CAN WE TRUST THE BIBLE?
by
Randy A. Croft
Tonight’s question is a popular one among Christians and non-Christians alike?
The Bible. Is it reliable? Is it all myth? Just good literature? Or God’s word? Can we trust it?
I want to present four reasons why I believe in the reliable and trustworthiness of the Bible.
4 Reasons Why Reliable
(1) Archeology
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Many people have become more convinced through the recent discover of an old ossuary. Listen to the report as described by an archeology magazine (Biblical Archeology Review). "An inscription has been found on an ancient bone box, called an ossuary, that reads “James, son of Joseph, brother of Jesus...The Aramaic words etched on the box’s side show a cursive form of writing used only from about 10 to 70 A.D., according to noted paleographer André Lemaire of the École Pratique des Hautes Études (popularly known as the Sorbonne University) in Paris, who verified the inscription’s authenticity. The ossuary has been dated to approximately 63 A.D.In the first century A.D., Jews followed the custom of transferring the bones of their deceased from burial caves to ossuaries. The practice was largely abandoned after the destruction of the Jewish Temple in 70 A.D. No one knows for certain why the practice started or stopped, but it provides a rare period of self-documentation in which commoners as well as leaders left their names carved in stone.
Also very interestings is the finding that...Laboratory tests performed by the Geological Survey of Israel confirm that the box’s limestone comes from the Jerusalem area. The patina--a thin sheen or covering that forms on stone and other materials over time--has the cauliflower-type shape known to develop in a cave environment; more importantly, it shows no trace of modern elements."
In other words... this ancient ossuary is authentic, from the first century, and is written about the time of Jesus. Even the stone particles verify it’s authenticity.
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Critics used to laugh about the Hittites, a people mentioned in the Bible about 40 times. No evidence, until this century, archeological writings discovered in Turkey list them as a powerful nation that once attacked Egypt.
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Speaking of Egypt...the bible says the Egyptians forced their slaves to make bricks mixed with straw. For years critics would deride the biblical account until this century when archeology uncovered "wola" straw mixed in bricks. Fee (p 82).
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Joseph was the a Hebrew slave in the Bible who became the second most powerful ruler in Egypt. For years people laughed at the idea of a Hebrew Vice President. While in Egypt, according to the bible, God showed Joseph what was going to happen in Egypt. Gen 41:28-30 7 years of abundance/famine. People use to laugh at this story until this century. Archeologists--inscription chiseled on a rock which radiocarbon dating dates back to time of Egyptian kings. It says "I collected corn, I was watchful in time of sowing, and when a familiar famine arose lasting many years, I distributed corn...The Nile has not overflowed for a period of 7 years. Herbage fails. The storehouses were built. And all that was in them has been consumed." Just like biblical account. Also true, archeologists found an Egyptian tomb with grave paintings of 7 fat cows next to 7 skinny cows, 7 fat ears of corn next to 7 skinny ones. Somebody recorded it who lived through it.
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Also fascinating in last verses of Genesis, the Bible says Josephs bones were carried back to Palestine and in Joshua 24 says buried at Shechem. For centuries there was a tomb at Shechem that many believed was the tomb of Joseph. Superstition said the critics. No Egyptian leader would be buried outside of Egypt. In the 1950’s they opened the tomb. Guess what they found. A body mummified like only in Egypt, and in the tomb, among other things, was a sword of the kind worn only by Egyptian officials.
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The Sumerian King List (pictured here), for example, lists kings who lived and ruled for long periods of time. Then a great flood came. Following the flood, Sumerian kings ruled for much shorter periods of time. This is the same pattern found in the Bible. Men had long life spans before the flood and shorter life spans after the flood. The flood story in the bible is recorded in a similar way on the 11th tablet of the Gilgamesh Epic. Though it differs in some areas, it speaks of an ark, animals taken on the ark, birds sent out during the course of the flood, the ark landing on a mountain, and a sacrifice offered after the ark landed.
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I’ve only touched the tip of the iceberg concerning the amazing discoveries people have found while digging around in the bible lands. And the findings are confirming the truthfulness of the bible over and over and over again.
One of my college professors goes over to Israel almost every year to lead out in excavations. If you’re ever interested in going to actually dig up the ruins of ancient cities or towns, let me know.
The shovel that digs confirms that the Bible is reliable and trustworthy.
(2) Manuscripts--
People say "I can’t trust. Bible been corrupted by translators and scribes." Can I trust the writings of the Bible if they’ve been so corrupted and changed over the years?
