Is The Bible Reliable?

How To Know The Bible Is Reliable

The Bible has been read more than any other book. Bible sales in North America amount to more than half a billion dollars. The average North American household has 3.2 bibles. 27% of Americans own at least 5 bibles. It has been translated into 350 languages. Portions have been translated into 2000 languages.

In the last 100 years, 2.5 billion bibles have been printed and distributed. An article in times of London said,

“Forget the modern British novelists and T.V. tie-ins, the Bible is the biggest selling book every year… As usual the top seller by several miles was the Bible. If cumulative sales of the Bible were frankly reflected in bestseller lists, it would be a rare week when anything else would achieve a look in. It is wonderful, weird, or just plain baffling in this increasingly godless age-when the range of books available grows wider with each passing year-that this one book should go on selling hand over fist, month in, month out… It is estimated that nearly 1,250,000 bibles and testaments are sold in the UK each year.”

When the Bible Society was asked to offer an explanation, they said, “Well, it is such a good book.”

Montero Williams, a professor of Sanscript, who spent 42 years studying Eastern Literature, said this

“Pile all the religious books on the left side of your study table, but place the Bible on the right side all by itself, all alone, and with a wide gap between them. For there is a gulf between it and the so-called sacred books of the east. There is a gulf that cannot be bridged.”

No book has been so burned, banned, and outlawed than the bible. Voltaire-the French philosopher-one of the western world’s most aggressive antagonists of the Bible, had a printing press in his home and used it to spread volatile propaganda. He said, “Within 100 years of my death Christianity will have been swept away from existence and passed into history.” Voltaire died in 1778, and has passed into history while the Bible’s circulation continues to grow. Fifty years after his death, the Geneva Bible Society purchased Voltaire’s house and used his own printing press to print Bibles.

I remember my uncle telling me the story of the blacksmiths shop. A boy was watching the Blacksmith at work in the Blacksmiths shop. The boy noticed a pile of hammers in the corner, and asked the Blacksmith why they were there. He replied, “They are the hammers I have worn out on the anvil.” The boy then asked, “How many anvils have you worn out?” To which he replied, “This is still the first.” So it is with the Bible. The hammer blows of its enemies have come against the Bible, but one by one they have worn away, while the anvil of the Word of God still stands. The prophet Isaiah said in 40:8, “The grass whithers and the flower fades, but the Word of our God stands forever.” The Bible is reliable.

Not everyone shares that conviction of course. Some believe the Bible is just a collection of colourful stories like Noah’s ark and Jonah and the whale, and David and Goliath, and Daniel in the Lion’s den. Others say, the Bible was written by mere men. Still others say, “I have my own source of truth. I think the universe through cosmic radiation implants truth into our mind.” Another person says, “It’s too old to be relevent. I don’t read car manuals from 50 years ago. I buy a computer program manual and it’s outdated in a matter of months.” Why read a book that’s 1000s of years old? Others assert, “The Bible is full of contradictions.”

In this lesson we will discover five reasons why the Bible can be trusted. The Bible claims to be the very words of God. 2 Timothy 3:16 says, “All Scripture is God-breathed…” We will show that this claim is a reasonable claim and can be substantiated. Let’s see why the Bible can be trusted as God’s inspired and flawless Word.

Five Reasons Why The Bible Can Be Trusted As God’s Inspired Word

1.”The Unity of Theme” Proof

The Bible is actually not one book. It consists of 66 books, written by over 40 different authors, over a 1500 year period, in three different languages, on three different continents. And the amazing thing is that in spite of that diversity of authors, languages, geography, and time, the storyline of the Bible is about one central person-the hero of the Book, and His name is Jesus Christ of Nazareth.

Imagine taking a class of 66 students, and assigning each of them the task of writing one chapter of a book, to create a total of 66 chapters. But you don’t tell them anything about the storyline of the book. You don’t provide them with any information regarding setting, genre, or character. You send each student to a separate classroom to write the assigned chapter, and you prohibit anyone from collaborating with any other student in the class.