Can I Trust The Bible?

Bible, notes on iPad, Can We Trust The Gospels? book, tea

Introduction

Introduce myself and my family (have them stand and wave)

I’ve been serving in ministry for around 18 years (on the mission field, traveling ministry, church staff, pastoral ministry, and training people for ministry)

Year 3 Residency Director and Discipleship Coordinator for RSM

What I do

Heather is the LAUNCH Director (distance education program for working adults to be equipped for ministry)

How we met Ashley and Pastor Kent

(Kids will be in the service)

STORY: Walking through the Plainwell house with damaged joists and bowing bricks

TRANSITION: Once I saw the truth about the foundation of that house, I didn’t trust it at all.

A lot of people ask similar questions when it comes to building their life on the Bible.

Is it a good foundation?

Is it telling the truth, or was it just made up?

Can I really trust the Bible?

Deconstruction

My Dad grew up in an America that was almost entirely Christian

91% of Americans claimed to be Christian in 1972, and it has dropped to 64% as of 2020, and it’s likely to drop below 50% by 2070 if current trends continue unchecked.

And that’s just those who claim to be Christian, not those who actually hold to orthodox beliefs

All Christians experience doubt and have questions, but some process that doubt in isolation from other Christians, listening to podcasts and reading books that are questioning Christianity, and eventually walk away from Jesus. It’s often called deconstruction.

Anyone ever play Jenga?

It’s like pulling Jenga pieces out of Christianity, eventually pulling out foundational pieces from the bottom layer.

The next thing you know, your friend is announcing online that they are abandoning their faith, and you are in shock asking WHY?

It’s often because they weren’t asking their questions to their pastor and friends at church, and their church wasn’t addressing their questions either.

If you have questions or even doubts about faith, talk to a Christian about. Talk to your pastor. You’re not the first Christian to have those thoughts. There are good answers to your questions!

*2 Significant Reasons for deconstruction: No spirit, and no truth. (PAUSE)

No spiritual encounter with God, false teaching about the Bible/theology

And as the church, we need to ask the questions out loud that people are thinking privately.

And so I want to address one of those very important questions that people are asking.

They’re googling it, but hesitant to bring it up in church.

So let’s ask the question out loud:

Can I trust the Bible?

Lots of people especially wonder about this question in their teens and their twenties.

Maybe you’ve wondered this before. I know I have!

Let’s examine the evidence this morning. We will start by asking:

What does the Bible claim about itself?

John mentioned some of these verses a couple weeks ago.

2 Timothy 3:14–17 ESV

But as for you, continue in what you have learned and have firmly believed, knowing from whom you learned it and how from childhood you have been acquainted with the sacred writings, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus. All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work.

Scripture tells you how to be saved—through faith in Jesus

Scripture is inspired by God. (He is the ultimate source that worked through the human authors)

Scripture trains us to do what’s right

2 Peter 1:20–21 ESV

knowing this first of all, that no prophecy of Scripture comes from someone’s own interpretation. For no prophecy was ever produced by the will of man, but men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit.

Scripture is written by people who were guided by the Holy Spirit.

Romans 15:4 ESV

For whatever was written in former days was written for our instruction, that through endurance and through the encouragement of the Scriptures we might have hope.

Scripture instructs us

helps us endure

encourages us

gives us hope

These are big claims

Are they true?

STORY: Izzy saying “If I’m going to build my life on this, I need to make sure that the Bible is true.”

I think that everyone should put some thought into this. I want you to have confidence to live by the truth of God’s word, not just believe what others say about it.

—

Protestant perspective on Scripture: The only rule of faith and practice

What this means is that we measure every idea and every behavior against the teachings found in these 66 books.

And after asking this question myself and studying the Bible for years, I’m here to tell you that:

CENTRAL TRUTH: You can trust the Bible to be the standard of truth that you live by.

What would make an ancient document reliable?

3 questions that help us determine whether we can trust the Bible:

Do we have the right translation of the original?

Do we have the right books?

Is it historically accurate?

The younger kids in the room may struggle to pay attention this morning, but I think this is incredibly important for middle schoolers and high schoolers to know, so I’d love it if you guys would follow along with us this morning.

Do we have the right translation of the original?

The Bible was written in Hebrew, Greek, and a little bit of Aramaic. So for others to understand it, it has to be translated into other languages.

“It’s not even possible to know what the original copies really said. They have been corrupted over time. Our Bibles are just translations of translations, like the telephone game.”

