The Christian Bible IS IT CREDIBLE?

In his posthumously published work, Letters From the Earth, Mark Twain expressed disdain for the Bible by observing that it is nothing more than a spectacular collection of liars, cheats, crooks and adulterers, all of whom have one very disturbing thing in common – God likes them.

In that same volume, Mark Twain admits that the Bible has some noble poetry and good morals, however it has a wealth of obscenity and upwards of a thousand lies. I wished Twain was alone in his conclusions. Unfortunately, a number of similarly uninformed persons share those acidic views. Bible critics leave us with a number of questions, like, is the Bible an historically reliable document?

It might be appropriate at this time to define what I mean by Bible. I am referring to a document that was written over a period of some 1,600 years. It was written by at least forty authors from various walks of life including kings, fishermen, statesmen and scholars. As literature, the Bible is unique in that it incorporates moral exposition, history and various literary genres.

Like no other religious book, the historical thread of the Bible is unique in religious philosophy and constitutes one of its most genuine marks with reality. For this reason, many scholarly fields can research, to determine the veracity of the text. From these scholarly analyses, one can conclude that no other literary work from the ancient world has as much reliable support as being genuine, as the Bible has.  

The Bible is much more than a catalog of religious philosophical ideas. It identifies names of actual people, places and periods in history. The Bible provides historical dates and events of neighboring countries, thus allowing the contents of the book to be aligned with the findings of non-religious historians, studying other cultures.  

Because of its historical reliability, some scholars mistakenly believe that it is similarly inspired like the writings of Shakespeare or Ernest Hemingway. Here I would differ with literary scholars in that no other book has ever so completely changed the course of human destiny as the Bible. There is something about what the Bible says that distinguishes it from any other literary work in history. The truth is, “it borrows from none and gives to all.” 

Academically, the credibility of the Bible has clearly been established. Available manuscripts and more recently numerous artifacts continue to validate its contents. Despite the evidence, scholars will con-tinue to do what scholars do best. I believe the late Bernard Ramm (Protestant Christian Evidences) was correct when he said, “No other piece of literature has been so chopped, knifed, sifted, scrutinized and vilified as the Bible has, and remains the most read book in the world of literature.”   

One of the phenomenal things about the Bible is its magnetism to profoundly grip the human soul. Is this because of the literary skills of the writers? Most unlikely - the writers were not among the scholars of ancient times. Some were even referred to as “Galileans”, a derogatory term used to describe unlearned people. How then do we account for the phenomenal impact the Bible has had on the world for centuries?

The writer of the New Testament book of Hebrews explains it this way: “For the word of God is living and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart” (Hebrews 4:12).

The writer’s choice of words is instructive – “the word of God…” In numerous passages, the Bible speaks unequivocally of the voice of God. Even the most cursory reading of the prophets reveals the constant recurrence of such expressions as “the word of the Lord came,” or, “the Lord said to me.” Such expressions appear more that 2,000 times in the Bible. In essence, the writers were alleging that the information they were providing came from a divine source. 

Is this what Peter may have had in mind when he wrote: “… no prophecy of Scripture came about by the prophet’s own interpretation. For prophecy never had its origin in the will of man, but men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit” (2 Peter 1:20-21)?

Could this be the reason why no other book in human history could compare with the Bible? Study the circulation of Bibles, the translation, its survival through persecution, its influence on literature, law, politics, ethics, philosophy and religion – there might just be enough reason to agree with the writer of the book of Hebrews – that we have in our possession “the word of God.”