Can We Trust the Bible?

“Jesus loves me this I know, for the Bible tells me so.” As a child I grew up with the notion that “if the Bible said it, that settles it”. In my world it was true because it was in the Bible.

I was introduced to the Bible by the stories IN the Bible. But no one every told me the story OF the Bible. You know, the story of HOW we got the Bible. Not how I got my Bible or you got your Bible complete with chapters, verses and maps in the back. But how the world got THE Bible.

Very few people know HOW the Bible came to be. And if you don’t know the story of HOW the world got the Bible, it’s very easy to dismiss the parts of the Bible that don’t seem to sit right with you.

Before I go any further, let me pose two questions:

Are the claims of the Bible true because they’re in the Bible? Or are they in the Bible because they were already true?

Seems like a subtle play on words. But actually, those two questions are worlds apart. And the one that’s true is the primary reason I trust the Bible.

For some of you, you still adhere to, “If the Bible says it, I believe it.” But my guess is there’s more of you that don’t have a trust for the Bible simply because it’s, well “The Bible.”

Now, the story of the Bible does not begin the “beginning” that you may think…

Many people have set out to write accounts about the events that have been fulfilled among us. 2 They used the eyewitness reports circulating among us from the early disciples. 3 Having carefully investigated everything from the beginning, I also have decided to write an accurate account for you, most honorable Theophilus, 4 so you can be certain of the truth of everything you were taught. Luke 1:1-4 NLT

Now, full disclosure: When Luke was writing this document, he had no idea he was writing the Bible. But we’ll come back to that.

“From the beginning”. The beginning of what?

We have virtually no multiple written accounts, from ancient times, of the same event(s) except for the 4 books in the Bible called the Gospels. But we have four accounts documenting the life, teachings, miracles, death of Jesus.

But there would be no documentation of any of that if there had been no actual RESURRECTION.

Let’s pretend for a moment we were there with Joseph of Arimathea and the women who were preparing Jesus’ body for burial…

Now there was a good and righteous man named Joseph. He was a member of the Jewish high council, 51 but he had not agreed with the decision and actions of the other religious leaders. He was from the town of Arimathea in Judea, and he was waiting for the Kingdom of God to come. 52 He went to Pilate and asked for Jesus’ body. 53 Then he took the body down from the cross and wrapped it in a long sheet of linen cloth and laid it in a new tomb that had been carved out of rock. 54 This was done late on Friday afternoon, the day of preparation, as the Sabbath was about to begin. 55 As his body was taken away, the women from Galilee followed and saw the tomb where his body was placed. 56 Then they went home and prepared spices and ointments to anoint his body. But by the time they were finished the Sabbath had begun, so they rested as required by the law. Luke 23:50-56 NLT

Joseph didn’t take Jesus down, the women didn’t go home to prepare the ingredients for traditional burial because they were filled with hope that he was going to rise.

Luke documented the life, teachings, miracles and death of Jesus because that’s not were the story ended.

Luke says in his second letter, Acts, that “God raised Jesus from the dead, and we are all witnesses of this.” (Acts 2:32 NLT)

Witnesses of what? — And event. The Resurrection of Jesus.

So this event sparked a revolution, a movement that became known as The Christian faith.

Now fast forward to our modern, 21st century mindset… There’s a significant number of people that have walked away from faith and as they did, they said something like this: “it’s good for you but I just don’t believe it anymore!”

And I want to ask, “what is ‘it’”?

They are of course referring to the version of faith they had been exposed to. And the way in which the people in that community “interpreted” the Bible.

Here’s the deal, you should be skeptical, or at the very least honestly question those who emphatically declare, “The Bible says…”

That’s my other “full-disclosure”: EVERYONE INTERPRETS THE BIBLE.

And that’s why I want to ask, “What is the it?”

According to John… the only “it” is:

that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that by believing in him you will have life by the power of his name. (John 20:31b NLT)

That’s “IT”.

Ok, back to the end of the end of the first century. There’s still no “The Bible” but there are thousands of Christians… Roman Christians, Greek Christians, Christians in other parts of the world. Thousands!

And what was their “Bible”?

Letters. Letters from Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, Paul, Peter

200-270 years before there was one of these (the Bible) these letters, documents, were circulating. They were becoming known as sacred and inspired.

They believed they (the letters) were TRUE.

Before there was a Bible there were documents that told the story of Jesus, his death and resurrection and the giving of the Holy Spirit to the Church and spread of the Good News of God’s love for humanity.

And eventually, because they were true, those that believed their message thought…

In 303 AD Emperor Diocletian declared that every single house where Christians gathered was to be destroyed. Bishops were to be rounded up and forced to recant their faith in Jesus and declare that Caesar was their Lord.

Perhaps worse of all—all Christian literature was to be collected and burned and if you were caught with copies, you were killed. Many Christians lost their lives protecting — not The Bible — but parts of Matthew, bundles of a couple documents together, a letter from Paul, etc

And the reason is… those letters documented history. But not just any history…

They documented the arrival of God himself in the person of His Son who Christians believed was above Caesar. These documents record history… Jesus’ teaching, his death and his resurrection and his followers commitment to the declaration of this Good News… His Gospel.

They died protecting fragments of what we now call the Bible because it was all future generations had to verify what they already believed.

Even during all that persecution, Christianity continued to spread.

And those early Jesus followers did everything they could to preserve these letters that by now they considered sacred. Sacred scripture.

Then political change…

In 324 AD, Constantine The Great became the Emperor of both sides of the empire, he cancelled those edicts, returned property to Christians…

And for the first time ever Christian scholars were able to work in the daylight and gather in public and work together to compile all these sacred documents.

The stage was set for the very first edition of…

Te Biblia — or The Library…

…The Bible