthy.

Similary, the first chapter of the Westminster Confession of Faith, used by the Presbyterian church, says

The authority of the Holy Scripture, for which it ought to be believed, and obeyed, depends not upon the testimony of any man, or Church; but wholly upon God (who is truth itself) the author thereof: and therefore it is to be received, because it is the Word of God

The Confession of Faith of the United Methodist churches says

We believe the Holy Bible, Old and New Testaments, reveals the Word of God so far as it is necessary for our salvation. It is to be received through the Holy Spirit as the true rule and guide for faith and practice. Whatever is not revealed in or established by the Holy Scriptures is not to be made an article of faith nor is it to be taught as essential to salvation.

The very first of the sixteen Fundamental Truths of the Assemblies of God states:

The Scriptures, both the Old and New Testaments, are verbally inspired of God and are the revelation of God to man, the infallible, authoritative rule of faith and conduct.

And even though the Roman Catholic church includes books in their Cannon that are excluded by the Protestant churches, the Catechism of the Catholic Church acknowledges the authority of scripture as well by saying

The inspired books teach the truth. "Since therefore all that the inspired authors or sacred writers affirm should be regarded as affirmed by the Holy Spirit, we must acknowledge that the books of Scripture firmly, faithfully, and without error teach that truth which God, for the sake of our salvation, wished to see confided to the Sacred Scriptures.

Universal acceptance of scripture as truth is fundamental to each of these (and other) denominations. How can all of these communities of faith make such claims about scripture? What is the basis for making what appears to be such an outlandish assertion? Wouldn’t common reason dictate otherwise?
Actually, it is reason itself that proves the authenticity and authority of scripture. Although as Christians we must take by faith that scripture is inspired and trustworthy, it is not a blind faith. Rather, it is a highly intellectual and reasoned faith that we maintain. Such reasoning goes as follows:

First, we must begin with the premise that God exists. This, in itself, is obviously a major philosophical debate and a matter of faith. However, although it is too complicated and distracting to this argument to discuss the philosophical matters of the existence of God, suffice it to say that it takes just as much faith to not believe in God as it does to believe in God. Therefore, for the purposes of this discussion, we will assume the existence of God.

Second, we must examine the nature of that God. Unfortunately, we must do this through the scripture and therefore open ourselves up to criticism regarding use of scripture (which is what we are debating) to prove the authenticity of scripture. However, what we are examining in this instance is not the miracles or accuracy of scripture, but rather the testimony of man regarding the nature of God. Accordingly, we find that God is Holy, perfect, and true. In fact, we find in Dueteronomy 32:4 that he is a God of Truth – a testimony repeated throughout the Old Testament scriptures. Numbers 23:19 says that God does not lie as does Titus 1:2. Hebrews 6:18 actually says that it is impossible for God to lie. 1 John 4 tells us that “God is light” (i.e., completely pure). Therefore, we must conclude that a Holy, truthful, and pure God can be trusted. Is there an element of faith in this assertion? Yes, there is, but we shall come back to this in a moment.

Third, we examine the testimony of the scripture itself regarding the scripture. This, indeed, is the most precarious point because we are using scripture to validate scripture. However, it is important to note what historical, biblical figures have said about scripture before making our rational arguments. Furthermore, we shall see that what the Bible says about itself is important in ascertaining whether or not the Bible itself is true.

1. Jesus himself confirmed the validity of scripture. He studies the scriptures as a child. He read the scriptures in public. He quoted and referenced the scriptures in his teachings.
2. Peter claimed that the scripture was spoken by the Holy Spirit (who is God) – Acts 1:16
3. Paul used scripture to reason with the Jews and uses scripture throughout his writings to prove the gospel
4. 2 Timothy 3:16 says that all scripture (in the Greek, literally EVERY scripture) is God breathed or inspired (in the Greek, literally EXHALED BY GOD).
5. James, the brother of Jesus, quoted scripture
6. In 2 Peter 1:21, Peter says that the writers of scripture were carried along by the Holy Spirit as they spoke the word of God
7. Proverbs 30:5 says that every word of God is flawless
8. In the same sense that the prophets spoke the word of God, the gospel was considered by the apostles to be the word of God
9. Paul says in 1 Thessalonians 2:13 that scripture is not the word of man, but the actual word of God

Now we are able to put these together and make a rational argument regarding the validity of scripture.

