The Reliability of Scripture
Part of Questions & Answers
August 11, 2021

Many people don’t believe the Bible is reliable. How can we have confidence that the Bible is the Word of God?

One of the great objections people in our culture have is about the Bible. Tonight, I hope to give you solid reasons to believe in and have confidence concerning the reliability of Scripture. As we get started, consider the words of Jesus:

John 17:17
17 Sanctify them in the truth; your word is truth.

We’re going to answer the big question by asking and answering several little questions, beginning with…

Where Did the Bible Come from?

The Bible Came from

, by the , through , to Humankind.

2 Timothy 3:16–17
16 All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, 17 that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work.

The 66 books of the Bible are known as the “canon” of holy scripture.

The word comes from the Greek word (kanwvn), meaning “rule or standard,” and Christians use this word to describe the Bible – the book that provides the final “rule and authority” for our faith.

Criteria for Canonicity

There were four requirements for a book to have been included in the Old and New Testament:

  1. Origin

  2. Universal

  3. Liturgical Use

  4. Message

How Do Christians View the Scripture?

Christians’ Ultimate

Is the Word of God

The Bible stands in judgment over our reason, over philosophy, over every worldview and presumption, so the attitude of the Christians towards the Bible should be one of faithful obedience.

Non-Christians Do Not

the Authority of the Word of God


Christians Should Not Divorce Themselves from the Scriptures When Talking to Unbelievers.

Bring scripture to bear in your discussions with non-Christians where appropriate for a few reasons.

1 Using Scripture challenges the postmodern idea that truth is

.

2 Scripture is

powerful.

3 Scripture contains in many places its own arguments for the validity of its claims.

How Do We Explain Why We Believe the Bible Is True?

means that the Bible is in its entirety inspired by God

means that the Bible contains no error

So why do Christians believe the Bible is reliable and true, that it is authoritative as God’s Word?

Our belief hinges on three characteristics:

The New Testament documents are

reliable and credible

If the Bible is in fact true, then we should expect it to have coherent message – its various parts all contribute to a clearly defined message. It must be internally consistent (doesn’t contradict itself).
It must be externally consistent (historically accurate).

The Bible is united in teaching its own authority, even though it was written by so many authors.

The unity of the Bible’s message is

. You may have heard some say that the God of the OT is a God of judgment, while the God of the NT is a God of grace. To them I would point to the Bible itself.

You cannot read God’s tender descriptions of his love for his people in the prophets or the Pentateuch and then read Jesus’ descriptions of judgment and maintain that opinion. As an example, consider these passages:


Deut 30:1-6
II Chronicles 30:6
Nehemiah 1:9
Zechariah 1:3
Malachi 3:7
John 8:24
James 4:8

Biblical theologian John Frame says it this way:

“An incredibly rich array of symbols, types, prophecies, events, and poetic depictions converge inevitably and powerfully on Jesus Christ who, to most of the biblical writers, is to come centuries later.”

If the Bible is reliable and true, it should be internally consistent, and we should find that the Bible does not contradict itself.

Ultimately our trust in the truthfulness and reliability of the Bible is based in Jesus—and his view of it—rather than my ability or inability to find or explain any supposed contradictions.

Jesus’ Character is Shown to Be Trustworthy

If Christians can convince someone that the Bible is as generally reliable as other historical documents, then the next step is help them see what historical testimony says about the character of Jesus. If the Scriptures are basically unreliable, then there would be no reason to attach any significance to the Jesus of Nazareth.

In his famous book Mere Christianity, C.S. Lewis argues Jesus was either a fraud (liar), crazy (lunatic), or God himself (Lord). He makes this statement,

“A man who was merely a man and said the sort of things Jesus said would not be a great moral teacher. He would either be a lunatic–on the level with a man who says he is a poached egg–or he would be the devil of hell. You must take your choice. Either this was, and is, the Son of God, or else a madman or something worse. You can shut him up for a fool or you can fall at his feet and call him Lord and God. But let us not come with any patronizing nonsense about his being a great human teacher. He has not left that open to us.”

What did Jesus teach about the Scriptures?

Jesus claimed that the Old and New Testament books were the word of God.

Jesus treated the Old Testament as God’s inspired, infallible, inerrant word.

Jesus laid the

for the New Testament. He taught that his teaching was to be viewed as the authoritative words of God.


In John 7:16, he says, “My teaching is not my own. It comes from him who sent me.”

In Matthew (24:35), Mark (13:31), and Luke (21:33), Jesus said, “heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will not pass away.”

The crowds noticed this aspect of Jesus’ teaching. The first reaction we see recorded after the Sermon On the Mount is that the people were amazed because Jesus taught as one with authority. (Matt 7:29)

1 Corinthians 14:36–38
36 Or was it from you that the word of God came? Or are you the only ones it has reached? 37 If anyone thinks that he is a prophet, or spiritual, he should acknowledge that the things I am writing to you are a command of the Lord. 38 If anyone does not recognize this, he is not recognized.


2 Peter 3:15–16
15 And count the patience of our Lord as salvation, just as our beloved brother Paul also wrote to you according to the wisdom given him, 16 as he does in all his letters when he speaks in them of these matters. There are some things in them that are hard to understand, which the ignorant and unstable twist to their own destruction, as they do the other Scriptures.

The church appears to have very early on accepted without question the authority of the writings of the New Testament, leaving other writings in an entirely different category.

What does all this mean?

If we believe Jesus Christ is the son of God, then we must

his view of Scripture. And that would lead us to understand the entire Bible as not just being important, but the inerrant, infallible word of God.


What About Commonly Cited “Problems” with The Bible?
1. The Bible is Full of .
2. The Bible Conflicts with .
3. The Bible is Full of .
4. The Bible is Historically .

Conclusion

As Christians, we finally surrender to the truth of God’s revelation in the Bible and in history through Jesus – not our own reason. But we should not be afraid to use the Bible as we explain our worldview to unbelievers.

Here are a few things to keep in mind:

1. If questions come up that you can’t answer, remember that there are answers to be

.
2. Don’t assume that your non-Christian friend will accept the Bible as .
3. Don’t argue as if the Bible is not authoritative.
4. _Open_the Bible with those that you are talking with.

When you read your Bible, read it with !

God has spoken, that He has revealed Himself to us in the Scriptures, and we read the same Bible that was handed down by the first apostles of Christ’s church.

2 Peter 1:19–21
19 And we have the prophetic word more fully confirmed, to which you will do well to pay attention as to a lamp shining in a dark place, until the day dawns and the morning star rises in your hearts, 20 knowing this first of all, that no prophecy of Scripture comes from someone’s own interpretation. 21 For no prophecy was ever produced by the will of man, but men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit.