Definition & Reliability of the Bible

WHAT IS THE BIBLE?
THE BIBLE IS ONE OF THE MOST UNIQUE BOOKS (ACTUALLY A COLLECTION OF BOOKS AND LETTERS)EVER WRITTEN.
THE BIBLE WAS WRITTEN....

* Over a 1,500 year span and over 40 generations

* By over 40 authors from every walk of life including kings, peasants, philosophers, fishermen, poets, statesmen, scholars, farmers....

* In different places; desert wilderness, dungeons, hillsides, palaces, prisons, on islands, and while traveling...

* On three continents; Asia, Africa and Europe...

* In three languages - The old testament was written largely in Hebrew with a few portions written in Aramaic (the common language of the Near East until 4th Century B.C.) - The new testament was written entirely in Greek, which was the international language for several hundred years before and after the time of Christ...

* Covering a vast amount of subject matter, which includes hundreds of controversial subjects which might normally cause great disagreement between different authors - but in the Bible, every author is in total agreement on virtually ALL of these hundreds of controversial subjects.

* The One Story that concerns the biblical writers from cover to cover is "God's redemption of man."

* The Bible was THE first book ever translated in history (The Septuagint Greek translation from the Hebrew Old Testament was done in 250 B.C.) and has since been the most translated book ever written (between 1950-1960 3,000 bible translators were at work translating the bible )

* There are literally BILLIONS of copies of the Bible in circulation today, making the Bible the most popular book and history and certainly the most printed book in history. (it has held this honor for ever since the printing press was invented )

* The content of the Bible cannot be compared with the writings of any other religious system. Its content are totally unique (and actually are incompatible with the teachings of Islam, Buddhism and every other religion).

* The writings of the Bible were put into the Bible because they met the following tests:

1. The writing was authoritative - did the writer claim to be speaking for God? Is it consistent with other accepted inspired writings?

2. The writing was prophetic & authentic - was it actually written by a man of God and seems to speak for God - if in doubt they set it aside.

3. The writing was dynamic-did it have the life-changing power of God.

4. Was it received, collected, read and used by the people of God?

A BOOK WAS NOT PUT INTO THE BIBLE ONLY BECAUSE IT WAS OBVIOUSLY OF INFERIOR QUALITY, A FORGERY, OR CONTAINED TEACHINGS THAT WENT AGAINST THE WELL ESTABLISHED TEACHINGS OF OTHER BOOKS IN THE BIBLE.

Why Should I Trust The Bible?

* The Bible as a book of human history is top notch - nearly all historians agree that the Bible passes all tests used to establish the accuracy of ancient manuscripts. It is a highly accurate book, depicting accurately many events in the ancient world. It is truly authoritative.
1. HOW DO WE KNOW THAT OUR COPY OF THE BIBLE IS ACCURATE?

- We possess over 24,000 manuscript copies of the New Testament that come from a wide time span of history, providing us with an unprecedented ability to check the accuracy of the Bible's translations. We can confidently assert that the New Testament has been accurately transmitted to us today.

The next best ancient document we can check in this manner is Homer's Iliad (depicting ancient greek history and wars). We possess only 643 manuscripts, with the first complete manuscript preserved dating from the 13 century! (over 2,000 years after the Iliad supposedly took place - giving plenty of cause for assuming inauthentic material may have found it's way into the text). Other ancient documents we trust have even less manuscript evidence by which to check their accuracy. The Bible is truly unique!-

The Jewish scribes that copied the Old Testament were religiously careful not to make copy errors and THEY NEVER ADDED OR CHANGED ANYTHING IMPORTANT IN THE TEXT - IS WAS CONSIDERED A GREAT SIN TO DO SO (they added marginal notes but would not change the actual text). To make sure, they counted letters, words, sentences, paragraphs and pages. If the numbers were off at all, the entire copy was burned and the copyist had to start over. WITH SUCH CARE, WE CAN BE REASONABLY ASSURED THAT OUR OLD TESTAMENT IS THE SAME ONE THAT HAS BEEN READ BY MEN FOR OVER 3,000 YEARS.

2. HOW DO WE KNOW THAT THE PEOPLE AND EVENTS THE BIBLE DEPICTS ARE ACCURATE?

- Other historical writings from the period almost always eventually confirm the Bible's claims. And Archeology has consistently proved the Bible's claims. We have irrefutable evidence from diggings etc. that the people, places and occurrences in the Bible are factual people, places and happenings.

- It is true that some of the miraculous events are not able to be verified by archeology, but many are. I.E. the flood, the crossings of the Red Sea and the Jordan river, the defeat of Jericho, the defeat of the idols of the Philistines by God (thru the Ark of the Covenant), the destruction of Tyre, Edom, Samaria, Nineveh, Babylon, Tower of Babel, and the Temple of Jerusalem, and the miracles of Christ as well as His resurrection. ALL OF THESE ARE PROVED BY THE SCIENCE OF ARCHEOLOGY AND CAN BE VERIFIED BY HISTORIANS BETTER THAN MOST OTHER EVENTS WE BELIEVE OCCURRED IN ANCIENT HISTORY.

3. O.K., SO THE COPIES WE HAVE TODAY ARE ACCURATE, BUT HOW DO WE KNOW THAT THE ORIGINAL WRITERS WERE ACCURATE REPORTERS?

- Good question! The answer is that the writers have the credibility they have because they were first hand eyewitnesses. And their writings circulated quickly enough so that other eyewitnesses could have (and WOULD HAVE!) refuted their stories if they erred in the slightest detail. God's people have always been hated by those who followed false religions. They took every opportunity to ridicule and correct God's people. Any errors they made would have been made public and the writing would have been ignored.

4. WHY SHOULD I BELIEVE WHAT IS TELLS ME ABOUT GOD AND ABOUT HOW I SHOULD LIVE MY LIFE?

#1 - The Bible is credible about everything else is reports, so that is not a bad reason to believe that it is credible about how it describes God and what He requires of us. It seems illogical to have a reporter be so accurate only to turn around and lie through his teeth about what God is like. And if the writer was crazy or deluded, he would probably not make such an accurate reporter of historical events either!

#2 - The Bible claims to be co-authored by God Himself, thus we can believe what He tells us about Himself.

#3 - But how can we be sure that it was actually God who said these things?FULFILLED PROPHECY - The Bible is full of things God said were going to happen. And time and time again, they happened just like He said they would. Hundreds of prophecies are recorded in the Bible. Jesus Himself fulfilled dozens of prophecies - his birth, home town, ministry, death and resurrection - all foretold. In fact, God Himself made the fulfillment of prophecy one of the tests of a true prophet! AND NO OTHER FIGURE IN HISTORY HAS HAD SUCH AN ACCURATE PREDICTION RATE - 100%.

#4 - THE PERSONAL TESTIMONY OF MILLIONS OF CHRISTIANS WHO HAVE EXPERIENCED THE LIVING GOD, AND HAVE FOUND HIM TO BE EXACTLY AS THE BIBLE DESCRIBED HIM. This is not scientific proof, but it is a powerful testimony to the accuracy of the Bible.

But what about all those who believe in other gods. Well, we can't all be correct (unless you subscribe to some post-modern silliness that absolute truth is non-existent - which is a nice fantasy but quickly does not bear out in reality). The world is not both round and flat!

If you examine other religions with the same scrutiny used in Christianity, you will quickly see that it is much more reasonable and likely that The God of the Bible is the one true God. Check it out yourself and see!