Hey guys I’m going to give you guys a challenge… I am 100% a Bible believing Christian so keep that in mind when I give the challenge.
Can you give your argument to why you believe the Scriptures to be reliable? I will play “devil’s advocate” and see if you can argue it… Please be peaceful this is just an exercise.
1) Scriptures correlate with archeological evidence.
2) Scriptures aren’t just a book, it is THE BOOK. Lives are changed because of Scriptures, only because it is God’s Word.
3) Prophesies – Many have fulfilled, many more to be.
The reliability of the Bible as an historical record of the Jewish people was something I scrutinized as an atheist. I believed the Bible to be fanciful and legendary with no grounding in fact or reality. I used the techniques familiar to me as an investigative journalist. Since I did not believe in the supernatural, I could not test it in an ancient text. So, I set aside the supernatural aspects of the Bible for a time to test the historicity, credibility and reliability of the Hebrew text. I was surprised to find that the Bible was historically accurate where it was testable. Its credibility and reliability also surprised me. Comparing Hebrew history with other nations’ recorded histories (including archeological findings) was also helpful in discovering the reliability of the Bible. However, as important as that was to my continuing to investigate the truth claims of Christianity, the reliability of the Bible as an historical text did not convince me that Christianity was true. What finally convinced me was the Resurrection of Jesus Christ from being killed by Roman soldiers on a wooden cross in Jerusalem in the early part of the 1st century AD. The fact that the risen Christ supported the reliability of the Hebrew Bible also helped convince me of the truth of the text. Thanks for asking!
Because the Holy Spirit inside me tells me so
The Bible in and of itself is a miracle. Not only have historical accounts been proven scientifically, archaeologically, and historically and continue to do so as science evolves but the KJV (OT) and the LXX are proven to be within 99.5% accurate to the Dead Sea Scrolls. The NT of the KJV is proven to be written within just a few decades at most from the death of Christ and its proven accuracy to the oldest manuscripts are impeccable. Not to mention the eyewitness accounts. But that is just the beginning. The chances of all the prophecies being fulfilled that have been fulfilled are incalculable. For example Moses had once chance of getting thirteen items (order of the fossils), accurate, and in order out of 31,135,104,000,000,000,000,000 chances. That doesn’t even begin to calculate the prophecies already fulfilled by Jesus. But, even more amazing is how the entire Bible from Genesis to Revelation written over many thousands of years by many people point to one God and one Intercessor/Savior seamlessly, cohesively, and concisely. Shalom
Through my own personal studies of the visible God and the invisible God along with the tabernacle and how it relates to Christ and many more treasures you discover that interlink with one another.
Plus i applied the word to my life and made a total complete change from a career criminal
To an journeyman in my field with full union benefits, if thats not the hand of God i dont what it is.
Historical reliability of paul would be a major part, and also the gospels differing slightly in each book, if they were all the exact same, then you could suspect that they were fabricated
History declares Jesus lived. A book from 1800 years before prophesied he would.
History denounces nothing written of him.
The responses are great but I’m noticing a lot of focus on the New Testament writings with the answers which is good but I would like to see more depth focused on the whole Bible. Thanks guys
OT writings do not contradict NT and vise versa. They compliment, agree, and support each other.
Few clarifying remarks:
1.) That’s a fairly huge topic to try and defend. Considering there are 66 books scattered across something like 1500 years of history (give or take), each book would require its own defense.
2.) Are we wanting reliability or inerrancy? I make this distinction because…
3.) We often think we need to show reliability prior to a defense of inerrancy. I think this is wrongheaded. I believe Scripture to be reliable not because of some historical evidences (which are historically contingent and can only take us so far) but because I have good reason to believe in God’s existence and that He’s revealed Himself in Christ. This gives warrant to the belief that Scripture is God’s Word and is therefore accurate in its presentation of God and His historical relationship to creation. Thus, while historical evidences might confirm my belief, they do not ground it.