Ever play the telephone game?

Record a cassette tape off of the radio speakers?

With each copy, the quality goes down.

Is the Bible like that? Has it become less and less accurate over time?

We don’t actually have the original copies of the biblical books, because most ancient documents have either been lost or have disintegrated due to moisture.

But we have found a fair amount of ancient documents.

There are 49 copies of Aristotle’s Ode to Poetics, 10 copies of Julius Caesar’s Gallic Wars.

How many manuscripts of Biblical books do you think have been discovered? 200? 2000?

SLIDE: We have discovered thousands of copies of the Bible: 17,000 OT manuscripts, 23,986 NT manuscripts, 5856 Greek NT

Some skeptics point out the massive number of textual variants (differences between the manuscripts)

Some estimates as high as 400,000 textual variants (OT or NT?)

Hearing a huge number like that makes you feel like it can’t be trustworthy

Not the number of variants that matters, it’s the nature of the variants

99% are spelling errors, word order, and the like

Less than 1% (4,000) are both viable and meaningful (some say 0.5%)

No textual variants actually affect any essential Christian doctrine

So many textual variants because we have so many thousands of manuscripts

Because we have so many manuscripts, we can compare them against one another and correct any mistakes made by the scribes, prioritizing the text of the earliest copies.

If I texted you…

NT RELIABILITY INFOGRAPHIC

The size of the circle is how many manuscripts we have, and the distance to the center is how many years there are between the original and the earliest surviving copies.

For the NT, that’s somewhere between 40 and 150 years

So not only do we have thousands of manuscripts, but there is very little time between the original writing and the earliest known copies.

PICTURE: Ketef Hinnom scrolls

found in a burial cave SW of Jerusalem

Numbers 6 priestly benediction (The Lord bless you and keep you…)

Seventh century BC, before Judah was exiled to Babylon

Earlier than some scholars thought that this book was written!

PICTURE: Dead Sea Scrolls

970 OT scrolls found in 1947-1956 at Qumran in Israel, mostly from 3rd to 1st century BC, every OT book except Esther…

Before the DSS, the Masoretic text was our earliest Hebrew copy of the OT, from 900-1100 AD

The DSS include a complete copy of the book of Isaiah, called The Great Isaiah Scroll

When they compared the Masoretic text of Isaiah to the Great Isaiah Scroll

The Masoretic text was 95% accurate, with the only differences being obvious slips of the pen or misspellings

PAUSE for awe at God’s providence

1000 years! And it’s 95% accurate!

How far back do our manuscripts go?

PICTURE: The earliest NT manuscript is called P52

Dated around 130 AD

, codex (book, not a scroll),

part of the Greek gospel of John

This is early enough that it could have been copied directly from the original papyrus copy of John’s gospel.

John would have been dead, but there would be people still alive who had met John when they were young.

—

Did you know that there is a quote in your Bible of an early Christian creed that is even earlier than P52 and the NT books?

Corinthian creed: quoted by Paul in 1 Corinthians, which was written in 51 AD

1 Corinthians 15:3–7 ESV

For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures, and that he appeared to Cephas, then to the twelve. Then he appeared to more than five hundred brothers at one time, most of whom are still alive, though some have fallen asleep. Then he appeared to James, then to all the apostles.

This creed pre-dates Paul’s salvation, because he said that he received it. The Corinthians had met Peter, so they would know if Paul was making up this creed.

Scholars believe this was LESS THAN A COUPLE YEARS after Jesus’ death and resurrection, maybe only days or months afterward.

—

Scholars have determined that the NT has been copied with 99.5% accuracy

If I had all of you in this room handwrite a copy of the Declaration of Independence, it would probably be less than 99.5% accurate

In light of all this, it’s extremely unlikely that the Biblical text was corrupted along the way.

SUMMARY: The more manuscripts we find, the more confident scholars have become that our Bibles have been translated accurately.

How did we get our Bibles? Do we have the right books?

Is it like Wikipedia where anyone can post whatever they want, or is it like a scientific journal, where the articles have to be peer-reviewed?

The New Testament books were selected by a grassroots peer-reviewed process.

Not decided at the Council of Nicaea by Constantine, even though the novel The Da Vinci Code suggests this.

It’s a completely false claim, intended to sell more books.

Canonical process

OT was created by the Jewish people

Pentateuch was canonized around 400 BC

The Prophetic books were canonized around 200 BC

The rest of the OT was canonized around 90 AD

By around 95 or 100 AD, all of the books of the NT had been completed.

