Is the Bible reliable?

The Trustworthiness of the Bible and the Problem of Corruption

One of the most important questions asked by non-Christians as they look into Christianity is whether or not the Bible is trustworthy. Can it be trusted? Is it trustworthy? If it has been corrupted, then we cannot trust what is attributed to Jesus' words and deeds.

So we have to ask, is the Bible reliable or not? This is very important. The answer is simple. Yes, the Bible is reliable. The original writings of the Bible have been lost, but before they were lost, they were copied.

These copies were incredibly accurate, very meticulous and very precise. The people who copied them were extremely dedicated to God in their copying tasks. They took great care when copying the original manuscripts.

This method of copying is so exact and so precise that the New Testament alone is considered to be 99 .5 textually pure. This means that of the 6 ,000 Greek copies, the New Testament was written in Greek, and the additional 21 ,000 copies in other languages, there is only one half of 1 variation.

Of this very slight number, the great majority of the variants are easily corrected by comparing them to other copies that don't have those typos, or by simply reading the context of what is being said and figuring out what it is.

You should know, though, that the copying mistakes occur in such a way as word repetition, or spelling errors, or a single word omission due to the copyist missing something when moving his eyes from one line to another.

The variants are very minor. Nothing affects doctrinal truth, and the words and deeds of Christ are superbly, reliably transmitted to us. The science of studying ancient literature and its accuracy of transmission is called historicity.

The New Testament Compared With Other Ancient Writings

The Bible is so exceedingly accurate in its transmission from the originals to the present copies, that if you compare it to any other ancient writing, the Bible is light years ahead in terms of the number of manuscripts and accuracy.

If the Bible were to be discredited as being unreliable, then it would be necessary to discard the writings of Homer, Plato, and Aristotle also as being unreliable, since they are far less well preserved in the Bible.

Inspiration, Eyewitness Testimony, and the Words of Christ

The Bible was written by those who were inspired by God, so it is accurate and true, and it represents historical truth. When we look at the New Testament, we realize that the Bible was written by those who either knew Jesus personally, or were under the direction of those who did.

They wrote what they saw. They wrote about the resurrection of Christ. The disciples recorded what Jesus did and what he said, so it comes down to you believing what Jesus said or not.