Is the Bible Reliable?

It's a question that has been asked by both sincere seekers as well as by skeptics, is the Bible trustworthy? And if it is trustworthy, is there any evidence that shows the Bible to be accurate, inerrant, and more importantly, the very word of God.

Let's look at the evidence, and once considered, we can find that indeed, the Bible is reliable and the Bible can be trusted.

Skeptics and scoffers today often claim that the Bible is full of errors. But when asked to specific evidence or examples from the biblical text, they have a hard time doing so because there are none. Please note - a difficult passage in the Bible does not mean there is an error in the Bible. Some passages of Scripture are harder to understand than others, but a Bible "difficulty" is not a Bible error. What does the manuscript evidence show? Was the biblical text corrupted? Or does the manuscript evidence show the Bible to be trustworthy and reliable? Let's look at the evidence.

THE MANUSCRIPT EVIDENCE. The question at hand is, are the translations we have today accurate based on the original and early manuscripts of the biblical text? If the text was preserved through the centuries, then we can be assured we have an accurate translations today. But if the evidence has been corrupted, has been wrongly transcribed, if the evidence is that today's translations are different than the original manuscripts, then one could question today's translations when put to the test.

In fact, that is just what happened with the Old Testament! For the longest time, the oldest manuscripts regarding the Old Testament of the Bible were approximately 1000 A.D. And then the manuscripts known as the Dead Sea Scrolls were amazingly discovered. Many of these texts were dated to 100-150 B.C. These were old manuscripts which took scholars much, much closer to the time of original manuscripts. Containing a portion of text for almost every book of the Old Testament, how did they match up to the manuscripts dated over a thousand years later? When compared to today's Hebrew Bible, the text was found to be 95% accurate with only small differences in spelling or simple mis-marks on the document.

The Old Testament clearly passed the test! And what scholars, and us, can know is that through the centuries of copying and recopying, the scribes got it right as they so very carefully copied the Old Testament texts.

It should be noted that the scribes and textual copyists DID NOT take their work lightly. There were strict rules and regulations they followed as they copied and stopped to count every line, every word, and every letter - all to ensure complete and total accuracy.

The New Testament also passes the test! To keep things fairly brief, let's simply identify the evidence for the accuracy and reliability of the New Testament. Please investigate further in books by Norman Geisler, Josh McDowell, and others.

A. The early New Testament manuscripts are very close to the original time in which events happened and the dates scholars have found for the original documents. The copies we have are very close in time to those first texts which is powerful evidence that they were accurate.

B. Compared to other ancient documents (of which no one questions the accuracy) the New Testament has much more textual evidence and support. More than 20,000 copies of either partial or complete ancient manuscripts are in existence. Dr. Norman Geisler tells us that in their study and investigations, scholars have found that only about one-half of one percent of the New Testament is even questioned - in other words 99.5% of the New Testament is spot-on accurate without question! And in the 0.5%, there is no doctrinal truth or historical event in question. The New Testament is most certainly reliable based on accuracy to the original documents.

C. Part of the support for the manuscript text are the eyewitnesses alive in biblical times. Many of the events that are recorded in the Bible, especially the New Testament were done early when many eyewitnesses were still alive. Those that penned the Bible, under the inspiration and leading of God the Holy Spirit, knew full well that many people who had seen Jesus do miracles, had heard Jesus teach and heard Jesus preach, were still alive when the New Testament was penned.

Whether they were followers and believers of Jesus or were skeptics and nonbelievers, these writers were aware of the words they were penning and knew the irrefutable truth of their words and of the biblical text. If anything other than the facts were written, those that were supporters to Jesus would know and publicly refute them and those people that were opponents of Jesus would know and publicly refute them.

If the biblical text were to be put on trial, eyewitnesses could be called on to testify to what they had seen and heard - and in the twenty centuries since, no historical, documented evidence has been presented to refute the biblical accounts of Scripture (instead, archaeology has supported and shown the biblical text to be accurate!). What we know is that the eyewitness aspect of the accounts in the Bible are powerful support that the Bible is historically and factually accurate. This is powerful support that the Bible is trustworthy.

The archaeological evidence supporting both the Old and New Testaments is overwhelming. With new finds and support still being found, a comprehensive list and synopsis of all the finds would take up an entire volume. A book like "A Ready Defense" by Josh McDowell gives one a proper perspective on the strong archaeological evidence that the Bible is indeed reliable and trustworthy.

The Old Testament has been supported, and skeptics answered, by findings such as: the Black Stele; the existence of the Hittites; David capturing Jerusalem; affirmation of the Book of Daniel; the discovery of the Ebla Tablets and their confirmation of the Pentateuch; the Mari Tablets; the Nuzi Tablets confirmation of Old Testament societal customs and ways; affirmation of Abraham and Joseph; the Amarna Tablets; the Gedaliah Seal; the Cyrus Cylinder; and of course, the Dead Sea Scrolls.

The New Testament has also been supported by archaeological findings, and its critics accordingly silenced. Supporting evidence coming soon! And check the news sites - new findings supporting the Bible happen regularly!

Update and supporting evidence in the works and coming soon!

Supporting evidence coming soon and don't forget to look at the article "Has science disproved the Bible?"

The personal evidence is powerful because it is one's personal testimony of what they know to be true. Your personal testimony to the trustworthiness and life-changing power of God's word, the Bible, is powerful! More info coming soon!

The Bible is certainly reliable and therefore absolutely trustworthy!