First of all let me say that nothing you read here will necessarily convince you that the bible is true. All of the evidence in the world will not convince everyone. But I hasten to add that many who discount the bible have not seriously looked at the evidence.
And it would seem that the majority who deny that the bible is God’s inerrant word have not read very much of it. It makes sense that if we want to know the truth, we must fairly assess the facts.
One fact we can agree on is that there is such a thing as what is called “the bible”. I mean, most of us have at least seen a bible. And it has been the best selling book of all time, with an estimated 5 billion copies sold. But how did this “bible” come to be? Let’s look at some facts that are easily found.
The Bible we have today is a translation of thousands of ancient manuscripts which were originally written over a period of fifteen hundred years in three different languages by at least forty different authors who lived on three different continents.
The Bible contains sixty-six individual books and is divided into two sections. The Old Testament describes the history of the nation of Israel and contains much prophecy about Jesus Christ. The New Testament describes some fulfillment of prophecy in the birth, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ and also describes the beginning of the Christian church.
How can we know that the Bible is true and accurate? Is the bible just fictional stories, myths and legends invented by people? First of all, consider the facts: was written over a period of fifteen-hundred years by a diverse group of men including military generals, prophets, kings, politicians, a doctor, a rabbi, fishermen and even a tax collector. Most of these men never knew each other and lived in different cultures with different languages at different times in history. It ought to amaze everyone, given these facts, that the Bible is one cohesive story telling us how the world began and how it will end.
Even though a seemingly endless array of scholars, historians, scientists, mathematicians, archeologists and theologians have scrutinized these manuscripts for thousands of years, no significant discrepancy or error has been found. Now it is true that there are some variances in different manuscripts, but no one expects 100 percent accuracy between thousands of hand copied documents.
Historians and scholars know this better than anyone and come to settled conclusions about the original text of a document by comparing the copies, even with the slight differences between them. This can be achieved because variances are usually spelling errors or missing words which does not change the meaning of the text to any significant degree.
Further we can see that the bible’s scientific description of this world agrees with what we know about science. History as well as discoveries in archeology only confirm and agree with what is written in the Bible.
A Little Common Sense
We can also believe that the Bible is true and wasn’t concocted by people by using common sense. No human being in their right mind would have written what is in the Bible. For one thing, the Bible describes people as being fornicators, idolaters, adulterers, thieves, covetous, drunkards, revilers, swindlers (1 Corinthians 6:9-10), that they are immoral and impure (Galatians 5:19), cowardly, unbelieving and abominable (Revelation 21:8). Who would write a book describing themselves and their fellow human beings like that?
The Bible also says that people are “in the darkness” (1 John 2:9), dead in sin (Colossians 2:13), and without hope (Ephesians 2:12). Further it states that we are helpless (Romans 5:6), that we are condemned for our sin (Ephesians 5:6) and that we need someone to save us. Worse than that is how it describes awful judgments that God has pronounced against those who disobey him:
“But because of your stubbornness and unrepentant heart you are storing up wrath for yourself in the day of wrath and revelation of the righteous judgment of God, who will render to each person according to his deeds.” (Romans 2:5-6)
Of course there is the “end of the world” scenario as well,
“But the day of the Lord will come like a thief, in which the heavens will pass away with a roar and the elements will be destroyed with intense heat, and the earth and its works will be burned up.” (2 Peter 3:10)
Who would even want to believe things like this, let alone write a book asserting that it is true? And furthermore, the bible never describes people as being good or kind or loving, but scripture is filled with commands for people to be this way, which consequently shows that by nature they are not that way.
Take it on Faith
We believe a lot of things based on books we have read, but do we have good reason to believe that these books are accurate and true? I think we all believe that Abraham Lincoln existed and was the 16th president of the United States and that he gave a speech called the “Gettysburg Address”. But none of us witnessed it, so we have to take it on faith that those who did witness it and testified to it are telling the truth.
We have to believe the books and newspaper stories that were written about it by the people who were there and witnessed it. When they wrote about it, none of them were trying to prove that it happened, but they wrote about it as accepted fact.
This is because enough people witnessed it to know it was true. The historical documents we now have on the subject are enough for most people today to believe that Abraham Lincoln gave a speech at Gettysburg on November 19, 1863 and what the contents of the speech were.
The Bible is also an historical document, with supporting archeological evidence, that reports events and was written by those who witnessed them.
Historical Evidence
If you have ever read Homer’s Iliad or Odyssey, you will know that you have not read the original works because they were written in Greek around 800 B.C.