Many books used by the church almost immediately (4 gospels, Paul’s letters)

But there were questions: The Christians in this city over there are reading this book. Should we read this book too? What books are qualified to have authority in the church? What books are not?

So they began to discuss this and make lists of which books should be authoritative.

There’s a list called the Muratorian Canon from 180 AD, that includes 22 Books out of 27 (except Hebrews, James, 1 and 2 Peter, 3 John)

Continued debate over a few controversial books (Hebrews, 2 Peter, 3 John) for a while

The first time that we see the same exact list that is in our Bibles today is in 367 AD, in a letter written by Athanasius.

No one individual or church council created the canon.

Not like the book of mormon

Canonical standards (SLIDE)

Apostolic authority

Only 1 person removed from an apostle of Jesus

I could write something about Pastor Kent’s installation service if I interviewed Blake, who was here, but my friend Rob from Pennsylvania couldn’t write about it with any sense of reliability, even if I told him what Blake told me.

Written by who claimed to write it

Orthodox doctrine that aligns with the rest of the Bible (theological coherence)

Inherent spiritual power

Widespread usage within churches

They excluded books like The Gospel of Thomas or The Gospel of Judas that were written late, contained heretical teachings, and had no basis in history.

SUMMARY: The early church used highly critical standards to curate the NT canon and exclude unreliable books.

Is it historically accurate?

STORY: Zach claiming to be dating Kristin

Some people think the bible is making claims that have no basis in real history.

“Hasn’t science disproved the Bible? The Bible is just a bunch of made up stories!”

So is the Bible grounded in history? Is it historically accurate?

*Note: There is debate over whether some passages were intended as literal history (Job, first 11 chapters of Genesis)

I’m here to tell you that the passages that are intended as literal history are incredibly accurate,…but we didn’t really know that until the last 200 years or so.

What we have found is that:

No archaeological discovery has disproved the Bible’s historical claims.

Not every detail can be confirmed by archaeology, but what we have found always aligns with the historical claims of the Bible

Did Israel exist? Sure did!

SLIDE: Merneptah Stele from Egypt “Israel is wasted, it’s seed is not”

(oldest definitive reference to Israel, 1210 BC, time of Judges)

SLIDE: Hezekiah’s tunnel

*Don’t read the verse word for word—save time

2 Kings 20:20 ESV

The rest of the deeds of Hezekiah and all his might and how he made the pool and the conduit and brought water into the city, are they not written in the Book of the Chronicles of the Kings of Judah?

SLIDE: Lachish Reliefs

2 Kings 18:13–14 ESV

In the fourteenth year of King Hezekiah, Sennacherib king of Assyria came up against all the fortified cities of Judah and took them. And Hezekiah king of Judah sent to the king of Assyria at Lachish, saying, “I have done wrong; withdraw from me. Whatever you impose on me I will bear.” And the king of Assyria required of Hezekiah king of Judah three hundred talents of silver and thirty talents of gold.

Sennacherib’s attack on Judah (2 Kings 18:13-14a, Lachish Relief, Taylor’s Prism “As for Hezekiah, I shut him up like a caged bird in his royal city of Jerusalem. I then constructed a series of fortresses around him, and I did not allow anyone to come out of the city gates.”

The Tel Dan Stele mentions the “house of David

The Kurkh Monolith of Assyrian King Shalmaneser III names King Ahab of Israel

Black obelisk (King Jehu brings tribute to Shalmaneser King of Assyria)

The Moabite Stone describes the battle of 2 Kings 3, but from the Moabite perspective

The Cyrus cylinder records a Persian declaration allowing exiles to return home and rebuild their temples, as described in Ezra 1, esp. 7)

And more

No archaeological discovery has disproved the Bible’s historical claims.

The place names and personal names in the Bible are accurate to that time period and location

*Don’t read the full text of the verse—save time

Luke 3:1–2 ESV

In the fifteenth year of the reign of Tiberius Caesar, Pontius Pilate being governor of Judea, and Herod being tetrarch of Galilee, and his brother Philip tetrarch of the region of Ituraea and Trachonitis, and Lysanias tetrarch of Abilene, during the high priesthood of Annas and Caiaphas, the word of God came to John the son of Zechariah in the wilderness.

Luke names 9 people and 6 places. All of these people and places can be verified outside of the Bible.

The names of people mentioned in the gospels have also been found to be popular names in Israel during that time period.

