Can the Bible be Trusted?

Christian Bibles borrow heavily from the Hebrew Tanakh and are broken down into different books. As I discuss below, different traditions count different books and order them differently. Here is the order used in most mainline Protestant Bibles, as those are the most common variety in the United States.

The Hebrew Scriptures & The Old Testament

The first books in the Christian bible are the holy books of the Jewish faith, collected in the Tanakh. “Tanakh” is an acronym of the three major divisions of the Hebrew holy book–the Torah (“teachings,” also known to Christians by the Greek name “the Pentateuch” or “five books”), Nevi’im (“prophets”), and Ketuvim (“writings”). In Christian traditions, these books are called “the Old Testament.” The Jewish faith also adheres to the teachings in the Talmud, rabbinical commentaries on the Tanakh; unlike the Tanakh, Christian scripture does not recognize the Talmud.

Different Christian traditions acknowledge different books of the Bible as canonical. The Tanakh includes only 24 books, while mainline Protestant bibles include 39, Catholics include 46, and Eastern Orthodox groups include 49. The books included in some bibles and not others are called Apocrypha or Deuterocanonical; this means either that they are not canon, or that they are less canonical than primary canon.

Protestant bibles do not include more material than Hebrew bibles, but they divide the book of the 12 minor prophets into 12 different books, as well as dividing the book of Ezra-Nehemiah into the books of Ezra and Nehemiah, and the book of Chronicles into 1 Chronicles and 2 Chronicles. All Christian bibles, however, are ordered differently than the Tanakh.

The Five Books of Moses/the Pentateuch

The only set of books included in all forms of the Tanakh and the Old Testament, in the same order, is the Torah or Pentateuch. These five books, the five books of Moses, are the first and “arguably” the most important books in the scriptures.

An Overview of the Old and New Testaments

The Old Testament begins with the book of Genesis, which tells the story of how the world was created, and how God anointed his chosen people and taught them how to live. This includes famous stories like those of Adam and Eve, Cain and Abel, and Noah’s Ark.

After Genesis, the different books of the Old Testament relate to the trials of the Israelites as they endure centuries of enslavement or captivity under different empires. There is a general pattern where God sends a prophet to teach the Israelites how to live and to lead them from hardship, but over time they lose faith and find themselves suffering new hardships. The most famous example is Moses leading his people out of slavery in Egypt – the people are impious and must wander the desert for forty years before their descendants can enter the promised land.

Some of the other important episodes from the Old Testament include the rise of King David, the building of the Temple in Jerusalem, and the Babylonian Captivity. The Old Testament also includes various sayings and songs about morality, god, and other ‘esoteric’ subjects.

The New Testament is concerned with the life and teachings of Jesus Christ, which are the basis for Christianity. His life story is told in the four Gospels (which comes from the Old English for “good news”). Almost all the other books are letters written by Paul or other Christian teachers, discussing their beliefs or giving advice.

The last book of the New Testament is the Book of Revelation, written by John the Apostle, which recounts an apocalyptic vision of the End of Days. The most important event discussed in Revelation is the Second Coming of Christ.

Notes on terms

There are a few cases of terms that crop up a lot in the books of the bible, but that get confused in everyday language. I just want to focus on two; the different terms for “God’s chosen people” in the Bible, and how God is identified and named.

The terms “Hebrew,” “Jew,” and “Israelite” are often used interchangeably.

The first person identified as a Hebrew is Abraham, and so in a sense, the Hebrews are descendants of Abraham. More specifically, the etymology of Hebrew implies an individual who is across or has crossed something, and so it is often used to describe the people of Abraham when not in Israel/Canaan, and when resisting cultural pressures and temptations from outside groups. Joseph is called a Hebrew when in Egypt. Lastly, Hebrew is often used to refer to the Hebrew-speaking Jews of Roman Judaea.

Israelites more specifically refers to descendants of Jacob or Israel, the ancestor of the twelve tribes of Israel who later would be split between the kingdoms of Israel and Judah. It is important to note that Israelite is different from the current national demonym Israeli, indicating a person from the country of Israel.

Jew, lastly, refers to the people of Judah, and then after the Babylonian exile to Israelites more broadly due to the cultural and religious importance of Judah. In general, Jew or Jewish person is used to refer to a person who practices Judaism or is part of the Jewish community. Due to its invective use by anti-semites, the word “Jew” by itself can sometimes sound harsh or rude, but there are many cases in which it’s perfectly neutral and appropriate.

