Can We Trust the Bible?

OPENING

We’re continuing our sermon series this morning, “Questions and Answers.” We answered the question last week, “What Are the Riches of God’s Grace?” Some of the other questions I hope to answer in the coming weeks are:

“Is My Salvation Eternally Secure?”

“Do My Words Have Power?”

“What is Pentecostalism and What is the Deal with Speaking in Tongues?

But the question that I hope to answer for today is: “Can We Trust the Bible?”

The list of people and things that I trust is growing shorter by the day.

News

Media

Internet

Can’t even trust myself some days

What is the truth?

Fact vs. Fiction

Reality vs. Conspiracy

Sanity vs. Stupidity

You can’t take some people at their word anymore, but there is One whose Word we can trust!

He cannot lie

His Word is 100% accurate

We can trust the Word of God

We can rely on it

We can depend on it

We can build our lives on it

We can stake our eternal souls on it

But the trustworthiness of the Bible is under attack today like never before.

The question is:

Is the Bible the Word of God?

Is the Bible the truth?

Is the Bible our authoritative source of faith and conduct?

The answers to those question may seem like they should be a simple yes, but believe it or not, there is a lot of confusion and disagreement about the trustworthiness of the Bible.

And not just from atheists, but from evangelicals. And in some cases, from prominent mega churches here in the U.S.

Play clip from Andy Stanley, pastor of North Point Community Church in Atlanta, Georgia.

SCRIPTURE

2 Timothy 3:16–17 KJV 1900

16 All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness: 17 That the man of God may be perfect, throughly furnished unto all good works.

MESSAGE

How Did We Get Our Bibles?

From Divine Revelation

Hebrews 1:1–2 NKJV

1 God, who at various times and in various ways spoke in time past to the fathers by the prophets, 2 has in these last days spoken to us by His Son, whom He has appointed heir of all things, through whom also He made the worlds;

God has chosen to reveal Himself to us.

Ill. Hide and Seek

Types of Revelation:

General Revelation

Special Revelation

Through Divine Inspiration

2 Peter 1:20–21 NKJV

20 knowing this first, that no prophecy of Scripture is of any private interpretation, 21 for prophecy never came by the will of man, but holy men of God spoke as they were moved by the Holy Spirit.

Back in our text from 2 Timothy, it says that Scripture came by “inspiration of God.”

“Inspiration of God” means “God-breathed.”

God the Holy Spirit superintended the writing of the Bible.

This does not mean it was mechanical dictation.

The Holy Spirit moved on these men to write exactly what God wanted written, but God allowed their personalities, writing styles, and experiences to be written into the text.

By Divine Illumination

1 Corinthians 2:10 NKJV

10 But God has revealed them to us through His Spirit. For the Spirit searches all things, yes, the deep things of God.

How can we be sure that we can understand the Bible and exactly what God intended to reveal to us about Himself?

These things are revealed to us through the Holy Spirit.

The reading of God’s Word is not like reading any other book. A believer, who is in-dwelt by the Holy Spirit, has divine assistance in understanding God’s Word.

Why Can We Trust the Bible?

The Bible is Inerrant

Inerrant means “without error.”

God is perfect and cannot lie and cannot make a mistake. He is inerrant.

Since God is inerrant, His Word is inerrant.

Numbers 23:19 NKJV

19 “God is not a man, that He should lie, Nor a son of man, that He should repent. Has He said, and will He not do? Or has He spoken, and will He not make it good?

The Bible is Infallible

Infallible is similar to inerrant, but has a slightly different meaning.

Infallible means “incapable of error.”

Not only does God’s Word not contain errors, but it is incapable of having errors because of God’s nature.

Psalm 12:6 NKJV

6 The words of the Lord are pure words, Like silver tried in a furnace of earth, Purified seven times.

So how do these terms inerrant and infallible apply to the Bible?

The Bible was written over a period of almost 1600 years by around 40 different authors.

God so perfectly superintended the writing of the 66 books of the Bible (39 Old and 27 New) that they are all in perfect harmony with each other.

The Bible is a miracle of God both in revelation and preservation.

But we do not have any of the original autographs. What we have are called manuscripts, which are hand-written copies of the originals. But we don’t even have first copies of the originals or even copies of the copies of the originals.

When we say that the Bible is “inerrant” and “infallible,” we are referring to the original autographs.

So what about our modern English translations? Can we trust them to be the Word of God?

Since our claim to “inerrancy” and “infallibility” apply to the original autographs, and we have none of the original autographs, here is what we are not saying:

We are not saying the KJV is the only inerrant and infallible translation. If it is, then why has it been revised multiple times since 1611?

We are not saying the NIV is inerrant and infallible.

We are not saying the Thomas Nelson publishing company is inerrant and infallible.

We are not saying that the chapter and verse numbers are inerrant and infallible.

What we are saying is that the Word of God is inerrant and infallible as it was given to and written down by the original authors through divine revelation and inspiration.

So the question then that we really need to ask is can we trust that the Bible translations we have today are the Word of God?

And the answer is yes, we can be assured that our major translations of the Bible, to the extent that they are faithful to the original texts, reliably communicate the infallible Word of God to us today.

