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A Christian
Thought for the Month - March 2012
Thoughts for believers & seekers
Thought for the Month -
Confidence in the Bible
2 Tim 3:16 All Scripture is inspired by God
So she said to me, “Well I would like to believe - and I suppose I vaguely believe in God - but what’s it all built on? I’m not sure about church and you can’t trust the Bible can you?”
Well, let’s put aside the church bit for another day shall we, and focus on the Bible bit.
I asked her, “So what do you mean about not being able to trust the Bible?”
“Well, it’s so old isn’t it, and how do you know it’s accurate? How do we know it’s not all just made up? And how can it be relevant to life today, anyway?” she responded.
Good questions. Let’s give them some thought. Just made up? Well there are 66 books making up the Bible, spanning over about two thousand years, written by over 40 writers - and here’s the amazing thing: they is a natural historical flow to what they record, and they all come up with the main key things about God, about Israel and about us.
Are they accurate to what was originally written? Well there’s a big difference between the Old and New Testaments. The books of the Old Testament were mostly written down by scribes and they were so careful when they were copying old scrolls that if they made even one mistake they would destroy what they were doing and start again. Even where there are occasional apparent queries, you’ll find a note to that effect (and there aren’t that many of them) at the bottom of the page in your Bible, and none of them affect the overall message that is conveyed.
When you come to the New Testament there are so many parchments, now in the museums of the world - well over 20,000 documents - that one well known and highly respected scholar said, “There is no body of ancient literature in the world which enjoys such a wealth of good textual attestation as the New Testament .....the last foundation for any doubt that the Scriptures have come down to us substantially as they were written has now been removed. Both the authenticity and the general integrity of the books of the New Testament may be regarded as finally established.”
Yes, what about it’s relevance? Let’s just focus on one thing for the moment. Take the matter of Jesus Christ, whose life and ministry is recounted in the four Gospels in the New Testament. It is only the ignorant today who deny the historical evidence for his having lived and died (and being raised from the dead - we’ll look at that next month) two thousand years ago. So here we have these four books telling of what he said and did, there back in time-space history two thousand years ago.
Just supposing (and I’m not) that you randomly tore out a quarter of the pages from these four books. You are still left with an amazing account and you’ll still find (because there is so much of it there) that the same message comes over, that God loves us and sent Jesus, not to condemn us, but to help us.
Back in the middle of the last century a translator by the name of J.B.Phillips started work on translating the New Testament afresh. He confessed that he was rather a sceptical agnostic but the more and more he worked on the original languages and was forced to think about what he was reading, the more it had what he referred to as ‘a ring of truth’ about it. He wrote a book to that effect, so convinced was he about what he read, and no longer was he a sceptical agnostic, but now a clear believer.
That’s been the testimony of millions of people down through the last two thousand years: “I read it, I heard about him, and my life has been changed for the good.”
“Yes, but what about the church,” she said.
“A bunch of fallible human beings, who know they are loved by God, who don’t always get it right, but who try to,” I suggested.
“Sounds too good to be true,” she responded.
“Think about it,” I suggested again.
“Okay.”
2 Tim 3:16 All Scripture is inspired by God
So she said to me, “Well I would like to believe -
Well, let’s put aside the church bit for another day shall we, and focus on the Bible bit.
I asked her, “So what do you mean about not being able to trust the Bible?”
“Well, it’s so old isn’t it, and how do you know it’s accurate? How do we know it’s not all just made up? And how can it be relevant to life today, anyway?” she responded.
Good questions. Let’s give them some thought. Just made up? Well there are 66 books making up the Bible, spanning over about two thousand years, written by over 40 writers -
Are they accurate to what was originally written? Well there’s a big difference between the Old and New Testaments. The books of the Old Testament were mostly written down by scribes and they were so careful when they were copying old scrolls that if they made even one mistake they would destroy what they were doing and start again. Even where there are occasional apparent queries, you’ll find a note to that effect (and there aren’t that many of them) at the bottom of the page in your Bible, and none of them affect the overall message that is conveyed.
When you come to the New Testament there are so many parchments, now in the museums of the world -
Yes, what about it’s relevance? Let’s just focus on one thing for the moment. Take the matter of Jesus Christ, whose life and ministry is recounted in the four Gospels in the New Testament. It is only the ignorant today who deny the historical evidence for his having lived and died (and being raised from the dead -
Just supposing (and I’m not) that you randomly tore out a quarter of the pages from these four books. You are still left with an amazing account and you’ll still find (because there is so much of it there) that the same message comes over, that God loves us and sent Jesus, not to condemn us, but to help us.
Back in the middle of the last century a translator by the name of J.B.Phillips started work on translating the New Testament afresh. He confessed that he was rather a sceptical agnostic but the more and more he worked on the original languages and was forced to think about what he was reading, the more it had what he referred to as ‘a ring of truth’ about it. He wrote a book to that effect, so convinced was he about what he read, and no longer was he a sceptical agnostic, but now a clear believer.
That’s been the testimony of millions of people down through the last two thousand years: “I read it, I heard about him, and my life has been changed for the good.”
“Yes, but what about the church,” she said.
“A bunch of fallible human beings, who know they are loved by God, who don’t always get it right, but who try to,” I suggested.
“Sounds too good to be true,” she responded.
“Think about it,” I suggested again.
“Okay.”