The name of God

In the Tanakh, God is identified with seven different names. Per tradition, these are to be treated with extreme reverence; you shouldn’t erase or damage them when written down. For that matter, despite my academic use of them here, you’re not supposed to write them down too often either.

The most significant name for God in the Tanakh is the Tetragrammaton or the four letters. The four letters are transliterated as YHWH. In Latin, since the letter J originally was pronounced like a Y or I, and the letter V sounded like a W, this was written JHVH (from which we get “Jehovah,” as in the Witnesses). Since you’re not supposed to write the name down too often, it’s common to change a letter (in English this is often written as G-d) or to space the letters, like Y-H-W-H.

Especially in Judaism, but in many Christian traditions as well, you are not supposed to pronounce the Tetragrammaton. When referring to the name itself, one would typically say HaShem (“The Name” in Hebrew). When reading the four letters, it is pronounced Adonai (or “The Lord”). If the word “Lord” is already next to the four letters, you would say Elohim. This is how we arrive at the common English phrase “the Lord God.”

How Accurate Is the Bible?

“The Bible is full of contradictions and errors.”
“How can you be sure the Bible is the same now as when it was written, given that it’s been copied and translated so many times?”

These common charges against the Christian Scriptures are often followed with an assertion like, “Historians and scientists have long since proven that the Bible is inaccurate and unreliable.”

But how accurate is that statement? Is the Bible full of contradictions? Is it outdated, inauthentic, and full of scientific and historical errors as so many assert? In short,

Can you trust the Bible?

Here, I will consider some objections to the accuracy and reliability of the Bible to help you make a more informed decision about whether the Bible is trustworthy.

Common False Impressions

Consider the following statements:
-The Bible says that God helps those who help themselves.
-The books of the New Testament were written centuries after the events they describe.
-“Cleanliness is next to godliness” is in the Bible.
-According to the Bible, the earth is flat.
-The earliest New Testament manuscripts go back only to the fourth or fifth centuries AD.
-The Bible teaches that the earth is the center of the universe.
-The English Bible is a translation of a translation (etc.) of the original, and fresh errors were introduced in each stage of the process.

How many of the above statements do you think are true? The answer is none; all of them are false. Yet these false impressions persist in the minds of many, and misinformation like this produces a skeptical attitude toward the Bible.

The fact is that, with few exceptions, many have reached their conclusions about the Bible through second and third-hand sources rather than through firsthand investigation. It is a rare person who has personally examined a text to see if an alleged contradiction is there. Someone who asserts that the Bible is full of contradictions should be able to name at least one, if not several; challenging them to do so can be a helpful initial response.

We can break down the question of whether the Bible is reliable into four subcategories or questions:

Authenticity (textual reliability): Is what we have now a fair representation of what was first written?

Accuracy (factual reliability): Is what we have now a fair representation of what happened?

Authority (doctrinal reliability): Is what we have now a fair representation of what God wanted to communicate to us?

Accumulation: How do we know the right books were chosen to be in the Bible?

Three Tests
There are three lines of evidence that support the claim that the biblical documents are reliable:

1. The bibliographic test.
2. The internal test
3. The external test.

The first test examines the biblical manuscripts, the second deals with the claims made by the biblical authors, and the third looks to outside confirmation of the biblical content.

The Bibliographic Test
The first test examines the quantity, quality, and time span (between oldest copy and original writing) of the text. This test examines the question,

When we read the books of the Bible, are we reading what those books originally said?

Quantity of Manuscripts
In the case of the Old Testament, there is a small number of Hebrew manuscripts, because the Jewish scribes ceremonially buried imperfect and worn manuscripts. Many ancient manuscripts were also lost or destroyed during Israel’s turbulent history. Additionally, the Old Testament text was standardized by the Masoretic Jews by the sixth century AD, and all manuscripts that deviated from the Masoretic Text were evidently eliminated. But the existing Hebrew manuscripts are supplemented by the Dead Sea Scrolls, the Septuagint (a third-century BC Greek translation of the Old Testament), the Samaritan Pentateuch, and the Targums (ancient paraphrases of the Old Testament), as well as the Talmud (teachings and commentaries related to the Hebrew Scriptures).

