Series: Apologetics
Category: Core Seminars, Apologetics, Evidence for Faith, False Teaching
Detail:
The Reliability of Scripture
Here is our outline:
I.) Where Did the Bible Come From?
Unfortunately, in our next few minutes together, we will not answer all the questions you might have. I am not saying this to evade specific questions. I just want you to realize there are great answers for all your questions, but there too many specific questions and answers from each of you to be able to answer each of them satisfactorily in our time together.
Let me make you an offer. If today’s Core Seminar ends and you still have a burning question, come talk to me afterward and I will help you find the answer to your question. We can email, talk on the phone or meet for coffee this week.
Others of you may not have a single question, but want to learn more. For you, I have included several good books and authors on the handout. Feel free to explore their writings online, buy their books, or download audio of their lectures and talks.
Introduction
Why do Christians believe that what the Bible says is true? What makes Christians think that the Bible is true? First, let’s consider where Christians believe the Bible comes from.
I.) Where Did the Bible Come From?
The Bible Came From God, By The Holy Spirit, Through Men, To Humankind.
As Christians, we believe the Bible is God’s letter to humanity collected into 66 books written by 40 divinely inspired writers over the spans of 1,500 years or more. These writers come from all walks of life (i.e., kings to fishermen). We believe the Bible is divinely inspired by God, authoritative for all of life, without error or omission, and infallible in its composition.
The 66 books of the Bible are known as the “canon” of holy scripture. The word comes from the Greek word (kanon), meaning “rule or standard,” and Christians use this word to describe the Bible – the book that provides the final “rule and authority” for our faith. Early Christians did not decide what books to put into the canon. Remember, they already affirmed that the Hebrew Scriptures, or the Old Testament, was the Word of God. They just faced the question of which books should be added to this Old Testament canon.
The books that were recognized were written by either the Apostles or eyewitnesses and they were widely used in the church. So early Christians did not develop the canon like one would solicit manuscripts for a publisher – it was more like recognizing the best sellers of established, credible authors. It is remarkable, in historical terms, how early the church and Christians reached practical agreement, and how little dissension emerged. The first written document we have that lists all 27 books of the New Testament is Athanasius’s Easter Letter 39, written in 367 AD.
Criteria for Canonicity
Theologian and biblical scholar B.B. Warfield said, “the canon of the New Testament was completed….when John wrote [Revelation], about A.D. 98…we must not mistake the historical evidences of the slow circulation and authentication of these books…[as] evidence of slowness of ‘canonization’ of books by the authority or the taste of the church itself.”
II.) How Do Christians View The Use of Scripture In Christian Apologetics?
I encourage you to bring scripture to bear in your discussions with non-Christians where appropriate for a few reasons.
1. Using Scripture challenges the postmodern idea that truth is relative. It rebutts the charge that a Christian’s “truth narrative” does not necessarily apply to a non-Christian friend. It also demonstrates this ancient text is relevant for life in a postmodern world, for when we appeal to God’s word as the final authority, we appeal to an absolute truth.
2. Scripture is spiritually powerful. God said in Isaiah 55, “my word goes out from my mouth and it will not return to me empty, but will accomplish what I desire and achieve the purpose for which I sent it.” Hebrews 4:12 says “the word of God is living and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart.”
3. Scripture contains in many places its own arguments for the validity of its claims. It helps to show non-Christians that we are nowhere expected to accept the claims of Christianity on what they would call “blind faith”, but on the basis of ample evidence and a coherent worldview.
III.) As Christian Apologists, How Do We Explain Why We Believe the Bible Is True?
Before we begin, let me give you a few vocabulary words:
So why do Christians believe the Bible is reliable and true, that it is authoritative as God’s Word? It hinges on three characteristics:
1) The New Testament documents are Historically Reliable and Credible
Let’s start with the first point, the historical reliability of the New Testament documents.
The New Testament record agrees perfectly with what we know of history elsewhere. The names of emperors and governors and places and events do not disagree with other sources that we have.
The New Testament reads as a historically reliable document. For example, the New Testament text often shows its human authors in a bad light, as a historical account would. It contains events –such as the crucifixion— that are inconvenient for those seeking to project Jesus as the son of God. And it contains odd bits of details, such as places people stood, the state of the grass on a certain day (John 6:10), etc. that have the feel consistent with eyewitness accounts.
