Trust the Bible (Part One) AND (Part two)

 Trust the Bible (Part One) One day, while scrolling through YouTube, I stumbled across a video of a young woman on a college campus who had no shortage of comments about trusting the Bible. Her passionate voice expressed an honest desire to know the answers. She sincerelywanted to find a way to trust God's Word. She asked: What is it about this ancient book that I should even care what it says? . . . I'm supposed to believe that some men wrote the Bible like thousands of years ago, and these men wrote about things that happened all the way back to the first people.How would they even begin to know anything about what happened back then? So, I'm supposed to believe some kind of invisible spirit person told them what to write. I mean, this book is centuries old and probably has a lot of mistakes in it anyways, which bythe way, there are like a thousand versions. How can I trust the people who wrote the Bible? Can we answer her questions? We sit in God's school every Sabbath and should study His Word regularly. He is training us to instruct this woman and many others like her who want to know the truth. Are we able to help them, saying, "This is the way, walk in it" (Isaiah30:21)? Are we prepared to defend and explain how the Bible is the actual written Word of the Creator of all things? Can we fulfill the requirement of our calling in I Peter 3:15, "[A]lways be ready to give a defense to everyone who asks you a reason for the hope that is in you, with meekness and fear"? We have different ways of learning and teaching, so there is no single way to answer questions like this woman's. But here are a few important facts we can use to provide some perspective and truth should we ever find ourselves in such a conversation: First, how can we know the Bible is accurate and has not been rewritten or twisted in some way by different religions and denominations? The facts of history tell us that it has been preserved remarkably well. The Jews collected and preservedthe Old Testament books in the period from about 50 BC to AD 100, making Jesus' Hebrew Scriptures the same ones we read in English translation today. When copying the Torah, the Jewish scribes, called Masoretes, would go so far as to count the number of words in each book and the number of times a single letter appears. They would also point out the middle letter within each book, the middleletter in the Pentateuch (the Law or the five books of Moses), and even the middle letter in the entire Old Testament. They immediately burned any text found to contain an error. The first-century BC Dead Sea Scrolls, discovered in the 1940s, proved that today's Old Testament is nearly word-for-word identical to the ancient manuscripts. The text of the Old Testament has not changed in morethan 2,000 years! Christian scribes took similar meticulous care when translating and copying the New Testament. Many more New Testament manuscripts are available than any other writing from the ancient world. The over 4,500 Greek manuscripts used to compilethe King James Bible have been examined and confirmed to be more than 95% accurate. The inaccuracies are overwhelmingly spelling and minor transcription errors, having nothing to do with doctrine or practice. Second, how do we know if the Bible is complete? In certain religious groups, the seven books that comprise "The Apocrypha" are added to the Old Testament of their Bibles. Why do the King James Bible and most Protestant Bibles not contain them?The Jews were responsible for preserving the Old Testament, and they rejected these books, calling them uninspired by God, a decision made centuries before the Catholic Church came into existence. In Isaiah 8:16, God provides a prophecy about how New Testament writings were to be chosen: "Bind up the testimony, seal the law among my disciples." This evidence indicates that the four gospels and Acts, all the apostles' epistles, including all of Paul'sletters, and Revelation, were gathered, bound together, and circulated among the early church by the time the last disciple of Christ, the apostle John, died. II Timothy 4:13 hints that Paul was doing something of the sort just before his martyrdom. Not long before his death, Peter wrote that he considered Paul's writings Scripture (IIPeter 3:15-16). The church included no other books beyond what we consider canonical today. By AD 170, most churches agreed about which books should be part of the New Testament. In contrast, the Catholic Church did not complete its biblical canon until AD 390. Third, is the Bible too hard to read and self-contradictory? Isaiah 55:9 provides insight on this question: "‘For My thoughts are not your thoughts, nor are your ways My ways,' says the LORD. ‛For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are My wayshigher than your ways, and My thoughts than your thoughts.'" If we believe in an all-powerful, sovereign God whose mind infinitely exceeds the human mind, do we not also believe He can inspire His chosen apostles and prophets to write the words just as Heintends? However, one of the Bible's great paradoxes is that God inspired His Book to be written so that it intentionally appears to be riddled with errors, discrepancies, and contradictions while actually being 100% true! This method allows a skeptic or an objector to create excuses, hiding the truth from himself by quitting, failing to persevere in his search for theanswers to his doubts. God does not intend His Word to be understood by those with rebellious attitudes. He provides understanding only through His Spirit, which He gives only to those He specifically calls (see John 6:44-45; I Corinthians 2:6-16; II Timothy 2:7). Notice Isaiah 28:11-13, where God shows how His Word appears to sinners and unbelievers—and the tragic results: For with stammering lips and another tongue He will speak to this people [rebellious Israelites], to whom He said, "This is the rest with which you may cause the weary to rest," and "This is the refreshing"; yet they would not hear. But theword of the LORD was to them "precept upon precept, precept upon precept, line upon line, line upon line, here a little, there a little," that they might go and fall backward, and be broken andsnared and caught. In Romans 1:18-32, the apostle Paul asserts that God gave rebellious mankind over to a debased mind because they rejected Him and worshipped created things, even though they could see proofs of God's existence and power in nature. People with perverse thinkingcannot understand the truth found in Scripture. By His Spirit, God must remove the curse and open their minds to the truth and give them faith. No wonder the Bible confuses them! The understanding of His instructions must be on His terms. He demands that individuals make the right choices and apply themselves in honest study, not looking to disprove His Word but prove it by living it (Psalm111:10; 119:99; Proverbs 28:5). That is the attitude God