Can We Trust The Bible?

Some Common Accusations people make today...

The Bible cannot be trusted because it contains thousands of errors and variants.

The Bible cannot be true because it was written by men who can make mistakes.

The Bible is not true because it has many translations and has been changed throughout the years as it was copied down.

DO THESE CLAIMS HOLD ANY WEIGHT??

3 Reasons We Can Trust The Bible

Manuscript and Archeological Evidence

Prophecy

Historicity of Jesus’ Resurrection

Before asking if the Bible is true we need to address the question: Does truth even exist?

What truth is:

Truth corresponds with reality-tells it like it is.

Truth is absolute, not relative.

Relative truth is self-defeating: most people believe that relative truth exists for all people, which would imply an absolute truth about relativism.

Carry out relativism to its practical application...if truth is relative, no one is every wrong and no one can ever tell you that you are wrong.

Cultural relativism falls short too (each nation is governed by their own view of truths)-Why were the Nazi’s convicted of crimes against humanity, they never broke laws in Germany during WW2. How can U.S. soldiers enter Africa to prevent genocide from taking place if those countries deem it acceptable to treat people that way...who are we to tell them what is true if relativism exists?

Give the argument for absolute truth based on the moral law.

Since we now know that truth does exist and can be known, how do we know the Bible is true?

First, we need to see that the Bible itself attests of its truthfulness and that it is written by God (1,500 times)

2 Timothy 3:16-17; Matthew 15:6; Romans 3:2; 1 Peter 1:23; Matthew 22:43; Matthew 5:17

2 Timothy 3:16–17 CSB

All Scripture is inspired by God and is profitable for teaching, for rebuking, for correcting, for training in righteousness, so that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work.

The Bible was written by the prophets of God, moved by the Spirit of God (2 Peter 1:21), and breathed out by God.

2 Peter 1:21 CSB

because no prophecy ever came by the will of man; instead, men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit.

So if the Bible claims to be true, let us look to see if the Bible corresponds with reality and the evidence we have. We will only look at the reliability of the New Testament because if we can prove that the New Testament is reliable, it proves that the Old Testament is reliable and is God’s word… since Jesus attested that the Old Testament was Scripture-i.e. God’s Word. We can see that the Bible is true and reliable through three main ways: Manuscript Evidence, Prophecy, and the Historicity of Jesus’ resurrection

Manuscripts evidence and Archeological Confirmation

Autograph: the original copy of one of the New Testament documents.

Manuscript: a copy of the autograph.

5200+ Greek Manuscript copies, Thousands more in other languages, adding up all of them we have 25,000 old copies or originals of the New Testament dated before the Gutenburg Printing Press (16th century)

Even if all of these copies were somehow lost, we could reconstruct the entire New Testament in Greek from the early church Father’s quotations!

We have early manuscript evidence

Dead Sea Scrolls-Dated 250 BC-50AD-Have whole scroll of Isaiah

Found in 1947

450 fragments before the 9th century, 200 from the 3rd century, 5-12 from the 2nd century. Our oldest complete New Testament Manuscript is the Codex Sinaiticus.

Only 30-60 years between the autographs and the oldest fragment.

Oral tradition within 2-3 years of Jesus' resurrection (1 Corinthians 15:3-8)

1 Corinthians 15:3–8 CSB

For I passed on to you as most important what I also received: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures, and that he appeared to Cephas, then to the Twelve. Then he appeared to over five hundred brothers and sisters at one time; most of them are still alive, but some have fallen asleep. Then he appeared to James, then to all the apostles. Last of all, as to one born at the wrong time, he also appeared to me.

How does the NT manuscripts compare to other famous, historical, and credible works?

Number of Original Language Manuscripts:

Aristotole’s works: 7 copies

Plato’s works: 49 copies

Homer’s Iliad: 643 copies

New Testament: 5600+ copies (Greek)

Span of years between autograph and oldest copy:

Aristotle: 1400 years

Plato: 1300 years

Homer’s Illiad: 500 years

New Testament: 50 years max

**No credible historian would ever doubt these works as being historically accurate and truthful. So why would they doubt the Bible?

