I’ve personally never questioned the Holy Bible’s accuracy or if it was written through the power of the Holy Spirit. It seems counter-productive to believe in God, whom I’ve never seen with my eyes, nor have I heard Him speak with my ears, and not believe the Bible is His Spirit which He left for us who believe in His Son, Jesus Christ. The Spirit who lives in us believers is the same Spirit who lives through His Word. I’ve always considered it a Christian’s guidebook to life.
I have a hard time trying to imagine that my God, who, I believe, created the whole world and every tiny detail of it, can lack the power to control every aspect of His Word. I’ve never considered it before now. This new-found consideration, you’d think, came about from conversations I’d been having with atheists or other nonbelievers. Still, in actuality, it stems from conversations I’ve been having with fellow Christians.
This breaks my heart a little. I expect nonbelievers to discredit the Bible because they do not believe. I get it, and I’m not upset with them for it. My God says to expect it, free will and all. But more than making me sad, it intrigues me how someone can claim Christianity and at the same time believe the Bible inaccurate, contradictory, and more than half of it (the Old Testament) irrelevant. I want to understand, or at least try to understand, how someone could believe in a God capable of making mistakes. But then I remembered it wasn’t technically God they credited for the mistakes since they were blaming human error. So I’ve been pondering some things, and I’d like to share them with you here so that we can talk them over.
A LITTLE HISTORY ON THE BIBLE
The Old Testament was written at different times between about 1200 and 165 BC, a period of 1035 years. 1200 BC was 3244 years ago! There were roughly 400 years between the OT and the NT. The NT covers only 70 years. The years are approximate because, contrary to what logic would tell us, Jesus was not born at the hinge of BC/AD. It has been established that Herod died in 4 BC (2022 years ago). So Jesus must have been born before.
The oldest, still existing, copy of a complete Bible is an early 4th-century parchment book preserved in the Vatican Library, and it is known as the Codex Vaticanus. The oldest copy of the Tanakh in Hebrew and Aramaic dates from the 10th century.
The discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls (dating 200 BC-68 AD) in 1947 drastically reduced the period from the writing of the OT to our earliest copies of them. The period of the NT is exceptional. It’s less than 200 years, and some books are within 100 years from the date of authorship to the date of our earliest copies.
Another tidbit on the Dead Sea Scrolls: In 2012, access (to anyone with a computer) was opened to everyone to look at the oldest Bible, known to humankind. High-resolution images of the Dead Sea Scrolls were posted online in a partnership between Google and the Israel Antiquities Authority. It includes portions of the Ten Commandments and the book of Genesis. Most of the fragments are not on display anywhere. Even if you were to go to Israel to the book’s shrine, you would not be able to see the 5,000 pieces that are online here. See for yourself at The Dead Sea Scrolls Digital Library.
IS THE OLD TESTAMENT STILL RELEVANT
The OT narrative builds anticipation for a coming savior, a blessed people, and a broader land. It creates the problem and includes promises that the NT answers and fulfills. We need the OT to understand God’s work in history fully. It greatly influences our understanding of key Biblical teachings. Where would Christians find worldview shaping ideas if not from Genesis 1?
The OT was Jesus’ only scripture, and He quotes or references it many times in the NT. If we discard the OT, how would we ever be able to know what He is talking about? Jesus is God; the OT mattered to Him. The OT was the only Scripture Jesus, and the earliest church had. It makes up 75.55% of our Bible.
Matt. 5:17:
"Do not think that I came to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I did not come to abolish but to fulffill"
Luke 24:44: Now He said to them, “These are My words which I spoke to you while I was still with you, that all things which are written about Me in the Law of Moses and the Prophets and the Psalms must be fulfilled.”
The OT was the first revelation of God. It built a foundation for the fulfillment we find in the NT. By the end of Deuteronomy, the 4th book of the OT, all five of the major covenants (Adamic-Noahic, Abrahamic, Mosaic, Davidic & New) that guide Scripture’s plot structure have already been described or hinted at. Then the rest of the OT builds on this in more detail.
The NT teachings are built on the framework supplied in the OT, and it’s filled with hundreds of quotes, references, and reflections from the OT. To understand a lot of what is written in the NT, we need the OT.
