Is Our Bible Trustworthy?

Last night I watched another "Discovery Channel" Bible bashing fest. The name of the show was, "Banned From the Bible". As you may guess the show examined books that were left out of the original canon. They briefly mentioned that the books in question were written in the 3rd and 4th centuries and went on to express that the books MAY HAVE been handed down in oral tradition from as early as the first century.

Now, this isn't the first time that I have heard this information. So, I am not shocked that a show that is designed, by it's very nature, to tickle itching ears would spew this kind of garbage to make a buck. After all, I watched it... which is what they bank on to sell their advertising time.

Let's face it, most adults of America are all too often looking for ways to water down the gospel message. This notion isn't new... Many of them want to believe in God, but don't want to get too immersed in the real direction provided by him in his Bible. After all, it directly condemns sin of all sorts and offers severe consequences for ignoring it's direction. So naturally people want to get rid of their guilt by watering down the power of the Word.

Now, the argument that many of the commentators, who are presumably ministers of some sort, is that the Bible is written by man and therefore bound to be laden with error. Additionally, the Bible that we Christians (Old and New Testaments) and Jews (Old Testament) read excludes some of the information that was available to those who canonized it and therefore is lacking details that are needed to make the Bible authoritative.

A little tidbit here is this: just because a person appears on TV doesn't make them right... or even close to it. In our society we tend to give a person clout deserved or undeserved just because they are on our television and have initials behind their name. A minister is no different. We assume that just because the person has gone to a school of theology for 4 years makes them better qualified to interpret the Bible for us. Right?... WRONG.

How many ministers are there? Do they all agree? All of them presumably graduated or they wouldn't be a minister. Many of them with extremely different beliefs and all from the same Bible. I have heard a minister say, "The Bible was inaccurate." To that I say, "Really? Mine isn't. Try a different version perhaps." My Bible is the infallible word of GOD. It is powerful, it is truth, it is righteous and it is PERFECT.

• So all ministers are not to be believed. At some level we must be responsible to read the Bible for ourselves. Not the latest Bible study (not that there is anything wrong with this type of study).
  
• But, pick up your Bible read the New Testament from Matthew to Revelations.
  
• Don't be afraid to get the New Living Translation (Life Application Study Bible version of the NLT is pretty good). The NLT is closer to the thought for thought on the continuum than it is to word for word. However, word for word translations are often cumbersome to new Bible readers. They tend to maintain the original sentence structure and can be deceiving. A well done thought for thought has a bunch of checks and balances in place to provide an excellent and accurate translation. I would stay clear of the Message for this purpose as it doesn't maintain the verse structure.
  
• Follow the indexing (usually found beside the verses) to study a verse that stands out to you further.
  
• Use commentaries not just one commentary especially if you don't grasp a subject.
  
• When you study your Bible all the way through. Go back and reread the Epistles... It is a good idea to use a more word for word translation for this. Maybe the Disciple's NIV Study Bible, Zondervan's NASB Study Bible or the Nelson's NKJV Study Bible (In my opinion the Nelson's is the best... though all of them are great).
  
• Some may argue that this can become very expensive. So could not understanding what you believe and why. If your family is like mine, there are areas that you can cut back on each payday to allow you to afford a $70 Nelsons NKJV Study Bible one week, a $50 NLT another week, a $20 Commentary another week and an Exhaustive Concordance for $20 some other week. $160 can easily be saved for by most families. If not let me know and I will see what I can do for you.
  
• Ask questions of yourself. Is this saying what I have always thought that it had said? What my minister told me that it said?
  
• Make notes in your Bibles... common threads or something that stands out. This will help you get back to these subjects while sharing what you learn with others.

Once we become well versed in the scripture we wont be easily lead astray by the devil and his demons that appear as angels of light (2 Cor11:13-15). And we will have a reason to give for our belief (1 Pet 3:15).

Why should we do all of these things? Because people without Biblical knowledge can be easily lead astray. Even in the first century this was going on.

2 Timothy 4:2-5
"Preach the Word; be prepared in season and out of season; correct, rebuke and encourage -- with great patience and careful instruction. For the time will come when men will not put up with sound doctrine. Instead, to suit their own desires, they will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear. They will turn their ears away from the truth and turn aside to myths. But you, keep your head in all situations, endure hardship, do the work of an evangelist, discharge all duties of your ministry."

Galatians 1:6-9
"I am astonished that you are so quickly deserting the one who called you by the grace of Christ and are turning to a different gospel-- which is really no gospel at all. Evidently some people are throwing you into confusion and are trying to pervert the gospel of Christ. But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach a gospel other than the one we preached to you, let him be eternally condemned! As we have already said, so now I say again: If anybody is preaching to you a gospel other than what you accepted, let him be eternally condemned!"NIV

Regarding the claims of those so called Christians who claim the Bible can't be authoritative: We who belong to Christ can have confidence, because there is an interesting promise that the Bible makes in:

Psalms 33:11
"The counsel of the Lord standeth for ever, the thoughts of his heart to all generations." KJV emphasis mine

Psalm 119:89, 90
"Your word, O Lord, is eternal; it stands firm in the heavens, Your faithfulness continues through all generations;..." NIV

1 Peter 1:25
"... but the word of the Lord stands forever."NIV

The promise is this that God's council and his word (aka. THE BIBLE) will last:

1. FOREVER
2. To all generations

So, unless we have a powerless God or no God at all, the Bible is not only reliable but absolutely perfect. Peter explained that the Scriptures were not from man but were guided by the Holy Spirit and therefore perfect (2 Peter 1:20,21).

2 Timothy 3:16
"All Scripture is God breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, ..."NIV

This guarantees the authority of the Bible. Because if God is going to provide his word to all generations then I can be sure that he is going to take an interest in the accuracy of the words that are being provided. And since the Bible has remained unchanged since it was canonized it is safe to say that God is satisfied with it. If not, he would have changed it from the form that it has been for over 1600 years.

Generally, AD 367 is the date that the Bible was assembled or canonized in the form that we see it today. There were many books excluded at this time. All books that were included into the canon were considered:

• Apostalic
• Divinely inspired
• In the same tradition as those books known to be written by the apostles.

If you ever look at the books that were left out of the Bible it becomes clear why they were. Some don't make a whole lot of sense. Some are off the wall with there claims and would require a believer to throw the better part of the Bible away to believe their contradictions. These books tend to have a Gnostic feel to them.

Gnosticism is where most, if not all of these other books came from. Gnosticism is by definition a heresy. Peter warned of these groups in their early stages of development (2 Peter 2).

The Bible is a protected document. Look through history and you will find a lot of people who tried to burn and destroy it. It can't be destroyed.

Have faith in the Bible that you hold. It is divinely inspired and the unblemished word of God. Man did not write any part of the Bible that God didn't personally direct through his perfect Spirit.

God Bless,

Sean