Can I Trust the Bible?

Bible Text: Hebrews 4:12 | Preacher: Ben Grist | Can I trust the Bible?

The Bible, it’s the best selling book in all history

And yet it still remains one of the most controversial.

We as Christians see it as God’s Holy Word

And it has had such an impact on the world.

But how do we know that the Bible is true?

Isn’t it just a collection of stories or myths?

How can we test if it’s trustworthy?

And how is it relevant to us today, thousands of years after it was written?

One time whilst I was on mission in Malta I came across a student and we started chatting,

we had a long time to talk but as soon as we got onto the topic of Jesus, 

her immediate response was to say: 

“How can anyone believe in Jesus if the stories about him were just made up hundreds of years later”

Dan Brown claimed in his best-selling book ‘The Da Vinci Code’ that the church deliberately suppressed the most reliable and early sources for Jesus’ existence and that these books presented a completely different picture of him.

Even though his work is complete fiction, that doesn’t stop others from having serious doubts about the reliability of the Gospels, and the famous Biologist and avid Athiest Richard Dawkins once suggested that: 

“The only difference between the gospels and the Da Vinci Code is that the gospels are ancient fiction while the Da Vinci Code is modern fiction”

So how do we respond to these claims and how do we think critically to the question:

Can I trust the Bible?

Let’s start off by going over a brief overview of what the Bible is to help us.

What is the Bible?

The name Bible comes from the ancient greek word ‘Biblios’ literally meaning ‘Books’

Which quite accurately describes that the Bible is a collection or library of 66 books,

39 in the Old Testament and 27 in the New Testament (excluding added books)

The Bible was written over a period of about 1,500 years 

By about 40 different authors from different backgrounds and walks of life.

It was written in three languages: Hebrew, Aramaic and Greek

And in three continents: Asia, Africa and Europe

But yet, despite this incredible variety in authors, time spans, and cultural backgrounds, there is total and complete consistency and unity in it’s content.

Imagine today trying to bring together a volume of over 40 authors who have written since about 500AD, the variety of different opinions and contradictions it would contain would be incredible, but this isn’t the case with the Bible.

As Christians, we call it God’s word, and although God did not physically write it,

Instead we know that God worked through every day people who were inspired by him to record what he wanted them to write.

When we say inspired, this is taken from the Bible and literally meant ‘God-breathed’ as he breathed his words into the authors.

The Bible makes some pretty distinctive truth claims.

For example, it claims that:

God exists
He has chosen to communicate to us through the Bible 
Jesus claimed to be God in the flesh
And that the only way humans can be saved is “through him”
(And that’s aside from his death and resurrection being true which is a key part of the Christian Theology!)

So, is it true?

Is the Bible true?

To determine if the Bible is true, we need to test it’s reliability in the sense of whether or not it’s content, ideas and history can be trusted, or whether it’s full of historical and factual errors and whether it contradicts itself.

Many people have tried to claim that the Bible does contradict itself, when they take the text out of the context, but what you’re left with is just a con.

Take the text out of context, and you get a con!

To take a mature and critical approach, we can look at the actual evidence for the Bible and this can take many forms.

First of all, we can look at the physical evidence for the Bible, in terms of the copies of different manuscripts and how throughout history the accuracy these manuscripts are transmitted can determine how reliable it is.

We will look a bit further into this area in a bit when assessing the reliability of the Gospels as an example, but what we find ultimately is that the records are all incredibly accurate, 

and that all these minor differences called ‘variants’ in the manuscripts are so minute that they don’t impact or change any key beliefs or claims at all, 

most of the time they’re just grammatical and spelling errors!

Next up, another area of physical evidence we’re able to look into is how that of external sources relate to:

– the Biblical texts.

Authors writing at the same time about these events that would have been unbiased, but also,
Archeological finds – did the places and events that are mentioned in the Bible actually happen? Well again, the evidence is incredible for how archeology again and again proves that the Bible corresponds perfectly in historical reality.