The New Testament has eyewitnesses of events it describes who were still alive when scholars know that the documents existed. But we do not know of anyone who disputed the factual, historic events described in the New Testament – including Jesus’ death and resurrection. In fact, the disciples who wrote large chunks of the New Testament – Paul, John, Peter – gave their lives for the message of the Bible. (Sidenote: Rarely do men die for what they know to be a lie.)
The New Testament has far more and earlier manuscripts than any other ancient text. Respected scholar F.F.Bruce said “there is no body of ancient literature in the world which enjoys such a wealth of good textual attestation as the New Testament.”
Homer Written 900 BC Earliest Copy, 400 BC Number of copies, 643
If the Bible is in fact true, then we should expect it to have three characteristics:
It’s worthy our taking some time to go through these three categories, because there is much that will corroborate the Bible’s claims in its trustworthiness
A. Unity of Message
Despite the fact that it was written by many different men over 1500 years, there isn’t a single place where a Biblical author disagrees with another Biblical author. Some scholars suggest that much of its history and prophecy were written years after the events with which they claim to be contemporaries. They could claim that prophecies and histories were rewritten hundreds of years later to support a particular agenda. If that were true, however, you would expect these revisionist historians to contradict some of what had been written in or discovered about the past. But nowhere in the Bible do you find this kind of disagreement.
The Bible is united in teaching its own authority, despite the fact that it was written by so many authors. When Moses set out writing the first book of the Bible, he was setting an enormous precedent as he claimed divine authority for his writings. Imagine the challenge it would have been to be consistent with those writings 1500 years later had the entire Bible not been authored ultimately by God.
The unity of the Bible’s message is undeniable. You may have heard some say that the God of the OT is a God of judgment, while the God of the NT is a God of grace. To them I would point to the Bible itself. You cannot read God’s tender descriptions of his love for his people in the prophets or the Pentateuch and then read Jesus’ descriptions of judgment and maintain that opinion. As an example, consider these passages:
The Bible all points to one man, Jesus. The same man whom the prophets foretold is the same man who revolutionized history, the God-Man, Jesus. The testimony of Scripture to Christ over so many centuries is quite remarkable. Biblical theologian John Frame says it this way:
“An incredibly rich array of symbols, types, prophecies, events, and poetic depictions converge inevitably and powerfully on Jesus Christ who, to most of the biblical writers, is to come centuries later.”
B. Internal Consistency
If the Bible is reliable and true, it should be internally consistent, and we should find that the Bible does not contradict itself.
You may have heard people make claims like the following:
These can be answered easily be keeping some guidelines such as the following in mind:
We could spend weeks going through all the apparent contractions, but there have been books written to help us out with these. A good example is Norm Geisler’s When Critics Ask. That said, if there were gaping contractions that could not be easily explained or that kept me up at night, I would not be standing here in front of you today. As I’ve mentioned before, books like this in no way underpin Christian faith; conversely, it’s the experience of Christians that the further they explore God’s word and learn of him, the more they trust him. Ultimately our trust in the truthfulness and reliability of the Bible is based in Jesus—and his view of it—rather than my ability or inability to find or explain any supposed contradictions.
C. External Consistency
At the end of the 19th century, it became very much in vogue to use archeological evidence to supposedly disprove the historical accounts of the Bible. This happened so much that if you examine commentaries from that era, many Christian scholars actually themselves seemed to wonder if the Bible’s historical accounts could ever be proved. However, over the last hundred years, the veracity and reliability of the Bible has been has vindicated again and again and again as more evidence has been brought to bear.
I do not want to spend a lot of time on this, but I do want to point you to a great resource in Josh McDowell’s book, Evidence that Demands a Verdict and The New Evidence that Demands a Verdict, or A Ready Defense. Let me read to you a representative example.
During the excavations of Jericho (1930s) [archeologist] Garstang found something so startling that a statement of what was found was prepared and signed by himself and two other members of the team. In reference to these findings Garstang says: “As to the main fact, then, there remains no doubt: the walls [of Jericho] fell outwards so completely that the attackers would be able to clamber up and over their ruins into the city.” Why so unusual? Because the walls of cities do not fall outwards, they fall inwards. And yet in Joshua 6:20 we read “. . . The wall fell down flat, so that the people went up into the city every man straight ahead, and they took the city.”
Archaeology does not prove Scriptures are the inspired, inerrant Word of God, but no archaeological discovery has disproved the historical veracity and reliability of the text of the New or Old Testament.
