This summer (2002), our family spent time vacationing in Washington D. C., and one of our favorite places to hang out ended up being the Smithsonian’s National Air and Space Museum (my kids especially liked the talking trash cans in the cafeteria!). In particular, we enjoyed a program held in the brand new Einstein Planetarium, called “Infinity Express: A 20 minute Tour of the Universe.”

This visually stunning program ended very dramatically, with the narrator saying something like, “The big questions still remain unanswered: How did it all begin? Is there anyone else out there? Will it ever come to an end? These are questions we’ll be asking for a long, long time.”

Immediately, my first thought was, “Wake up, folks! The answers to those questions are found in the Bible!,” but I didn’t actually tell anyone what I was thinking.

But what if I did? What if I had hunted down the writer of that show, or the director of the planetarium, and shared with them my conviction that the answers to their big questions about the universe are all found in the Bible? How might they have responded? If they were nice, they probably would have smiled at me and thanked me for my input, but thought to themselves, “Oh you poor, sincere but naïve little man whom time has passed by”!

Of all the things you could look to for answers about the universe—or, more importantly, of all the things you could base your life upon, why trust the Bible? After all, there are a lot of options to choose from: There are scientific experts in every area of life, such as astrophysicists, biochemists, sociologists, psychiatrists, to name a few. These people really know stuff, don’t they? And there are popular “experts” as well, such as Dr. Phil, Oprah, Tony Robbins, or psychics, or even ourselves (we think we know what’s what, don’t we?). And then there are other religions, such as Islam, Hinduism, and Buddhism, just to name the biggies.

Of all the sources out there that claim to provide authoritative answers to life’s questions, why trust the Bible? The historic Christian answer to this vital question is summarized in the following statement:

The word “Scripture” here refers at least to what we know as the Old Testament, and Paul says it’s all “God-breathed,” that is, it’s the very Word of God. But how can this be? How can the words of human authors (which the books of Scripture obviously are) at the same time be the words of God? Doesn’t the fact that men were involved mean that the Bible almost certainly contains errors? (for “to err is human,” right?). The Bible addresses this question:

Still confused? Still wondering how something can be both human and divine at the same time? Well, admittedly, this is one of the great paradoxes of Christianity. A helpful analogy is found when we think about Jesus Christ, who, the Bible reveals, is fully human yet fully God. Think of it this way: just as Christ was fully human and yet sinless as the Son of God, so the Bible is fully human and yet without error as the Word of God. And so, as Paul said in our first passage, “All Scripture is [ultimately] God-breathed.”

But can we apply this statement to the New Testament as well as the Old? First of all, realize that the statement, “All Scripture is God-breathed,” is a general statement about the nature of Scripture. It’s like saying “All rain is wet.” What rain is that statement referring to? Just the rain that has come up to this point? Or does it cover future rain also?

Interestingly, upon closer examination, we find that the writers of the New Testament were in fact aware that they were teaching and writing the very Word of God.

Now that’s a pretty radical thing to say—especially for a 1st century Jew who was committed to the Old Testament as the Word of God! Peter says something similar:

As it turns out, even at this early stage in the development of the New Testament, we find the apostle’s writings regarded as equal in authority to the Old Testament Scriptures:

Now, all this doesn’t prove that the Bible is God’s Word, but it does show us that the Bible itself claims to be so, which is what we would expect if it really is in fact “God-breathed.” Let’s move on now to other evidence . . .