the Jews had an amazing painstaking system where they counted the letters & words forward & backward & if a mistake they had to scrap & start all over , monks went thru hell too with crazy rules ( except for the one in the Xerox commercial in the ’70s
Great question every Christian needs to have a good answer for
The O. T. is the N.T. Concealed and the N. T. Is the O. T. Revealed….. 66 books written by 40 different authors from different walks of life, covering a period of over 1500 years. Written in 3 different languages, Hebrew, Greek and Aramaic, written on 3 different continents, Africa, Asia and Europe. It all points to Jesus Christ as The Messiah, Lord , King and Saviour! In Gen he’s the promise seed of the woman, in Ex he’s the Passover Lamb, in Lev he’s the scapegoat, in Numb he’s the brazen serpent on the pole, in Deut he’s the fulfillment of the law…….ALL THE WAY TO REVELATION IT POINTS TO CHRIST , The Lamb that takes away the sin of his people! Every sacrifice points to Christ! The ceremony to proclaim the leper whole points to Christ, The Ark points to Christ, the only door points to Christ! He is the only way, neither is their salvation in any other for their is none other name under heaven given among men whereby we MUST BE SAVED!
I read it and prayed to ask if it was true. I felt the spirit of God testify to me of its truthfulness. I know the bible is the word of God.
Prophesy, History, And The Most main thing is God’s Words Himself:
2 Peter
Chapter 1
20 Knowing this first, that no prophecy of the scripture is of any private interpretation.
21 For the prophecy came not in old time by the will of man: but holy men of God spake [as they were] moved by the Holy Ghost.
1 Thessalonians 2:13
And we also thank God constantly for this, that when you received the word of God, which you heard from us, you accepted it not as the word of men but as what it really is, the word of God, which is at work in you believers.
Several things actually: First, I guess, are the OT prophecies Jesus fulfilled. Second, non-Jesus related prophecies which have been fulfilled, such as things about the nation of Israel. Third, all the apologetics arguments make perfect sense when filtered through the Bible. Fourth, archaeological finds which verify things scripture teaches. Fifth, the startling cohesion between the OId and New Testaments given that they were written by mere humans over the course of some 1,600 years. Sixth, is completely subjective, but there’s nothing wrong with subjective reasons for believing because God is personal to everyone who accepts Him, so seeing Him at work in my life on a daily basis is REMARKABLE! Finally, something fun, something I call God winks, such as the beautiful rainbow I just witnessed from my front porch. God keeps His promises! As far as I’m concerned, there is every reason to believe and no reason big enough not to! Praise God!
My reasons
1) God is super natural and not anti natural
2) God is Good
3) It will inevitably contain paradoxes. And that is good. It is proof of his perfection. God is not bounded by a dychotomos world he is mercifull and
yet just and righteouss. Any action that He takes will present a challenge to my understanding. That in itsel presents a rational consecuence. Wich is good.
5) It has stood the test of time by fellow men who have found the truth in them
Because Jesus believed the scriptures are the Word of God.
In regard to the New Testament, we can be reasonably certain that it hasn’t changed because of all of the manuscripts we have compiled. Because of the vast amount and their early dating, we are able to see where the differences lie and can therefore reconstruct the original documents with roughly 99% accuracy. This doesn’t deem them reliable, just shows that the messages and person of Jesus haven’t been corrupted over time. Reliability – 1. They were written too early to contain myth and legendary change. One thing I recently learned was that in 1 Timothy 5:18, Paul quotes the gospel of Luke. “The laborer should be paid his wages.” The only place in all of Scripture this is found is Luke 10:7. Paul died in 64 AD which means that he wrote 1 Timothy in the early 60’s at the latest. Since he is quoting Luke, that means that his written gospel would have been in circulation in the mid 50’s. And since Mark was the earliest gospel, we can reasonably date Mark to the early 50’s at the latest. So we are only 16 years (give or take) removed from the death of Jesus. And if you believe in the hypothetical Q document which would have been used for one of Mark’s sources, that would go back even further. The other reasons for reliability have to with external sources as well as the changed lives of the disciples giving their lives for something that they saw with their own eyes. This is different from a jihadist dying for Islam. That person surely believes with all their heart the Islam is true but it is still faith based. The disciples claimed to have seen the risen Christ with their own eyes. Either they were telling the truth about what they saw, or they all died for something that they KNEW was a lie. No one is going to die for something if they know its not true, much less a group of men where there is no record of anyone ever recanting their testimony. If they were making up the resurrection story, surely at least one of the remaining 11 disciples would have cracked and said something like, “Okay! You got us. Don’t kill me and I will tell you what really happened.” No such parallel record exists and they took the truth to their painful deaths. The conversion story of Saul/Paul is also compelling. What motivation would a highly respected Pharisee have to leave his place of comfort and spread the message of Christianity only for the sake of being stoned, shipped wrecked 3 times and beaten to the point of people thinking he was dead.
