Lancaster First United Methodist Church
April 25, 2010
II Timothy 3:10-17
Rev. Robert McDowell

“Big Questions – Is the Bible Reliable?”

Today is the 3rd part of a four part sermon series on “Big Questions.” We’ve already focused on the big questions, “Is God real?” and “How can I forgive?”

Today, our focus is on another important question, “Is the Bible reliable?” As we begin this topic this morning, I can’t help but to think of the story of a little boy and his pastor.

This little boy asked his pastor one day, “Pastor Walters, there’s somethin’ I can’t figger out.”

“What’s that Johnny? asked the pastor.

“Well, accordin’ to the Bible, the children of Israel crossed the Red Sea, right?”

“Uh, yes. That’s right.”

“And the children of Israel beat up the Phillistines, right?”

“Yes, I guess you could say that.”

“And, the children of Israel built the Temple, right?”

“That’s correct, Johnny.”

“And the children of Israel fought the ’gyptians, and the children of Israel fought the Romans and the children of Israel wuz always doin’ somethin’ important, right?”

“Yes, everything you said is correct, Johnny.” “So what’s your question?”

“What I wanna know is this,” Johnny said with a determined look. “What was all the grown-ups doin’?”

My hope for all of us is that no matter what age we are or how much we think we know about the Bible, that we become like Johnny, and feel free enough to ask any question we may have about the bible. So my goal in this sermon, is to anticipate a few of the questions that we may have about the Bible, offer some thoughts on the reliability of the bible, and by the end of our time together, encourage all of us to have this book of faith be an important part of our daily living.

I want to focus on two main areas where people may question the reliability of the bible. The first area is in the biblical manuscripts themselves. And the second area is regarding the whole topic of miracles that we find in the bible.

Let’s go ahead and get started. The first area of focus – the biblical manuscripts. How do we know that what we read in our bible today, is what was actually intended by the original authors? That’s a fair question, especially since we’re dealing with writings that go back thousands of years!

I have in my hand, a business book that Penny and I bought at the bookstore a while back. It’s called “Business Class: Etiquette Essentials for Success at Work,” by Jackqeline Whitmore. When we paid money for this book, it never occurred to us that the copy in our hand might not be a correct copy that was finally submitted to the publisher for printing. We have a high level of confidence that the words on these pages are the same words that were in the first copies that were published.

The only exception is when you buy a book that’s been revised and it will have a line that tells you that it’s a revised copy.

So, when you hold a bible in your hand, how do you know that what you have in your hand is what was intended by the original biblical writers?

I have some bad news and some good news in approaching this very legitimate question about the reliability of the bible. Hopefully, the bad news won’t seem like bad news, especially when we compare the bible with other works of antiquity.

The bad news is that we do not have the original manuscripts of any of the biblical writings. We only have copies. But that’s also true of all other works of antiquity.

So, here’s the good news. The bible not only has far more copies of manuscripts than any other ancient writing, it also has by far, the shortest gap between the time when the biblical books were first written, and the earliest copies that we have in our possession.

To give this some perspective, let’s look at some famous works of ancient history which we often take for granted as historically reliable. Most scholars believe that Caesar’s writing of the Gallic Wars probably happened around 60 B.C. But the earliest manuscripts we have of this work is almost a thousand years later in A.D. 900. That’s a really long stretch between the time when Caesar first wrote his work until a copy of his work surfaces. One thousand years!

As another example, Plato’s Tetralogies was first written around 400 B.C. but the earliest known copies of his work don’t appear until A.D. 900, a gap of about 1,300 years.

Other great ancient works by Virgil, Tacitus, and Homer reveal the same thing. We only have one, two, or three manuscripts of these great works and they don’t even appear until the medieval ages, which again, is quite along time between the time these works were written and when they were first copied.

When you have that long of a gap, you can’t help but wonder if people who made the copies might have gotten the transmission of these works wrong. That’s a real concern.

Let’s compare these ancient works with the New Testament books. Well, actually there’s no comparison. The New Testament is on a whole different plane of reliability. For example, the 27 books of the New Testament were all written within the first century, the century in which Jesus lived. The first complete copies of the books of the New Testament appear only a hundred years later in A.D. 200 leaving only a gap of about a hundred years. So here you have a gap of only 100 years with the New Testament books and yet with the other books of ancient antiquity, you’re looking at about 1,000 years.

On top of that, we actually have fragments of some of the books of the New Testament that date as early as A.D. 125, with some parts of the Book of Acts , the Gospel of Mark, and some of the Epistles around as early as A.D. 50.

But it’s not just that these manuscripts are so early. It’s that there are no major discrepancies between these various copies, revealing that the people who copied these manuscripts were very, very accurate.

Well, that’s the New Testament, but what about the Old Testament. Thanks to the discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls in 1947 which contains copies of several Old Testament books, we now have in our possession copies that date as early as 100 B.C.

Before the Dead Sea Scrolls were discovered, our earliest known Old Testament manuscripts dated around A.D. 1,000. What’s remarkable about that is, like the New Testament, the copies from A.D. 1,000 are basically the same as the copies from 100 B.C.

So, just from a historical perspective, utilizing the dating of copies of manuscripts, and the number of manuscripts, the bible stands head and shoulders above any other work of antiquity.

But what about the writers of the biblical books? How do we know that they didn’t just make things up about various events that we read about in the Bible?

That’s another good question. And I have two comments regarding that important question. And here they are. The first is regarding the art of biblical story telling and the second is related to what is known by scholars as the “Truth by the Criterion of Embarrassment.”