WE MEET THE SAME GOD IN BOTH TESTAMENTS
Hebrews 1:1-2; “God, after He spoke long ago to the fathers in the prophets in many portions and many ways, in these last days has spoken to us in His Son, whom He appointed heir of all things, through whom also He made the world.” The same God who spoke through the OT prophets speaks through Jesus.
Some people feel the OT God is one of wrath & judgment, and the NT God is one of freedom, grace, and forgiveness. If we compare some verses from both Testaments, we’ll see they are the same.
Ex. 34:6; “Then the Lord passed by in front of him and proclaimed, ‘The Lord, the Lord God, compassionate and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in lovingkindness and truth’…”
2 Kings 13:23; “But the Lord was gracious to them and had compassion on them and turned to them because of his covenant with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and would not destroy them or cast them from His presence until now.”
2 Chron. 30:9; “For if you return to the Lord, your brothers and your sons will find compassion before those who led them captive and will return to this land. For the Lord, your God is gracious and compassionate, and will not turn His face away from you if you return to Him.”
Neh. 9:30-31; “However, You bore with them for many years and admonished them by Your Spirit through Your prophets, yet they would not give ear. Therefore, You gave them into the hand of the peoples of the lands. Nevertheless, in Your great compassion, You did not make an end of them or forsake them, for You are a gracious and compassionate God.”
The OT is filled with verses of how compassionate, patient, loving, and forgiving God is. Even though His people were wayward, faithless, sinful, arrogant, selfish, and stubborn, He continued to pardon and preserve them. He never forsook them.
God’s grace fills the OT just as it does in the NT. In the NT, Jesus speaks about hell more than anyone else. God is just as wrathful in the NT as He is in the OT.
Matt. 10:28; “Do not fear those who kill the body but are unable to kill the soul; but rather fear Him who is able to destroy both soul and body in hell.”
Matt. 18:6; “but whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in Me to stumble, it would be better for him to have a heavy millstone hung around his neck, and to be drowned in the depth of the sea.”
Acts 10: 42-42; “And He ordered us to preach to the people, and solemnly to testify that this is the One who has been appointed by God as Judge of the living and the dead. Of Him, all the prophets bear witness that through His name everyone who believes in Him receives forgiveness of sins.”
Rom. 12:19; “Never take your own revenge, beloved, but leave room for the wrath of God, for it is written, ‘Vengeance is Mine, I will repay, says the Lord'”. Paul is quoting here from the OT, Deut. 32:35.
We first learn of the good news of the coming Messiah in the OT. Gen. 12:2-3; “And I will make you a great nation, and I will bless you, and make your name great; so you shall be a blessing; I will bless those who bless you, and the one who curses you I will curse. And in you, all the nations of the earth will be blessed.”
How can we know this is the meaning of these two verses? Because Paul says in Gal. 3:8; “The Scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, preached the gospel beforehand to Abraham, saying, ‘All the nations will be blessed in you'”. He stresses this in Rom. 1:1-3; “Paul, a bond-servant of Christ Jesus, called as an apostle, set apart for the gospel of God, which He promised beforehand through His prophets in the Holy Scriptures, concerning His Son, who was born of a descendant of David according to the flesh…”
Both the Old and New Testaments call for love and we can learn much about love from the OT. Jesus stressed this point in Matt. 22:37-40; “And He said to him, ‘ You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the first and foremost commandment. The second is like it, You shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments depend the whole Law and the Prophets”.
Here Jesus was referring to OT Scripture, Deut. 6:5. Again in Matt. 7:12, Jesus speaks of the Law and the Prophets, “In everything, therefore, treat people the same way you want them to treat you, for this is the Law and the Prophets.” The God, of the NT, who calls Christians to live lives characterized by love, is the very God of the OT who called Israel to do the same.
Luke 16:16; Rom. 6:14; 1 Cor. 9:20-21; Gal. 5:18; In these passages, we read the OT’s age has ended, but it remains relevant. It makes a prominent exhibition of the character of God. Rom. 7:12; “So then, the Law is holy, and the commandment is holy and righteous and good.” In the NT, John 1:45; John 5:39; 5:46-47; Luke 24:27, Jesus said all the OT points to Him. He quoted from fourteen individual books of the OT. The OT is quoted in the NT over 1,600 times. If you want to know Jesus, better read the OT.
