THE BIBLE, CAN WE TRUST IT? (SELECT PARTS FROM RAPTURE READY WEBSITE) Since the Bible claims to be the only inspired Word of God, it has become the focus of many attacks. The critics of the Bible have tried to discredit it by chipping away at its authority and credibility. The Bible is not without its difficulties. After all, some of its older books were written 3,000 years ago in a radically different culture than our own. There are cultural barriers to overcome as well as contextual issues to consider when delving into the Bible. Nevertheless, there are those who sit in judgment of Gods Word. In the past few decades, the enemies of God have declared open warfare on the Bible. Anyone who doesnt believe in the authenticity of Scripture is given an open forum to launch an attack. It is very important to defend the Word of God against these critics. If a falsehood is allowed to stand, it can become regarded as truth by default. The Test of Time One of the easiest ways to defend the Bible is to point out how it has withstood years of attack. If the Word of God had a fatal flaw, somebody would have found it by now--after nearly 2000 years of scrutiny. Despite the critics, the Bible remains the worlds best-seller of all time. The Bible is reliable; it has earned that status. No book has been more intensely scrutinized or hotly debated. The Bible has outlasted many governments that sought to ban or destroy it. Scholars, intellectuals and even theologians have pored over every verse, seeking a way to disprove its divine inspiration. The Bible Had No Editors It is often claimed that the Bible was edited by men who decided what books should be included. The Roman Catholic Church is often cited as be the authority that decided what books would become part of the Bible. The truth is that there was no lengthy period when the contents of the Bible was in limbo. The church accepted the New Testament books almost as soon as they were written. Once a book was produced by someone like Paul, his book was copied and widely distributed among believers. Because no Church had an exclusive hold any one book, there would be no opportunity for someone to edit Pauls writings. The books that didnt make it into the canon of Scripture, such as the Gospel of Judas and the Gospel of Thomas, were not included because they were written long after both of those men died. The book credited to Judas was written by the Gnostic sect around 130-170 AD. These and other Gnostic gospels conflicted with the known teachings of Jesus and the Old Testament, and often contained numerous historical and geographical errors. The only editing the Bible had come in AD 367 when Athanasius formally listed the 27 New Testament books in the order we see today. Athanasius didnt bring in any new books. The whole church had recognized and used the same list of books since the first century after Christ. Lost in Translation Some people have the idea that the New Testament has been transcribed so many times that it has become corrupted through various stages of translation. Its like the childrens game of gossip in which players pass along a common phrase until the words reach the ears of the player at the end of the line. The resulting phrase is often quite different from the original phrase. The translation of the Bible cannot be compared to that childs game. If the translations were being made from other translations, critics would have an argument. But modern translations are actually made directly from original Greek, Hebrew and Aramaic source texts based on thousands of ancient manuscripts. The scribes who copied Hebrew manuscripts were keenly aware of the fact that they were handling a sacred and precious revelation. They were trained to exercise the greatest care. They counted not only the words but the letters, making note of how many times each particular word and letter occurred. If an error was detected, the entire sheet would be destroyed and the scribe would begin again. (1) Many people seem to think there are only a handful of master copies of the biblical test. The truth is that there are more than 24,000 manuscripts of New Testament writings. We could destroy every modern translation of the Bible and perfectly reproduce their content from these manuscripts. Dr. Ravi Zacharias at Oxford University made the following statement: In real terms, the New Testament is easily the best attested ancient writing in terms of the sheer number of documents, the time span between the events and the documents, and the variety of documents available to sustain or contradict it. There is nothing in ancient manuscript evidence to match such textual availability and integrity.(2) When one compares the text of one manuscript with another, the match is amazing. Sometimes the spelling may vary, or words may be transposed, but that is of little consequence. Concerning word order, Bruce M. Metzger, professor emeritus at Princeton Theological Seminary, explains: It makes a whale of a difference in English if you say, Dog bites man or Man bites dog--sequence matters in English. But in Greek it doesnt. One word functions as the subject of the sentence regardless of where it stands in the sequence.(3) The Dead Sea Scrolls have proven to be an excellent resource for proving the accuracy of the Bible. They were written around the year 100 A.D and include a copy of every old Testament book minus the book of Esther. The text of each book has been found to be a mirror reflection of the translation we have to today. God Is No Fool My final defense of the Bible is the statement that God is no fool. If he is the Lord of the universe, there would be no reason why He would allow His Holy Word to be monkeyed with by common man. God has spoken through prophets directly and indirectly through scribes and psalmists, and all were under the influence of the Holy Spirit. The message remains clear because the Lord has protected it at every step. The Lords protective hand is one reason some people see the Bible as a collection of random events. They dont see the invisible Creator guiding everything from Genesis to Revelation. God has given us all the evidence we need to find the truth. If we reject Gods Holy Word without weighing the evidence, not only are we fools, but we are fools with no valid excuse.
Posted on: Thu, 18 Dec 2014 19:56:01 +0000
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