Is the Bible true?

How do we know the Bible is true? As a Christian I can say God has revealed its truth to me. When I read God’s Word I know in my heart by the power of the Holy Spirit it is truth revealed. Before I was a Christian I would say prove it is true. Where is the evidence ? Sadly I can say that none of my Christian friends had answers to the questions I asked. That is where we ar today. Can you answer the questions? Can you give them the answers they need to point them to the saving grace of God?

What is the Bible? It is a collection of 66 books written by 40 authors over a period of 1600 years it has one continues common theme. This book tells a story of a special people and a special place Israel in Canaan, A special family in a special tribe David in the tribe of Judah, A special child in a special town Jesus in Bethlehem.

The Bible is unique in the way it is opposed. It has been under attack since the first Words of God were penned for all to see. Many writers especially those of the New Testament died for what they believed. Early Christians were hunted and killed by the thousands. The Bible has been banned and burned through out history. No other book has been analyzed, scrutinized and studied for the sole purpose of proving it to be wrong. Why is this book so questioned? Is it because it is a book that lacks moral character? Is it a book that encourages a low moral standard that encourages people to rebel against government and rulers. On the contrary no other book sets a higher moral standard than the Bible.

It took over 1600 years to write the Bible and it can take mere seconds to destroy a copy. Yet it is still most published book in the world. It has been translated into over 400 different languages, and is translated into a new language every 17 days. So why do people spend so much effort and time trying to discredit what it teaches?

It is because of what it claims to be. It claims to be the Word of God. It is a demanding book that sets a high moral standard for all of us to follow. Therefore it must be obeyed or it must be destroyed, there are no other alternatives.

There is a story about a business man who while walking down the street saw a blind beggar. So he put a few cons in the cup the beggar was holding. As he walked away he glanced back and saw the blind man lifting his glasses and peering into the cup. The business man now upset realizing the beggar was not blind confronted him. “You are not blind” The beggar answer you are right the blind man is on vacation, I ma usually the deaf dumb man on the other corner. Why would anyone lie like this? Because people can be gullible, it is good for us to maintain a healthy skepticism when evaluating other people and their character. What about the character of a religion? This is a very important decision one that will effect where we spend eternity. We cannot accept a belief just because it sounds good. We need to know it is reliable. If the Bible were to be found unreliable we would be accused of following a false religion. We are going to discover that the Bible is indeed reliable. We are going to look ar a few objections to the Bibles reliability and together discover the truth.

The first objections is. The majority New Testament was written 100-200 years after the life of Christ. So how do we know we do not have a distorted version of the original account of the life of Jesus Christ?
(pause for answer)

If this was true then we would not have an accurate account of who He really was. If there was only a long history of oral traditions of things being passed by word of mouth over many generations the account could have been distorted. Such as the case with the Koran; which was passed down orally for generations before finally being put to paper. The Bible however does not have this problem. This objection is not a valid one as the accounts of the life of Jesus were written down with the life span of those people who were eyewitnesses to what happened. The New Testament was written within 60 years of the death of Christ and most Gospels within 30 years There are many manuscripts that a test to these facts.

The John Ryland Papyus dated around 125AD is a copy of a fragment of the book of John. The original has to have been written earlier.

Early church fathers were quoting many of the New Testament books around 100Ad. These would have had to have been in circulation before that time.

There is no hint that the writers new of the destruction of Jerusalem in 70AD. Such an event would have been record in their writings.

According to history Paul died in the mid 60s AD. At the end of Acts he was still alive; therefore Acts and the other books Paul wrote were written before the mid 60sAD. Luke wrote the book of Luke before Acts so the book of Luke is even older. So there was no time for myth to grow around the life of Christ.

We have determined when the New Testament was written but we have not determined if it is historically correct. There are three major test that all ancient documents are put through to prove their validity. these test are.

1 –Bibliographical testing
2- Internal evidence
3-External evidence

The bibliographical test evaluates the reliability of the manuscript. This test determines how well the manuscript has been preserved since it was written. How close to the original writings are the ones we have.

This brings us the next objection. We do not have anything close to the original because to much time has passed and there are to many copies. More time and more copies leads to more mistakes. Lets look at the time difference between the original and the copies on some popular ancient manuscripts.

Aristotle 1400 years
Tacitus 1000 years
Caesar 950 years
Homer 500 years

Skeptics all accept these manuscripts as reliable yet they will reject the reliability of the New Testament. So what is the timeline of the New Testament? The originals were written as we have seen between 30 and 60 AD. The manuscripts of the New Testament were written around 150AD, that is only 90 years that is a very small amount of time when compared to other ancient manuscripts, yet these skeptics will question the validity of the New Testament.