HOW ACCURATE IS THE BIBLE
How can we be sure the Bible is the same now as when it was written? Some believe because it’s been copied and translated so many times, there have to be inaccuracies. But how accurate is that belief? No one who has made that statement to me has been able to name even one inaccuracy or contradiction. I’ve done some searching into this subject, and I’ll list a few that I’ve found.
Ex. 20:8; “Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy”.
Supposed contradiction; Rom. 14:5; “One person regards one day above another, another regards every day alike. Each person must be fully convinced in his own mind.”
Jesus tells us He came to fulfill the law, not destroy it. He grew up under the law, and yet He says in Matt. 12:12; “How much more valuable then is a man than a sheep! So then, it is lawful to do good on the Sabbath.” Even though Christians are not under the law of Moses in a religious sense, they can still observe the sabbath, but they “must be fully convinced in their own mind.”
Ecc. 1:4; “A generation goes, and a generation comes, but the earth remains forever.”
Supposed contradiction; 2 Pet. 3: 10; “But the day of the Lord will come like a thief, and then the heavens will pass away with a roar, and the heavenly bodies will be burned up and dissolved, and the earth and the works that are done on it will be exposed.”
Ecc. 1:4 is a human perspective that as generations come and go, the earth will remain. 2 Peter is the reality that sometime in the future, Jesus will return and “create new heavens and a new earth.” (Is. 65:17; Rev.21:1) But this does not mean that the earth will not remain, only that it will be changed in a very significant way.
Gen. 32:30; “So Jacob named the place Peniel, for he said, ‘I have seen God face to face, yet my life has been preserved.”
Supposed contradiction; John 1:18; “No one has seen God at any time; the only begotten Son who is in the bosom of the Father, He has explained Him.”
Moses saw God in a burning bush (Ex. 3:2). Job saw God in a whirlwind (Job 38:1). Let’s back up a few verses and see what was going on with Jacob before saying he “saw” God face to face.
Gen. 32:24-29; “Then Jacob was left alone, and a man wrestled with him until daybreak. When he saw that he had not prevailed against him, he touched the socket of this thigh; so the socket of Jacob’s thigh was dislocated while he wrestled with him. Then he said, ‘Let me go, for the dawn is breaking.’ But he said, ‘I will not let you go unless you bless me.’ So he said to him, ‘What is your name?’ And he said, ‘Jacob.’ He said, ‘Your name shall no longer be Jacob, but Israel; for you have striven with God and with men and have prevailed.’ Then Jacob asked him and said, ‘Please tell me your name.’ But he said, ‘Why is it that you ask my name.’ And he blessed him there.”
Was it really God Jacob saw? No. What Moses, Job, and Jacob saw was a manifestation or a representative of God.
Lev. 18:21; “You shall not give any of your offspring to offer them to Molech, nor shall you profane the name of your God; I am the Lord.”
Supposed contradiction; Judges 11:30-31; “Jephthah made a vow to the Lord and said, ‘If You will indeed give the sons of Ammon into my hand, then it shall be that whatever comes out of the door of my house to meet me when I return in triumph from the sons of Ammon, it shall be the Lord’s, and I will offer it up as a burnt offering.”
The Bible makes it very clear that God considers human sacrifice to be an abomination. Read Deut. 12:31; Jer. 19:4-5; Lev. 20:2; 2 Kings 3:27; 16: 2-3; 2 Chron. 28-3; Ez. 20:31; Ps. 106: 37-41.
In Judges 11, God did not ask Jephthah to make this sacrifice. Jephthah made this foolish vow of his own accord. Maybe it was an attempt to manipulate God. Surely, when he made this vow, he never considered anything other than an animal would be the first out of his door. We know he knew God’s word because he demonstrated this knowledge when he negotiated with the Ammonites. It is almost certain he knew that the Mosaic Law strictly forbade human sacrifice. If he actually sacrificed his daughter by fire, he should not have done so because it clearly went against God, and he knew it.