The quantity of New Testament manuscripts is unparalleled in ancient literature. There are over 5,000 Greek manuscripts, about 8,000 Latin manuscripts, and another 1,000 manuscripts in other languages (Syriac and Coptic, among others). In addition to this extraordinary number, there are tens of thousands of citations of New Testament passages by the early church fathers. In contrast, the typical number of existing manuscript copies for any of the works of the Greek and Latin authors, such as Plato, Aristotle, Caesar, or Tacitus, is much smaller.

Comparison of Existing Manuscript Quantities

Homer: 2,000
Plato: 7
Aristotle: 49
Caesar: 10
Tacitus: 20
New Testament: 6,000+ in Greek (24,000 including translations in other languages)

Quality of Manuscripts
Because of the great reverence, the Jewish scribes held toward the Scriptures, they exercised extreme care in making new copies of the Hebrew Bible. The entire scribal process was specified in meticulous detail to minimize the possibility of even the slightest error. The number of letters, words, and lines were counted, and the middle letters of the Pentateuch and the Old Testament were determined. If a single mistake was discovered, the entire manuscript would be destroyed.

As a result of this extreme care, the quality of the manuscripts of the Hebrew Bible surpasses all other ancient manuscripts. The 1947 discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls provided a significant check on this because these Hebrew scrolls predate the earliest Masoretic Old Testament manuscripts by about 1,000 years. But despite this time span, the number of variant readings between the Dead Sea Scrolls and the Masoretic Text is quite small, and most of these are variations in spelling and style.

“The quality of the manuscripts of the Hebrew Bible surpasses all other ancient manuscripts”

While the quality of the Old Testament manuscripts is excellent, that of the New Testament is very good—considerably better than the manuscript quality of other ancient documents. Because of the thousands of New Testament manuscripts, there are many variant readings, but these variants are used by scholars to reconstruct the original readings by determining which variant best explains the others in any given passage. Some of these variant readings crept into the manuscripts because of visual errors in copying or because of auditory errors when a group of scribes copied manuscripts that were read aloud. Other errors resulted from faulty writing, memory, and judgment, and still others from well-meaning scribes who thought they were correcting the text. Nevertheless, only a small number of these differences affect the sense of the passages, and only a fraction of these has any real consequences. Furthermore, no variant readings are significant enough to call into question any of the doctrines of the New Testament. The New Testament can be regarded as 99.5 percent pure, and the correct readings for the remaining 0.5 percent can often be ascertained with a fair degree of probability by the practice of textual criticism.

Time Span
Apart from some fragments, the earliest Masoretic manuscript of the Old Testament is dated AD 895. This is due to the systematic destruction of worn manuscripts by the Masoretic scribes. However, the discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls dating from 200 BC to AD 68 drastically reduced the time span from the writing of the Old Testament books to our earliest copies of them.

The time span of the New Testament manuscripts is exceptional. The manuscripts written on papyrus came from the second and third centuries AD. The John Rylands Fragment (P52) of the Gospel of John is dated AD 117–138, only a few decades after the Gospel was written. The Bodmer Papyri are dated from AD 175–225, and the Chester Beatty Papyri date from about AD 250. The time span for most of the New Testament is less than 200 years (and some books are within 100 years) from the date of authorship to the date of our earliest manuscripts. This can be sharply contrasted with the average gap of over 1,000 years between the composition and the earliest copy of the writings of other ancient authors.

To summarize the bibliographic test, the Old and New Testaments enjoy far greater manuscript attestation in terms of quantity, quality, and time span than any other ancient documents.

The Internal Test
The second test of the reliability of the biblical documents addresses the question,

What claims does the Bible make about itself?

This may appear to be circular reasoning. It sounds like I am using the testimony of the Bible to prove that the Bible is true. But I am really examining the truth claims of the various authors of the Bible and allowing them to speak for themselves. (Remember that the Bible is not one book, but many books woven together.) This provides significant evidence that must not be ignored.

Several biblical authors claim that their accounts are primary, not secondary. That is, the bulk of the Bible was written by people who were eyewitnesses of the events they recorded. John wrote in his Gospel, “And he who has seen has testified, and his testimony is true, and he knows that he is telling the truth, so that you also may believe” (John 19:35; see also 21:24). In his first epistle, John wrote, “What was from the beginning, what we have heard, what we have seen with our eyes, what we have looked at and held with our hands, concerning the Word of life … what we have seen and heard we proclaim to you also …” (1 John 1:1, 3). Peter makes the same point abundantly clear: “For we did not follow cleverly devised tales when we made known to you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but we were eyewitnesses of His majesty” (2 Peter 1:16; also see Acts 2:22; 1 Peter 5:1).

