Why Would We Trust the Bible as Truth?

The Bible is a controversial book. Some believe it is the most important book that has been given to us; some believe it is nothing more than a collection of good myths and wisdom tales. Others think it is completely useless and “out of date.” The goal now is to present the evidence for our confidence in the Bible as the source of Truth that tells us what is really real—reality.

The Bible is unique among all other books.

The Bible has long been labeled Holy or Sacred. Both of these words point to the belief that the Bible is a unique book, different from all other books. Opponents and enemies of the faith have long tried to destroy the Bible. Men and women have given their lives to protect and pass the Bible down to future generations. In our times, the Bible irritates and infuriates the elite intellectuals. There is no other book in the world which has been so loved and so hated.

There are many religious books in the world. We believe and affirm that the Bible alone gives us THE Message that the One True God wants us to know and understand. As we seek to find answers to our basic and core questions about life, the Bible give us an eternal perspective on our world and our place in it.

The Bible is also the ONLY book which leads us to Jesus Christ as our Creator, Savior, and King. This is why we believe it is unique and deserves our attention.

The Bible claims to be THE Truth.

One of the reasons that the Bible is so controversial in our time is because The Bible claims to reveal THE truth; not just some truth or a truth, but THE Truth. Even more than this, the Bible claims that THE Truth is found in a person—Jesus Christ:

Ephesians 4:21
…you have heard about Him and were taught in Him,
as the truth is in Jesus…

This truth is specific and exclusive: The Truth is found IN Jesus. We are not going to try to “prove” these claims now. Instead, we first want to see how they fit into the Master Story the Bible reveals which we will explore shortly.

The Bible claims to be produced by God’s Holy Spirit working in the Hearts and Minds of its human authors.

2 Timothy 3:16
All Scripture is breathed-out by God… {ESV}

The Bible also claims that it is a Message that has come to us directly from God. The Bible was produced by God’s Spirit working through Human agents. In 2 Timothy 3:16 we hear that every Scripture is “breathed-out by God.” Just as our breath gives “life” to our vocal cords so that we speak, so also God’s “breath” (His Spirit) gave “life” to the thoughts and words of the human authors of the Bible. This is often referred to as the inspiration of the Bible.

Sometimes, God worked “behind the scenes,” moving the authors along so that their words were the words that God wanted to speak. Sometimes, God spoke directly through these people as with the Prophets. Peter makes this a little clearer when he tells us that the Holy Spirit of God was “moving” these men along:

2 Peter 1:21
… no prophecy ever came by the will of man; instead, men spoke from God as they were moved by the Holy Spirit.

Peter is using the word “prophecy” in the sense of a “message directly from God.” These are messages from God, not from human imagination and thought.

The Bible tells One Master Story in its many individual books.

The Bible is made up of 66 individual books written by over 40 different human authors. When we trace the themes of the Bible from the first book Genesis to the last book Revelation, we discover that it is telling one unified and coherent story.
The Old Testament lays the foundation of the Master Story. The Bible is divided into two sections. The first section is referred to as the Old Testament and it tells the first and foundational part of the Master Story from Creation through the history of God’s chosen nation, Israel. The Old Testament was written mostly in Hebrew, the language of the Israelite people (The Jews), and so we will often refer to it as The Hebrew Scriptures. There are 39 books that make up the Hebrew Scriptures. These are divided into three general classes: Historical Writings, Wisdom Writings and the The Prophets.

The New Testament reveals the completion of the Master Story. The New Testament picks up the Master Story where the Hebrew Scriptures leave off and takes us from the birth of Jesus all the way to Eternity (Future) in the New Heavens and Earth. The New Testament was written in Greek and so we will often refer to it as The Greek Scriptures. There are 27 books that make up the New Testament. These books can be divided into three general classes as well: Historical Writings, Letters, and Prophecy.
Visualizing the Coherence of the Bible

Named one of the best science images of 2008 by the National Geographic News, “Visualizing the Bible “…brings to light the interconnected nature of one of the world’s most familiar books.”
What you are seeing: The dark bar graph that runs along the bottom represents all of the chapters in the Bible. The length of each bar denotes the number of verses in the chapter. Genesis is represented on the far left, Psalm 119 is in the middle, and Revelation on the far right. The arcs represent 63,779 cross references identified by Christoph Römhild. These threads show how key concepts are connected throughout the Bible.
Created by Chris Harrison, a Ph.D. student in the Human-Computer Interaction Institute at Carnegie Mellon University, in collaboration with Christoph Römhild, a Lutheran Pastor. You can visit his site to find the full resolution color version of this image: http://www.chrisharrison.net/projects/bibleviz

Why Should We Trust the Bible?