Other evidence we can look into is what the Bible actually claims, whether what is said in the Bible is actually coherent and consistent throughout. 

We mentioned about this briefly earlier but, despite the fact that the Bible was written by so many authors over such a long time, it is completely consistent and does not contradict any of its claims or ideas. 

Over 2000 years the Christian worldview has stayed robust and grounded throughout history, where so many other ideologies have crumbled when put to the test.

Also, when looking at consistencies in the Bible, interesting point to mention is about the sheer number of fulfilled prophecies in the Bible, more than any other manuscript.

For example, execution by crucifixion hadn’t been thought up until about 300BC, 

and yet Isaiah 400 years beforehand, and King David, 700 years before both described in the Bible how the One who was coming would die by crucifixion.

But they didn’t just stop there with the prophecies, they told of exact details which couldn’t be made up to fit for anyone, like how:

His clothes would be gambled for
He would be sold for 30 pieces of silver… exactly!
He would die a poor man’s death in the prime of his life
He would be crucified between two thieves
He would be buried in a rich man’s tomb
His hands, feet and side would be pierced and yet his bones wouldn’t be broken
That he would take the sin of the world upon himself
And he would rise again from the dead in three days! – This goes on and on and on

The Old Testament, written hundreds of years before Jesus’ birth, contains over 300 prophecies that Jesus fulfilled through His life, death and resurrection.

I studied maths at uni and

Mathematically speaking, the odds of anyone fulfilling this amount of prophecy are staggering. 

To humour you, we might put it this way:

The probability of 1 person fulfilling 8 prophecies: 1 in 100,000,000,000,000,000 
The probability of 1 person fulfilling 48 prophecies: 1 chance in 10 to the 157 – That’s roughly the same as winning the lottery 26 times in a row.

Even if you tried to fulfil as many prophecies as possible, no one can choose where they are born, or who will meet them along the way!

But the probability of 1 person fulfilling 300+ prophecies: Only Jesus!

(At a guess, it would be about the same as one person winning the lottery every week for 3 years)

Testing the Reliability of the New Testament

Without going into too much depth, let’s just briefly look into the Gospels and use these tests to assess their reliability.

The gospels contain the central claims about Jesus being the son of God, claiming to be the one to save us from our sins, who died and then came back to life and performed so many miracles! 

So if these are false, then arguably, the whole of the Christian faith is based on lies, 

but if these gospels prove to be true, without a shadow of a doubt, then we can conclude that Jesus is who he says he was, and we should start to take this faith seriously if we don’t already.

For Historians, in order to determine if a document is historically reliable or not, they these three tests which we can apply to the new testament and to any historical account really are called:

the bibliographical test, 
the internal test, 
and the external test.

The Bibliographical Test

First, the bibliographical test seeks to determine how many manuscript copies we have of the document and how far removed they are in time from the originals (see table 1).

TABLE

As you can see from this table, for most ancient historical works which are irreputed as to their reliability almost always only have a handful of copies, usually up to about 10, and on average they are copied around 1000 years after the events were originally written down.

In comparison, for the New Testament, we have over 5000 complete greek manuscripts, and over 24000 partial copies, and not dating 1000 years after the original, but less than 100!

So when it comes to manuscript evidence, the New Testament definitely has numbers on its side.

This is a big deal, as for example, no one would question the reliability or accuracy of a text like Homer’s Iliad where there are about 643 copies where the earliest copy is 500 years after it was written. 

And yet Historiographically, we might say, the New Testament Gospels have 40 times as many copies and are from a 10th of the time period after the originals, and so it is much more accurate to the original manuscripts than Homer’s Iliad, or any of these others.

The External Test

Next, the external test seeks to ask whether material external to the document in question, whether archeology or the writings of the early church fathers confirms its reliability.

The New Testament has been remarkably confirmed time and again by external evidence. 

This is not to say there are no problems; but to the unbiased observer, little doubt can be cast on the statement that archaeology has confirmed the historical reliability of the New Testament.

