It is no longer common to believe that the Bible is God’s word. Even among evangelicals, the idea that the Bible is inspired, inerrant, and infallible is becoming increasingly rare.[1] It is increasingly common for people to argue that the Bible is out of step with modern ideas, rather than the other way around. Ultimately, what is in question here is authority. Who or what is in authority?
Throughout history, Christians have believed that the Bible is the ultimate authority for life. It tells us how we should live, both by means of explicit instruction and by means of general principles which we are to apply to specific circumstances. If one is to accept this, however, one must have good reasons for trusting the Bible. In that light, I want to show you several reasons you can trust the Bible.
Suffering Witness
The first reason you should accept the whole Bible, and the New Testament in particular, is that the men who wrote it suffered for their testimony. Most of them lost everything, including their lives, for recording what they did (2 Corinthians 11:23-29). There was nothing to gain by claiming that they had personally witnessed the resurrected Christ. In fact, not only would a citizen in the Roman Empire risk his life by claiming that there was a deity superior to Domitian the Roman Emporer, a Jew would risk his damnation by advocating a religion that changed the application of the Mosaic law, the observance of the Sabbath, the negation of the sacrificial system, the abolition of ceremonial days, and more. [2]
The Apostle John, who wrote Revelation, did so from the isle of Patmos. This was no vacation spot! Tradition says that he was banished to this Roman penal settlement about forty miles southwest of Miletus in the Aegean Sea after Domitian was unable to wrench a recantation from him by boiling him in oil. [3]
The Apostles shed their blood to write down the promises of scripture, so scripture is more than worthy of your consideration. It’s one thing to loudly advocate for a certain belief simply because one is passionate about it. It’s quite another when one does so knowing suffering is guaranteed, and death is likely.
Spirit’s Inspiration
By “inspired,” I mean that the Bible itself teaches that its words have been “breathed out” by God (2 Timothy 3:16). Rather than dictating, God “carried along” his authors, incorporating their unique personalities, experiences, vocabulary, and training so that while the result is exactly what God intended, the Bible also has a human feel (2 Peter 1:20-21). We call this manner of inspiration “concursus”; God wrote his word with the author. Jeremiah exemplifies concursus in the opening lines of his prophecy, “The words of Jeremiah. . .to whom the word of the Lord came” (Jeremiah 1:1-2).
The fact that the Bible was written by human authors is often an occasion for doubts about its trustworthiness. However, the fact that the authors were led by the Holy Spirit in their writing quells those doubts. It also does another thing we will get into in a subsequent post – it makes scripture relevant. The people writing the Bible lived the same human experience you and I did. They had similar doubts, fears, anxieties, and challenges. This fact gives the Bible a personal touch and a greater level of relatability. The combination of the inspiration of the Spirit to ensure accuracy and the human experience of the authors makes the Bible a truly amazing work unlike any other.
Infallible
The Bible is also infallible. Because the Bible is God’s word, it carries inherent authority and is unfailingly true. As Paul went on to remind Timothy, “All Scripture is God-breathed and is profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness that the man of God might be thoroughly equipped for every good work” (2 Timothy 3:17). Whether or not you believe the authors of Scripture were directly inspired by God, you cannot deny that they claim it for themselves and about each other (2 Peter 3:15-16). So it would be hypocritical for you to say that you believe the Bible is a good but faulty human book when it claims for itself that it is a divinely inspired and the infallible rule for faith and practice.
This topic is too important—and too long—to fit into one article. Consider the above reasons why you can trust the Bible, and join me for part two: "Is the Bible a Reliable Historical Document?", where we will compare the textual record of the Bible to other ancient texts that are considered the most reliable in history.
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[1] G.K. Beale, The Erosion of Inerrancy Among Evangelicals: Responding to Challenges to Biblical Authority (Wheaton: Crossway, 2008).
[2] Louis Gottschalk, Understanding History: A Primer of Historical Method 2d ed. (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1969), 150.
[3] Robert H. Mounce, The Book of Revelation (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1977), 75.