A BOOK TO BE TRUSTED
The
Reliability of the Bible
Forever,
O Lord,
Thy
word is settled in heaven. (Psalm 119:89).
In all of my years in working
as a career fire fighter, one of the things I’ve learned is the importance of
having reliable equipment. I can recall
going over the edge of a 25-story building and having my life depend upon the
strength of a half-inch rope.
Fortunately, the rope was reliable.
When we come to the Bible, we that which is reliable and in which we can
depend.
RELIABLE IN ITS
TRUSTWORTHINESS
One of the common attacks
made against the Bible is in the area of its historicity. After all, the Bible is a historical
book. It claims to be set into the
framework of history. Instead of
starting of with the words, “Once upon a time...” it often begins with a date
and place which orient each book to a specific time in history.
In spite of this, the Bible
has not been without its critics in the area of history. Up until the early 1990's there were some
archaeologists who pointed out that there were no artifacts that had been found
to substantiate the existence of King David.
More than one scholar went on record to say that he had no basis in
historical fact and that he was merely a baseless legend on the same order as
Paul Bunyan or Santa Claus.
Then within the space of 10
years, several different inscriptions were found in
This brings up an important
principle. It is that, when it comes to
archaeology, the absence of evidence is not necessarily the evidence of
absence. Archaeologists have only uncovered
a very small portion of the ancient world and there are often great gaps in our
knowledge and understanding of the past.
What is significant is that
the Bible continues to show itself to be historically reliable both in what it
says as well as in what it does not say.
That isn’t always the
case. For example, Egyptian inscriptions
tell the story of Rameses II and his military campaign against the
Hittites. According to the official
historical record, Rameses advanced northward all the way to the
In more recent days,
archaeologists have uncovered the Hittite version of the same battle. It seems that the Hittites enjoyed a great
victory over the Egyptians, but when they stopped to plunder the Egyptian camp
and thereby gave the Egyptians opportunity to launch a counterattack that
allowed them to escape somewhat intact and return to
Obviously, at least one of
the accounts is not telling the entire truth.
Subsequent events of history make it likely that the Egyptian account is
pure propaganda. The fact is that
Egyptians NEVER recorded their own military defeats. For this reason, it is not too surprising
that we find no Egyptian historical records of the plagues of
You will recall that this
same sort of propaganda was at work in the recent American liberation of
This brings us to a
fundamental principle in archaeology: The absence of evidence is not the
evidence of absence.
I am often asked where
archaeologists have found...
The
Garden of Eden
Noah’s
The
The Ark of the Covenant
The answer to all of these
things is a negative. But that is okay
because the absence of evidence is not the evidence of absence.
What is significant about the
reliability of the Bible is that it has not needed to be updated or
changed. It stands as reliable today as
it was in the day in which it was first penned.
RELIABLE IN ITS
TRANSMISSION
The 66 books which make
up our Bible are only a very small part of
the many ancient documents that were written in ancient times and which have
come down to us today.
How do we know that the books
that we have are the Word of God? And
how do we know that other books of antiquity are not also the Word of God?
The answer is that only those
books which were inspired by God - that is, which were God-breathed; only those
books should be considered as canonical.
This is the sole criteria for determining whether or not a book is to be
considered a part of the Canon of Scriptures.
However, that brings us to
the next question: How do I know if a
book is inspired by God? This is the
problem of canonicity.
·
How are we to
determine if we have the right books in the Bible?
·
What about the
Apocrypha?
·
Are there certain
books in our Bible which should not be there?
·
Are we missing
some books?
·
Are there certain
signs for which we can look that indicate that a book is inspired?
The Old Testament was not
written all at once or by a single author.
In fact, there were at least 25 human authors involved in its writing
and they worked over a period of a thousand years.
After all of the books which
make up our Old Testament had been written, a second collection of books began
to emerge. It became known as the
“Apocrypha,” meaning "hidden away."
There is a considerable
amount of historical testimony to show that the books which make up our Old
Testament (and not the Apocrypha) are indeed to be regarded as Scripture.