The independent eyewitness accounts in the New Testament of the life, death, and resurrection of Christ were written by people who were intimately acquainted with Jesus Christ. Their Gospels and epistles reveal their integrity and complete commitment to the truth, and they maintained their testimony even through persecution and martyrdom. All the evidence inside and outside the New Testament runs contrary to the claim made by criticism that the early church distorted the life and teachings of Christ. Most of the New Testament was written between AD 47 and 70, and all of it was complete before the end of the first century. There simply was not enough time for myths about Christ to be created and propagated. And the multitudes of eyewitnesses who were alive when the New Testament books began to be circulated would have challenged blatant historical fabrications about the life of Christ. The Bible places great stress on accurate historical details, and this is especially obvious in the Gospel of Luke and the Book of Acts, Luke’s two-part masterpiece. Here is the prologue to the first of these:

Inasmuch as many have undertaken to compile an account of the things accomplished among us, just as they were handed down to us by those who from the beginning were eyewitnesses and servants of the word, it seemed fitting for me as well, having investigated everything carefully from the beginning, to write it out for you in consecutive order, most excellent Theophilus; so that you may know the exact truth about the things you have been taught. (Luke 1:1–4)

The External Test
Because the Scriptures continually refer to historical events, they are verifiable; their accuracy can be checked by external evidence. The chronological details in the prologue to Jeremiah (1:1–3) and in Luke 3:1–2 are two illustrations of this. Ezekiel 1:2 is another example; this verse allows us to date Ezekiel’s first vision of God down to the day (July 31, 592 BC).

The historicity of Jesus Christ is well-established by early Roman, Greek, and Jewish sources, and these extrabiblical writings affirm the major details of the New Testament portrait of the Lord. The first-century Jewish historian Flavius Josephus made specific references to John the Baptist, Jesus Christ, and James in his Antiquities of the Jews. In this work, Josephus gives many background details about the Herods, the Sadducees and Pharisees (Jewish religious leaders), the high priests like Annas and Caiaphas, and the Roman emperors, for example, that are mentioned in the four Gospels and the book of Acts.

There is another early secular reference to Jesus in a letter written a little after AD 73 by an imprisoned Syrian named Mara bar Serapion. This letter, written to his son, compares the deaths of Socrates, Pythagoras, and Christ. Other first and second century writers who mention Christ include:

-The Roman historians Cornelius Tacitus (Annals) and Suetonius (Life of Claudius, Lives of the Caesars)
-The Roman governor Pliny the Younger (Epistles)
-The Greek satirist Lucian (On the Death of Peregrine)
-The Jewish Talmud also mentions Jesus several times

The Old and New Testaments make abundant references to nations, kings, battles, cities, mountains, rivers, buildings, treaties, customs, economics, politics, dates, and the like. Because the historical narratives of the Bible are so specific, many of its details are open to archaeological investigation. While I cannot say that archaeology proves the authority of the Bible, it is fair to say that archaeological evidence has provided external confirmation of hundreds of biblical statements. Higher criticism in the 19th century made many damaging claims that would seem to completely overthrow the integrity of the Bible, but the explosion of archaeological knowledge in the 20th century reversed almost all these claims .

Noted archaeologists such as William F. Albright, Nelson Glueck, and G. Ernest Wright developed a great respect for the historical accuracy of the Scriptures because of their work.

Out of the multitude of archaeological discoveries related to the Bible, consider the following examples illustrating the remarkable external substantiation of biblical claims. The Nuzi, Mari, and Ebla tablets, along with excavations at Alalakh (1937–1939; 1946–1949), all provide helpful background information that fits well with the Genesis stories of the patriarchal period.

The Nuzi Tablets (1925–1941)
Found shortly before World War II just to the east of Mari and the Euphrates River, the Nuzi excavations uncovered several thousand cuneiform tablets (dating back to 1500 BC) that confirm many customs of the day that are mentioned in the Bible, including:

-The servant heir custom (i.e., having your eldest servant inherit your wealth if you were childless), a practice mentioned by Abraham in reference to Eliezer in Genesis 15:2.
-The birthright sales custom, mentioned with Esau and Jacob (Genesis 25:31).
-The custom of household idols (Genesis 31:19 tells the account of Rachel having stolen these from her father, Laban).