2) Jesus’ Character is Shown To Be Trustworthy
If Christians can convince someone that the Bible is as generally reliable as other historical documents, then the next step is help them see what historical testimony says about the character of Jesus. If the Scriptures are basically unreliable, then there would be no reason to attach any significance to the Jesus of Nazareth.
The historically reliable Bible teaches a historically real Jesus. And the Bible does not teach Jesus was merely a good teacher. In the gospel accounts, Jesus makes prophecies not only of future events such as the destruction of Jerusalem, but of himself and his own work. If he was a true prophet, then all his teaching must be taken seriously.
3) Jesus Claims that the Old and New Testament Books were the Word of God
Old Testament
Jesus treated the Old Testament as God’s inspired, infallible, inerrant word. I’ll point out just a few examples.
• In some places we see Jesus claiming that the entire Old Testament is trustworthy. For example, in John 10:34, Jesus notes that Scripture cannot be broken.
• Many times, we see Jesus end his arguments by quoting from Scripture. As far as he was concerned, what scripture said was the end of the matter. In one case, Jesus even argues from the tense of a verb – that’s in Matthew 22. He clearly understand that each and every word was authoritative, not just the major themes.
• Jesus clearly assumes that what is prophesied in the Old Testament must be fulfilled, specifically concerning himself. This is particularly evident in the book of Matthew. And Jesus demands that others recognize that Scripture is fulfilled in him.
• Finally, Jesus establishes a pattern in Matthew 19 that is repeated in the rest of the gospels when he interchanges the phrases “Scripture says” with “God says.” The Old Testament for Jesus is not merely a record of the words of God; it is the word of God.
If we believe in Jesus, then we ought to treat the Old Testament as he did – as the authoritative word of God.
New Testament
Jesus himself laid the foundation for the New Testament. He taught that his teaching was to be viewed as the authoritative words of God.
Jesus not only gives us reason to believe in the truth of his own words, but also in the words of his disciples. He told them that during times of persecution, “what you are to say will be given to you in that hour; for it is not you who speak, but the Spirit of your Father speaking through you. (Matt 10:19-20).
The New Testament writers understood this authority that had been given to them, and they do not hesitate to cite it. (1 Co 2:13, Gal 1:6-12, etc.) Paul, for example, writes in I Cor 14:36 – 38:
“Did the word of God originate with you? Or are you the only people it has reached? If anybody thinks he is a prophet or spiritually gifted, let him acknowledge that what I am writing to you is the Lord’s command. If he ignores this, he himself will be ignored.”
There are even two places where New Testament writers cite other New Testament writings as Scripture – Paul does this with the gospel of Luke in I Ti 5:18, and Peter does this with the writings of Paul in 2 Peter 3:15-16
The church appears to have very early on accepted without question the authority of the writings of the New Testament, leaving other writings in an entirely different category. In fact, with the possible exception of 2 Peter and Jude, the New Testament canon as we have it today was universally recognized by the church by the early second century at the very latest. It wasn’t for another two hundred years that an official definition of the canon was deemed necessary.
In summary, if we believe Jesus Christ to be the son of God, then we must accept his view of Scripture. And that would lead us to understand the entire Bible as not just being important, but the inerrant, infallible word of God.
While the purpose of this core seminar has been to give you a framework for the reliability of scripture, we should tackle a few common “problems” that people raise as objections to the Bible’s veracity and reliability. These quick rebuttals are not full answers, but launching pads for engaging conversation.
As Christians, we finally surrender to the truth of God’s revelation in the Bible and in history through Jesus – not our own reason. But we should not be afraid to use the Bible as we explain our worldview to unbelievers, and argue for the veracity and reliability of faith in Jesus.
Finally, here are a few things to keep in mind:
1. If questions come up that you can’t answer, remember that there are answers to be found. It’s OK to say, “That’s a good question. Let me check on how to best answer that for you.”
2. Don’t assume that your non-Christian friend will accept the Bible as authoritative.
3. Don’t argue as if the Bible is not authoritative. As you describe your worldview, you are entitled to argue by your own rules – and that includes the authority of the Bible.
4. Open the Bible with those that you are talking with: it is the Word of God and powerful for explaining human nature and the common experience that we have.
When you read your Bible, read it with confidence. God has spoken, that He has revealed Himself to us in the Scriptures, and we read the same Bible that was handed down by the first apostles of Christ’s church.
Deut 30:1-6
"People of Israel, return to the LORD , the God of Abraham, Isaac and Israel, that he may return to you who are left, who have escaped from the hand of the kings of Assyria.