The Bible includes eyewitness accounts (Matthew, John, Peter, etc.)

As Pastor Kent mentioned last week…

*Don’t read the full text of the 1 John 1—save time

1 John 1:1–3 ESV

That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we looked upon and have touched with our hands, concerning the word of life— the life was made manifest, and we have seen it, and testify to it and proclaim to you the eternal life, which was with the Father and was made manifest to us— that which we have seen and heard we proclaim also to you, so that you too may have fellowship with us; and indeed our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son Jesus Christ.

2 Peter 1:16–18 ESV

For we did not follow cleverly devised myths when we made known to you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but we were eyewitnesses of his majesty. For when he received honor and glory from God the Father, and the voice was borne to him by the Majestic Glory, “This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased,” we ourselves heard this very voice borne from heaven, for we were with him on the holy mountain.

The eyewitness accounts in the Bible actually include things that would embarrass the authors and other important Jewish and Christian leaders.

And they also include unnecessary details, making it unlikely to be a fabrication.

In fact, did you know that here are two books in the Bible that are written by people who didn’t believe in Him before the resurrection? HIS OWN BROTHERS!

James and Jude

What would it take for your brothers to claim that you were the Son of God who rose from the dead?

More?

The Bible exceeds the standards of reliability for ancient historical documents

The sheer amount of copies far outweighs any other documents

Time between events and historical documentation is less than any other ancient documents

12-60ish years after the death and resurrection of Jesus,

Aristotle’s Poetics was written 200 years later,

Homer’s Iliad written 400 years after events

Most of the NT Authors died for their beliefs

If they were making it up, they would have recanted in order to save their lives.

SUMMARY: The Bible is historically accurate.

You can trust the Bible to be the standard of truth that you live by.

REVIEW: It’s been translated accurately, contains the most reliable books, and has been proven to be historically accurate.

If you’re not a believer, or you’re still skeptical of what I’m saying, then you need to investigate the reliability of the Bible

Read “Can We Trust The Gospels?” by Peter J. Williams

If the Bible is reliable, then that means that you need to take the message of Scripture seriously.

God has sent a message to you.

The Almighty God who placed each star in outer space…has spoken to you.

The God who died to forgive you and rose from the dead…has given you the words of life in these pages.

He has inspired all these books and guided this whole process to get this message to you.

Have you read it? Are you listening?

Are you treasuring His word? Or would you rather scroll Instagram?

Are you treating it as the sole authority for faith and practice? Or are you living your own truth?

Did you know that if you are an English speaker in 2025, that you have more access to Bible translations and Bible study resources than anyone in all of history?

And YET… only 34% of Americans read the Bible once a week or more!

Are you going to be part of the 66% who dismisses the value of the word of God, or are you going to build your life on it?

You have a priceless treasure in your hands when you hold your Bible.

It has been outlawed, it has been burned, and yet it has stood the test of time.

Will you treat God’s word with honor and treasure it?

I don’t know about you, but I’m committed to encountering God in the Scriptures every day.

I want to challenge each one of you to make a daily rhythm of reading the Word of God.

Don’t just learn a couple cool facts about the Bible and keep going with business as usual.

Order your life around reading the Word.

Set an alarm or a reminder on your phone (right now)

Be consistent, even if it’s not very long

Pray before and after

If you are a Christian and you’re committed to living for the King:

Let’s lock in a rhythm of reading the precious Word of God every single day.

PRAYER (keys)

Thank God for the word

Pray Romans 15:4

Ps. 94:12 NIV

45:00

37:36

30:04

Commitment/Response

If you are not a believer, or you’re skeptical of what I’m saying:

“I will investigate the reliability of the Bible”

Read from non-Christian scholars, but also read from Christian scholars

Read the Bible daily for yourself

Read “Can We Trust the Gospels?” by Peter Williams

Ask your pastor your questions

Ask the Holy Spirit to reveal Himself to you through the Scripture

Read it daily

Consistency brings transformation (10 minutes per day is better than 2 hours once a week)

Pray a response to God based on what you read

Memorize

Meditate

Submit your thinking to the Bible

Is culturally acceptable behavior right or wrong in God’s eyes?

Is my human nature good or bad?

Is my thinking in line with God’s perspective?

Submit your behavior to the Bible

Lord, I repent for lying to my parents

Lord, I will resist this temptation because you said it’s wrong and I want to love you with my life

Lord, I will share the gospel with my friends, even if I’m uncomfortable

Confidence to share the gospel

The things you read in the Bible are absolutely true

Everyone should have an opportunity to know this and believe in Jesus!