Premise 1: If God is Holy, true, and pure, then his word can be trusted.
Premise 2: If God is Holy, true, and pure, then he cannot lie (which is confirmed by the testimony of scripture).
Premise 3: If God can be trusted, then the word of God can be trusted.
Premise 4: Because God’s word can be trusted, if the Bible is the word of God, it can be trusted.
Premise 5: The Bible claims to be the word of God.
Premise 6: If the Bible is the word of God, every word in it must be true because God cannot lie.
Premise 7: If any portion of the Bible is not true, then the Bible cannot be the word of God.
Premise 8: If the Bible is not the word of God, then nothing in the Bible can be trusted because its claims about itself are false.

By logic, therefore, we can state that either (a) the Bible is God’s Holy word, totally complete and totally accurate or (b) the Bible has made false claims about itself and can be trusted for nothing. Notice that it is not necessary to take on faith that the Bible is God’s Word. It is only necessary to take on faith that God exists and that God is Holy, true, and pure. One must then choose – accept all of scripture or reject all of scripture based solely upon its claim that it is the word of God. We choose to accept all of scripture – including the many fantastic things that Jefferson and other “enlightened” people might wish to remove from that scripture.

Unfortunately, this still does not answer the question as to whether we have the right scripture and whether or not that scripture as we have received it through the centuries and translated it is reliable. Regarding the inclusion of the proper ancient texts, there is a clear disagreement between Protestant churches and the Catholic churches – particularly around the inclusion of the apocrypha. However, the Jewish religious leaders at the time of Jesus Christ had a very well established cannon of (what we now call Old Testament) scriptures. These scriptures would be the scriptures that Jesus himself studies, referenced, and taught. The Jewish religious leaders did not include the apocryphal books in that cannon and Jesus did not reference or teach from them. Therefore, the Protestant church does not consider them as part of their cannon.

Regarding the New Testament cannon, which was confirmed (not selected, confirmed) in the latter half of the third century, the criteria for including texts in the New Testament scriptural cannon was based primarily upon four criteria:

(a) Consistency regarding the message of the gospel
(b) Authorship by or closely associated with an apostle (particularly early, first century authorship)
(c) Universal acceptance by the first and second century church
(d) Universal use by the first and second century church (i.e., read during worship)

By definition, therefore, these criteria are not a “selection” of texts, but a confirmation of universally accepted texts.

Regarding its reliability, there are literally hundreds of thousands of surviving original texts from which
scripture has been collected, with many of them dating back as far as the third and fourth centuries. Of these hundreds of thousands of texts, there are admittedly some discrepancies. However, the discrepancies account for less than one percent of the text. Of the less than one percent of the texts that are in discrepancy, there are less than one percent of these that are of significant difference. Most are spelling of words, placement of words within a sentence, use of equivalent words, and grammar differences. Finally, of the less than one percent of the less than one percent of significant discrepancies, none have any theological significance and most modern English translations will make a note of these. Two of the most well known of these are the passage concerning the adulterous woman in John chapter 8 and the end of Mark chapter 16, neither of which are contained in some of the earliest remaining manuscripts but neither of which have a bearing on any significant point of gospel theology.

From this, we can conclude with significant confidence that we have a reliable understanding of the original, God inspired text of scripture. Where there is any doubt to this effect, there is no significant impact on our understanding of the gospel, God’s nature and purpose for our lives, the theological teachings of Christ and his apostles, or his commands to us. As a result, we can conclude, therefore, that the Bible is indeed true. Believe it.