1. The
Testimony of Jesus.
The
Old Testament which we have is made up of 39 books. These were divided in the Hebrew Bible into
three groups:
•
Law
•
Prophets
•
Writings
According
to Jewish tradition, these divisions were brought about by Ezra. Jesus made allusion to this same division of
the three groups when He spoke to His disciples after His resurrection.
"Now He said to them, `These
are My words which I spoke to you, while I was still with you, that all things
which are written about Me in the Law of Moses and the Prophets and the Psalms
must be fulfilled.'" (Luke 24:44).
All
of the Scriptures told of Christ. They
all bore witness of Him. And now, we see
Him bearing witness of them. Don't miss
this! Jesus bears testimony of this same
three-fold division of the Old Testament Scriptures (the Psalms was the largest
of the third group and often used as its title). Notice that Jesus also carefully avoided
speaking of the Apocrypha. In doing so,
He is showing that He substantiated the books which were commonly known to make
up those Scriptures. At the same time,
He never suggests that any other extant books ought to be added to the
Scriptures.
2. The
Testimony of the Septuagint.
The
Septuagint was the translation of the Old Testament into Greek. During the reign of Ptolemy 2 Philadelpus (284-247
B.C.), the Library of Alexandria sponsored a translation of the Old Testament
Scriptures into the Greek language of that day.
Tradition
has it that seventy two Jewish elders were commissioned for the task. For this reason, the translation came to be
called the SEPTUAGINTA, meaning “seventy.”
They
translated the Law, the Prophets, and the Writings. Later on, the Apocrypha was added to the
translation. Not one of the books that
we presently have in our Old Testament was left out.
3. The
Testimony of the New Testament.
The
New Testament is full of quotations from the Old Testament Scriptures. These quotations are regularly treated as
God's Word.
At
the same time, there is not a single reference in the New Testament when the
Apocrypha is quoted and referred to in the context of being God's Word.
4. The
Testimony of Josephus.
Josephus
was a Jewish general who fought unsuccessfully against
Writing
a rebuttal to anti-Jewish propaganda in the latter part of the first century,
Josephus describes the Hebrew canon of scripture which was recognized by the
Jews.
"For we have not an
innumerable multitude of books among us, disagreeing from and contradicting one
another [as the Greeks have], but only twenty-two books, which contain the
records of all the past times; which are justly believed to be divine...(Contra
Apion 1:8).
The
same 39 books that we have in our Bible were condensed into the 22 books of the
Hebrew Bible. For example, they had a
single book of Samuel and of Kings and of Chronicles. The Minor Prophets were grouped together into
a single book called the Twelve.
Notice
that even in that day Josephus recognized that the various books of the Bible
did not contradict each other. He goes
on to group the books of the Scriptures into the three common divisions which
we have described.
"...and of them, five belong
to Moses, which contain his laws and the traditions of the origin of mankind
till his death... The prophets, who were after Moses, wrote down what was done
in their times in thirteen books. The
remaining four books contain hymns to God and precepts for the conduct of human
life." (Contra Apion 1:8).
Josephus
puts the number of books in the Hebrew Bible at 22 and divides them into the
following categories:
•
Moses (Torah).
•
The Prophets (Nevi'im).
•
Hymns & Precepts (Ketuvim).
|
When you compare the end of Deuteronomy with the
beginning of Joshua, you see an example of this progression. You can trace it through all of the major
portions of the Old Testament. |
The
words of Josephus are important because they give us a point of view that is
unbiased by Christianity. Specifically,
he says that the Apocrypha did not have the same recognized authority because "there
has not been an exact succession of prophets" since the time that the
writing of the Scriptures ended.
According
to Josephus, the test of authority for the Scriptures was that they were
written by one who was recognized as a prophet.
Who did the recognizing? The
previous prophets!