The Mari Tablets (1933)
Discovered in 1933, the Mari tablets are diplomatic correspondences and governmental records involving King Zimri-Lim (a contemporary of Babylon’s Hammurabi). To date, some 20,000 clay tablets have been found dating back to around 1800 BC. These letters, along with the Nuzi tablets, illustrate the patriarchal customs in detail. They also mention the city of Nahor, which apparently is named after the Nahor identified in Genesis 11:24, and make reference to the “Habiru” people (most likely an Akkadian reference to the Hebrews—an allusion to them as a nomadic people).

The Ebla Tablets (1964–the 1970s)
Discovered in northern Syria, these tablets affirm the antiquity and accuracy of the book of Genesis. Their excavation began in 1964 by two professors from the University of Rome, Drs. Paolo Matthiae and Giovanni Pettinato (an archaeologist and epigrapher, respectively). Since 1974, 17,000 tablets have been unearthed from the Ebla kingdom era and have made valuable contributions to biblical criticism.

Other External Evidence for the Old Testament
Some scholars once claimed that the Mosaic law could not have been written by Moses, because the writing was largely unknown at that time, and because the law code of the Pentateuch was too sophisticated for that period. But the codified Laws of Hammurabi (ca. 1700 BC), the Lipit-Ishtar code (ca. 1860 BC), the Laws of Eshnunna (ca. 1950 BC), and the even earlier Ur-Nammu code have refuted these claims. Archaeology provides helpful, external evidence of numerous other biblical details from the Old Testament as well, from Genesis to Ezra to Daniel.

New Testament Evidence
The New Testament has also received abundant support from archaeology, and many critical attacks have been reversed. Most of the geographical details associated with the life of Jesus in the Gospels have been substantiated. These include places such as the Pool of Siloam, the Pool of Bethesda, Jacob’s Well, Bethlehem, Nazareth, Cana, Capernaum, Chorazin, the residence of Pilate in Jerusalem, and “The Pavement” in John 19:13.

In the past, critics tried to discredit Luke, accusing him of being an inaccurate historian; however, the books of Luke and Acts both replete with references to cities, Roman provinces, and political figures have now been substantiated by external evidence. Critics once scoffed at his reference to Lysanius as the “tetrarch of Abilene” (Luke 3:1), but archaeologists have since found two Greek inscriptions proving that Lysanius was indeed the tetrarch of Abilene in AD 14–29. Luke’s use of technical terminology, like proconsul, procurator, Asiarch, praetor, and politarch, has been challenged in the past, but mounting evidence has vindicated his accuracy.

Conclusion:
The Old and New Testaments pass the bibliographic, internal, and external tests like no other ancient books. Most professional archaeologists and historians acknowledge the historicity of the Bible, and yet many theologians still embrace pre-archaeological critical theories about the Bible. The evidence strongly supports the accuracy of the Bible in relation to history and culture, but in many cases, it has been overlooked or rejected because of philosophical presuppositions that run contrary to the Scriptures. This leads to a double standard: critics approach secular literature with one standard but wrongly use a different standard when they examine the Bible. Those who discard the Bible as historically untrustworthy must realize that the same standard would force them to eliminate almost all ancient literature!

What Does it Mean that the Bible Is Infallible? What Is Biblical Infallibility?

To state something is inerrant indicates it does not confirm any errors, nor does it sanction any untrue thing. Inerrancy has to do with the assertion made by a person or entity. For instance, a human being can make a true statement, but the source of the statement is able to err.

Infallibility means errors are not possible for the entity in question; there is no possibility of the inaccuracy of any kind. Infallibility has to do with the one who makes the assertion in whatever form it’s made. The truth as stated by the infallible One (God) is absolute.

In today’s culture, tolerance extends to the truth of history as evidenced by the demolition of war memorials, disavowal of the Holocaust, etc., therefore seeking to negate the truth as it happened. Some people choose to reject things they find offensive or consider “hate speech.” But, as mentioned by one distinguished scientist is “To cut out history is to make it meaningless.” The misplaced tolerance and distrust extend to the Bible. It is under attack by those who would deny its Author, its infallibility, its commands, and its authority over our lives. As a Christian, I hold to the truths and tenets of God’s Word and live by the Lord’s commands as outlined in Scripture. As you engage our culture, you need to be able to answer this question:

Is the Bible infallible?