In summer of 1947 a young Arabian boy, Juma, lost track of one of the goats he was supposed to be watching. Region was Qumran, in Middle East. Lowest point on earth. Hillsides overlooking dead sea. When one of his goats wandered into a cave, the boy chased it. Lost...Hillside overlooking the dead sea, there are thousands of little caves. He threw a rock into the cave opening hoping to scare the goat out...heard crash--sound of pottery breaking. Ran home told his dad that there were ghosts in the cave. Father said, "No, no. not ghosts." Maybe there’s treasure in the pottery. Maybe silver or gold. Next day, they went and checked out what happened. Looked inside one of the caves and found old worn out jars, and broken pottery. Inside were old scrolls with leather backing. Took scrolls, sold to trader, who was going to sell to them to a shoe cobbler. Since the scrolls had a leather backing, the shoe cobbler was going to rip them up and make shoes out of them. Good thing didn’t happen. Eventually some Israeli scholars secured them, They looked in caves, found over 20 caves full of scrolls. the Dead Sea scrolls--the oldest manuscripts of the Old Testament ever found...written over 100 years before Jesus was born. 1000 years earlier than any of the other manuscripts available. Every book in whole or fragments of the Old Testament, except Esther. Some fragments. Isaiah scroll best from verse 1 to end. These scrolls would answer the question...is our bible today different than these older records. What’s been changed? Conclusion---nothing.
Some minor misspellings and variant words, no substantial difference between ancient scrolls and the words you have in your bible. Miraculously preserved through thousands of years of copying.
One scholar wrote about Isaiah Scroll, "proved to be word for word identical with our standard Hebrew Bible in more than 95% of text. The 5% variation consisted chiefly of obvious slips of the pen and variations in spelling.
These Dead Sea scrolls are so valuable, they’re housed in Jerusalem in a building called the Shrine of the Book. So priceless, stored in a nuclear-proof elevator. If nuclear attack, the elevator descend in a cement shaft into ground and automatically covered with a cement block wheel in a ground cylinder to protect it.
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Absolutely amazing how the scribes would copy the bible down through the ages. These Jews who copied the Old Testament had very strict laws for copying. They would count every word of the book they were working on in the original, count the middle word, then the middle letter. Say a book had 7,000 words. Say the middle word was God. Middle letter of God would be "o". Write all this down. Now they’d begin copying word for word. When they got done, they would go back and count the words 7,000. Good. Middle word, and middle letter. IF the middle letter was G instead of "o" they’d rip up the copy and start over. God preserved the bible very accurately for thousands of years. No work is so amazingly preserved.
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Work When Earliest Time Number of
Slide: Written Copy Span Copies
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New Testament AD 40-100 AD 125 25 yrs. >24,000
Homer 900 BC 400 BC 500 yrs. 643
Iliad
Plato 427-347 BC AD 900 1200 yrs. 7
Teralogies
Sophocles 496-406 BC AD 1000 1400 yrs. 193
Caesar 100-44 BC AD 900 1000 yrs. 10
Aristotle era 322 BC AD 1100 1400 yrs. 49
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OVERWHELMING NEW TESTAMENT MANUSCRIPT EVIDENCE
The New Testament has far more manuscript evidence than any other ancient work. There are more than 24,000 manuscript copies of the New Testament, with only a 25 year time span between the original and the earliest manuscript copies. The Iliad ranks next -- it has 643 manuscript copies with a 500 year time span between the original and the copies. Only 40 lines (400 words/variations) of the New Testament are in doubt between the 24,000 manuscript copies, compared to 746 lines in doubt of the Iliad’s 643 copies. Shakespeare, which has been in existence less than 250 years, should be far more uncertain and corrupt than that of the New Testament, now almost 2000 years old. "But in every one of Shakespeare’s 37 plays, there are estimated to be a hundred or more readings still in dispute, a large portion of which materially affects the meaning of the passages in which they occur."
New Testament more reliable than Shakespeare.
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D)Now, what all of this leads to is this. The New Testament writings are superior to all comparable ancient writings. It has more manuscript evidence than any other book in existence. In other words, the Bible we hold in our hands today is made from a copy that is extremely accurate - that is close to an exact duplicate of the original. God’s not messing around with confusion on the Bible. We make it confusing in our churches, but God has done his part in giving us a reliable message.
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(3)Prophecy
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ILLUS: Psychics are a dime a dozen. But their accuracy rate is lousy. Newspaper story.
One subject that separates the Bible from any other book is prophecy. The prophecies are precise. Many times they’re hundreds, even thousands of years in advance. And they are fulfilled to the smallest detail! Fall, prophecy series (20 nights) look deep into biblical issues and prophecies absolutely amaze people who’ve never really read them. Not weird. Just proven.
