September 24, 2025

Can the Bible Be Trusted?

Lunchtime Talks Podcasts

Can We Trust the Bible?

The world is full of books about religion, what’s so unique about the Bible?
Who wrote the Bible and when was it written?
What makes us think the Bible is God’s Word?
Isn’t the Bible full of contradictions?
Can we trust the Bible?

Human Discovery vs Divine Revelation

“Reason’s last step is the recognition that there are an infinite number of things which are beyond it. It is merely feeble if it does not go as far as to realize that.”
Blaise Pascal, Pensées 267

“All the wisdom of this world is but a tiny raft upon which we must set sail when we leave this earth. If only there was a firmer foundation upon which to sail, perhaps some divine word.”
Widely attributed to Socrates

“Only if your Gold can say things that outrage you and make you struggle (as in a real friendship or marriage!) will you know that you have gotten hold of a real God and not a figment of your own imagination. So an authoritative Bible is not the enemy of a personal relationship with God. It is the precondition for it.”
Timothy Keller, The Reason for God

What is the Bible?

Old Testament & New Testament = 66 books
Written over a 1600-year period of time (1500 BC-100 AD)
Three time-trapped languages: Hebrew, Aramaic, and Greek
40+ diverse authors
Variety of literary genres

What does the Bible claim about itself?

“All Scripture is inspired by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness; so that the man of God may be adequate, equipped for every good work.”
2 Timothy 3:16-17

“But know this first of all, that no prophecy of Scripture is a matter of one’s own interpretation, for no prophecy was ever made by an act of human will, but men moved by the Holy Spirit spoke from God.”
2 Peter 1: 20-21

Some of the criteria used for the recognition of various writings to be included in the New Testament canon:

1. Apostolicity: close connection to the apostles
2. Catholicity: near universal usage by the church
3. Orthodoxy: content conforms to apostolic teaching
4. Spiritual and moral impact
5. Credibility: Historical-cultural markers

How does the manuscript evidence for the Bible compare to other works of antiquity?

Ancient Literature Approx Date # Copies Time Span

Plato’s Tetralogies 427-347 BC 20 1200 yrs

Caesar/Gallic Wars 100-44 BC 20-30 1000 yrs

Homer’s Iliad 800 BC 1800 500 yrs

New Testament 100 AD 24,000 50 years

“The interval between the dates of original composition and the earliest extant evidence becomes so small as to be in fact negligible, and the last foundation for any doubt that the Scriptures have come down substantially as they were written has now been removed. Both the authenticity and the general integrity of the books of the New Testament may be regarded as finally established.”
Sir Frederic Kenyon

What is the purpose of the Bible?

“The Bible is not an end in itself, but a means to bring men to an intimate and satisfying knowledge of God, that they may enter into Him, that they may delight in His Presence, may taste and know the inner sweetness of the very God Himself in the core and center of their hearts.”
A. W. Tozer, The Pursuit of God

“The greatest single secret of spiritual development lies in personal, humble, believing, obedient response to the Word of God. It is as God speaks to us through his Word that his warnings can bring us to conviction of sin, his promises to assurance of forgiveness, and his commands to amendment of life. We live and grow by his Word.”
John Stott

Our approach to the Bible…

“If we come to Scripture with our minds made up, expecting to hear from it only an echo of our own thoughts and never the thunderclap of God’s, then indeed he will not speak to us and we shall only be confirmed in our own prejudices…We must allow the Word of God to confront us, to disturb our security, to undermine our complacency and to overthrow our patterns of thought and behavior.”
John Stott

“The (written) Word is the wire along which the voice of God will certainly come to you if the heart is hushed and the attention fixed.”
F. B. Meyer, The Secret of Guidance

Bibliography:

If you’d like to explore the credibility and veracity of the Bible more:

Jesus and the Eyewitnesses: The Gospels as Eyewitness Testimony, Richard Bauckham
Can We Trust the Gospels?, Peter J. Williams
Taking God at His Word, Kevin DeYoung
The Bible: God’s Word for Today, John Stott
Can We Still Believe the Bible?, Craig Bloomberg
Revisiting the Corruption of the New Testament: Manuscript, Patristic, and Apocryphal Evidence (Text and Canon of the New Testament), Daniel B. Wallace
The Question of Canon, Michael J. Kruger
Let the Reader Understand, Dan McCartney
How to Read the Bible as Literature, Leland Ryken
The New Testament Documents: Are They Reliable?, F. F. Bruce
The Canon of Scripture, F. F. Bruce
How to Read the Bible for All Its Worth, Gordon D. Fee, Douglas Stuart
Confronting Christianity, Rebecca McLaughlin
Numerous YouTube videos by: Wes Huff, Amy Orr-Ewing, N. T. Wright, William Lane Craig, John Lennox, RC Sproul, etc

Speaker

Jim Thomas

Topics

Big Questions Worldview & Culture