Is the Bible reliable? Can the Bible be trusted? Is the Bible relevant?
There are people offering us answers from all directions, both from modern and ancient sources. We want to know if we can trust the sources we are being told to place our faith in.
There are essentially three questions we need to answer: (1) Are the ancient documents that make up the Bible dependable? (2) Are they historically accurate in their claims? (3) Is the Bible Relevant today? Does it have meaning to my life--here and now?
Without being too presumptuous, my answer to all three of these questions--as someone who has both scholastically studied the Bible and has lived the life and the faith it testifies to--is Yes! My aim tonight is to show you how I came to the answer of "Yes," after taking into account all I have learned and the faith struggles I have endured. Tonight I will show you why I still boldly affirm the answer of--Yes! Yes the Bible is reliable. Yes the Bible is historically accurate. And, yes the Bible is relevant.
Many people are under the impression that the Bible is one book written in Old King James English full of "Thees, Thous, and Woes," authored by gray-haired old men who wanted nothing but to tell other people what to do. When, in fact, there is nothing that could be further from the truth.
This reminds me of a video I saw. An interviewer was asking people on the street about the Bible and different Bible translations. One lady responded by saying, "If King James English was good enough for Jesus, it is good enough for me!" Well, King James English was not Jesus’ language, nor the language of the biblical authors.
The Bible was originally written in Hebrew, Aramaic and Greek. The Bible is not one book, but a collection of books--66 in total in what is commonly termed the "Protestant canon." Other Christian groups, such as the Orthodox and Catholic, have other books in addition to these 66 as well.
Each collection of books was chosen by different groups of people within the civilized world of the time, over a period of about 300-400 years. The collections were not chosen by one council, but by the agreement of many people over a long period of time. This agreement is testimony alone that God was at work among these people. Slowly, but surely.
One of the factors that distinguishes Christian Scripture from all other literature is the fact that it is all based upon reliable ancient sources. These ancient sources are housed all over the world from Washington, D.C. to Oxford, England to Berlin, Germany to Jerusalem, Israel. In this sense, study of the Bible is a worldwide project.
The Bible was written and edited by many different people over a period of 1,000-1,500 years. Some of its stories date back about 2000 years prior to the birth of Jesus, that is 4,000 years ago.
Unfortunately, we do not have the original manuscripts of any biblical book. But the copies of the biblical books we do have are testimony that it was copied incredibly accurately. The biblical books were copied all across the civilized world of the time in massive quantities.
There are over 6,000 manuscript copies of the Greek New Testament. In comparison, Homer’s Iliad, the greatest of all Greek classical works, has only 650 manuscripts. Euripides’ tragedies, the next greatest collection of Greek works, has only 330 manuscripts. All other works of Greek literature have even far less than these. This is testimony that the Bible is truly miraculous!
With this many copies of the New Testament books, one would expect to find lots of differences among these copies. Of course, there are some, but very few differences are significant. Most of these differences are either grammatical or literary preferences. The message of the New Testament or any other important theological matter is not changed. The resurrection of Christ, the Virgin Birth, and loving your neighbor as yourself remain the same.
Interestingly, the Dead Sea Scrolls, which were found in 1956, further confirm the accuracy of the Bible.
Based upon this information, do I believe that the ancient documents that make up the Bible are reliable? By all means, Yes! There is not another collection of books in the world like it. Both in its accuracy and in the way it was brought together; the Bible is truly miraculous!
Is the Bible historically reliable?
I could go on and on about the archeological finds that have confirmed the Bible, such as Jericho or Hezekiah’s tunnel. Or I could go on and on about debunking many history channel specials and the theories that arise from them. (By the way, do not trust everything the history channel says, most of it is not history. Jesus didn’t have a girlfriend!)
Instead of doing any of this, I will say to you what I have heard scholar after scholar say, the Bible is historically accurate, in so much as it has accomplished its theological intention. In other words, the Bible may have a great deal of history in it, but its intention is not to record history. Its intention is to record how God has interacted with the world, so that people may turn from what the world has to offer and believe in Him.
I had it said to me once, if all the Bibles in the world were burned, would you still believe? My answer to this is, "Yes!" I believe the Christian faith would look very different, but many people would still believe that there is a God who created the world, sent His son to die and be resurrected on behalf of you and me, so that we may believe in Him and be saved, and in being saved help to make this world a better place.