Not only do we have many manuscript copies of the Bible, but we know from some libraries of antiquity that were discovered in 2009, that the original autographs probably lasted 200-300 years after they were first written.

the implications of this are that the earliest manuscripts we have were directly copied from the original autographs since they were most likely still in circulation when these manuscripts were written.

This means that the idea that there was some huge gap between the autographs and the first copies we have is not based on historical evidence.

What about the “mistakes and variants” in the Bible?

There are many textual variants 200-400k….but

A single mistake copied 10,000 times results in 10,000 variants

Most textual variants are trivial and do nothing to change the meaning of the text.

Spelling mistakes, trivial, untranslatable errors, obvious omissions.

There are only 400 places where we do not know what the original wording was in the autographs

Of the 400 places, 350 provide no alteration to the meaning of the verse…example: Jesus Christ our Lord vs. Christ Jesus our Lord.

This amounts to 97-99% of the original text being reconstructed beyond any reasonable doubt.

So… of the 20,000 lines of the Greek NT, only 40 lines are in doubt….NONE OF THESE DEAL WITH ANY DOCTRINE OF THE CHURCH OR EFFECT THE MEANING OF A WHOLE BOOK/LETTER.

Before moving onto our other two reasons, it needs to be said that archeological evidence also corresponds with what the Bible teaches:

“no archaeological discovery has ever controverted a biblical reference. Scores of archaeological findings have been made which confirm in clear outline or exact detail historical statements in the Bible” (Glueck, 31). Millar Burroughs notes that “more than one archaeologist has found his respect for the Bible increased by the experience of excavation in Palestine” (Burroughs, 1).1

1 Norman L. Geisler, “Bible, Evidence For,” Baker Encyclopedia of Christian Apologetics, Baker Reference Library (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Books, 1999), 95.

Historicity of Luke: 84 archeological and geographical facts confirmed in the gospel.

Many confirmations by non-Christian historians about the facts and statements presented in the Bible.

Prophecy

Daniel 3

Lists all of the upcoming empires and kingdoms that would come in the next 600 years.

Daniel 9:24

Tells how long it will be until the Messiah will be “cut off” and die.

Genesis 3:15

Prophecy that the Messiah would defeat sin and death through crushing the servant’s head.

Isaiah 53

Predicts the passion of Jesus in exquisite detail-we know the book was written 600-800 years before Jesus was ever on the earth.

Only God knows the future, therefore, God had to have inspired the writers of the Bible to know these facts that would occur hundreds of years in the future.

Historicity of Jesus’ Resurrection

1 Corinthians 15:1-8

There are three facts that every historian (Christian or non-Christian) will admit that are true:

Jesus was crucified under Pontius Pilate

At least 10 non-Christian historians and their documents attest to this fact.

Science has clearly proven that it is impossible for someone to survive a crucifixion. The Romans were master executioners...it was their job. If the person did not die on the cross, the soldiers would die.

The tomb Jesus was buried in was empty on the third day

The New Testament gives evidence to this.

No worship at Jesus’ tomb

Reference to Joseph of Arimathea

Witness of Women

The disciples proclaimed that Jesus had risen from the dead, had seen him, touched him, and ate with them… and they died for this truth.

Eyewitness testimony: 1 Corinthians 15:4-6

1 Corinthians 15:4–6 CSB

that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures, and that he appeared to Cephas, then to the Twelve. Then he appeared to over five hundred brothers and sisters at one time; most of them are still alive, but some have fallen asleep.

Church history accounts of martyrdom

There is a difference in dying for something you believe to be true vs. something that you know for a fact is true or not.

If Jesus was not resurrected, how else can you explain these three facts?

Stolen Body by disciples/Romans/Jews

Swoon Theory

Hallucination theory

Based on the evidence we have from the manuscripts, prophecy that has come true, and Jesus’ resurrection, we can be sure beyond reasonable doubt that the Bible is in fact a historical and reliable book that we can trust to be God’s word as it claims to be.

So what?? What are the implications for us if the Bible is true?

Proclaim the Gospel in closing!