The Bible is the bestselling book of all time, hands down. And, it has had more influence on western culture than any other book - without question.
And yet, many people, even in the church, have doubts about its reliability. So, what does the evidence say about its reliability and historical accuracy?
First of all, it's important to understand that individual human beings, as well as entire cultures, are quite unreliable and fallible. They change. They come and go. They get things wrong. What is considered settled science today will be supplanted by new theories centuries from now. So, if we consider ourselves enlightened today, but will be considered ignorant by those living 100 years from now, are we really that enlightened? The fact that our technology keeps improving demonstrates not that we are really smart, but that we are quite ignorant. If we were as smart as we imagine, we wouldn't need to keep improving things. We wouldn't need to keep replacing outdated theories.
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Isaiah 55:9.
However, God is just the opposite. Along with being eternal, He is also infallible, which means He cannot be wrong or make a mistake. "For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are My ways higher than your ways and My thoughts than your thoughts." (Isaiah 55:9) He doesn't need to learn from or improve upon anything He has made or has done. "The grass withers and the flower fades, but the Word of the Lord endures forever" (1 Peter 1:24-25).
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1 Peter: 24-25
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2 Timothy 3:16
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Genesis 1
Ultimately, the Bible is reliable because God is its author (2 Timothy 3:16). Still, the Bible didn't drop out of the sky. God used people to be His instruments in order to get His Word written down. In a miraculous way, God inspired the words of Scripture. Of course, we do see the individual personalities and stvles of each author in the texts they wrote, but this doesn't detract from the Divine inspiration of the text. Rather, it displays the incalculable power and wisdom of God, the creator and redeemer of all things. The verbal inspiration of Scripture really isn't so hard to believe when you consider how life got started in the first place. God created the universe out of nothing (Genesis 1)! Nothing is impossible for Him (Mark 10:27).
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Mark 10:27
There is remarkable consistency between the earliest manuscripts of the Bible and the copies we have today. And, all the small differences between the manuscripts don't affect the meaning of what is written. Furthermore, the Bible demonstrates something which is quite rare among ancient texts.
There is usually a gap of a few centuries between the time of an event and the oldest surviving written record of that event. But, with the New Testament, the oldest surviving manuscripts date to within a few decades of the events they describe.
This has led some scholars - even secular ones - to say that if the New Testament isn't history, there is no such thing as history. In other words, if we can't consider the Bible to be reliable history, we can't o consider any ancient writings reliable either, since the Bible surpasses them all in terms of its historicity. Furthermore, recent archeological discoveries have verified the historicity of the Scriptures as well. The more archeologists discover, the more the Bible is proven to be true.
Still, many claim that the Bible contains contradictions. Often, the differences between the four Gospels are put forward as an example. But, a difference is not the same thing as a contradiction.
Often, one writer recorded more detail than the others did. Sometimes, the differences were due to the perspective from which the author witnessed the events. But, this doesn't mean each writer gave his own subjective version of what he thinks happened. Rather, each one gave a unique, yet objectively true and reliable account of the events of Jesus' life, death and resurrection. It's kind of like looking at a diamond from different angles.
You see something unique about the diamond from each angle you look at it from. But, you're looking at the same diamond.
At the heart and center of the reliability of the Gospel accounts is the Death and Resurrection of Jesus. In fact, a number of people have ended up believing in Christ from their examination of these events. One such man was Simon Greenleaf, who taught Law at Harvard University from 1833 to1848. Originally, Greenleaf set out to disprove the reliability of the Gospel accounts by using legal reasoning. But, instead, he ended up being convinced that Christ rose from the dead. Another is Lee Strobel, who, as an investigative journalist, sought to disprove the Resurrection only to full discover from the evidence that it truly happened.
Strobel went on to write a number of books which examine the solid evidence for the death and SI resurrection of Jesus.
At the end of the day, Jesus is the entire point of the Bible. He is at the center. His life, death, and resurrection for the sake of the whole world is the main message. It doesn't do any good to convince someone that the Bible is true if they aren't then led to faith in Jesus. God has revealed Himself in His Son, Jesus Christ, through His Word, the Bible, so that all who believe in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.
