2 Timothy 3:16-17  

 

Other religions have their own holy scriptures they revere above all else. How can we know that the Bible is the one that should be trusted? 

 

Five reasons you can trust the Bible

  1. Inspired by God. … This doesn't mean that the Bible is inspirational. It's not a halftime speech or motivational book. No, that the Bible is inspired means that the words are breathed out by God. The writers were men, but they were so guided by the Holy Spirit that they penned the words of God. 
  2. Historically reliable. … 2 Peter 1:16 tells us that the accounts given in the New Testament are from eye witnesses. They didn't make up the stories. Beyond that declaration, many of the historical events in both the Old and New Testament have been confirmed by other findings. Check out some of the resources below to learn more. 
  3. Accurately preserved and translated. … For a long time, our oldest manuscripts of the Old Testament came from about 1000 AD. Then in 1830 we found some from around 1 AD. The question that had always been asked was whether or not we still had the original text. The two manuscripts, a thousand years apart, were virtually identical. The Bible has been meticulously and carefully copied over the generations. So, if we have the original text, why are there so many translations? The issue here is that different translators take different approaches. Some do a more  literal, word for word translation where others are more paraphrasiacal, thought for thought translations. And others try to find a good balance between the two. The image below shows where different translations fall on this continuum.   
  4. One unified story. … The Bible isn't just a collection of motivational tales and inspirational sayings. It is a unified story that spans thousands of years with more than forty different authors that somehow wrote a single cohesive story. The Bible has no comparison in this aspect. The scriptures from other religions were each written by one person over much shorter periods. Only the Bible was written over the course of history. The only explanation for it to be so cohesive is that God was behind it.  This image illustrates how interconnected the Bible is. 
  5. Power to change your life. … Sometimes we forget how powerful the Bible really is. We often treat it as an inspirational story that is nice to have around instead of recognizing the power within.  The powerful truth it holds within has the power and authority to change lives.

 

For Further Study/Resources Used to Prepare This Message

  • How We Got the Bible by Timothy Paul Jones
  • Can We Trust the Gospels? by Peter J. Williams
  • Cold-Case Christianity by J. Warner Wallace
  • Taking God at His Word by Kevin DeYoung
  • The Authority of Scripture by John Stott
  • Living by the Book by Howard & William Hendricks
  • Why Trust the Bible? by Greg Gilbert
  • Can I Trust the Bible? by Wesley Huff (YouTube)