Guest Post: Can We Trust the Bible? By Carter Manning
Many atheists reject Christianity because they doubt the accuracy of the Bible. They say that the Bible is a book full of myths that only crazy people believe. But what atheists don't know is that they are actually the crazy ones!
When archaeologists discover an ancient, historical document, they put it through three tests to examine the document's accuracy. If the document fails even one of these three tests, the document cannot really be trusted.
The first test is the internal test. This test is applied to see if the document contradicts itself. Through careful observation, archaeologists have had to admit that the Bible passes this test as well, (if not better) as many other trusted documents.
The second test is the external test. This test is applied to see if the document contradicts any other historical documents. A well respected, non-christian historian, Flavius Josephus, wrote about Jesus, mentioning his death and resurrection. As well, many other non-christian historians have written about cities and events that agree with the OT and the NT. Thus, the Bible not only passes the external test, it passes it better than any other historical document!
The third and final test is the bibliographic test. This test is applied to see if the document's copies are the same as the original. The NT has over 24,000 copies, (the earliest only 25 years after the original) that support the original document. These numbers far surpass the works of many other documents, including the works of Sophocles. What about the OT? The earliest copy we have are the Dead Sea Scrolls, found in 1947. It matches up word for word in a standard Hebrew Bible more than 95% of the time. (The 5% variation is because of different spelling, and obvious messy handwriting.) And so, the Bible passes the bibliographic test better than any other document.
There is clearly no reason to doubt the Bible. Atheists aren't rejecting Christianity because there isn't enough evidence to back it up. However, not wanting to give up sin or admit that they are sinful is a more likely case. We need to show atheists that life in Christ provides more joy than sin ever could.
When archaeologists discover an ancient, historical document, they put it through three tests to examine the document's accuracy. If the document fails even one of these three tests, the document cannot really be trusted.
The first test is the internal test. This test is applied to see if the document contradicts itself. Through careful observation, archaeologists have had to admit that the Bible passes this test as well, (if not better) as many other trusted documents.
The second test is the external test. This test is applied to see if the document contradicts any other historical documents. A well respected, non-christian historian, Flavius Josephus, wrote about Jesus, mentioning his death and resurrection. As well, many other non-christian historians have written about cities and events that agree with the OT and the NT. Thus, the Bible not only passes the external test, it passes it better than any other historical document!
The third and final test is the bibliographic test. This test is applied to see if the document's copies are the same as the original. The NT has over 24,000 copies, (the earliest only 25 years after the original) that support the original document. These numbers far surpass the works of many other documents, including the works of Sophocles. What about the OT? The earliest copy we have are the Dead Sea Scrolls, found in 1947. It matches up word for word in a standard Hebrew Bible more than 95% of the time. (The 5% variation is because of different spelling, and obvious messy handwriting.) And so, the Bible passes the bibliographic test better than any other document.
There is clearly no reason to doubt the Bible. Atheists aren't rejecting Christianity because there isn't enough evidence to back it up. However, not wanting to give up sin or admit that they are sinful is a more likely case. We need to show atheists that life in Christ provides more joy than sin ever could.
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