But
then, a day came when the last of the prophets had spoken. It was the prophet Malachi. He foretold that the Lord would come and that
just prior to His coming He would be announced by Elijah. But that is not all. Notice what he has to say about the
Apocrypha.
"It is true, our history has
been written since Artaxerxes, very peculiarly, but has not been esteemed of
the like authority with the former by our forefathers, because there has not
been an exact succession of prophets since that time." (Contra Apion 1:8).
Don't
miss this! Josephus rejects the
Apocrypha because it had not been penned by a prophet and because there had
been no line of prophets who spoke and who wrote the words of God.
5. The
Authority of the New Testament.
The apostles
are to the New Testament what the prophets were to the Old Testament. They were commissioned by God as His
spokesmen.
The
apostles themselves were given their authority by Jesus Christ, both to teach
and to preach in His name. The early
church fathers recognized that they themselves did not have this kind of
authority.
"The apostles received the
gospel for us from the Lord Jesus Christ.
Jesus Christ was sent from God, so then the apostles are sent from
Christ." (Clement of
"I do not, as Peter and
Paul, issue commandments to you. They
were apostles. I am but a condemned
man." (Ignatius, 117 A.D.).
The
testimony of all of the early church fathers is that the apostles were given
their authority from Jesus Christ.
Therefore, their writings were considered to be authoritative.
RELIABLE IN ITS
EFFECTIVENESS IN THE LIVES OF PEOPLE
For the word of God is living and
active and sharper than any two-edged sword, and piercing as far as the
division of soul and spirit, of both joints and marrow, and able to judge the
thoughts and intentions of the heart. (Hebrews 4:12).
The Bible is likened unto a
sharp double-edged sword. Can you
imagine being attacked by someone swinging a razor-sharp short sword. As they are ready to pierce through to your
heart, you look up and say, “You had me scared for a moment there. I thought that you were going to attack me
with a gun and shoot me and I was in fear for my life; but I don’t believe in
the power of swords so go ahead and do your worst.”
How silly would it be for the
attacker to say, “Hmmm, I guess that I am using an ineffective and outdated
weapon. You wait here while I go home
and try to find a gun.”
The Bible is an effective
weapon and it is effective even against those who do not believe in its
power. Don’t be afraid to quote the
Bible in your conversations with unbelievers.
8 “For My thoughts are not your
thoughts,
Neither
are your ways My ways,” declares the LORD.
9 “For as the heavens are higher than
the earth,
So
are My ways higher than your ways,
And
My thoughts than your thoughts.
10 For as the rain and the snow come down
from heaven,
And
do not return there without watering the earth,
And
making it bear and sprout,
And
furnishing seed to the sower and bread to the eater;
11 So shall My word be which goes forth
from My mouth;
It
shall not return to Me empty,
Without
accomplishing what I desire,
And
without succeeding in the matter for which I sent it. (Isaiah 55:8-11).
If you share the Word of God
with your neighbors and friends, it WILL accomplish that for which it is
intended.
I’ve been pondering the
question recently of how I can increase my own faith. How does one dispel the doubts that
arise? This verse came to mind:
12 For there is no distinction
between Jew and Greek; for the same Lord is Lord of all, abounding in riches
for all who call upon Him; 13 for “Whoever will call upon the name of the LORD will
be saved.”
14 How then shall they call
upon Him in whom they have not believed? And how shall they believe in Him whom
they have not heard? And how shall they hear without a preacher? 15 And how
shall they preach unless they are sent? Just as it is written, “How beautiful
are the feet of those who bring glad tidings of good things!”
16 However, they did not all
heed the glad tidings; for Isaiah says, “LORD, who has believed our
report?” 17 So faith comes from hearing, and hearing by
the word of Christ. (Romans 10:12-16).
Notice that it by the intake
of the word of Christ that faith comes.
There is actually a progression that is presented.
|
Word of Christ |
→ |
Hearing |
→ |
Faith comes |
This means that it is
important that you be in the Scriptures, for they give to you the word of
Christ. It also means that you need the regular
hearing of the word as it is proclaimed.
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