Bible Series - Part 2

How Do I Know The Bible Is God's Word?
The Christian faith entirely rests upon the credibility of the Bible. Christians believe that it is the source of all special revelation from God about the needs of humanity, our spiritual separation from God, and how a person comes into a right relationship with God through Jesus Christ. All the world religions claim to possess divine truth. So how do we know the Bible is different? Is there any evidence to demonstrate the Bible is true in what it affirms and teaches? If the Bible is not true, the Christian faith falls apart. We are left with no standard by which to determine what God requires of us or what His plan for humanity is. However, if the Bible is the way in which God has chosen to communicate His truth to humanity, we indeed possess the very thoughts and ways of God revealed within its pages...

How do I know what I read is what actually happened or was said? Having shown that we have an accurate and trustworthy copy of the original writings of the biblical authors we now turn to the question, "How can I know what I read is actually what happened or what was said?" After all, lies, myths and fabrications could just as easily been faithfully and accurately copied down through the centuries as truth. So, is there any evidence the points to the historically reliability and accuracy of the words and events described in the Bible? The following evidences help to prove that we can trust what the biblical records as being historically accurate and truthful.

Archeology
Archeological discoveries have repeatedly confirmed the biblical records as being accurate. For example, archeological discoveries have confirmed the Bible's account of particular people, groups, customs, structures, cities and natural disasters. In fact, archeological discoveries have never contradicted a biblical reference.
One particular noteworthy archeologist, Sir William Ramsay, set out to disprove the Bible through archeology. However, his studies and discoveries repeatedly confirmed the biblical record until Ramsay himself became a follower of Jesus Christ. Ramsay was especially impressed with the historical accuracy of Luke. Ramsay notes that Luke has correctly referred to various places, political titles, local events, and local buildings. Ramsay commented, "Luke is a historian of the first rank; not merely are his statements of fact trustworthy...this author should be placed along with the very greatest of historians."

While this does not prove outright the trustworthiness nor divine nature of the Bible, it does lend credibility to the historical truthfulness of the Bible. If the authors were so precise and accurate in reporting historical, geographical, and political data, they would have been as concerned with such accuracy in reporting the personal quotations and remarks of Jesus and other biblical characters.

Confirmation By Extra-Biblical Sources
Many events and individuals referred to in the Bible are also spoken of by other ancient writings and historians. Ancient writings and historical documents from other sources have been found that mention such events as the world-wide flood, military campaigns, destruction of cities, and the captivity of individual leaders as mentioned in the Bible. In addition, non-Christian historians such as Josephus (AD 37-100), Cornelius Tacitus (AD 55-117), and Pliny the Younger (AD 112) make mention of the existence of Jesus Christ, his death on the cross, the preaching of his resurrection, and the persecution of early believers. Lack Of Certain Teachings Many problems faced by the New Testament church (circumcision, food laws, etc.) were not dealt with by referring to specific teachings of Jesus Christ. This suggests they did not feel free to invent teachings of Jesus that were not historical. In fact, the apostle Paul goes so far as to distinguish between specific commands from Jesus and from himself in 1 Corinthians 10.

The Suffering Of Eyewitnesses And Early Believers
Many of the biblical writers claimed to be eyewitnesses of the events and persons they wrote about. If this were not true their stories could have been easily refuted. They had much to lose and little to gain if their stories were not true. However, we instead find that many of them were persecuted and faced many hardships for their writings. This lends credibility to the historical truthfulness of their accounts. The Presence Of Embarrassing Or Counterproductive Features
Many incidences of the biblical narrative paint the "people of faith" in a poor light. For example, Moses doubted God, David sinned with Bathsheba, Elijah fled from Jezebel when threatened, Jesus' family opposed him, Jesus was angry in the temple, and all of the disciples were slow to understand Jesus and had to be rebuked on a number of occasions. If these stories were simply made up, why would you include embarrassing or counterproductive material unless it was historically truthful? The presence of such material lends credibility to the historical nature of the events described.

The Similarity Of The Gospel Material
Of the four gospels, Matthew, Mark and Luke are very similar in numerous respects. 601 of the 661 verses (91%) in Mark appear in Matthew or Luke and usually in both. 235 verses appear in some form in Matthew and Luke but not in Mark. Further, 68% of the self-contained units of narrative common to Mark and either Matthew or Luke appear in the same sequence. With all that could have been written about Jesus (or made up about him) the similarity in accounts suggests a relatively fixed manner of telling the gospel. This enhances the case for the historical reliability and truthfulness of the words and ministry of Jesus.

What About The Miracles?
Many deny or question the historical reliability of the Bible because of the miracle stories it contains. These denials stem from various presuppositions:

1. Science has proved the impossibility of the supernatural. The proper domain of science is the realm of the repeatable, predictable and verifiable. Science cannot prove or disprove the existence of God or miracles.

2. Evidence against miracles always outweigh evidence for miracles so that personal experience of a miracle is the only sure means of knowing the truth of their existence.  Personal experience is not a reliable criterion for determining truth.  By this criterion the existence of ice would always be denied by a primitive person in a tropical climate.

3. The gospel miracles are too similar to miracles alleged to have been preformed in other pagan religions.  The gospel miracles differ strongly from other miracle stories.  Further, the existence of miracles in other ancient stories is not adequate to deny the existence of miracles altogether.

It must be remembered that once a historian has proved reliable where verifiable and once apparent errors or contradictions receive plausible solutions, the appropriate approach is to give that writer the benefit of the doubt in areas where verification is not possible; i.e. miracle accounts.

(There are many other arguments for the historical reliability and truthfulness of the biblical documents but space does not permit them to be listed here. For more detailed study consult the works cited below.)

Conclusion
We can know with great certainty that the people, events, and words recorded in the Bible are historically truthful and accurate. What you read is what really happened and what was really said.

While this is valuable information, it does not prove that the Bible is the Word of God and inspired by Him. Therefore, the next logical question to ask is, "How do I know what is written is inspired by God and of divine origin?"
(See Part 3)

Bibliography
Blomberg, Craig. The Historical Reliability of the Gospels (Downers Grove: InterVarsity Press, 1987).
Bruce, F.F. The New Testament Documents: Are They Reliable? 5th ed. (Downers Grove: InterVarsity Press, 1983).
Little, Paul. Know What You Believe (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1977).
McDowell, Josh. More Than A Carpenter (Wheaton: Tyndale House Pub., 1977) & Evidence That Demands A Verdict (San Bernardino: Here's Life Pub., 1979).
Moreland, J.P. Scaling The Secular City: A Defense of Christianity (Grand Rapids: Baker Book House, 1987).
Wilson, Clifford A. Rocks, Relics and Biblical Reliability. (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1977).
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