But doesn’t the Bible contain errors and contradictions?

This is a fair question, because skeptics will use the fact that we do not have the original autographs and the fact that there are discrepancies between different manuscripts and apparent errors in some manuscripts to say that the Bible is solely a man-made document that is filled with errors and therefore can’t be the Word of God as we claim.

First, let’s distinguish between the Old and New Testaments. We have fewer manuscripts for the Old Testament, but they are of a very high quality and they contain very few, what are called, variants, or discrepancies. The New Testament has a lot more quantity of manuscripts let’s focus on the New Testament.

Today we currently have around 28,000 manuscripts of the New Testament.

When all of these manuscripts are compared to each other, some claim that there are up to 400,000 variants.

But there are only around 138,000 words in the New Testament, which means there would have to be more than 2 variants per word. So what’s up?

About 99.8% of those variants are trivial differences. Like differences in spelling.

The remaining variants, which are only a few hundred, do not affect or change any major doctrines.

So the differences are basically meaningless.

Also, we have an incredible number of sources other than the 28,000 or so New Testament manuscripts that confirm the consistency and accuracy of the Word of God.

There are approximately 500,000 letters and documents that we have from the early church period that have Bible verse quotes in them.

In fact, there are so many, that we have enough of these letters and documents, that even if we didn’t have one single manuscript, we could still completely reconstruct the entire New Testament.

And the amazing thing is that these Bible verse quotes match the available manuscripts with incredible accuracy.

There is no other book or document in history that can claim this level of documentation to back up its claims as the Bible!

You say, well that’s great and all, but that sounds like stuff theologians are interested in. What are some practical reasons why we can trust the Bible? Well I’m glad you asked. Here are 5 practical reasons why we can trust the Bible.

Prophetic Fulfillment

There are 332 prophecies in the Old Testament about Jesus that have been fulfilled perfectly.

What is the probability of those prophecies being fulfilled?

The probability of any 8 of those 332 prophecies being fulfilled would be 1 in 1x10^17. That’s a 1 with 17 zeros and 5 commas after it.

That’s if only 8 were fulfilled, and we have all 332 being fulfilled perfectly.

By comparison, according to the NWS, the probability of being struck by lightning in your lifetime is 1 in 15,000.

Jesus’ Acceptance

Jesus Himself accepted the Old Testament as the Divinely inspired Word of God.

He quoted from it in several places in the Gospels.

If it is good enough for Jesus, it is good enough for me.

Author Reliability

The writers of the New Testament were either direct witnesses of the life and ministry of Jesus, or like Luke and Paul, were, also possessed apostolic authority.

Most of these men were martyred for their faith. If the Gospel was a lie and the resurrection of Jesus was a story fabricated by the disciples, then why were they willing to die for a lie?

Archaeological Evidence

There are numerous archaeological discoveries that have confirmed the Bible is historically accurate.

One of those discoveries centers around King David. Many opponents of the Bible throughout history have argued that the Bible must not be true because they claim there is no mention of King David outside of the Bible.

But in 1993, archaeologists discovered an ancient stone slab that dates back to around the 9th century B.C.

This stone slab contains an inscription that says, “The House of David,” once again confirming the Bible is true.

Personal Testimonies

A lot of people say you can’t use personal experience as a proof that the Bible is real. Those people have obviously never been changed by the power of the Gospel.

One of the greatest proofs that the Bible is a supernatural book is the power that it has to transform lives.

How Does the Bible Benefit Us Today?

The Bible is Authoritative

2 Timothy 3:16–17 KJV 1900

16 All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness: 17 That the man of God may be perfect, throughly furnished unto all good works.

Because the Bible has come to us from Divine revelation, through Divine inspiration, by Divine illumination, and is therefore inerrant and infallible, that means that it is authoritative in matters of faith and conduct.

In other words, since we can trust it to be the Word of God, we can use it exclusively as our authority for how to have fellowship with God, how to be saved, how we are supposed to live, and how to get to Heaven.

The Bible is authoritative in matters of:

Doctrine (teaching),

Reproof (rebuke),

Correction, and

Instruction in righteousness (personal holiness).

The Bible is Effective

Hebrews 4:12 NKJV

12 For the word of God is living and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the division of soul and spirit, and of joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.

The Word of God Lives (Living, Quick)

The Word of God Works (Powerful, Active, Effective)

The Word of God Penetrates (Piercing)

The Word of God Discerns (Discerner, Judge, Exposes)

CLOSING

The Bible is the most important, unique, and influential book ever written. There is no other written document or oral tradition in all of human history that can legitimately make the claims to divine inspiration, infallibility, and authoritativeness as in that of the Bible. That is because the Bible is not the result of human ingenuity or imagination. It is a book of divine origin.

God has so perfectly and miraculously revealed and preserved His Word in the 66 books of the Bible. As a result, we can absolutely trust the Bible. We can rely on it. We can depend on it. We can build our lives on it. And we can stake our eternal souls on it.

Be encouraged today to know that every single word of the Bible is true. That it is authoritative and effective. That it is living and active. Be encouraged today to know that the Word works! Continue to immerse yourself in the Word of God and let the Word work for you!

ALTAR CALL