Can I Believe the Bible?*

While teaching on Sunday morning in my class Introduction to Reformed Theology, and looking at the doctrine of Scripture Alone (part of the 5 Solas), someone asked how we know the Bible is actually true?  Can we really believe what it says?  Hasn't it been changed and handled by lots of different people over centuries?  Is it actually reliable or has it been so ‘corrupted’ over time that it isn't really truth anymore?

All good questions, and all tough questions.  The short answer is yes!  Yes, the Bible is true and we can believe it.  It is the word of God for us, and as we are told in 2 Timothy 3:16 “All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness.”  The reasons we know it is true and reliable are not just internal ones, of which there are many, but there is evidence from all sorts of sources that speak to its accuracy.  It is actually an amazing testament to God’s work that the Bible is still so accurate all these centuries later.  We have actually been able to look at many very old manuscripts of both the Old and New Testaments to check for changes.  There are Old Testament manuscripts from as far back at 650 BC.  Recognizing this, F. E. Peters remarked that "on the basis of manuscript tradition alone, the works that make up the Christians' New Testament texts were the most frequently copied and widely circulated [surviving] books of antiquity".

Scholars are able to compare what we have today with these very old manuscripts and have found very little variance in the text.  This is actually an amazing testimony to how God is able to work through history.  Even with all of the people who participated in copying the Bible prior to the printing press, and the many hands that have handled this text, there has been very little change over the centuries.  The changes they have found are minor and do not impact any of the main ideas or teachings of the Bible itself.  Think about a game of telephone where you start out telling one person something that then they pass it on to the another person and it keeps going for a while.  We can’t even keep the message the same through 5 or 6 people, let alone centuries.  God does great work!

Not only has there been very little changes from the oldest manuscripts we have, but all of Scripture points to the same thing!  The Bible contains 66 books written over 1,500 years by 40 different writers but it tells one "big story" of God's plan of salvation that culminated in Jesus Christ.  The Bible does not contradict itself, but tells one real, true, life-changing story.  In fact, while in seminary we were told that if one passage of Scripture appeared to contradict another passage of Scripture we were reading it wrong.  “The infallible rule of interpretation of Scripture is the Scripture itself” Westminster Confession, Ch 1. The internal consistency of the Bible is remarkable.

The Bible is not a history book in and of itself, but it does contain many references to historical figures and events.  They have also been able to compare the history we find in the Bible to non-Biblical historical texts, include the work of Josephus, and this too has shown there is very little difference.  In fact, you can look at the Archaeologial Study Bible which will show you how archeology has proven how the Bible corresponds to what happened historically.  “It is important to note that Near Eastern archaeology has demonstrated the historical and geographical reliability of the Bible in many important areas.” E.M. Blaiklock, The New International Dictionary of Biblical Archaeology.

Another argument for the reliability of the Bible is the sheer number of people who have given their lives for it.  Would you be willing to die for something that you thought might be wrong?  Many books in the Bible were written by eyewitnesses who were there to see what happened.  Some of them actually gave their lives for what they wrote.  Not only that, but the history of the Bible is full of stories of people who have died for it.  People who had nothing to do with the actual writing, but who simply knew and believed that it is true, have given their lives for it.

The most important argument for me is that it still changes lives.  The Bible is not just a dead work that has no real impact on your life.  It is the living and active word of God.  God clearly still works in and through the passages of the Bible to point us to Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior.  From St. Augustine to Martin Luther and Joni Eareckson Tada to Lee Stroble, to countless everyday men, women and children, the words of the Bible have transformed lives unmistakably and forever.  “As unnamed masses of Christians down through the ages have shown us, the Bible is the most reliable place to turn for finding the key to a life of love and good works.” T.M. Moore, The Case for the Bible.

As Chapter 1 of the Westminster Confession says:  “Our natural understanding and the works of creation and providence so clearly show God’s goodness, wisdom, and power that human beings have no excuse for not believing in him. However, these means alone cannot provide that knowledge of God and of his will which is necessary for salvation. Therefore it pleased the Lord at different times and in various ways to reveal himself and to declare that this revelation contains his will for his church. Afterwards it pleased God to put this entire revelation into writing so that the truth might be better preserved and transmitted and that the church, confronted with the corruption of the flesh and the evil purposes of Satan and the world, might be more securely established and comforted. Since God no longer reveals himself to his people in those earlier ways, Holy Scripture is absolutely essential.  The authority of the holy Scripture, for which it ought to be believed, and obeyed, dependeth not upon the testimony of any man, or church; but wholly upon God (who is truth itself) the author thereof: and therefore it is to be received, because it is the Word of God.” (http://www.epc.org/about-the-epc/beliefs/westminster-confession/#ch1)

 *Please note – I am not a Biblical Scholar or Archaeologist by any means, nor do I claim to be.  I am a Pastor who has been through Seminary, and more importantly, experienced the changing power of the Bible in my life and in the lives of those I pastor. 

God bless, Rev. Liz Arakelian, www.LivingHopeEC.org