Our third objection. Even if the time line is correct there are too many copies to even come close to what the original manuscripts said. Can you really have too many copies? (pause for answer) The correct answer is more. The more copies you have for comparison the closer you can get to the original. Let me demonstrate, the Big X represents the original, the small Xs the copies. Since we no longer have the original we must depend on the copies. There will be some errors in the copies, however where ever the majority of the copies agree we can be sure that somewhere among all the manuscripts the original form of every passage is present. Lets look back at those other ancient documents and see what we have to compare.
Plato 7
Caesar 10
Tacitus 20
Homer 643

Again many people consider these documents accurate and true to the original. The New Testament has over 5700 recorded manuscripts in Greek alone. Frederick Venyon a world renowned paleographer said. “ The number of manuscripts of the New Testament of early translations from it and quotations from it in the oldest writers of the church is so large that it is practically certain that the true reading of every doubtful passage is preserved in some or other of those ancient authorities. This can be said of no other ancient book in the world”

7/8 of the New Testament is the same in all the manuscripts of the 1/8 that remains the majority of the differences are in spelling, style or grammar. Only 1/60 of that 1/8 has any significant differences. None of those differences have anything to do with the key doctorial message. There is in total only abut 400 differences significant to the meaning of the New Testament. That is less than one per page in an English translation.

Compare that with the ancient Roman and Greek literature. Most pieces of literature cannot be reconstructed enough to know what percentage was in the original for sure. There is one exception and that is Homer’s Iliad with 643 copies. It is about 95% pure. The New Testament which is at least 98% pure. This compares very well with any other ancient document. We can conclude that we have what was written by the original authors, we have the Word of God. Fredrick Venyon said “ The Christian can take the whole Bible in his hand and say without fear or hesitation that he holds in it the true Word of God, handed down without essential loss from generation to generation throughout the centuries”

We know the authors were accurate in what they wrote, but how do we know what they wrote was accurate? That is where our next step comes looking at the internal evidence. This evidence helps us to determine whether we can trust the authors. Aristotle said “ The benefit of the doubt is to be given to the document and not the critic” How many here have been confronted and told the Bible is full of contradictions?(wait for answer) The law of contradictions states “ For one statement to absolutely contradict another there must be no sense in which the statements can both be true. If there is a possible logical explanation it is not a real contradiction” What this means is if there is a reasonable and logical explanation for a supposed contradiction in a document the document cannot be found to be untrue based on this supposed contradiction. One Gospel says there was one angel at the tomb the other says there was two angels. This is not an absolute contradiction because the Gospel that says there was one does no say there was only one. There is no absolute.

I had person tell me once they have found a real contradiction. In John 19 it says Jesus was standing before Pilate in the 6th hour. Mark 15 says that Jesus was crucified in the rd hour. How could He be standing before Pilate after He was crucified? How do we reconcile this apparent contradiction? ( wait for answer)

There is a solution, John in all likelihood was using Roman time which like our present clock is begins and ends at 12am. Mark was using Jewish time which begins around 6pm and begins again at 6am. This would mean that Jesus stood before Pilate at 6am and was crucified at 9am. There is no absolute contradiction. There are no proven absolute contradictions in the Bible. The writers of the Bible based their accounts on eyewitness testimony. Any surface contradictions confirms this. It shows that the writers were truly writing from their own experiences and perspective, and not scheming together to get eh story right.

The Bible was written by man, however as 2 Peter 1:21 says “For prophecy never had its origins in the will of man, but men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit” 2 Timothy 3:16 tells us the “All Scripture was God Breathed”

It is simply this ‘The Holy Spirit moved men to write. He allowed them to use their own language, their own style, their own gifts, and their own culture. But the Holy Spirit overruled in the expression of thought and the choice of words. SO that they recorded accurately all that God wanted them to say and exactly how He wanted them to say it. The Bible is a harmony of the active mind of the writer and the sovereign direction of the Holy Spirit. “

Lastly the writers were willing to die for their Doctrine. People will sometimes be willing to die for what they believe is the truth, but never are they willing to die for a lie. If the Resurrection had not taken place the disciples would have known this. The writers willingly gave their lives for their belief in the Resurrected Christ. This is perhaps the most powerful internal evidence of all.

What of external evidence, evidence outside of the Bible? We have supporting evidence from early Christian writers. Papias and acquaintance of the Apostle John wrote “ The Elder ( John) used to say this also Mark having been the interpreter of Peter wrote down accurately all that he (Peter) mentioned whether saying or doing of Christ not however in order”

If we combine the testimonies of Josephus, Tacitus, Lucian, Suetonius, Pliny the Younger, Thallus and the Talmud, all of which are non-Christian sources we see

1 Jesus was crucified under Pontius Pilate at Passover time.

2- He was believed by his disciples to have risen from the dead three days later

3- Jewish leaders charged Christ with sorcery and believed He was Born of adultery

4- The Judean sect of Christianity spread even to Rome.