All of the disciples were tortured and beaten except one and still did not deny what they seen when they walked with Christ. They seen him resurrected and they knew what they had coming!!
I believe it because the Catholic Church compiled it by the orders of Pope Damasus which convened the Council of Rome in 382. The Catholic Church is the Church established by Christ whom we read upholds the truth at 1 Timothy 3:15.
2 Tim 3:16
The scriptures contravened itself 2,800 times. So given this fact, it can’t be a reliable source of truth, or it seem to be. But, I believe it to be reliable.
Fact is, on the surface, the Bible SEEM to conflict itself. But, given some context, we ask ourself why, when was the verse written, who were the audience, for what general teaching it was used; then, we see a fusion that what the bible teaches doesn’t really get in conflict but the lessons run in parallel each other.
Sadly, personal interpretation does not lend reader to a deeper understanding of the verse in its broader context. Thus the confusion over its reliability.
Cause the scriptures are consistent with themselves & tell the one story of how God saved His people & it explains the fallen human condition.
There are also at least 9 outside secular sources written at the time of or right after the life of Jesus that confirm His death, resurrection and some of the things He did in His ministry.
What about prophecies? For instance Alexander the Great was predicted in the Bible. And prophecies of Jesus came true in the New Testament. And their are secular historical texts that confirm things in the New Testament.
*Manuscript Evidence: You have the OT, which has been meticulously copied and preserved for thousands of years. You have the Dead Sea Scrolls corroborating that the book of Isaiah we have in our bible is the same one from before the time of Christ. We have thousands of NT manuscripts, and the small differences we see in them are inconsequential when it comes to the core message. We can tell from the copies what was changed and have an excellent idea of what the originals looked like. And, we can tell the writings were early, very close to the events. We have oral traditions recorded in the writings that are even earlier that cover the main points of the gospel (1 Cor 15, Phil 2, Col 1). You have eyewitness testimony in multiple documents. You have details and whole accounts that would have been left out if someone were making up a story or religion that they wanted people to follow, like embarrassing things about the disciples, difficult things Jesus said, and the empty tomb being found by women.
*Archaeological and Historical Evidence: Scripture, including the OT, takes place within a historical context that agrees with other ancient documents. Luke is seen as a historian of “first rank”, and archaeological finds continue to corroborate the historical record of people and places talked about in scripture.
*Extra-biblical writings: You have writings from Josephus, Tacitus, Pliney the Younger that corroborate information about Jesus, his brother James, and the early church.
*Prophesy: There are some clear prophecies about the Messiah in scripture that are fulfilled in Jesus. Isaiah has several, and again, we have corroboration that with Isaiah we are reading what was written down before Christ. We have excellent reasons to believe that Jesus was a historical figure who was crucified by Rome, and that it was for the blasphemy of claiming to be the Christ (Messiah). This was certainly not the Messiah the Jews were waiting for, and it’s unlikely that someone would volunteer to be the suffering Messiah who would be led to the slaughter to die for the sins of the people as described by Isaiah in chapter 53.
Because every bit of the New Testament was written by first hand account or by eyewitnesses. The Old Testament in the Pentateuch is a perfect parallel to Christ and points to redemption everywhere you turn. No other place can you find a single composition of 66 books written over 2000 year period by so many different authors that authenticate each other by fulfillment and parallel. God is so wise in the way he designed His word. It’s infallible.
Hey Wesley Puckett… I believe the Scriptures to be reliable is because 1st God says they are and also approximately 5,838 New Testament fragments and 18,520+ Greek New testament fragments. So that’s approximately 24,000 copies-more than any other ancient manuscripts. These copies are incredibly accurate.
ever heard of Dead Sea scrolls
I have a few reasons, 1. The Bible is banned in over 52 countries which means they are scared of the power the Word of God has. 2. God’s word has already been proven true & accurate from a number of sciences that have been put to the test by man which include: ancient documents/recorded by scribes, botany, archeology, eye witness testimony, geology etc. 3. In no other religion have so many people been willing to have been martyred for their faith. 4. numerous Biblical prophecies have already come to pass.
