The Fact about the Bible

You remember reading those old mystery books? Maybe your like me and as a little boy you loved the Hardy Boys. Maybe you never stooped that low, but insisted upon better quality books like Sherlock Holmes. Whatever the case you know how the stories go. There is a crime and a crime scene, and the detectives have to use certain methods and certain bits of sheer brain power to solve the case. Now how do they come to a conclusion as to what is true and what is false? Usually the process involves collecting evidence and then drawing conclusions based on that evidence.

Well, the same kind of Process applies to anything ancient and especially ancient documents. When a document is discovered steps must be taken to ascertain whether or not it has any historical or literary value. We have already seen the first two steps (here and here) that must be taken to this end. Now lets move to the third and most forensic test: the external test.

The external test has two parts to it: first it must check out with other documents as to whether or not it is true. Then it must be confirmed by archaeological findings. Most documents when put under this do fairly well, but they also often have cases of contradiction (however, they are not substantial enough to fail the document). The Bible on the other hand does not make any claims which are contradictory to solid archaeological or documentary evidence. Now it is quite impossible to exhaustively explain every single piece of evidence in support of the Bible, and whole books have been devoted to that end. Instead we will only look briefly at a few.

First of all, the very existence of Sodom and Gomorrah was for years considered by secularists to be a complete myth. It was further considered an even greater myth that as Genesis 19:24 reads: “The Lord rained on Sodom and Gomorrah sulfur and fire from the Lord out of heaven.” However, to the utter astonishment of many the ruins Sodom and Gomorrah were found southeast of the Dead Sea and all over the sites are massive amounts of sulfur balls pointing toward some sort of massive hail storm of flaming sulfur. (I might add that some secularists claim that it was caused by a massive volcanic eruption somewhere else in the world, meaning that they were destroyed by natural phenomena, thus God had nothing to do with it. This is false reasoning because all it means is that God may have used natural means to accomplish a supernatural end.)

Another amazing testimony to the truthfulness of God’s word comes from historian and contemporary Flavius Josephus. Take a look at what he said regarding Christianity and the death (which many doubt) and resurrection (which even more doubt). And this comes from a man who persecuted and hated Christians:

At this time there was a wise man called Jesus, and his conduct was good, and he was known to be virtuous. Many people among the Jews and the other nations became his disciples. Pilate condemned him to be crucified and to die. But those who had become his disciples did not abandon his discipleship. They reported that he had appeared to them three days after his crucifixion and that he was alive. Accordingly, he was perhaps the Messiah, concerning whom the prophets have reported wonders. And the tribe of the Christians, so named after him, has not disappeared to this day.

If you would like to read more examples this website is very accurate, although it is quite brief: Faith Facts

An Internal Miracle

It is claimed by many that there are many contradictions in the Bible. If you do a Google search ‘contradictions of the Bible’ you will find literally hundreds of websites dedicated to showing that the Bible is loaded with contradictions. One author claims that the Bible has at least 144 obviously irreconcilable passages from Genesis to Revelation. However, many of these supposed contradictions are quite obvious. For instance a huge number of them surround the character of God, and how many of His attributes seem contradictory such as the trinity, even more are not contradictory they just don’t state all the same facts, and others still can be quickly solved when we look at the customs of the day.

For instance according to Mathew 27:5 Judas went and hung himself, while Acts 1:18 gives the impression that Judas jumped off a cliff. The solution is fairly simple. Around Jerusalem there are many trees that grow out over the edge of cliffs, and it was the common practice of suicidal individuals to hang themselves by jumping over the edge with the rope around their neck and around the tree then jumping off the cliff. This is probably what Judas did.

Another example is in the genealogies of Christ. In the book of Mathew a genealogy is given that seems completely contradictory to that given by Luke. The problem is solved, however, by realizing that Mathew traces the genealogy of Christ through Joseph to Abraham while Luke traces the genealogy of Christ through Mary to Adam. Both of which make sense. In Jewish tradition genealogies where traced from father to son, so we would expect Mathew the Jew to trace Jesus’ genealogy through Joseph. The Gentiles where not so strict so it made more sense to trace it through Mary, seeing that she was the only person related to Jesus, for Luke the Gentile.

The list of possible contradictions and their refutations could go on and on, as could every other ancient document (though not necessarily with refutations). The fact of the matter is that the Bible has not even one contradiction that cannot be explained. Even though it was written over a period of 1500 years by more than 40 authors, it is by far one of the most internally consistent books in all of ancient history.