A prophecy in Ezekiel 26:1-6 reads, ". . . the word of the LORD came unto me, saying. . . Behold, I am against you, O Tyrus, and will cause many nations to come up against you. . . And they shall destroy the walls of Tyrus, and break down her towers: I will also scrape her dust from her, and make her like the top of a rock. It shall be a place for the spreading of nets in the midst of the sea: for I have spoken it, saith the Lord GOD. . . "
Three years later, King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon surrounded Tyrus. But before he came, the people of Tyre escaped to an island, a half-mile offshore. After thirteen years of siege, the Babylonians "broke down her walls" and "broke down her towers", destroying the city on the mainland. By that time, the escaped people had re-built the city of Tyre on the island. And because Nebuchadnezzar had no navy, the city on the island remained untouched. Even though Nebuchadnezzar, destroyed the city, he didn’t fulfill Ezekiel’s prophecy. But 250 years later, Alexander the Great took the rubble Nebuchadnezzar’s destruction left, and they "scraped her dust", the wood, rock and stubble from the destroyed city, and they built a causeway, like "the top of a rock". They marched on the rubble-causeway, into the island and destroyed it. And if you travel to site of old Tyre today - you’ll see fisherman "spreading their nets" to dry on what was Tyre! Exactly, as Ezekiel prophesied around 586 B.C.! Over 2500 years before it happened!
One more example: Babylon which destroyed Tyre in the first place. Babylon--60 miles south of Baghdad, Iraq. It was largest and most powerful nation on earth at one time. Bible said it too would be destroyed. Not only destroyed, but become a pile of rubble and "never be inhabited" (Isa 13:20). This is specific. Lots of cities destroyed and built up again. WWII, London rebuilt. German cities like Munich, Frankfurt, Cologne, and Berlin became rubble by allied bombs, rebuilt. Jerusalem destroyed twice. Visit it today. Hiroshima and Nagasaki rebuilt after Atomic Bomb. Say Babylon never be inhabited. Never means never. Babylon destroyed in 539 B.C and is simply a pile of rubble. If every skeptic gave $1 surely they could rebuild Babylon and prove Bible wrong. 2500 years to do it. But God said never. Bible says when Babylon is destroyed it will stay that way forever. More prophecies no time to mention tonight. Consider Jesus.
There were over 300 prophecies fulfilled in the person of Jesus Christ. Genesis predicted a Savior to earth. Revelation predicts He is coming again. The Bible predicted Jesus thousands of years before he was born! Precise, detailed prophecies such as; where He would be born (Micah 5:2), how He would be born, (Isaiah 7:14) how He would die (Psalm 34:20), that he’d be betrayed for 30 pieces of silver (Ps 55:12,13; Zech 11:12,13), his side would be pierced, but he wouldn’t have broken bones (Ps 22, 34), soldiers would gamble for his coat (Ps 22:18) and Resurrected (Ps 16:10). IF so many of these prophecies about his first coming fulfilled, we can trust it when it says that Jesus is coming again for those who are living for him.
God given ample evidence to trust the reliability of the Bible. Final, most exciting...
(5) Changed Lives
Millions of people can testify to the power the bible has played in their lives. I can tell you about my attitude and temper and swearing, and heart became changed by reading the bible. Not perfect, not...but different. First really met Jesus Christ, high school. Get up in morning before class, hour a day reading devotional on life of Jesus and the bible passages with it. My study time went down, my grades shot up. My perspective and life changed for the better. And reading the bible can give you power in your life too.
ILLUS: When the American army stormed across Okinawa, soldiers found villages of unbelievable poverty, ignorance, and filth. But Shimmabuke, a small obscure community, was different. Homes and streets were clean, the villagers poised and cultured, enjoying a high level of health, happiness, intelligence and prosperity.
Why was Shimmabuke different? Thirty years previously an American missionary on his way to Japan had stopped there. Before he moved on he made two converts, left a Bible, and passed on. From that day the people of Shimmabuke had seen no other missionary, had no other visit with any Christian person or group. But in those 30 years the inhabitants had made the Bible come alive. The two converts had taught the villagers its truth until every one became a Christian.
Then came the American army. Clarence Hall, a war correspondent wrote the following...
"I strolled through Shimmabuke one day with a tough old Army sergeant. As we walked he turned to me and whispered hoarsely. "I can’t figure it, fellow--this kind of people coming out of only a Bible and a couple of old guys who wanted to live like Jesus!" Then he added what was to me an infinitely penetrating observation: "Maybe we’ve been using the wrong kind of weapons to make the world over!"
Archeology confirms the Bible can be trusted. The Manuscripts prove the Bible is reliable. Prophecies reveal a supernatural source for the Bible. and Changed Lives reveal the Power of the Bible. It can be trusted. It is reliable. It’s up to us to get the most our of it.