desires. So, He inspired Scripture to be written just as He intended, perfect for accomplishing His goals and teaching His way of living to those who choose to walk with Him on the path to the Kingdom of God. In Part Two, we will examine four more approaches that may help in teaching others about the wonders of God's Word. Trust the Bible (Part Two) In Part One, we considered a young woman's sincere confusion over whether God's Word, the Bible, is trustworthy. How would we answer her questions and objections? Are we knowledgeable enough in Scripture to defend its authority and authenticity? We have alreadydiscussed three areas where we could enlighten someone searching for answers: the Bible's accuracy and transmission to the present day, the biblical canon, and its alleged contradictions. Part Two will cover four more: Fourth, why do so many scientists reject the Bible? It has taken centuries for mankind to develop its limited and often flawed understanding of the origins of life and the physical laws by which the universe runs. Yet, many intellectuals believethat human science provides the only true answers to their questions about origins, forces, and energies within our reality. However, through the Bible, which is not a science book, God revealed scientific facts thousands of years before men discovered how they now believe the universe functions. Notice Job 26:7 (English Standard Version [ESV]): "He stretches out the north over the void and hangs the earth on nothing. He binds up the waters in his thick clouds, and the cloud is not split open under them." God reveals He suspended the earth inspace like a floating ball and that clouds contain water. He describes the earth's shape in Isaiah 40:22 (ESV): "It is he who sits above the circle of the earth, and its inhabitants are like grasshoppers; who stretches out the heavens like a curtain, and spreads them like a tent to dwell in." Yet, even with photographs from space, some peoplestill believe the earth is flat, not round or circular, as God reported more than 2,500 years ago. Leviticus17:11 contains another scientific fact: "For the life of the flesh is in the blood." Moses wrote this under God's inspiration some 3,500 years ago, but only in the last 300 years have scientists discovered that blood feeds life-giving oxygen to the body as it circulates. God accurately describes many modern scientists in Jeremiah 4:22: "For My people are foolish, they have not known Me. They are silly children, and they have no understanding. They are wise to do evil, but to do good they have no knowledge." Conversely, many scientific luminaries have advanced human knowledge because they believed the claims of Scripture. Fifth, are the Bible's prophecies credible? Skeptics pooh-pooh prophecy as literary sleight of hand, predictions inserted into the mouth of "prophets" after the fact. However, the evidence from prophecy establishes confidence in the Bible'svalidity. No other book on earth contains such remarkable prophetic material. It is full of a wide variety of predictions, from the beginning of time to the complete fulfillment of God's Plan. Conversely, human efforts to predict the future cannot come close,not even those of the famous Nostradamus. In Isaiah 41:21-24, God issues a prophetic challenge to men and gods alike: "Present your case," says the LORD. "Bring forth your strong reasons," says the King of Jacob. "Let them bring forth and show us what will happen; let them show the former things,what they were, that we may consider them, and know the latter end of them; or declare to us things to come. Show the things that are to come hereafter, that we may know that you are gods; yes, do good or do evil, that we may be dismayed and see it together.Indeed you are nothing, and your work is nothing; he who chooses you is an abomination." A little over a decade ago, the world witnessed another challenger fail. The ancient Mayan calendar predicted the world to end in 2012. People watched in anticipation of what would happen. Hollywood even made a movie about it. But the world continues as before. God inspired His prophets to write prophecies down so that people could prove and recognize the truth of His power. He promises that what He has prophesied will come to pass: Remember the former things of old, for I am God, and there is no other; I am God, and there is none like Me, declaring the end from the beginning, and from ancient times things that are not yet done, saying, "My counsel shall stand, and I willdo all My pleasure," . . . Indeed I have spoken it; I will also bring it to pass. (Isaiah46:9-11) Scripture contains abundant examples of God's power to predict and bring to pass. Jeremiah speaks about the captivity of Judah and even that Cyrus the Great would become king of Persia. Daniel prophesies about the world-ruling empires to comeon the scene. Over 200 prophecies predict the Messiah's timing, birth, character, ministry, mission, and impact. All of them were fulfilled just as foretold. Only the Creator God could have inspired these men to write in such detail about these future events. Sixth, does not every religion claim their ancient documents prove their system is the true one? Islam has the Koran; Hinduism, the Vedas; Buddhism, the Pali Tipitaka; Judaism, the Torah; and Christianity, the Bible. Indeed, men have writtencountless books about humanity's purpose and the way to achieve it, and they have experts who will attest to their accuracy and validity. Their advocates claim that their religious documents are the only true source of knowledge. But when we put these documents to the tests of accuracy, completeness, purpose, science, history, and archeology, along with prophecy, one book stands out above all the rest: The Holy Bible. The others fall by the wayside, failing this, that,or several of the examinations we can subject them to. Only God's Word passes them all�and with flying colors! Seventh, what about faith? The young woman failed to realize how critical a part faith plays in trusting the Bible. Faith is God's gift to those He calls who choose to do the hard work of digging out the truth from His Book (Ephesians2:8; Romans 10:17). Jesus tells His doubting disciple, Thomas, "Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed" (John20:29). Such blessed people believe God's Word because, once He has opened their minds to His truth, they have added up the evidence and found Him to be absolutely truthful and trustworthy. Thus, faith is not blind acceptance but a conscious decision. Nothing may be more important than proving the authority of God's Word. Once we do that�and truly believe it!�we can approach it with confidence and "be[come] doers of the word, and not hearers only" (James1:22). And with continued learning and growth in understanding, we can "be ready to give a defense to everyone who asks [us] a reason for the hope that is in [us], with meekness and fear" (IPeter 3:15). - Craig Sablich - Craig Sablich