God would not have made or expected him to keep his vow in this way. In Judges 11: 37-39, his daughter asks for two months to “lament her virginity,” not her impending death. So it seems she was “sacrificed” in the sense that her life would be consecrated unto God and she would never marry or have children.
Ex. 21:23-25; “But if there is any further injury, then you shall appoint as a penalty life for life, eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot, burn for burn, wound for wound, bruise for bruise.”
Supposed contradiction; Matt. 5:39; “But I say to you, do not resist an evil person; but whoever slaps you on your right cheek, turn the other to him also.”
The Mosaic Law in Ex. 21 was not requiring vengeance but putting limitations on it. The law recommended that punishment fit the crime. Jesus went much further than the law, making it clear that He wasn’t merely calling for more limitations on vengeance but that we must give up personal vengeance altogether. There is a difference between confronting evil and seeking personal revenge.
We see, in Matt. 23, Jesus denounced the Pharisees who attacked Him and in, John 18:22-23, He objected when an officer of the high priest struck him. He advised His disciples to be prepared to defend themselves in Matt. 10:16 and Luke 22:36-38. Jesus does not ask us to be passive, but He does want us to surrender our right to personal revenge. (Rom. 12:19). When we seek revenge, we are motivated by hatred and a desire to make someone pay for what they have done to us.
James 2:24; “You see that a person is considered righteous by what they do and not by faith alone.”
Supposed contradiction; Rom. 3:20; “Therefore no one will be declared righteous in God’s sight by the works of the law; rather, through the law, we become conscious of our sin.” 28; “For we maintain that a person is justified by faith apart from the works of the law.” 5:1; “Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.”
This is the most important matter. It’s a matter of how sinners are saved. Paul and James both speak of justification, but they are speaking about two different kinds of justification. In Romans, the context is our standing before God, His view, and verdict upon us. God justifies us by our faith; he counts us as righteous because of the faith only He can see.
In James, the context is our standing before people, their view, and verdict upon us. People cannot see the faith in our hearts, so they conclude we are righteous by the good works they see in our lives. The whole book of James is about how we are to live out our faith. It’s all about the visible practice, visibly practicing our faith, our relationship with other people, and how they see us. It’s not about how we get salvation but how we demonstrate that we have it.
LET’S WRAP IT UP
The Jewish scribes held great reverence toward the Scriptures. They took extreme measures when making new copies of the Hebrew Bible, and as a result, the manuscripts’ quality exceeds all other ancient manuscripts. The reliability of the Old Testament is excellent.
The New Testament supposedly has some errors, but I have not found one source to tell me exactly what they are. I’ve read they are visual errors or audible errors in copying, or errors from faulty writing. I’m concluding that none of these supposed errors are big or significant enough to call into question any of the doctrines of the New Testament. If you are privy to this information, please use the comment space to let me know.
The Bible is 66 books woven together to make one book. We can examine the truth claims of various authors of the Bible. This is significant evidence that can not be overlooked. Many of the Bible’s authors claim to be eyewitnesses of the events they recorded.
Scriptures repeatedly refer to historical events; they are verifiable; they can be fact-checked. Sources have well established the history of Jesus outside of the Bible. Historian, Flavius Josephus, made several references to Biblical events and gave many background details in his Antiquities to the Jews. Other 1st and 2nd century writers mention Jesus: Cornelius Tacitus, Gaius Suetonius Tranquillus, & Pliny the Younger.
Archeology has provided external proof of hundreds of Biblical statements. As a result of their work, many archeologists have developed a great respect for the Scriptures’ historical accuracy.
I have never needed proof that the Bible is real, accurate, and intact. But if someone needs the proof, it is out there. Many who have set out to dispute, refute, or prove it false have become believers. As I have spent many hours reading and researching, I have only become more adamant that the Bible is God’s Holy Word. It is exactly what He wanted, and we are not to add to or take away from it (Deut 4:2; Rev. 22:18-19). If it seems to be contradictory, it is only to make us dig deeper. I think God likes, and He is not afraid of, our questions because when searching for the answers, we come to know Him even better.