Let’s first briefly look at the art of biblical story telling. In a time period that didn’t have CNN, Fox News, or cable TV, the people in the ancient world relied on oral transmission or the art of storytelling.

This was an oral society that depended on word of mouth. And since I can’t even go to the grocery store without bringing a list with me, even if all I need are a couple of items, it’s difficult for me to appreciate the amazing memorization ability of people in the ancient world. They had an incredible ability to memorize large portions of information and transmit this information to others.

And remember, regarding the New Testament, some of these books were written as early as only twenty years to at most, sixty years after the time of Jesus, well within the lifetime of Jesus’ disciples. If they would have told the stories of Jesus differently than what had actually happened, people would have noticed and would have corrected them.

And this leads me to what bible scholars call “Truth by the Criterion of Embarrassment” test of biblical reliability. How do we know that Jesus’ followers didn’t get together and just agree on making up a bunch of stories about Jesus in order to get their new movement started? One of the things scholars use to answer that important question is this Criterion of Embarrassment test.

Here are some examples of how this test points toward the reliability of the bible. If your aim would be to get other people to continue the Jesus’ movement after Jesus’ death, you wouldn’t have helped your cause by saying that his closest followers were cowards and ran for their lives when Jesus was arrested and crucified.

And you certainly wouldn’t have the first person to witness the empty tomb be a woman since in that time period women were not seen as credible witnesses because the ancient world was very chauvinistic.

There are many other examples of this test called, the “Truth by the Criterion of Embarrassment” that point to the reliability of the scriptures.

So those are some thoughts regarding the reliability of the biblical manuscripts.

A second area of focus regarding the reliability of the bible has to do with the whole issue of miracles and the Bible. A lot of people dismiss the bible because of the many miracle stories. Thomas Jefferson had a problem with this as well and he actually came up with a new translation of the bible that removed all of the miracle stories.

So what do we make of the miracle stories, especially from our 21st century perspective? First of all, we probably need to be careful how we use the word, “miracle,” because that word itself is a bit misleading. For many people, their notion of God is this distant deity who rarely intervenes into the affairs of the world, and when God does intervene, it’s often in spectacular ways. That’s actually a very common western modern enlightenment philosophical worldview of who God is and not the picture of God we get from the bible itself.

I would like to offer a different way of looking at this whole topic of miracles in light of our worldview biases. The biblical view of God is that yes, God is transcendent and beyond creation, but at the same time, God is also mysteriously and intimately active in our world in many more ways than our present day worldview will allow.

Now, take this biblical view of who God is which I’ve just described, and compare it to the view that most people have today about God, and it’s really not all that surprising why many people would question the whole concept of miracles. So if someone says they don’t believe in the miracle stories in the Bible, it’s often because their concept of God is far removed from the biblical perspective of who God is.

If we first see what the bible means by who God is, we begin to see why the Psalmist can say, in Psalm 147:9 for example,“God provides food for the cattle and for the young ravens when they call.” – The Psalmist is expressing the belief that God is present in creation and in our lives in more ways than we probably ever imagine – even in the instinct of a raven feeding its young.

I remember someone telling me about a cat which stays in a nursing home and doesn’t like people that much, and will rarely enter a room of a resident, but when one of the residents of that nursing home is ill or sad, this cat instinctively knows this, and will curl up by that person and provide warmth and companionship.

That’s another example of how creation has this natural inclination to do what God designed creatures to do. The bible and this whole topic of miracles begin to make a whole lot more sense when we begin with the biblical view of who God is rather than with our modern day worldview of a God who rarely intervenes in the world, if at all.

So just to recap, we’ve focused on two areas in responding to the question, “Is the Bible reliable” by looking at the ancient biblical manuscripts and the whole question about miracles.

While these two areas can give us assurance of the reliability of this book, there’s another important test of reliability. And that’s by giving the bible a chance. And this would mean to read it, study it, and reflect on it in light of our human experiences.

See if it speaks a word of truth to you when you are facing a major challenge, or when you are waiting by a bedside of someone who is ill, or when someone has left you with a broken heart, or when you are dealing with guilt and regrets, or if you are filled with gratitude for life’s gifts and you don’t know who to thank.

It’s in these moments, that we can test the reliability of this book to see if it is what it claims to be; a book that speaks God’s Word.

In II Timothy, we’re given this word of assurance about the bible. “All scripture is inspired by God and is useful for teaching for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, so that everyone who belongs to God may be proficient, equipped for every good work.”

The word, “inspired,” literally means that the bible is “God-breathed” which means reminds us of the creation story in the book of Genesis where we are told that God created humankind by breathing life into us. Just as God brought breathed new life in forming creation, God continues to breathe life into us as we allow this book to speak God’s word to us.

I’d like to end this sermon with a quote I came across by Anderson Cooper, the CNN correspondent, which appears on the homepage of his website. Referring to his approach to journalism he says, “Be honest about what you see, get out of the way, and let the story reveal itself.”

As we read the bible, I invite us to remember this quote. “Be honest about what you see. Get out of the way. And let the story reveal itself.”

When it comes to the bible, that’s really all we’re asked to do.


Reflections for the Week:

1. What questions do you have about the Bible? Share your questions with someone you can trust. Join a bible study group that uses solid biblical resources. Share what you learn with others.

2. Paul writes in II Timothy that “all scripture is inspired.” Another translation is “all scripture is God-breathed.” Before reading or hearing scripture, invite God to breathe upon it so that you might “be proficient, equipped for every good work.”

3. In addition to weekly worship, read the bible on a daily basis. After reading a passage, ask yourself the questions 1) What does this tell me about God? 2) What does this tell me about who I am? 3) What does this tell me about my present situation?