Well known Jewish and Roman historians at the time wrote and mentioned about Jesus and the effect of Christianity at that time in history, 

– Thallus wrote about about greek history from the time of the Trojan war up to his present day 52AD and talks about Christ’s Crucifixion

– Tacitus wrote a history of Rome around the same time (110 AD) and wrote about Jesus also

– So did Suetonius who was writing about the first twelve Caesars.

These were people who weren’t christians, most weren’t even Jews and had no reason to give a biased opinion, if anything they’d give a negative opinion, but they were just documenting history.

– Plinius Secundus (Pliny the Younger) the governor in Asia Minor at the turn of the first century sent letters to the Emperor over two years asking how to deal with the Christians, and he spoke of Jesus and Christians meeting together in incredible ways!

One example that I’ll read for you is from a Jewish Historian around this time, who if anything would have been opposed to Jesus’ teachings and his name was Josephus, and he says this:

“And there arose around this time Jesus…”

It’s also interesting that within the early centuries of the Christian church a number of scholars quoted the New Testament. Amazingly, they quoted the New Testament so much that every single verse of all 27 books of the New Testament is quoted by these scholars with the exception of only 11 verses, all within a few hundred years of the beginning of the Church.

The Internal Test

We have already talked about this previously, but the internal test asks whether the document itself claims to be actual history written by eyewitnesses.

And we don’t have time to look into this as much now, but there’s lots of information about it in these books.

I’d say, as much as some of these other reasons are powerful to suggest that the Bible is true, I would say that the most powerful reason is found in Jesus.

If the 4 gospels prove to be true, then consequently, Jesus himself becomes substantial evidence and support for the other Gospels, but also the other books of the New Testament, and consequently, the Old Testament also.

Matthew 5:17-18 sums up the approach Jesus took in confirming the reliability of the Old Testament when he says:

“Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them. I tell you the truth, until heaven and earth disappear, not the smallest letter, not the least stroke of a pen, will by any means disappear from the Law until everything is accomplished.”

But what about manuscript evidence for the Old Testament? 

Again we don’t have time to go into this now but, the manuscripts that are part of the Dead Sea Scrolls, for instance, clearly show that our modern copies of the Old Testament are incredibly accurate.

What do the manuscripts say? 

So we’ve been able to clarify that the Manuscripts are reliable and true to what they say, but how can I trust the translation of the Manuscripts into English, surely the translators could have just chosen what they wanted it to say and not say in English.

Well, there are many defences for this, and unlike other religions where only one person has been allowed to translate or know the true version.

These thousands of greek manuscripts of the Bible that we’ve looked at are not locked away or lost in time, they are on display, and you can actually go online and see the exact location of each document, many of which are publicly available to see, for example in the British Library and Natural History Museum.

There are even some manuscripts which have been made publicly available online for anyone to read and decipher.

For example, two of the oldest complete manuscripts are the Codex Sinaiticus and Codex Vaticanus which are both available online. 

Let’s have a look!

http://www.codexsinaiticus.org/en/manuscript.aspx?book=36&lid=en&side=r&zoomSlider=0#36-1-1-10

So next, translation!

There are some people who attest to certain translations and wont go anywhere near others, so what’s the big deal? Why so many?

As with translating any language, there are always certain differences that need to be taken into account, and for most of these changes, it’s to do with the style of the language you’re translating into and how best each word translates across.

Translating Greek for example, Ancient Greek doesn’t have the same order system that we have, so part of the challenge is working out the order and structure of the sentence, but also, when translating certain words, the direct translation of the word may not make any sense outside of it’s culture.

For example, there are at least 5 different words for Love used in the Bible in the original Greek, even in the new testament, and yet, in English, we only have the one word.

So this adds extra complexity as to thinking what word to use instead to explain the same emphasis.

Most popular translations today like the NIV, ESV, NLT and NKJV are all very similar in their translations, but some focus more on getting the translation word for word accurate, 

whereas others focus still on accuracy, but in ensuring it makes better sense for the reader.

