S.O.S. part 2

Getting lost can be scary. Anyone who has been lost can testify to that fact. But if you keep your wits about you, you can be found. Survival expert, Bear Grylls, gives three pieces of advice to make it safely back to civilization. 1. Get your bearings. 2. Make a plan. 3. Get moving.

Last week we started to look at how these three actions apply to the Bible. We started talking about getting our bearings, understanding why we can trust that the Bible is best road map for our life. Last week we looked at the uniqueness of the Bible. We looked at some basic facts about it.

Today we will look at the external and internal evidence for the reliability and accuracy of the Bible being God’s very word to mankind. Please know that we are barely scratching the surface of this topic. If you would like more information please feel free to contact me.

Well, let’s look at some external evidence for the reliability of the bible.

One of the ways we look to see the accuracy of an ancient text is to look at two different things. One is the date when it was written compared to the date of the earliest known manuscript. The fewer years between the 2 can tell us how accurate it is.

Second thing we look at is the number of manuscripts there are present today. The more there are, the more you can compare to see if there are any discrepancies.

One of the best-known books, one that is considered to be the most accurate by scholars is Homer’s “Iliad”. It was written in 900 b.c., the earliest manuscript is dated around 400 b.c. That is a time span of 500 years. There are also 643 known copies of the original. That’s pretty impressive for a book that was written almost 3000 years ago. Scholars believe it is a very accurate piece of ancient literature.

So what about the Bible, how does it compare? If the “Iliad” is the “golden child” of ancient texts, how does the Bible compare?

We already established that the Old Testament has been the same for thousands of years. No one argues about it. It’s the New Testament that draws the most fire. Here are the numbers. The New Testament was written between 40 and 100 a.d. The earliest copy that has been found dates to 125 a.d. That is only 25 years after the original was written.

What about the number of copies? If there is only one, then we could still discredit the Bible’s accuracy. 25 years is still long enough for mistakes and inaccuracies to be present. How many copies do we have? Well over 24,000 different manuscripts are known to exist. Those are just the ones written in the original language of the New Testament. We also have 15,000 other copies of the scriptures that were translated into different languages starting around 150 a.d.

The Iliad is considered fairly accurate. Only about 5% is considered to be inaccurate. If you were to read the Iliad, which I tried one summer and quit on page 2, if you were to read it you could be positive that 95% of it is still just like Homer wrote it 3000 years ago. When scholars looked through all the manuscripts for the New Testament, only ½ of one percent (0.5%) is called into question. So as we read our Bibles we can be sure that 99.5% is exactly like the original author wrote it.

What 0.5% boils down to, is about 400 words. The vast majority of which are differences in spelling. None of which have any negative effect on the message of the Bible.

There is more we could look at, but because of time probably need to move on. But from what we have looked at so far, we can say without a shadow of a doubt based on external evidence that the reliability of our bibles is greater than any other ancient text. That what we hold in our hands today is essentially the same as what was written almost 2000 years ago.

What about the Bible itself, what does it say? Listed here are several verses to look up and read. Luke 1:1-3; 2 Peter 1:16; 1 John 1:3; John 19:35

All these verses have one thing in common; they are the eyewitness reports of those who were there. The majority of the New Testament was written while the people who witnessed the events were still living. It would have been very easy to say, “No, that didn’t happen. I was there when that took place, that’s not how it went down”. Or the opposite could have happened. Those who heard it would say, “Yes, I was there, it took place just like that.”

Not only were the New Testament writers reporting what they saw and heard but they were also putting out a challenge to those who were opposed to them. They were in fact saying, “You were there to; if this isn’t true, then what is the truth?”

When the writers of the New Testament were confronted by those who did not believe what they were saying they responded by saying, “you don’t have to just take our word, but all the others who witnessed it as well. Even some of you doubters saw what took place. If you don’t want to believe us, then listen to what your own people are saying.”

Not only was it written by eyewitnesses who saw what was happening when it was happening. The Bible itself claims to be the very words of God. More than 3800 times authors introduce a passage or topic by saying, “thus says the Lord” or “the Lord spoke.”

We have just scratched the surface of the reliability and accuracy of the bible. The external and internal witness is clear, the Bible claims that scripture comes from God and is accurate, reliable and useful for our lives.

2 Timothy 3:16-17
16All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, 17so that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.