We have been referring to the Bible all the way through this study. It may seem strange for us to deal with this question now. We have intentionally waited to deal with this question because we believe it is important to have a basic understanding of what the Bible says—the story it tells—and what it offers before we deal with the issues we will deal with in this session. Many people reject the Bible without reading it or understanding it’s Message.

The Bible, from beginning to end, presents itself as The Message from God to humanity. This is not enough to “prove” that the Bible is what it claims, however. We do not expect or believe that we can prove that the Bible is true to anyone. Although we cannot prove the reliability and truthfulness of the Bible, we can produce evidence to support this claim. The Bible as a whole has survived the test of time for nearly 4,000 years. If we read it carefully and put it to the test we will see that it does not fail.

Before we go any further, there is an important issue we need to discuss. As we move through this study, there will be key times when we will highlight key issues that will require you to make a decision and commit to a way of thinking. These points of commitment are significant “mile markers” in all our spiritual growth. The first key question and commitment that you need to think through, maybe wrestle with is: “Can I be open to the idea that I can trust the Bible to tell me the Truth?”

It is important to come to a decision on this question and make a commitment before you move on. It will be hard to make other commitments until you have decided how you will deal with this first issue. By the end of this session, you should have some idea of how you are going to answer this question. Since everything we will be discussing is based on the Bible, it is important that you are at least willing to hear what it says for the rest of this study to have any impact.

The Master Story of the Bible is unified and coherent.

One of the best evidences, at least for the Bible’s uniqueness, is its unity. The Bible was written by over 40 different human authors from various backgrounds, on three different continents (Africa, Asia, Europe), in three different languages (Hebrew, Aramaic, and Greek), over a period of about 2,000 years. Yet with this incredible history of composition, the Bible tells one unified and coherent Story. This Story answers our Core Life Questions and also creates a frame of reference for understanding The Gospel—the Good News of Jesus—as we have already discussed.

Historical, archaeological, and manuscript evidence supports the Bible’s truth claims.

Archaeology is the study of physical remains (fossil relics, artifacts, and monuments) of past human life and activities. Archaeologists dig in the dirt to find evidence that sheds light on human culture from the past. Archaeology would be meaningless if we did not have history, a written record of things that have happened in the past. This written history would be meaningless if the ancient manuscripts were faulty or untrustworthy. So you should see that history, archaeology, and ancient manuscripts go hand in hand as we try to rediscover what happened in the past.

The Bible continues to this day to be a valuable tool to both archaeologists and historians. In fact, much of the work in archaeology being done in the Middle East begins with the historical accounts from the Bible as the first clue in knowing where to look for ancient civilizations. Over the past 100 years archaeology has verified much of the history that is contained the Bible.

Critics of the Bible from past generations attacked the Bible because they claimed there was no evidence for people and places that it mentioned liked the Hittites and King David. Now archaeological evidence has proved the skeptics wrong, not the Bible.

One of the most important areas of evidence pointing to the reliability of the Bible is based in the ancient versions and manuscripts of the Bible. It is true that we do not have any of the original manuscripts of the Bible. What we do have are numerous copies and versions. There are literally thousands of ancient copies of the books of the Bible. The Bible is the most copied book of the Ancient World. This fact alone speaks to its significance.

When all of these ancient copies are compared, another incredible fact emerges. These copies are all in agreement about 98% of the time regarding what the text of the Bible says. The number of copies of the Bible that have come to us from the Ancient World along with the degree to which they agree makes the Bible unique among ancient writings and supports the claim that the Bible we have today is the same one that the Holy Spirit inspired.

