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How can I trust the Bible is from God?
by
Code 2 Life Team
Answer:
Nearly everyone has played the game where you whisper a secret in the ear of one person and then they whisper to someone and so on and so on until the last person says what was told to them. What is really funny about this kind of game is that the message is almost NEVER like the original.
Well, as a child’s game we can laugh, but when it comes to something as serious as the Bible and it being passed down from generation to generation, we do not want to think that maybe it changed meaning over time and that it is filled with inaccuracies. Well, the good news is that the passing on over the Scriptures over centuries is NOTHING like the children’s game we have all played. In fact, there are many supporting evidences that have demonstrated that the Bible has proven itself to be a reliable guide to history as well as to what God has said to man over and over again.
Let’s begin with a discussion of how we can know that the Bible today is the same Bible that was written two to three thousand years ago. It is called among experts the bibliographic test. Essentially what this test does is it takes the total number of ancient manuscripts that are available, then looks at the time-span between the originals and the copies and attempts to show the reliability quotient of the copies from the sheer number of copies as well as the proximity from the originals.
For example, in ancient history, we have only 10 copies of Caesar’s Gallic Wars and they are written 1000 years after the originals. Most historians trust these ancient documents as reliable even though the time-span is 1000 years and we only have 10 copies. Another example is Plato’s Tetrologies. We have seven copies of those which are written some 1200 years after the originals. Again, most scholars accept the legitimacy and reliability of these documents as well.
Now, when one comes to the New Testament, the numbers are drastically different. We have in Greek and Latin over 13,000 copies and fragments of the New Testament writings that date from 80-400 years after the originals. Compared to the rest of ancient history, the New Testament stands far superior to everything else with respect to being copied and passed down reliably.
A good example of the Old Testament would be the finding of the Dead Sea Scrolls in 1948. These scrolls which were found in the Qumran Caves were discovered to have buried within them copies of every book in the Old Testament (with the exception of Esther). One of the most extraordinary finds was an entire scroll of the Book of Isaiah (66 chapters) which dated to about 200 B.C. Prior to this find, the earliest copy of the Isaiah document that we had was dated to around 900 A.D.
When these documents were compared, there were essentially no drastic changes at all. Minor variations were found, but the essential writing and meaning of Isaiah was untouched. Absolutely incredible compared to the number of years that these biblical documents have been passed down.
Another reason we can trust the reliability of the Bible is that the science of archaeology has affirmed time and again people, places, and events that the Bible has mentioned. Some of the greatest biblical archaeologists of the 20th century have endorsed the historical reliability of the Scriptures. Men such as William F. Albright, Nelson Glueck, and William Ramsay were all non-Christians who through a thorough dedication to their fields determined that the biblical scriptures were in fact historically reliable.
Wonderful examples from New Testament archaeology that have been found are extra-biblical (outside the Bible) inscriptions of Pilate (the man who ultimately condemned Jesus to die) have been found and an inscription of Caiaphas (the high priest who also tried Jesus) has been found. Hundreds of names, cities, battles, and writings have been discovered that vindicate the historical reliability of the Bible.
A wonderful example in the Old Testament is the biblical mention of the Hittite civilization. This was an enormous group of people that only the Bible mentioned. Because of this, critics were very suspicious if these people were actually real. However, in the late 19th century Hittite monuments and later thousands of Hittite documents were discovered that revealed the enormous influence and size of these people. Once again, the Bible proved itself to be reliable in its recording of history. Any reliable book on biblical archaeology could list endlessly item after item that has been confirmed through the science of archaeology.
One final evidence for the reliability as well as for the inspiration of the Scriptures is the prophetic nature of the Bible. The Old Testament, for instance, prophecies hundreds of times about the details of the coming of the Messiah. Micah 5 mentions the birthplace, Isaiah 7 mentions the unique nature of the Messiah’s birth, Isaiah 53 and Psalms 22 give very detailed accounts of the nature of the rejection and killing of the Messiah. It is absolutely astounding to think that from 400-800 years in advance the Bible predicted and depicted the life of the Messiah, which was perfectly fulfilled in the life of Jesus.
Another amazing feature of the Scriptures is its account of God’s protection of the nation of Israel. Genesis 12 and Genesis 15 show God’s unwavering promise to Abraham of a great name and a great nation someday. You see the establishing of the nation through Exodus and its deliverance out of Egypt and into the Promised Land in the Book of Joshua.
Though Israel has been oppressed, enslaved, attacked, and persecuted for century after century, God always kept a faithful remnant to protect His people. Once they were scattered all over Asia Minor and ultimately all over the world, the Jews again were re-gathered in 1948 and established their nation again. What an incredible testimony to the witness of God’s faithfulness and promise to His people. No other nation in the history of the world has ever been defeated, scattered all over the world and regained a powerful foothold as a national identity again like Israel has. Truly, God has revealed Himself in a very special way to the people of Israel. It is for these reasons that we can trust the Bible as a reliable guide to history as well as to a reliable guide to what God has revealed to mankind in the pages of the Bible.
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