Let us start by asking the following question: Is the Bible Inerrant? In a word, yes. The historical accounts and spiritual principles as written in the Bible are factual. For instance, what was said by certain people—such as Cain when he lied to God about not knowing what happened to his brother, Abel (Genesis 4:9b), and the lies of the devil when he told Eve she would not die after disobeying the Lord’s command to not eat from the tree of good and evil (Genesis 3:4-5)—are factual and without reproach. They are deceits, but the Bible in no way validates them. The Bible is without error in that it reports exactly what happened and what was said. As critics investigating the supposed contradictions in the Bible, we can stand firm on what contextual criticism (analysis of the context of a text) affirms, the authenticity and integrity of the Scriptures. The Bible, however, is not unique in being inerrant; people, too, can make inerrant statements (e.g., “my name is Joe.”). The statement, “My name is Joe” is free from error, therefore it is inerrant. Since the two words, inerrancy and infallibility, are close in basic meaning, one goes hand-in-hand with the other when describing the inimitable, truthful nature of the Bible (Proverbs 30:5).

Is the Bible Infallible?
Also, yes. The Bible is exclusive in its infallible nature. It cannot be mistaken about anything; all recorded history and spiritual veracities in Scripture bear full truth; it is incapable of error of any sort. Skeptics will scour the Word seeking all perceived inaccuracies. One such indictment comes from doubters who take exception to the biblical accounts of the ministries of Elijah and Elisha. The record of the progression of the reigning kings does not seem to match up when comparing the accounts as written in the books of 1 and 2 Kings. An exhaustive study, however, carried out by Dr. Edwin Thiele titled, The Mysterious Numbers of the Hebrew Kings (1983), explains and uncovers the seeming fallacy. As scholars advanced the historical study of ancient Assyria and Babylon, they have been able to discern the accurate timetable of their kings. In one account, the biblical timeline did not match up with their findings. What Dr. Thiele discovered was a difference in calendars used by Judah vs. Israel, which made the discrepancy disappear. Once the calendars were aligned, the kings’ reigns matched up perfectly with what the scholars found.

Year after year, the Bible has withstood the human-centered tests of people such as Voltaire, Darwin, Christopher Hitchens, and various other atheists and scientists who declare the Bible’s claims are untrue. In every case, the Bible is proven true. Every case.

There is also the question about how we got the Bible, which remains a best-seller and the most widely distributed book in history. Disparagers will make the accusation that human men wrote the Bible, and it is liable to their fallible nature. Yes, men are fallible, but as it was originally written by the inspired authors in its languages of Hebrew, Aramaic, and Greek, the Bible is indisputable in its infallibility (just as it is with its inerrancy). God preserved His intended message to us as the Bible has passed through the ages. It has exact uniformity even though it was written by forty men from three different continents over 2000 years!

Men, however, are fallible and liable to make mistakes. Therefore, some people object to the copying process of the Bible. They compare it to the “telephone game,” where a message starts as one thing and is completely different when it gets back to the original sender. This is a false comparison to how the Bible was copied through the years. Unlike the “telephone game,” the copiers were able to go back and consult the original, existing texts and research for clarity. Even one noted critic states the original message of the New Testament can be known using the manuscripts available to us today.

People also say the ancient myths led the writers, but 2 Peter 1:20-21 explains—with the exactness only the Bible can provide—the men who wrote the Bible were moved by the Holy Spirit.

Another argument against the Bible is it’s too old to be reliable, nor is it relevant for today. God made sure what we hold in our hands this day is complete and true for what we need to live a life that pleases Him (2 Peter 1:3). The Bible is a timeless source of wisdom for all walks and stages of life. All people have the same God-designed souls, which means we have the same problem of sin (Romans 3:23), and we have the same solution (Acts 4:12). As such, we have the same God-given blueprint for life because we are all made in His image (Genesis 1:26). The Bible is not a cultural book; it uses people of a different culture to express enduring truths of God and humanity.

The Scriptures we hold in our hands today is a supernatural work of the Lord, faithfully and wholly preserved by Him to give us not only His love letter to us but also the history of the prophets and apostles and His plan of reconciliation for our souls through Jesus Christ (Genesis 3:15).