It is the only book that stands the destruction. it is the only book that changed and changing lives of people. It is the only book that has no clear contradictions though written by more 40 human authors with different vocations in different eras in more than 1,600 years.
something else to think about, the bible talked about the Hitites & no one had ever heard of them, then one day a few decades ago archaeologists found the Hitite civilization confirming that its true real things not just a nice story
Kimberlee Leslie, the Catholic Church is a cult. Don’t read their Bible or listen to their preachers. If you are a Catholic, join a Protestant church please. Cztholo believe in another gospel. Something that God forbids (the entire book of Galatians is about false gospels). For example, Catholics believe that Mary is Divine. In others Word, they believe she is a God. But the Bible says only 3 bear recond in heaven the Father, the Son & the Holy Ghost. Catholics pray to Mary. This is ungodly. Jesus pray to his Father, not His earthly mother. Mary is not the mother God God has no mother. Jesus is God. Catholics believe in a faith works salvation, which is why Martin Luther broke away from them and started the ProTESTant church. They were protesting against the so called universal church, which is what Catholic means, universal. The Catholics believe the Pope is perfect. But the Bible says none is good;. None is perfect but the Father in heaven. With God, there isn’t even a shadow of turning;. Let alone sin. Fortunately, God can’t sin. But the poor does every day. Man is desperately wicked, and the Pope is a man. All men, with the obvious exception of Jesus, are born in sin and shaped in iniquity. Jesus was kept from this because Mary’s seed was fertilized by God Himself, a Joseph, a sinful man. So give your life to Jesus Christ, and run from the false prophets of the Catholic Church today!
The sublime evidence is that Jesus himself believed and quoteed the scriptures often, remember Emmaus,
Also because when I read the scriptures The Spirit of God makes my spirit alive,
Because the narrative fits too well to be disbelieved despite the odds of it screwing up so high. Come on.. over 30 different authors from different walks of life from different eras, different locations yet telling one consistent story? What are the odds??
It is truth. Intelligent design in itself… As I refer to John chapter 1
The Sanhedrin was there at the time they made the Bible. If any of that was untrue, I would think that Jesus’ biggest group of enemies and murderers would have spoken up then or shortly after. None of them denied the miracles he did.
Ill be honest, while I do think the scriptures are reliable, I dont think we have the 100% original. The book of Hebrews quotes the septuegent a number of times and it is different to the masoretic text that our OT is based upon. Furthermore, the dead sea scrolls contain a number if extra variants including narratives in the Torah, the book of Joshua etc. The masoretic text of the OT changes Psalms 22 regsrding the piercing of the hands and feet and Christian translations follow the septuegent and dead sea scrolls in this area.
However, I think that the variants are minimal considering the length of time from the original until the present. So for the most part I think we have a text that is pretty close to the original. That being said the differences dont change theology.
I guess the question is, what Scriptures? As a person who has been comparing Bible translations from 1537 to the present, I can vouch for the fact that many versions bring many different messages.
I read a little phsmlet. How do you know the Bible is true. I usually have a few books to give out cause phamphlet day it much better than I. I hope you get your answers that will deepen your relationship with the one who gsve his all for us. got Questions is a also a good source if you want answers to Christianity
Nothing proven against it, countless fulfilled prophecies, and backed up by history.
Nice exercise bro
Messianic prophecies fulfilment. Only God can do that!
God is Sovereign. God inspired men to write all whe as “man” need to know Him intimately when He reveals himself Spiritualy to us. He also inspired the men who compiled the 66 book Canon. There is a Golden thread throughout scripture and that is Jesus Christ and the salvation of man.
The dead sea scrolls prove to be historical evidence that the early Bible texts are accurate.
” The Jesus Seminar” is better called,” The Heritic Fellowship”.
Study the Bible?. if there is something to learn there, the fact that there are thousands of denominations and people have come with differing and conflicting interpretations, shows that most people do not profit from it. And proves how incredibly unlikely it is that you will.
It is because Scriptures say that ” wages of sin is death” And indeed all are dying because all are born sinners
Fulfilled prophecy, the supernaturally complete integration of the Bible and the witness of The Holy Spirit (which should not be dismissed or overlooked due to it’s personal nature, since everybody can perceive that witness if they will, which makes it common knowledge).
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