5 - Early Christians denied polytheism lived dedicated lives according to Christ’s teachings and worshiped Christ.

William Tyndale in 1536 was tried found guilty, garroted and burned at the stake. His crime, was translating the Bible into English so we can all have access to God’s Word. Robert Dick Wilson was a Professor of Semantic Philology at Princeton Theological Seminary. He was a book scholar, he read up on history. He had a 45 year plan, for the first 15 he would learned all the languages that had anything to do with biblical manuscripts. So he learned German, Italian, Portuguese, Spanish, French, Latin, Greek, Hebrew, Arabic, Aramaic, Babylonia, Ethopic, Phoenician, Syriac, Egyptian, Armenian, Persian, Coptic and many more all in all he learned 26 languages and dialects. , Then he spent 15 years studying all the manuscripts, the last 1 years he published his findings he came to this conclusion. “ I try to give my students such an intelligent faith in the Old Testament Scriptures that they will never doubt them as long as the live. No man knows enough to assail the truthfulness of the Old Testament.”




Sir William Ramsey was not a book scholar he was a shovel scholar an archeologist. Unlike Robert Wilson he was not raised to believe in the Bible, in fact it was quite the opposite. He was an accomplished man.
A Professor at Oxford and Aberdeen universities

He earned 3 honorary fellowships at Oxford

9 honorary doctorates from British, Continental, and American universities.

Was honored with the Victoria Medal of the Royal Geographical Society in 1906

A founding member of the British Academy

And Knighted in 1906 for his service to archeology.

He spent most of his life digging up Asia Minor, The place in history that Paul spent most of his time. Paul who’s travels were well document by Luke. Sir Ramsey was led to believe that all of Luke’s writings were full of errors and pretty much void of fact. However after spending many years digging up Asia Minor he came to this conclusion.

“You may press the words of Luke in a degree beyond any other historian and they stand up to the keenest scrutiny and the hardest treatment. Christianity did not originate in a lie and we can and ought to demonstrate this as well as believe it.”

It was the evidence that convinced him. The archeological evidence for the Bible is powerful.

Let’s talk about a king that never existed. It will be a short talk. Well until 1843 the only reference ever found to a king named Sargon was in a single verse in Isaiah 20 verse 1. So many people thought this was just a made up king used to fill in the blanks. Then in 1843 an archeologist named Paul Botta was digging around the area of Nehniva which is in modern day Iraq. and discovered a temple with a library belonging to a certain king named …… you guessed Sargon. He went on to become one of the most known of the ancient kings.

Now let’s look at an order that was never given. We all should be familiar with the command give in Luke chapter 2. Historians for years thought no Emperor of Roman would ever give such a ridiculous order. That was until a papyrus scroll was found dating AD 104 showing an order, that all men should return to their place of birth for a census. Putting aside any thought that such an order would never be given.
Understand one thing though. We do not believe the Bible because archeology confirms it. We believe the Bible because it is what it claims to be, the inerrant Word of God, finally I am going to give you 9 reasons why we can trust the Bible.

Its Accuracy demonstrates it. It is constantly being proven true. That again it is not why we believe it we believe it because it is what it claims to be. Professor Wiseman a famous archeologist said “Archeology properly understood will always confirm the accuracy of the Bible”

Its Unity supports it. From beginning to end from Genesis through Revelation the story remains the same. The redemption of man through the price Christ paid on the cross for you and me, like a piece of fine fabric weaved together to create a wonderful tapestry.

Thinking minds endorse it. Many well educated people like those I have met at Answers in Genesis believe it to be true. You do not have to be ashamed that you believe it is what it says it is.

Human nature requires it. Remember our sign post, Origin + Destination = Route. As a society we have forgotten or origins and no not where we are going and have made a mess in route.

Our Savior taught from it. Jesus taught the Old Testament as history, not just as stories, but as actual history to point out and bolster doctrinal and theological points.

Revelation confirms it. The fulfillment of prophecy is a powerful testament to the truth in the Bible. Just read Psalm 22 which was written 900 years before Christ. Sure Christ had some control, such as the riding of the donkey something He did deliberately to fulfill prophecy. Yet as He hung on the cross He had not control over the guards casting lots for His cloths or the wagging tongues that mocked Him.

Its Own claim demands it. Self authentication from God, it is to be believed or destroyed.

The Character of God secures it. It makes no sense for that God would created such a wondrous universe and such a wonders mind, in a wondrous being such as you. Then not leave any instruction on how to live and be stewards of that creation.

Finally Your personal experience illustrates it. The way it can and has changed yours and many others lives. I know it has changed mine in so many ways, It convicts us, it teaches us, and it comforts us.

The Bible is a unique book, with a unique one of a kind message, about a very unique Man.