Eyewitness reports abound in the Scriptures, and extra-biblical sources of the first century (Tacitus, Josephus, Pliny the Younger, e.g.) confirm what the Bible presents. Numerous electronic and print resources prove worthy study guides about how we got our Bible, and ministries such as Answers in Genesis provide not only an interactive website but museums that give the visitor hands-on experiences as to the truth and infallibility of the Bible

Why Does This Matter?
If the Bible is fallible, we as Christians have nothing on which to base our beliefs. We can only know God’s character, His plan, or His desires for us and the kingdom through His revelation to us (the Bible); we are incapable of knowing Him by our own effort. We don’t possess the innate ability to discern truth from error regarding God, and if the Bible is mixed with said truth and error, it would be impossible to distinguish what’s true and what’s false.

Imagine watching a person from a distance and trying to know them personally. You can make endless speculations about their behaviors but there would be no reason to think you know them. Only as they get closer and reveal themselves to you can you know who they are. If this is true of people, how much more of God?

We trust God’s attributes—His holiness—and His whole character. He is the very source of truth. He defines our reality by His Word (Colossians 1:16). It is because of this we can trust we possess His unfailing Word. To say the Bible can mislead or deceive someone is like saying God is not Who He says He is.

God shares some of His attributes with His human creation (loving, patient, kind, gracious, etc.), yet God’s very nature is on trial to those who do not believe the Bible is His infallible Word.

God encompasses some attributes which belong to Him alone. 
He is:
-Perfect – (Matthew 5:48).
-Independent (Isaiah 40:13-14 – He alone is the source of all wisdom and counsel.)
-Infinite (Genesis 1:1 – He was there in the beginning. Deuteronomy 33:27, Psalm 90:2 – Both speak of Him as everlasting.)
-Immutable and Unchangeable – (Hebrews 13:8 – He will never change.)
-Omnipotent – Almighty (1 Corinthians 6:14, Colossians 1:16 – All has been made and sustained by His power.)
-Omnipresent - (Psalm 139:7-10, Hebrews 4:13 – There is nothing hidden from God.)
-Omniscient – (1 John 3:19-20 – God knows everything.)

The above list is not exhaustive, yet it is enough to base your belief in who God is and what He is like. Within all these truths about God in His Oneness (Deuteronomy 6:4), we can be sure that what He has for us in His Word is true. We have affirmation He would not provide us with a book filled with myths and fallacies. Plus, the Bible never contradicts itself, and it is the best interpreter of itself; context confirms what other passages state.

For years, scientists have sought to defame the account of creation as recorded in Genesis 1-2. But because of the irrefutable evidence, some scientists who formerly rebutted the creation account now believe in Intelligent Design. If they are open, the truths they uncover will inevitably point them to God.

The Greek language of John 1:1 declares, In the beginning, was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. (John 1:1) “Word” here is Logos, the Second Person of the Godhead, Jesus Christ. He, the Lord Jesus, is the Word of the word (the Bible). In Him, the fullness of the Godhead dwells (Colossians 2:9). The truth of Scripture is verified by our Lord Jesus, Himself. He is the Way, the Truth, and the Life (John 14:6), and since Jesus is God (John 1:1-2, Colossians 1:15-16), His description of Himself encompasses all Scripture inspired by His Holy Spirit. The Bible has over 300 prophecies in the Old Testament that speak of a coming Messiah. Jesus fulfilled every one of them. If this were not so, our hope in what the Bible promises are broken.

It is impossible for God to lie (Hebrews 6:18, Titus 1:2), and 2 Timothy 3:16 states, “All Scripture is given by inspiration of God.” Inspiration in this passage means “to breathe out;” God is the Originator of Scripture. A statement made by many biblical scholars underscores the first word in 2 Timothy 3:16; All means all and that’s all, all means. Since all Scripture is God’s Word, it cannot be fallible, and it’s true for every person’s life.

In Matthew 4:4, Jesus asserts to the devil, man is to live by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God. Indeed, His statement designates marching orders for every Christian. All wisdom for every situation may be found in the Bible (James 1:5-6), for “every word” by which we are to live may be found in the Scriptures.

I Pray to my Lord God that you receive and understand the insights from this introductory presentation as we begin to Unpack the Bible and related spiritual studies together.

Jack Bell