PRAYER

Keys

What do I want them to think, do, say, or feel?

Think: I can build my life on the Scriptures, I define truth by the Scriptures

Do: Commit to a daily Bible reading rhythm

Say:

Feel: Awe at the sovereign power of God to preserve the Scriptures

Decide: I will read the Scriptures every day

Notes

Scott’s notes for Theology 1 class

Graphic on reliability of the NT

Cross-references graphic

Can we trust the gospels? book by Peter J. Williams

Make it relatable

Add plenty of stories and analogies and humor

Don’t get lost in the weeds

Make it easy to remember

Sovereign preserving of the Bible

in 175 BC the king of Syria, Antiochus Epiphanes, ordered the Jews, on pain of death, to destroy their Scriptures and worship the Greek gods. But Judas Maccabaeus saved the books and led a revolt that won independence for the Jewish nation. (Today, Jews celebrate this event at Hanukkah.)

Another example is the Roman emperor Diocletian’s order to have Christianity outlawed, its leaders killed, and their Bibles burned. As a sign of God’s providence, the next emperor, Constantine, legalized Christianity and paid for fifty new hand-written copies of the Bible.

Eyewitnesses

John 1:14 ESV

And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.

Acts 4:20 ESV

for we cannot but speak of what we have seen and heard.”

1 John 1:1–3 ESV

That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we looked upon and have touched with our hands, concerning the word of life— the life was made manifest, and we have seen it, and testify to it and proclaim to you the eternal life, which was with the Father and was made manifest to us— that which we have seen and heard we proclaim also to you, so that you too may have fellowship with us; and indeed our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son Jesus Christ.

1 Peter 5:1 ESV

So I exhort the elders among you, as a fellow elder and a witness of the sufferings of Christ, as well as a partaker in the glory that is going to be revealed:

2 Peter 1:16–18 ESV

For we did not follow cleverly devised myths when we made known to you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but we were eyewitnesses of his majesty. For when he received honor and glory from God the Father, and the voice was borne to him by the Majestic Glory, “This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased,” we ourselves heard this very voice borne from heaven, for we were with him on the holy mountain.

John 21:24 ESV

This is the disciple who is bearing witness about these things, and who has written these things, and we know that his testimony is true.

Fulfilled Prophecy

Significant textual variants

1 John 5:7–8 ESV

For there are three that testify: the Spirit and the water and the blood; and these three agree.

John 7:53–8:11 ESV

They went each to his own house, but Jesus went to the Mount of Olives. Early in the morning he came again to the temple. All the people came to him, and he sat down and taught them. The scribes and the Pharisees brought a woman who had been caught in adultery, and placing her in the midst they said to him, “Teacher, this woman has been caught in the act of adultery. Now in the Law, Moses commanded us to stone such women. So what do you say?” This they said to test him, that they might have some charge to bring against him. Jesus bent down and wrote with his finger on the ground. And as they continued to ask him, he stood up and said to them, “Let him who is without sin among you be the first to throw a stone at her.” And once more he bent down and wrote on the ground. But when they heard it, they went away one by one, beginning with the older ones, and Jesus was left alone with the woman standing before him. Jesus stood up and said to her, “Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you?” She said, “No one, Lord.” And Jesus said, “Neither do I condemn you; go, and from now on sin no more.”

Mark 16:9–20 ESV

Now when he rose early on the first day of the week, he appeared first to Mary Magdalene, from whom he had cast out seven demons. She went and told those who had been with him, as they mourned and wept. But when they heard that he was alive and had been seen by her, they would not believe it. After these things he appeared in another form to two of them, as they were walking into the country. And they went back and told the rest, but they did not believe them. Afterward he appeared to the eleven themselves as they were reclining at table, and he rebuked them for their unbelief and hardness of heart, because they had not believed those who saw him after he had risen. And he said to them, “Go into all the world and proclaim the gospel to the whole creation. Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved, but whoever does not believe will be condemned. And these signs will accompany those who believe: in my name they will cast out demons; they will speak in new tongues; they will pick up serpents with their hands; and if they drink any deadly poison, it will not hurt them; they will lay their hands on the sick, and they will recover.” So then the Lord Jesus, after he had spoken to them, was taken up into heaven and sat down at the right hand of God. And they went out and preached everywhere, while the Lord worked with them and confirmed the message by accompanying signs.