2. The unity of its parts

It’s important to remember that the Bible is not merely a book, but a library of 66 books and letters, written by 40 authors from all walks of life and over a period of 15 centuries! Plus, it was written in 3 languages and in a wide variety of literary styles. And yet, it reveals one great drama of salvation in which all the parts fit together, with the focal point being Jesus Christ himself:

It’s very hard to explain this remarkable unity of the Bible apart from the idea that one person is somehow behind it all—especially when you consider that it addresses dozens of controversial topics! Listen to what one writer says to drive this point home:

Now about this time, someone might be saying, “Okay, so the Bible claims to be the Word of God, and it evidences a remarkable unity that suggests God is the ultimate author. But how do we know that the Bible we read today is the same Bible that the original authors wrote all those centuries ago? Hasn’t stuff gotten messed up or changed or even lost over the years? This brings us to point three:

3. The accuracy of its transmission

It might surprise you to know that we don’t possess any of the original manuscripts of the books of the Bible. What we do have are copies of copies of copies. “Well, there you go!,” the skeptic responds. “There’s no way we can trust what the Bible says if all we have are copies of copies of copies!”

But this simply isn’t true, for there is a whole science to figuring out what an original manuscript said based on the copies that have survived the ravages of time. (And, by the way, we don’t have the original manuscript for any ancient document, so this is not an issue that’s unique to the Bible. We need to be clear on that.)

Here’s how this science (textual criticism) basically works: The more manuscript copies you can find—especially from different geographical areas—the better. That way you can compare them with each other and begin recreating the original. Also, generally speaking, the older the manuscript copy, the better, because it will be closer to the original composition and probably have fewer copyist errors. Perhaps an illustration will help:

Suppose I received a personal, hand-written letter from Billy Graham, and I found it so encouraging to my faith that I shared it with a class I was teaching at my church. They liked it so much, they asked if I could read it slowly so they could write down the encouraging words for themselves. Now suppose that, years later, many of the people from that class had moved away and some of them shared the copy of that letter with classes that they taught, and their students wanted to write down what it said. And so on. Now suppose that, even more years later, I somehow lost my original letter from Billy Graham (bummer!). Is there any way I could recreate it accurately? Of course! I would try to obtain as many copies as I could—not only from the original class I taught, which would probably be the most reliable copies, but also from later classes that my students taught. Some of those copies would have errors in them, no doubt, but those errors could be identified based on how all the other copies agreed with each other. And so I could accurately reproduce the letter I had lost.

So, again, the more copies, the better, and the older the copies, the better. Okay, let’s apply this to a couple of the ancient books around the time of Jesus that are routinely accepted by scholars as reliable:

Tacitus (Roman historian), Annals of Imperial Rome, written A. D. 116. His first 6 books exist today in only one manuscript, and it was copied about A. D. 850 (over 700 years later!).
Josephus (first-century historian), The Jewish War. Nine Greek copies survive, written in the tenth, eleventh, and twelve centuries (all almost 1000 years later!).

How does this compare with the New Testament (also written in the first-century)? Well, get this: There are currently 5686 Greek copies, and the earliest ones are within about 50 to 100 years of the original writing! The runner up, in terms of the number of manuscripts, is Homer’s Iliad, which was the Bible of the ancient Greeks. There are only 643 Greek copies of it today, with the earliest being written about 1000 years after the original!

What’s the point of all this? The point is that the Bible we have in our hands today is virtually identical to the Bible as it was originally written. Nothing of any significance has been lost, changed, or messed up. God has preserved the Scriptures for us through the accurate transmission of the text, and so we can trust it completely. And we would expect God to do this if the Bible is in fact His Word.

One of the world’s greatest New Testament scholars spent most of his career at Princeton University, and his name is Dr. Bruce Metzger. Lee Strobel, in the book The Case for Christ, recently asked Dr. Metzger a very important question:

4. The preservation of its existence

The accurate transmission of the text is not to say that there haven’t been enemies of the Bible who sought to destroy it. God has preserved His Word for us through incredible attacks over the centuries. In fact, did you know that one book of the Bible—Jeremiah—was destroyed by an angry king almost immediately after it was written, requiring God to have the prophet write it all over again? You can read about this in Jeremiah 36.

Here’s another example: In the 2nd century B.C., the Jews were persecuted under Antiochus Epiphanes, who sought to destroy all of the copies of the Law—the first five books of the Old Testament. It was said that “Anyone found possessing the book of the covenant . . . was condemned to death by the decree of the king” (1 Macc 1:56-57).

