AUTHOR’S NOTE: This recurring series is a study into the incidental traditions of the modern evangelical church. Different denominations have different opinions and doctrines around different topics, the goal of this series is to take a clear biblical look at the religious practices that have come to shape some of our worship gatherings and disciple-making strategies
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The foundation of the Christian faith rests on the Gospel, but the only way that we could ever truly know the Gospel is to understand the Bible. There’s an epidemic in the Church today that many Christians have become really good Bible quoters but really poor Bible readers. There’s a necessity, therefore, to lay down some basics about what the Bible is and why we can trust it, which should lead us to devotional study of the Scriptures. We will be unable to biblically deconstruct other topics without first affirming that the Bible has such authority in the first place. As we dive into this apologetic topic, let’s take a look at five important questions about the Bible that relate to specific issues, as stated in Greg Gilbert’s book “Why Trust the Bible?”:
-Do we have reliable translations of the Bible? (issues of translation)
-Do we have reliable manuscript copies of the Bible? (issues of textual criticism)
-Do we have the right books in our Bible? (issues of canon)
-Did the biblical authors intend to give us reliable history? (issues of genre)
-Did the biblical authors accurately report history? (issues of honesty and competence)
Now, I recommend for anybody really interested in fully fleshing out these questions and their answers to go and purchase Gilbert’s book, but we’re going to break down these questions with additional sources and support as well.
accurate as literature
A point I’ve heard often from those trying to refute the Bible is when they say “the Bible is just copies translated from one language, then translated to another language, then to another language, so how can we be sure that its eventual translation to English is properly translated?” The answer here covers both of the first two questions above, so we’re going to address both at the same time. If we have reliable manuscript copies of the Bible, then we therefore would have reliable translations because we would have the original language. Old Testament can be affirmed because the Jewish leaders kept great record-keeping and collections of their documents. New Testament is usually what is in question, which we can affirm by a few reasons.
Check out what Matt Slick from the Christian Apologetics and Research Ministry pulled together for us in this article:
“The New Testament documents are better-preserved and more numerous than any other ancient writings. Because they are so numerous, they can be cross checked for accuracy and they are very consistent. There are presently 5,686 Greek manuscripts in existence today for the New Testament. The internal consistency of the New Testament documents is about 99.5% textually pure. That is an amazing accuracy. In addition, there are over 19,000 copies in the Syriac, Latin, Coptic, and Aramaic languages. The total supporting New Testament manuscript base is over 24,000. As a piece of literature.” (Slick, 2008)
Based on what we have for historical manuscripts, we must affirm that what we have today is outrageously accurate to what was originally written.
the canon
The next question, and an important one to consider when it comes to denominational affiliations: do we have the right books in our Bible?
The canon of the scriptures was recognized at the Council of Nicea in 325 AD, thanks to the affirmative leadership of Emperor Constantine (who you can learn more about in this great book by Hans Pohlsander). The Protestant Bible includes what was affirmed at the council, but was based on what was already circulating heavily at that time. The Church already had organization, leadership, and guidance, the affirmation in 325 AD came from political intervention by Constantine to formalize the basis of the Christian faith. The Apocrypha can be rejected for several reasons, including the reality that there is clear evidence that many (if not all) of the books included are pseudepigraphal works, and though they have a plethora of Jewish wisdom, even the Jewish leaders at the council of Jamnia left out the apocryphal writings in 70 AD. The three earliest greek manuscripts that we have do include the apocrypha, so we need to consider the apocryphal writings as accurate to their original writings (like in the first two questions above) and as important to Judeo-Christian history. Based on the reasons included in the article linked above we can conclude that the apocrypha is not God’s inspired Word.
books of different genres
Now, did the biblical authors intend to give us reliable specific history? That’s dependent upon what they were writing them for. The main genres found in the Bible are as follows, which is a summary found in this article from GotQuestions.org:
–Law: Leviticus and Deuteronomy. Expresses God’s sovereign will. Knowledge of Hebrew manners and customs of the time, as well as a knowledge of the covenants help understanding.
–History: Stories and epics. Almost every book in the Bible contains some history, but Genesis, Exodus, Numbers, Joshua, Judges, 1 and 2 Samuel, 1 and 2 Kings, 1 and 2 Chronicles, Ezra, Nehemiah, and Acts are predominately history. Knowledge of secular history is crucial, as it dovetails perfectly with biblical history and makes interpretation much more robust.
–Wisdom: Genre of aphorisms that teach the meaning of life and how to live. Some language is metaphorical and poetic. Included are the books of Proverbs, Job and Ecclesiastes.
–Poetry: Books of rhythmic prose, parallelism, and metaphor. Song of Solomon, Lamentations and Psalms are poetic books. Because poetry does not translate easily, we lose some of the musical “flow” in English. We find a similar use of idiom, comparison and refrain in this genre as we find in modern music.
–Narrative: The Gospels, Ruth, Esther, and Jonah. A reader may find bits of other genres within the Gospels, such as parable (Luke 8:1-15) and discourse (Matthew 24).
–Epistles: A letter, usually in a formal style. 21 letters in the New Testament from the apostles to various churches or individuals. The reader would do well to understand the cultural, historical and social situation of the original recipients in order to get the most out of an analysis of these books. Continuation or affirmations of thought as relates to Christ’s teachings.
-Prophecy and Apocalyptic Literature: The Prophetic writings are the Old Testament books of Isaiah through Malachi, and the New Testament book of Revelation. Largely involving symbols and imagery and predicting disaster and destruction. We know that the truth has been told, and it can be known via careful exegesis, a familiarity with the rest of the Bible, and prayerful consideration.
When we understand genre, we know what to expect from what we are reading, leading to a more pure exegesis of the text.
lies, lunacy, or accuracy?
Did the biblical authors accurately report history? Again, this is not a question of the Old Testament in most cases (though you can read this article from Blue Letter Bible if you’re curious about that as well), but is asked of the New Testament and specifically of the historicity of the existence, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. The motivation of the New Testament authors would not have been to lie, as what they taught led to persecution and death. Therefore it can be easily presumed that if they didn’t really believe it, they would not have said it. If they were crazy there would be more inconsistency among their own writings. And if they were completely uneducated there would be a lack of OT knowledge. These individuals had done their homework, studied the Old Testament scriptures, often times had direct relationship with Christ, and came to the same conclusion that Jesus was the resurrected Son of God.
With answers (though not an exhaustive list of answers, mind you) to these questions, we can properly dissect our faith based on Scripture. Knowing that the authority and affirmation of the Bible that we have today can be trusted sets up our boundaries for more “faith deconstruction” as we move forward in this series.
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Kevin McClure has been leading worship in the local church for over 10 years in different capacities of student and adult ministries. As a songwriter, musical artist, and worship leader he has had the honor of touring the United States both as a performer and worship leader over the better part of the last decade. With a heart to see believers learn how to take the act of worship beyond the setting of a group gathering, Kevin is incredibly intentional with his time on and offstage to help teach the practice of worship as a lifestyle. He is the director of the Worship Leader Network and leads his own traveling ministry leading worship around the country at different events for all age groups. Kevin lives in Omaha, Nebraska with his bride Hailey and his two daughters, Everleigh and Eliska. His favorite food is coffee (lifesource), loves bonfires, and is convinced that Jesus is a Chicago Cubs fan.
Kevin McClure 