1+1=3

Confused? You should be. Math may not be easy but we all know 1+1=2 right? It is one of the first things we learn in math. When someone claims that 1+1=3 you would call them out of their mind. But the fact of the matter is that there are many thing equally obvious that people tend to miss all the time.

As promised in the previous post I will flesh out how well the Bible passes the first test applied to ancient documents. This test as was mentioned is called the Bibliographic test. Its purpose is to determine if the document we are looking at is accurate to the original, or in other words its goal is to see if the document is just a fake or if it was an actual ancient document. The fact of the matter is that this test does not solidly prove the accuracy of a document, but failure to pass this test will disprove the accuracy of a document.

This test involves two steps. The first, is to determine how many copies of the text where made and how close those copies were to the original. The second step, is to compare all the copies that we have for variations in the text (more then about an average variance of 25% and the document is rejected.

So first lets look at how some other ancient documents pass this test. The second best document in all history to pass the bibliographic test is Homer’s the Iliad. The Iliad has 643 known copies made of it the first of which was written around 500 years after the original, and the copies agree with one another in about 90% of the material. Caesar’s Gallic Wars are another example, this document is considered very reliable, and yet there are only 10 known copies the first of which was written more then 1000 years after the original, it is accurate in only about 80% of its material, and this is not the exception, but the rule. Most ancient documents have about 5 to 10 copies written 1000 to 2000 years after the original, and yet they pass the test.

Now lets look at the Bible. The New Testament was written from about 40 AD to a little before 70 AD. We find the first copies made a little before 100 AD. Thus, there is a gap of less then 50 years between the original and the first copy! Furthermore, there are nearly 25,000 copies of the New Testament alone. The Old Testament isn’t far behind. It was written over a span of about 1000 years ending around 450 BC, and the first complete Old Testament copy that we have was completed around 125 BC (they are called the Dead Sea Scrolls), the copies are 98% accurate to the original. However, there are only about 15 complete collections of the Old Testament which is still far better then most ancient documents especially considering that the Old Testament is one of the oldest ancient documents ever to pass this test, and it is about 95% accurate to the original.

Obviously the Bible passes this test far better then any other ancient document. If you don’t believe me look it up for yourself you will find everything I have said is true. It is as obvious as the fact that 1+1=2.

Sacred Scripture

You have probably heard it said that it is logically impossible to logically defend the infallibility of the Bible because in order to do so you must first assume the infallibility of the Bible. This is considered an informal fallacy called petitio principii or in English begging the question. One simplistic example from Gordon Clark’s book Logic is: “Chess is a better recreation than soccer because soccer is not so good a recreation as chess.” However, speaking strictly logically this is a valid conclusion it just accomplishes nothing. Thus what is often claimed is that the argument made for the infallibility of the Bible (and the smugly imply the only possible argument to be made) is: All the Bible is infallible. The Bible says it is infallible. Therefore, the Bible is infallible. Many Christians are often comfortable with this defense of the Bible. I for one am not.

Now let me show you how you can defend the infallibility of the Bible without using this circular reasoning. The argument goes like this: The Bible is considered the most historically accurate, and thoroughly truthful document in all of ancient history and even reaching into the next millennium. Therefore, if we are to trust the accuracy and truthfulness of any other document then we must treat the Bible equally. The Bible says that it is infallible. Therefore, the Bible is infallible.

Now let me explain how the conclusion is reached that the Bible is the most historically accurate and thoroughly truthful document in all of history. Scientist have developed over the last few centuries a method of putting ancient documents to the test. It involves first determining if the documents we have are actually the documents they claim to be; this is called the Bibliographic test. Then the document is examined thoroughly to see if it is internally contradictory following what is known as Aristotle’s Dictum which basically means that we give a document the benefit of the doubt; this is called the Internal test. Finally the document is compared to archaeological findings and to other documents that have already passed the test to look for discrepancies; this is called the External test. If a document passes all three of these tests then it is considered to be a reliable, accurate, historical, and truthful.

Now in the next three posts I will look at how the Bible passes these three tests compared to how the rest of all ancient documents pass these tests.

Faith in….

We as Christians are called to faith in Christ Jesus our Lord. But faith in what? If non-Christians are right we have faith in nothing. Our faith, however, is anything but blind. From the realms of logic and philosophy, to biology and archaeology. The Bible has been proven to hold the only reliable and truthful answers to the great questions of life that philosophers have always struggled with throughout the ages. Questions like “why is there something rather than nothing?” ‘What is the meaning of life?’ ‘What is truth?’ (Or more accurately ‘who is truth’ see John 14:6.) All of these question and many other are questions that pagan philosophers have struggled in vain to answer throughout history to answer. And they cannot answer them reasonably without borrowing from the Christian Worldview because the Christianity is the truth.