Yet another example, from Robert Saucy’s helpful book, Scripture: Its Power, Authority, and Relevance:

The 17th century French Huguenots portrayed the Bible and Christianity as an anvil surrounded by three blacksmiths. Beneath the picture they inscribed these words:

In other words, God’s Word is indestructible: “The grass withers and the flowers fall, but the word of our God stands forever.” (Isaiah 40:8)

5. The uniqueness of its teachings

To me, this is a very compelling piece of evidence, because what the Bible teaches about the concept of God, the concept of Christ, the concept of salvation, is contrary to natural human thought. In other words, it cannot have been authored by mere humans. As God reminds us,

Think, for example, about the biblical concept of God: If mere humans wrote the Bible, would they have ever come up with an idea like the Trinity?! I don't think so! Even Christians who believe in God find the idea of there being one God who exists eternally in three persons a mystery that is virtually impossible to explain to people.

Or think about the biblical concept of Christ: In all the sacred writings of other religions, there is no person like Jesus Christ. Other spiritual leaders claim to teach the way of life; Jesus claimed to be the way of life (John 14:6). In fact, he is the only historical founder of a religion who claimed to be the one and only God. Further, there is a paradox about Jesus that can’t be explained naturally. As John Stott says:

The 18th century French philosopher Rousseau exclaimed, “Behold the works of our philosophers; with all their pompous diction, how mean and contemptible they are by comparison with the Scriptures! Is it possible that a book at once so simple and sublime should be merely the work of man?” That’s a good question!

But what about the history that’s recorded in the Bible? Is it reliable? Hasn’t archaeology proven that the Bible has factual errors? Or what about science? Hasn’t modern science proven that the Bible is outdated and can’t be trusted? Or what about Bible prophecies? Are they really any different than what psychics are doing today? We turn now to these important questions.

6. The reliability of its history

This is a very important line of evidence, for, as one writer puts it, “The Bible has to be reliable about the things of this earth if we are to believe it about the things of heaven” (Erwin Lutzer, Seven Reasons Why You Can Trust the Bible, p. 66). In other words, if it’s wrong about the human history it records, then how can we possibly trust it as a guide to our life and future?

Is the Bible in fact reliable when it speaks of peoples, places, and events? Well, the archeological evidence is quite overwhelming. Nelson Glueck (pronounced “Glek”), a renowned Jewish archeologist says this: “It may be stated categorically that no archeological discovery has ever controverted a biblical reference” (quoted in McDowell, New Evidence, 61). This is an incredibly strong statement!

Let me give you one example: Did you know that, up until 1994, many scholars questioned the historical existence of King David, due to the fact that no one had ever found a reference to him outside of the pages of Scripture? But then, in 1994, archeologists found an inscription (a piece of stone with writing on it), dating from the 9th century B. C., that appeared to be commemorating a military victory of the king of Damascus over two ancient enemies. One foe was identified as the “king of Israel.” The other was “the House of David.” Journalist Jeffrey Sheler, writing in U. S. News & World Report, said this about the find:

Now, given that the Bible is not a science textbook, this is pretty amazing stuff for an ancient book. But it’s exactly what we would expect to find in something claiming to be the Word of God.

8. The fulfillment of its prophecies

The Bible is unique among all the books ever written, because it accurately predicts specific historical events—in detail—many years, and sometimes centuries, before they occur. This is powerful evidence of the supernatural nature of the Bible. In fact, I was surprised to learn that the sacred books of other religions contain very little prophecy in comparison with the Bible—but I think I know why. Let me explain . . .

