Part Two: Can We Trust the Bible?

Part 2 Reliability – Suspicions Relieved

This is part 2 of “Can we trust the Bible?”, so if you haven’t read part 1, you can click here. In part 1, I described some reasons for trusting the internal genuineness of the Bible, but in addition to that, the Bible also challenges scepticism through external confirmation. Starting around 200 years ago, some scholars had a lot of scepticism regarding the Bible, so much so that it was claimed that some of the heroes mentioned in part 1 never even existed. Since that time, though, the sceptical challenge has been met by various disciplines. To mention one discipline, archaeology has done much to vindicate the Bible’s reliability. We have artefacts from the time of Moses, David, the kings of Israel and Judah, down through to time of Jesus and the apostles. A few years ago, I read a book called Unearthing the Bible, and even though I had been involved in biblical studies for 15 years at the time, half of the hundred discoveries mentioned that shed light on the Bible were totally new to me. I thought I knew of a significant amount of external confirmation, but I literally didn’t know the half of it, and I am sure there is much more still to be found.

Predictive Prophecy – The Voice from Heaven

More than just having a general historical reliability, as do some other ancient documents, the Bible sets itself apart as the word of God through predictive prophecy. In response to the question of what would lead him to believe in God, the famous atheist philosopher, Bertrand Russell, said that if he heard a voice from heaven predicting a series of things that later came to pass, he would have to believe in some kind of supernatural being. The Bible gives us this prophetic voice hundreds and hundreds of times. The most powerful example is that of Jesus, the central figure of the Bible, as the Old Testament points towards Him and the New Testament looks back to Him. Jesus was not only prophesied about hundreds of years in advance, but He also made predictions of His own that were subsequently fulfilled. To give just a few examples, Jesus’ birthplace (Micah 5:2), His lineage (Genesis 49:10; Isaiah 9:6-7), His main place of ministry (Isaiah 9:1-2) and His manner of death (Psalm 22; Isaiah 52:13-53:12) were all prophesied centuries before the time of Jesus. Jesus, in turn, made predictions of His own, some of which involved the events surrounding the fall of Jerusalem in 70AD. In Mark 13:1-2, while His disciples were admiring the Jewish temple, Jesus proclaimed that the stones of the temple would be thrown down, or in other words, the temple in Jerusalem would be destroyed. When His disciples asked for more details, Jesus gave them more details, which we know from history happened prior to the fall of Jerusalem. These details include the appearances of other people falsely claiming to be the Messiah (Mark 13:5-6), the persecution of Jesus’ disciples at various levels of leadership (Mark 13:9), the warning for those in Jerusalem to leave to avoid the siege (Mark 13:14) and the timing within the current generation (Mark 13:28-30).

The Bible – Words We Can Trust

After the last prediction mentioned, Jesus makes one more of universal significance: “Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will not pass away” (Mark 13:31). This is clearly a bold statement, but one which He can back up. We can trust the Bible because it tells us the truth, not just what we want to hear. We can trust the Bible because it has proven itself to be reliable, in spite of sceptical challenges. Most of all, we can trust the Bible because of Jesus, the One to whom the Old Testament was pointing and the One on whom the New Testament was built. Jesus said that eternal destiny is bound up in His words, and for those who put their trust in the Bible, that is an encouraging thought.