Now stop a moment and consider this first sentence. Do you believe an ancient Greek man named Homer wrote these epic poems? And that he wrote them around 800 B.C.? If you do, you would have a hard time proving it because there is no definitive agreement among historians about who Homer was and if it was even he who wrote these poems.
If you have read the Iliad, you have most likely read a modern English version, a translation of ancient Greek copies of the Iliad. The original Iliad was copied hundreds of times and likely with very small errors in many of the copies. With at least 650 manuscript copies and fragments existing, they could be compared with each other to determine any errors (since the errors wouldn’t be in the same places in all the copies) and so come up with an accurate whole.
The Bible has come to exist in the same way. These manuscript copies, originally written on papyrus and parchment, began to be written within a generation of Jesus’ life and ministry on earth.
The earliest copies were copied from the original papyri which were written by those who were eyewitnesses of Jesus and all that he did. The men who wrote the New Testament books were inspired, moved and prompted by God to write what they wrote. By the end of the first century A.D., less than one hundred years after Christ ascended back to heaven, these original writings were completed and preserved into the Greek New Testament. These original Greek writings were then copied hundreds of times over the centuries.
There are more than 5,000 copies and fragments to compare to be sure that what we have is accurate. This is a mountain of copies as compared to the 650 of the Iliad or any of the other literary works of antiquity.
Today there are three major collections of these Greek manuscript copies, the Codex Alexandrius and Codex Sinaiticus that are in the British Museum Library in London and the Codex Vaticanus in the Vatican. It is from these groupings of texts, with it’s multitude of copies that modern Greek scholars have translated the original Greek into the English New Testament that we have today.
These Greek texts have been reproduced and are widely available in book form online and in bookstores. If you believe that the Iliad was accurately translated from Greek copies into English and is true to what Homer originally wrote, you can similarly believe that the Bible is also true to the original authors.
The fact that these manuscript copies exist is beyond doubt, since anyone could take a trip to London and actually look at them. Or even easier, look them up online. Images of the copies are there to see. What then do we do with the content of them?
Since most of us cannot read or write ancient Greek, we must put our trust in those who can, believing that they have accurately translated the Greek manuscripts into English. But we don’t have to take it wholly on faith since there is so much information out there on ancient Greek. If we take the time and effort, we can see for ourselves that the English bible that we have today is accurate to the original texts.
With these facts, we can reasonably believe that the bible we have today is true and accurate.
I have been told, “I don’t believe the bible, because we don’t know who wrote it.” But it’s authors identify themselves. Two good examples of this are the apostle Paul, who wrote most of the New Testament and the apostle John, who wrote the gospel of John. Paul begins his letters with his own name and in five of the letters states that he has written “in my own hand”.
“I, Paul, write this greeting with my own hand, and this is a distinguishing mark in every letter; this is the way I write.” 2 Thess 3:17
John the apostle ends the gospel of John by saying, “This is the disciple who is testifying to these things and wrote these things, and we know that his testimony is true.” John 21:24.
These are real men who wrote actual letters to churches that they had established. But how did they know what to write? Did they just invent a religion? No, Paul says of himself:
“To me, the very least of all saints, this grace was given, to preach to the Gentiles the unfathomable riches of Christ, and to bring to light what is the administration of the mystery which for ages has been hidden in God who created all things; so that the manifold wisdom of God might now be made known through the church” Eph 3:8-10.
Paul speaks of a mystery, which is now to “be made known through the church”. This mystery, which is the message of the gospel, has been “hidden in God” for ages. Paul says that he received this message and then delivered it (via speaking it and in the letters he wrote) to people who had not heard it.
“For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received, that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, and that He was buried, and that He was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures,” 1 Cor 15:3-4
Paul makes clear that he received this mystery directly from God, that it was not of human origin or invention:
“For I would have you know, brethren, that the gospel which was preached by me is not according to man. For I neither received it from man, nor was I taught it, but I received it through a revelation of Jesus Christ.” Gal 1:11-12
Further, scripture says that it was God himself, who prompted what was written by the men who wrote the bible:
“All Scripture is inspired by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness;” 2 Tim 3:16
Since God created and manages the whole universe and designed the amazing complexities of our bodies, it is no stretch to believe that he could also direct men to write what he wanted them to write.
God is also easily capable of preserving His word over the centuries and causing men to accurately translate it into modern languages.
I hope and pray that you believe in the truth of the bible since it describes two very different choices for your eternal destiny.
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