There are approximately 2500 prophecies that appear in the pages of Scripture, about 2000 of which already have been fulfilled to the letter—no errors! (the remaining ones have to do with the future). And it’s important to emphasize “no errors,” because this is the ultimate test for those claiming to be a prophet of God. God Himself says in Deuteronomy 18:20-22,

This is why there is absolutely no comparison between the prophecies of the Bible and the predictions of so-called prophets of the past, such as Nostradamus, or of psychics, mediums, spiritists, and whatnot today. These people are frequently wrong! In 1993, for example, it was predicted that the Queen of England would become a nun, and that Kathy Lee Gifford would replace Jay Leno as the host of The Tonight Show! In 1997, a few days before Princess Diana was killed in a car crash, a psychic predicted that Diana would marry Dodi Al Fayed. These are false prophets speaking presumptuously. But when the true prophets of the living God speak, as they do in the Bible, they are 100% accurate in all of their predictions.

Consider, for example, the large number of detailed prophecies concerning the Messiah—all of which were made hundreds of years before Jesus Christ was born. Concerning these prophecies, a mathematician by the name of Peter Stoner calculated that the chance that any man might have lived down to the present time and fulfilled just 8 of them is 1 in 10-17th. This is a number that is hard for us to grasp, so Stoner provides an illustration for us:

Incredible! But if God is the ultimate author of the Bible, then we would fully expect every prediction made in it to be fulfilled to the very letter. After all, what is impossible for man is no problem for God! And speaking of God, let’s move to point number 9 . . .

9. The testimony of its main character

The main character of the Bible is, of course, Jesus Christ. If you remember from earlier in this study, John 5:39 quotes Jesus as saying, “You diligently study the Scriptures because you think that by them you possess eternal life. These are the Scriptures that testify about me.”

Now think through this with me: The Bible, as a reliable source of history, reveals that Jesus is God, and that Jesus himself accepted the Bible as the Word of God. Therefore, we should ultimately trust the Bible because he did.

As you read the Gospels, the accounts of Jesus’ life and ministry, you’ll discover that:

Perhaps the strongest statement Jesus made about the Bible is this:

Clearly, Jesus believed Scripture to be absolutely true, even to the smallest detail. And he believed Scripture to be absolutely binding, when he said, “the Scripture cannot be broken“ (John 10:35).

Now, obviously, all of this refers to the Old Testament. But what about the New? Did Jesus say anything that looked forward to the New Testament as being equally authoritative? Yes, he did:

The major fulfillment of these promises was in the writing of the New Testament. So, if Jesus is telling the truth, then, based on his testimony, the Bible is the Word of God written and is therefore completely true and trustworthy as our guide to life. To put it simply: We should trust the Bible because Jesus did. However, there is yet more evidence to consider.

10. The influence of its message

Now it’s time to get really personal. So far, we’ve looked at 9 solid pieces of evidence that the Bible is the Word of God and is therefore worthy of our trust. But is there any evidence that it makes a difference in people’s lives when they trust in its message?

To test this, I simply asked a gathering of Christians recently if the message of the Bible has transformed their lives for the better—if it has helped them overcome sin in their lives, if it has made them a more loving and forgiving person, if it has given them “strength for today and bright hope for tomorrow” (as an old song says), if it has opened the door to a deep and satisfying relationship with God—then simply shout “Amen!” on the count of three. Not surprisingly, I got blasted with “Amen!”

How do you explain that? Are all these people deluded? Are they lying? Or have their lives really changed for the better because of the Word of God?

Suppose I was speaking to a room full of atheists or agnostics or skeptics. And suppose I asked them something similar: If the message of atheism or agnosticism or skepticism has transformed your life for the better, shout “Amen.” Do you think I would get a similar response? Why is that?

11. The inner assurance of its believers

Finally, there is one line of evidence that the Bible is the Word of God that is experienced in the hearts of those who trust in its message. It’s what we might call “Spiritual confirmation.” The apostle Paul writes in 1 Corinthians 2:12, 14:

Jesus put this very simply in John 10:27 when he said: “My sheep listen to my voice.” I can testify to this personally: I know in my heart that the Bible is God’s Word, for when I read it, I recognize my shepherd’s voice.