The Bible merely points to God; it is not God. We are not to worship the Bible, we are to worship God. God is far above the Bible, He transcends the Bible. God is far above all things. He is not limited to the Bible, for He existed far before it ever came to be.
The Bible carries God’s message as it was passed down to His people throughout generations. We are to receive this message; the message is what changes people, not the text alone.
This reminds me of the beginning of the Gospel of John. John’s Gospel begins by saying, "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God" (John 1:1--2 ESV). John’s Gospel goes on to say that the "Word" became flesh and dwelt among us, it then points to the "Word" being Jesus. John uses a Greek word "Logos" to describe Jesus. In our English Bibles the word "Logos" is translated simply as "Word," but it could just as easily be translated as "Statement," or "Message." Jesus is the "Message" of God. As a person, Jesus encompassed all that God’s "Message" was. It was a "Message" of love, forgiveness, compassion, and above all things, knowing God and doing His will. Jesus was all that God had testified about in His Scriptures in a man. He was the "Message" of the Scriptures, He was Love and in being Love, He was God.
So, is the Bible relevant? Yes! How could a document with such a beautiful history not be relevant? The Bible has withstood the test of time. The people who wrote and copied the biblical documents believed in what they were doing so much that they were willing to die for it. They would lay their own lives on the line to protect it.
Well, what about the Bible stories, are they relevant to our lives, here and now? Yes! The beauty of the Bible is that we can directly relate to its stories. The people in the Bible experienced real life events. They had emotions; they felt pain, anger, joy, and love. They are just like us. Their story is our story. It is the story of humanity.
But the Biblical books take a slightly different perspective on life than we often do. The stories are seen in light of the way God interacts with the world. If only we could always see life in this way. What I would give to be able to always view my life in terms of the way God is interacting with me and working through me. I need to say to myself more often, it is not about what I am doing, but it is about what God is doing. How is God interacting with me?
We need to ask, how is God interacting with humanity? What is God doing? How can I be a part of it? The biblical story is their story, our story, and God’s story. It is a story of God pursuing people to show them who He is. It is powerful! It is amazing! It is a story that is more relevant than any other story!
The Bible is full of meaning, both historically speaking, and in the modern context. But, what is so important about the Bible is that it shows us how to have meaning in our lives. Our lives have meaning when we engage God and call upon God, so that He may engage with us.
I learned this the hard way once. It was my third year of College, and my first year at a new University. I had transferred in two years of college credit from a different institution. Well, this was the first time in my life I had studied the Bible full time. I began to question things as I learned more and more. I started to wonder if I believed in the Bible anymore. And quite honestly, a lot of scholars never come out of this mode of thinking. The reason is that people who study anything intellectually often begin to lose sight of the meaning of their study. I was beginning to lose sight of the reason why I studied. I was not able to look past the end of my nose to see what it was really all about. Well, it all changed one day when I went to class and heard a lecture about New Testament theology. My professor was very excited that day, I do not know if he had had too much coffee, or what? Well his lecture, which was beautiful, finally reached a close, and he said these amazing words, "When you study the Bible for all it is worth, you begin to realize that you are not reading the Bible, but the Bible is reading you." These words changed me instantly. I suddenly realized that the reason why I was questioning my beliefs was not because I had been taught wrong, but because I was not looking at the bigger picture. I was searching for meaning in the Bible, outside of the context of God. So, I went and prayed for hours in a prayer room and met God again. I realized that I have to continually meet God in my studies; otherwise, I miss the picture all together.
You see, without God meaning ends, but with God relevancy and meaning begins.
I am reminded now of the words of St. Paul, which ring so true:
But now the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the law, although the Law and the Prophets bear witness to it--the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe. For there is no distinction: for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith. (Romans 3:21-24, ESV)
Humanity needs God. And God made a way for humanity to meet Him through Jesus. In return, you need Jesus. I need Jesus. We all need to believe in what the Bible tells us about God and Jesus, and in believing in this we will be saved from the poor condition humanity is in. We are meant to believe in the death and resurrection of Jesus that saves us; that gives us grace.
Without God Meaning ends, but with God relevancy and meaning begins.
Let the Bible read you!
