SBC: No Apologies | 3 - Why Should We Trust the Bible?

Question: Why should we trust the Bible?

I. Setting the Ladder

Last week we asked: Does God exist?

This week we ask: If God exists, how do we know the Bible is true?

Because if Scripture is not trustworthy, then:

We cannot trust what it says about Jesus.

We cannot trust what it says about salvation.

We cannot trust what it commands.

So this is foundational.

But here’s where many Christians go wrong:

They start at the top of the ladder.

Someone asks, “How do you know the Bible is true?” And we respond, “Because 2 Timothy 3:16 says so.”

That’s a zinger — but it knocks people off the ladder.

Instead, we walk them down.

II. Clarifying the Real Question (Top of Ladder)

When someone says, “How do we know the Bible is true?” they usually mean one of three things:

Was it really written by God?

Was it changed over time?

Who picked the books?

So instead of debating, ask:

“When you say true, do you mean historically accurate, morally helpful, or actually from God?”

“Is your issue the message… or whether it was preserved correctly?”

“If God did speak, what would you expect His Word to look like?”

Now we know what we’re addressing.

III. The Midpoint

Before we say, “It’s the Word of God,” we walk them to something simpler:

The Bible is the most historically preserved and textually verified ancient document in human history.

If they agree with that, they are halfway down the ladder.

Now we prove it.

IV. Was the Bible Changed Over Time?

This is the biggest fear.

A. Manuscript Evidence

New Testament manuscript evidence:

~5,800 Greek manuscripts

~10,000 Latin manuscripts

~9,000+ in Syriac, Coptic, Armenian, etc.

Over 24,000 total manuscripts

Compare to other ancient works:

Plato — 7 copies, 1,200-year gap Caesar — 10 copies, 1,000-year gap Aristotle — ~49 copies, 1,400-year gap

New Testament: Earliest fragment (P52, John’s Gospel) — ~125 AD That’s possibly within 30–60 years of original writing.

No ancient document comes close.

Socratic question: “Do we reject Plato because we don’t have the original copy?”

The New Testament is overwhelmingly supported.

B. Textual Variants (The 400,000 Claim)

Yes, critics say: “There are 400,000 textual variants.”

True.

But:

99% are spelling differences.

Greek word order changes don’t change meaning.

Synonyms (Jesus Christ / Christ Jesus).

No major Christian doctrine rests on a disputed text.

The reason we have many variants? Because we have thousands of manuscripts.

More copies = more comparison = more accuracy.

V. The Old Testament Preservation

For centuries critics said: “The Old Testament was changed.”

Then 1947 happened.

The Dead Sea Scrolls

Discovered near Qumran.

900+ manuscripts

Entire book of Isaiah

Portions of nearly every OT book

Dated 250 BC – 100 AD

Before this discovery, our oldest complete Hebrew manuscripts dated to around 1000 AD.

When compared?

Isaiah from 200 BC matched the later Masoretic text with 95%+ accuracy.

Differences? Spelling. Grammar. Not theology.

That’s over 1,000 years of near-perfect preservation.

That is historically staggering.

VI. Who Chose the Books? (Canon Formation)

Now we address the second fear.

Myth: “The Council of Nicaea chose the Bible in 325 AD.”

Fact: Nicaea never discussed the canon.

Canon recognition was early and gradual.

A. Early Recognition

95 AD — Clement of Rome quotes:

Gospels

Paul

Hebrews

110 AD — Polycarp (disciple of John):

Quotes most of Paul’s letters

180 AD — Irenaeus:

Clearly affirms four Gospels

Most of Paul

Acts

Revelation

By early 200s: Most NT books widely recognized.

By mid-300s: Councils (Hippo 393, Carthage 397) formally affirmed the 27 books already in use.

They didn’t create Scripture. They recognized what churches already used.

B. Books Never Seriously Disputed

Universally recognized early:

4 Gospels

Acts

Paul’s major letters

1 Peter

1 John

Only a few debated:

Hebrews

James

2 Peter

2 & 3 John

Jude

Revelation

And those debates were usually about authorship, not doctrine.

No book was widely accepted and later rejected.

VII. Inspiration — How Did Words Get on the Page?

Now we move from preservation to origin.

2 Timothy 3:16 — “All Scripture is God-breathed.”

2 Peter 1:21 — “Holy men of God spoke as they were moved by the Holy Spirit.”

God did not dictate like a robot.

He inspired.

Like wind moving sails: Different boats. Different sizes. Same wind. Same direction.

40 authors Over 1,500 years One unified message: God, sin, redemption, Messiah.

If it were fabricated, that level of consistency is nearly impossible.

VIII. Prophecy — Internal Evidence

Over 300 prophecies about Christ.

Written hundreds of years before His birth.

Examples:

Born in Bethlehem (Micah)

Pierced hands and feet (Psalm 22)

Suffering servant (Isaiah 53)

Statistically, fulfilling even a fraction by chance is astronomically unlikely.

The Bible makes testable predictions.

That is unique among ancient religious texts.

IX. Translation History — Has It Been Corrupted?

The Bible was written in:

Old Testament:

Hebrew

Portions in Aramaic

New Testament:

Koine Greek (common street language)

Copied by scribes carefully.

Early textual traditions:

Alexandrian

Byzantine

Western

Codex Vaticanus (325 AD) Codex Sinaiticus (350 AD) Codex Alexandrinus (400 AD)

These are full Bible codices from the 4th–5th centuries.

Jerome translated the Latin Vulgate in 382 AD.

For 1,000 years, the Vulgate dominated Western Christianity.

X. English Translations

Wycliffe (1382) Tyndale (1526 — executed for it) Geneva Bible (1560) King James Version (1611)

The KJV used about 6–10 late manuscripts (10th century+).

Modern translations use thousands of earlier manuscripts, including 4th century codices and Dead Sea Scrolls.

Even the KJV translators said in their preface: Translation should continue to improve as new evidence appears.

They never claimed divine inspiration of their translation.

XI. The Final Move — The Foundation Is Christ

Now we’ve brought them safely to the midpoint:

The Bible is historically reliable and preserved.

Now we go deeper.

Ask:

“If Jesus rose from the dead, would His view of Scripture matter?”

“Did Jesus treat Scripture as myth or as God’s Word?”

Jesus quoted Genesis as history. Isaiah as prophecy. Psalms as authoritative.

He said: “My words will never pass away.”

If the resurrection is true, then Christ validates Scripture.

So the foundation is not manuscript count.

It is this:

The risen Christ affirmed Scripture.

XII. Sufficiency — Why It Matters

2 Timothy 3:16–17

Doctrine — what is right Reproof — what is wrong Correction — how to fix wrong Instruction — how to stay right

Result: That the man of God may be complete.

The Bible is not: Just history. Just advice. Just moral stories.

It is God’s revelation, preserved, recognized, transmitted, and centered on Christ.

XIII. Final Summary

We don’t believe the Bible because a council voted.

We believe it because:

It is the most manuscript-supported ancient document in history.

It was recognized early, not invented late.

It was preserved across millennia.

It contains fulfilled prophecy.

It is affirmed by the risen Christ.

If Christ is Lord, Scripture is authority.