In the following series of posts I plan to show step by step that Christianity is indeed very defensible. Briefly put here is the plan I intend to follow, Lord willing. I’ll start with the authority of the word. Once that is established I will then look at the realm of logic and show how that can only exist logically in the Christian worldview. From their I will move to science and considered how any of the laws of science could exist if there was not one almighty all sovereign God. Finally, we will look at the wonderful harmony of His creation.

By the time I’m done I hope to show very plainly that the Christian faith is very defensible and anything but Blind.

By Faith

What is Faith? It is a word we would all recognize. And yet we each have our own definitions. Some would say faith is belief in things that cannot be proven. This is the view of faith that is held by most secular people today. A view your more likely to have is that faith is belief in things not seen. Which is true as far as it goes, but there is much more to faith then belief.

There are a few things that we learn about faith in Hebrews. First we learn, from chapter 10 that faith in the atoning work of Christ Jesus is the only faith that leads to salvation. If that is so then it follows that faith is demanded of every Christian. We see that “the just shall live by faith; but if anyone draws back My soul will have no pleasure in him” (Heb 10:38). In other words God requires us to be faithful in all things to Him or He will take no pleasure in us. This may seem obvious, but it is extremely foundational and needs to be said.

The next thing that we see is that faith is the substance of things hoped for (Heb 11:1a). Our hope is in Christ’s redemptive work. That because of the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ we shall not perish but have everlasting life. Our faith is the substance of that hope. Meaning that without faith in Christ we shall perish. We, like Abraham, believe God in faith and it is accounted to us as righteousness.

We see also that faith is the evidence of things not seen (Heb11:1b). The faith of Christians throughout the ages is great testimony to the reality of the Christian faith. Thousands and even millions of Christians have been martyred for their faith since the resurrection of Christ. As recently as the Vietnam era (and I’m sure it is still happening) there are documented stories of the Chinese military taking a few hundred Christians then at gun point telling them to deny their faith and shooting them if they did not. Often times they would kill hundreds of Christians and not one would deny their faith and many of them had been Christians for less then a week. Now let me ask you what kind of faith it is that you would die in defense of after less then a week of belief? The answer is that it is only a faith is founded in Truth and that is brought about by the conviction of the Holy Spirit.

In Hebrews 11:6 we read not only that God requires faith from those who are His, but that He “is the rewarder of those who diligently seek Him.” By faith Noah built the Ark and received the whole earth. By faith Abraham received his son. By faith Joseph arose to the favor of Pharaoh. By faith Israel crossed the Red Sea. By faith Joshua defeated the people of Canaan and obtained the promised land. By faith David was made king. And by faith the virgin conceived.

“Therefore we also, sin we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which so easily ensnares us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shamed, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.”

It Wasn’t the Fruit

Where did we go wrong? This world seems like it is spinning out of control. Everywhere you look there is evil and vice. Maybe its in your family, your friend, your church, your culture, or yourself. Actually it’s probably in all of them.

Today our culture is particularly full of God-haters who are dragging our culture down to the pit. How have we gotten here? Some might say that we are here because of men like Darwin, Marx, Rousseau, and others like them. Others might point to movements like the enlightenment, rationalism, romanticism, and materialism. Ultimately things are this way, however, because of what happened in Genesis 3:6 “So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate, and she also gave some to her husband who was with her, and he ate.” God had strictly warned Adam and Eve not to eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, but they did anyway. They didn’t obey God and they didn’t believe God, and we are here because of it.

But specifically how have we gotten into the predicament we are in today? How has America fallen apart so much? Ultimately it isn’t because of Darwin, Marx, Rousseau, or any other man for that matter. Nor is it attributable to any one movement. It isn’t because of what happened it is because of what didn’t happen. America, I would argue, is in the situation it is in because Christians have not obeyed and believed God. After all Adam’s sin was not eating the fruit. No his sin that he didn’t obey and didn’t believe God. In the words of Edmund Burke: “All that is necessary for evil to triumph is for good men to do nothing,” and that is exactly the situation America is sitting in right now.

This ought not to depress us, though. On the contrary, this ought to inspire us because we should realize that the powers of hell can only triumph even temporarily if Christians sit back and do nothing. It also ought to give us great hope that we can turn it back and again let the name of God sound across America.