Conclusion

Many of you will perhaps remember a movie from 1993 starring Michael Keaton and Nicole Kidman called My Life. Keaton’s character, named Bob, has inoperable kidney cancer that is rapidly spreading to his lungs. His wife Gail (Kidman) is pregnant. Convinced that he doesn’t have long to live, Bob begins to make a series of videotapes for his unborn child.

Now, without pressing the details of this movie, it struck me as I thought about those videotapes that Bob was making for his unborn baby that they would have been incredibly precious to that child. He or she would have treasured them throughout life, because they contained the words and images of the father he or she had never met.

And this got me thinking that this is something of an analogy of the way we should respond to the Bible today. Why? Because, as I believe, the Bible alone, and the Bible in its entirety, is the Word of God written and is therefore completely true and trustworthy as our guide to life.

As Christians, we believe that God has not left us to flounder on our own, trying to make sense out of life by ourselves, wondering where we came from, what the purpose of our life is, what happens when we die. No, he has left us videotapes, so to speak, telling us everything we need to know about experiencing deep and satisfying relationships both with Himself and with other human beings. What a treasure the Bible is!

In closing, I’d like to leave you with a few words of encouragement that are of an intensely practical nature. Why trust the Bible? Because the Bible alone and the Bible in its entirety is the Word of God written and is therefore completely true and trustworthy as our guide to life. And so:

1. I should trust it completely (Psalm 119:89, 114)

If we trust something completely, we commit ourselves to it. In the case of the Bible, if we trust it completely as the Word of God, then we base our life and future upon it, and do at least the following five things:

2. I should approach it prayerfully (Psalm 119:18, 28)

You see, we can’t approach the Bible like any other book, because it is not like any other book; it is the Word of God written, and so we must approach it with humble and teachable hearts.

3. I should read it regularly (Psalm 119: 16, 105)

Theologian J. I. Packer has well said, “Western Christianity has become superficial and shallow: we do not give ourselves time to soak ourselves in Scripture, and stunted spiritual development, which includes an undervaluing of the Bible, is the unhappy result. We need to be clear that, other things being equal, it is the Christians who eat up the Scriptures on a regular basis who are likely to achieve most for our Lord Jesus Christ in the future, just as it was Bible-fed Christians who achieved most for him in the past” (“Our Lifeline” in Christianity Today, Oct. 28, 1996]).

Along these lines, you might want to take a good, hard look at how you are spending your so-called “free” time on a weekly basis—how much time you spend watching TV; or exercising; or participating in sports; or shopping; or working on a hobby; or fixing up the house; and so on. None of these activities are necessarily bad, but if they leave you neglecting to spend any significant time reading God’s Word on a weekly basis, then you really ought to rethink your values and priorities. Do you really trust the Bible completely? Then you should read it regularly.

4. I should memorize it faithfully (Psalm 119:11, 13)

I have only recently gotten back into this important spiritual habit. What I do is write out the verse I want to memorize on a 3x5 card and stick it on the dashboard of my truck, right in front of my eyes (that way, if I’m pulled over for speeding, I can explain to the policeman that I had no idea I was speeding since my memory verse was covering the speedometer!). Then, every time I get in my truck I recite the verse until I’ve got it down, at which time I put up a new card.

5. I should interpret it carefully (Psalm 119:27, 34)

This point really deserves an entire article of its own, but for now just realize that it’s easy to misunderstand what God is saying to us if we’re not careful in how we interpret the Bible (an excellent resource to help in this area is Gordon Fee and Doug Stuart, How to Read the Bible For All Its Worth). If we really trust the Bible, we’ll take the time and effort to properly understand what it is saying to us today, which leads us to the final point:

6. I should obey it wholeheartedly (Psalm 119:1-8)

Ultimately, God’s Word demands a response from us—it should be our greatest joy to put into practice what the Bible teaches. Is that the attitude of your heart?