Depending on your literary ability there are also other paraphrased versions like the Message, and simpler English version like the NIRV which allow you to understand the bible in a different light without losing the holiness of scripture.

Relevance of Bible Today

And finally, knowing that the Bible is true, trustworthy and reliable is one thing

But this doesn’t mean anything if it’s not relevant to today…

How can I trust it’s relevance in my life today?

As a kid, I used to love building things, first it was lego, then kinects, then wood work, and then probably Ikea furniture!

I grew up in a time where instructions came with the lego blocks, but it was much more fun to make up your own creation with the blocks instead.

And I think even today, many of us when putting together furniture might be quick to throw away the instructions before calling for help an hour later.

But with the Bible, it’s quite easy to disregard it as irrelevant, we’re already living our lives, for many of us pretty nicely, why would we need a manual to tell us more?

Well, from everything we’ve heard today, we know that the Bible is so much more than just a book, it’s God’s holy word, written for us, not only to tell us what we were, but what Jesus has done for us, and how we can live life to the very full.

As we’ve discussed a few weeks ago, God didn’t give us Jesus or the Bible either in order for us to be confined or limited in life, but instead to be able to live life in an even greater way, to the very full.

And the Bible is our instruction manual for how to know this abundant life, true freedom to live our lives with purpose and meaning instead of how we may have been before.

The Bible is our instruction manual, and a great way to remember this is by remembering that the 

Bible is:

Basic

Instructions

Before

Leaving

Earth

The Bible talks about issues relating to Sociology, Economy, Politics, Biology, Physics, Zoology, Philosophy, Hamartiology, Theology, Escatology, Epistemology, Cosmology, Tautology, Ologies I don’t even know, to name a few!

If it tells us about all these things then, don’t you think it would have something relevant to say to us today?

Hebrews 4:12 says:

“For the word of God is alive and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart.”

So today, if we have concluded that:

We can trust that the Manuscripts are true and accurately documented what happened

We can trust that the Manuscripts all agree with one another and portray the same ultimate message

We can trust that the Manuscripts have been translated accurately from the original languages into English

We can trust that these words are of central importance in our lives today

Then how should we respond?

Response

As Christians, 1 Peter 3:15 challenges each of us to be 

“ready to make a defense to everyone who asks you to give an account for the hope that is in you.” 

This whole field of study, and what we’ve been talking about in these ‘Big Questions’ is called Apologetics and it’s important for each of us to be able to at least be able to make a defence for Christ.

We don’t have to be an expert, but we do need to know the basics, and that’s what is really useful about these Big Questions evening gatherings.

If someone does come up to you and ask something that you don’t know about Christianity or the Bible, or you come across a passage you’re unsure of.

Some practical steps would be:

Make sure to read the Bible, read the passage, not just a verse to help see it in context
Pray about the passage, ask the Spirit to speak to you as you read and ask God to reveal to you what he wants to say to you through it
Read commentaries and further readings about the passage or topic in question
Ask your church family what their thoughts are on the issue, it may be something they have thought through previously
Not all things are knowable by humans, take the trinity for example, it’s such a hard concept to try and imagine or rationalise, but that’s the incredible thing about God, he is beyond our comprehension, and yet knowable in such an intimate way.

But if you’ve came today and maybe you’ve been unsure of the Bible before now, or unsure if you have a faith at all or not.

In light of what we have heard today, you’ve heard the evidence, and one way to respond today is to say Yes.

Maybe God is calling you to say Yes to Jesus today, if you believe that Jesus really was the son of God, who came to earth, died for our sins and rose again, then that’s all it is, that’s all you need fundamentally to believe and give your life to him, start this journey with God and following what he tells us through prayer and through the Bible.

Discussion groups

How has the Bible transformed your life?

Have there been any significant stumbling blocks/passages in the Bible that you’ve struggled with?

How have you been able to deal with it/understand what it meant?

In light of today’s message, how do you feel/not feel encouraged about trusting the Bible? 

and how will this change your outlook on the Bible in the future/how you use the Bible?