Until the 1940’s critics of the Bible maintained that the copies of Old Testament could not be reliable since some of the earliest copies at the time were made around AD 900 – almost 1500 years after the originals. Then a shepherd discovered the The Dead Sea Scrolls in the caves of Qumran. In the Dead Seas Scrolls, there was a nearly complete copy of The Book of Isaiah that was 1,000 years older than the earliest copy then known. This copy was nearly identical to the ones that were 1,000 younger. Again, the critics were shamed to silence.
If you want to dig deeper into this evidence, you will find that the Bible is a unique book, it is historically reliable, and the text that we have today is the same as what was written in the original manuscripts inspired by the Holy Spirit. In the Digging Deeper section on page there is more information on these topics.

People have been transformed by the Message of the Bible.

For me personally, the greatest affirmation of the Bible and it’s truth-claims comes in the way it has changed my life. It has transformed the lives of many others as well. Our Western world has been shaped by The Message of the Bible. There have been many men and women who have literally given their lives to protect the Bible and pass it on to the next generation. In our times, there are many men and women who are still sacrificing their lives so that others may come to know The Way, The Truth and The Life that is found in Jesus.

In the 20th Century the Bible was still the most read book in the Western culture. Why would people still turn to this ancient Book if it were not truly relevant to life? If we read the Bible intending to Hear what it says, we will find that there is no other book that speaks with greater clarity and power to the human condition. It is powerful in and of itself, all we have to do is read it and hear it.

So we would invite you to read the Bible to hear how it leads us to Jesus—the One who created us, sustains us and will bring all things to their conclusion in Him.

What Does the Bible Do for Us?

Psalms 119:114 You are my shelter and my shield;
I put my hope in Your word.

The Bible Gives Us Hope Through Its Master Story.

So far, we have taken an overview of the Message, the Story of Life that the Bible reveals. This story is meant to give us hope. We learn that we were designed and created to be the One True God’s image and likeness in creation; we were created with purpose. We also hear that although we have all rebelled against God’s purposes for us, we can be redeemed—we can be saved and brought back into relationship with Father-God in Christ.

“Redeem” is a word that we will consider in depth later. For now, know that to “redeem” something is to pay a price for something to claim it for your own. We value things by the price we are willing to pay for them. Father-God was willing to pay the price of the life of His unique son Jesus in order to claim us for His own: we are loved and valued more than we can possibly imagine!!!

Today we come back to the topic of hope that we have discussed earlier when talking about the Master Story. Take a look at our definition of hope, we have added a little more to it:

Hope is the confident expectation that things will turn out well because God will be who He promises to be and do what He promises to do. Hope is built on the foundation of God’s past works, yet always looks to the future completion and perfection of these works.

There are three core virtues—attitudes that work their way out in our actions—that define the lives of those who follow the way of Jesus: Faith, Hope, and Love. These are all interrelated. Hope is the foundation of all three. Consider this:

Colossians 1:5–6 Your faith and love have arisen from the hope laid up for you in heaven, which you have heard about in the message of truth, the Gospel 1:6 that has come to you. {NET}

Take note of the order of these virtues: faith and love are produced as a result of hope. This is a very important idea. We see it in other places in the Scriptures:

Hebrews 11:1 Now faith is the reality of what is hoped for,
the proof of what is not seen.

We see the same order here: “faith is the reality of what we hope for…” Which comes first faith or hope? In this verse, hope comes first. Faith is the reality— the essential nature, the substance—of what we hope for. We cannot have faith until we have hope. Faith realizes hope. Faith lives as if what is hoped for is already done.

We find Hope in Christ. We place our faith (confidence and trust) in Him. This gives us the ability to love one another and others as He has loved us. Hope is the starting place. The Master Story revealed in the Bible gives us hope because it tells us we have been created in the purposes of Father-God, we have been saved in Christ and He is moving all things along toward His purposes to set all things right—to mend all that is broken in our world and in us. This basic truth should give us hope.

What gives you hope? What is your source of hope?