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CONSIDER THE BIBLEYou say poe-tay-toe, I say poe-tah-toe; you say toe-may-toe, I say toe-mah-toe. Yes, differences of opinion and our need to be right about them go back to when time began. Siblings have fought many fights, marriages have dissolved, family feuds have begun and persisted, and whole nations have divided simply because of arguments. Comparable to this is the age-old argument that some people believe, and even many Christians have embraced in a subtle, almost oblivious way. It states that the Bible was written by man, and since man is fallible then the Bible is fallible too. This begs the question, then, that if one believes this, on what basis of absolutes do we have on which to stand? We’ve already determined that absolutes exist, and that they come from God and His Word. And if God has revealed them to us through His Word, are we not obliged to believe them all? Just how do we reconcile this difference of opinion in some that the Bible could be fallible then? Well, consider this... Omnipotence and Sovereignty of God. First, by all means, God is BIG enough to perpetuate His Word throughout all generations as He has shown. He is omnipotent, qualified and able, and one of the proofs is that the Bible still exists today as the number one selling book of all time. Other books have been kept throughout time and ancient manuscripts can be found and read, but there’s not one book that has withstood the test of time as God’s Word has–still being published, still being passed down from since time began to the very present day, still very popularly sold and possessed, even amidst persecution and the desire for evil men and women to destroy it throughout time. If God were not able to perpetuate His infallible, inerrant Word, then He really wouldn’t be all-powerful and in control of all of life, would He? Plan of Salvation Through Jesus Christ. Second, JESUS is the WORD. Not only is the Bible a rule book of sorts, it is also a living experience and fulfillment of God’s plan of salvation through Jesus Himself from the beginning of Genesis to the end of Revelation. As you read and study, and especially if you put on your Hebraic glasses, that becomes quite evident. One Hundred Percent Accuracy. Third, the Bible encompasses all of time - past, present, and future. It is a history book documenting life from the time the world began to its very end as we know it. It also shows us how to live in this present day. And it is a prophetic book with implications for our future with 100% accuracy. It tells us HIS story from the beginning to the end. In this way, it reveals to us WHO God really is since He truly does what His Word says He will do, and by that, we can trust in it. When one considers the probability that all the books written by several authors over the course of several hundred years support one another, are 100% accurate in all their entirety, and have all come to pass just as God’s Word says thus far, it becomes an unfathomable work that cannot be claimed to be "just written by man". The probability of the prophecies predicted in the Bible coming to pass is astronomical! God has proven Himself over and over again. What man can boast of such a feat? Not even Nostradamus’s predictions were entirely accurate! Knowing God Through His Word. Fourth, if we cannot believe in the revealing nature of the Word of God, then we really cannot believe in the God of the Bible. He has used the written Word to reveal Himself to us, and if we don’t accept it as Truth, then we certainly have no basis on which to truly KNOW God. Our foundation will crumble as fast as our views change about who God really is. Self-Authenticating. Fifth, because it is God’s Word, the Bible must be and is self-authenticating which means it proves itself. It is genuine, original, authoritative. It is what it purports to be. It is true. It needs no outside source to prove its authoritative and truthfulness, unlike man’s written works. Self-Attesting. Sixth, the Bible is self-attesting which means it bears witness of itself, it certifies its trueness, its genuineness, and its authenticity. Scripture must interpret Scripture without contradictions and this it does. Though many have claimed it is contradictory, it only appears that way when man tries to make it say what man desires it to say, instead of allowing God to speak to us initially through our reading of His Word, in context, and without extraneous "noise" to tamper with our thinking. When we come across those passages that seem to contradict themselves, we must take a step back and call on God to explain them to us since not only does He know what He meant, but He also can interpret and reveal to us what He wants us to know through His Word. Though God does and will teach us, we have to think of the Bible as a big iceberg wherein we know only part of what God wants to reveal to us (the top of the iceberg) and in His timing will make it all clear (the bottom too!). __________ You may argue against the infallibility of the Bible, but realize this. Logically speaking, you cannot pick and choose. You must decide if you will accept it all or not at all. You cannot say this portion of the Bible is true and this part of the Bible is not. Who will decide what portions of the Bible we should believe to be true and what portions are in error? Who will decide if man was correct in his writing at any certain point in the Bible, but not in others? Once again, the arguments for absolute truth apply. If we believe that any part of the Scriptures could possibly be in error (in its original manuscripts), we may have as many interpretations of "truth" as there are people. Let’s take this consideration a step further. If we don’t believe in Adam and Eve and a literal six-day creation, then who is to say that the work Jesus did on the cross was real? That might lead us to question the virgin birth or the fact that Jesus was truly God or that the resurrection of Jesus Christ ever really happened. Soon, we will be wondering if there really is a God. This, my friends, is precisely how cults begin and how so many "religions", even in the name of Christ, have lead people astray. Perhaps a simple rewording of the phrasing might be more accurate and give us a bigger and clearer understanding of who God really is. Instead of saying the Bible was written by man, shouldn’t we really be saying the Bible was written by God THROUGH men? This places the "responsibility" of Scripture upon God, not man, and shows us the greatness of God as well as the true love God has for us in that He would reveal Himself to us through His Word. Consider the Bible. I would challenge anyone who takes the position that the Bible is fallible because "man" wrote it to look at this aspect further, for there are several reasons why we should believe in the infallibility of the Bible, wholly inspired by God and inerrant in its original manuscripts. Yes, man is a fallible, fallen creature, and we should always test all things against Scripture that come from man alone. But, if we believe that the Word is NOT Truth and INFALLIBLE because it was written by mere men, then we really do not have a clear picture of God nor any foundation on which to stand. By all reasoning, either you must believe in ALL of the Bible’s inerrant Truths written by God through man, or you believe in NONE. Make your choice today and bear the consequences!
[A note about Bible translations. There are several Bible translations that have come up over the years, many of which do have errors in interpretation. Which ones are the most accurate and true to the original manuscripts is a debate for another time. This chapter is simply dealing with the fact that the Bible is inspired by God through men who wrote it down, and in that, it is Truth and we can believe it as such.] |