Before addressing these two questions, please allow me to explain that I am not attacking, criticizing, or condemning the Bible. I believe the Bible is a very holy book inspired by God. I am trying to build people’s belief in the Bible instead of denigrating the book or destroying anyone’s faith in this holy book. The comments I will make apply to the second question as much as it applies to the first question.
There is so much criticism of the Bible including contradictions, errors, embellishments, and even lies. To fight those accusations, some Christians resort to calling the Bible infallible. Is that the proper way to defend the Bible? I say, no. Such a claim makes it harder for Christians to defend the Bible. There must be a better way to support the Bible.
When I was about 12 or 13, I asked myself two questions. The first was, “Who created the Bible?” My answer was God created the Bible because He inspired people to write it and organize it. If God inspired people to write it, how do we know that the ones chosen to write it did write it as God intended? God did not sit the writers down in a classroom and tell them word for word what to write. Did He? Of course, not. How do we know that the writers actually heard God’s message and understood it, as God intended? Before we can figure out how to defend the Bible, we need to understand some basic history.
The second question I asked myself was, “Who created science?” My answer was of course God because He created the universe and all that’s in it. He created the universe, then the solar systems, and finally the planets, in that order. Then He created the humans, animals, and plant life. At this point, it struck me that if God created the Bible and science, both must say the same thing or use compatible words with similar meaning. Christians do not need to fear being double-minded by believing in the Bible and science. I believe science is a major supporter of the Bible instead of being opposed to the Bible. Let’s get back to history.
Before the ability to write and publish any book, the early Israelites needed to communicate the stories of the Old Testament orally. Apparently, they did this for a number of centuries. How can people communicate the same stories decade after decade or century after century without error? We’re asking people to communicate the same stories for many centuries. That’s a lot to ask. Let me show you how difficult that is.
Let’s sit ten people in chairs side by side in a line. We whisper a short story or comment into the ear of the person at one end of the line. We ask that person to turn to the person beside them and whisper the same short story or comment, who in turn will whisper the same thing to the next person beside them. This process is repeated by every person to the person next to them until we finish going to every person in line. Then we ask the last person to publicly state what they were told. Surprise! Surprise! The last person will publicly recount something FAR different than the original story or comment. How do we know that same phenomenon did not occur with the Biblical stories?
Finally, people invented writing, and then printing. So, those people wrote down the stories of the Bible—and subsequently, published the stories. This certainly helped people to remain more consistent with their stories. However, the originally written stories have disappeared, withered away, or got lost. The point is we don’t have those originals anymore. What we have are copies of copies of copies of the originals. Who knows how many versions or copies existed before we entered the more modern methods of publishing? Then, we have the question introduced by translating the Old and New Testaments.
How do people translate? The early languages of Hebrew and Greek have words that can NOT be translated into other languages. And they have words that don’t exist in other languages. Besides that, there is a matter of how to translate Hebrew into the dialect of someone who may speak a variation of Hebrew that is used by another person. The same thing happens to someone who speaks Greek. We are starting to see how difficult it is to translate.
Now, how does one translate Hebrew or Greek into English, for example, let alone other languages such as French, Spanish, or hundreds of other languages? Dr. William D. Mounce served for many years as chair of the English Standard Version’s Translation Oversight Committee. He is now serving on the New International Version’s Oversight Committee for Bible Translation. He is the author of numerous books including the one I read, namely, Why I Trust the Bible. He discussed the age-old question faced by translators: Should we translate word for word OR should we translate meaning for meaning? He points out the difficulties of both ways. Translating word for word is absolutely disastrous when another language fails to have the equivalent word from Hebrew or Greek. It doesn’t work.
My favorite version of the Bible is the King James Version, but sadly for me, it is probably the most inaccurate version. I love the colorful, beautiful language it offers, but I love the truth—God’s truth—more. While I will read it and enjoy its language, I will not rely on it for truth. Another problem is the KJV is based on faulty sources for its version. I leave it to Biblical scholars to identify those problems more clearly since my purpose is to answer the two basic questions I started with.
Since the KJV, we have other Biblical versions that have used better sources that were discovered since the KJV. Even the KJV has updated itself. Nevertheless, we have had numerous versions published over the years, and every one of them have confronted the basic issue pointed out by Dr. Mounce.
With all these issues that may undermine our faith in the Bible, we have at least one more issue to confront. This final factor is the fact that human beings are not perfect. How can a flawed person or persons write anything that is infallible? Only a perfect person can write anything that is infallible. We know only one human being who is and was infallible. That, of course, was Jesus Christ. But Jesus appeared on earth AFTER the Old Testament was written. We realize that HE did not write the Old Testament. Another question confronts us. Why should we believe literally anything flawed individuals wrote? How do we know such individuals correctly interpreted or discerned anything that came from God? We really don’t, which means we need to carefully evaluate what we read and believe in the Bible. 1 Corinthians 3:19 warns us, “For the wisdom of this world is foolishness in God’s sight.” That’s why we must be careful about what we believe.
John 8:32 tells us, “And ye shall know the truth and the truth shall make you free.” In the verse from John 14:6, Jesus tells us “I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me.” Finally, 2 Timothy 3:16 alerts us, “All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting, and training in righteousness so that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work [emphasis mine].” Please note this verse does not claim every verse is precisely from God; it specifically has a clear focus and thus limitation. That specific focus and limitation is precisely “in righteousness.” More about this shortly when we discuss the purpose of the Bible.
Critics have still criticized the contradictions between the Gospels, the errors of Creation in Genesis, the Great Flood covering the “whole earth,” the lack of evidence for Moses or the Exodus, plus many more issues. My approach has been to reconcile how the Bible and science say the same thing or, at least, are compatible. I aim to look at these kinds of issues to see how they use words to say the same thing. So far, I am looking at the Old Testament rather than the New Testament.
This discussion raises one of the most important questions we need to ask. What is the purpose of the Bible, including the Old and New Testaments? Why do we have the Bible? Is it for nice Sunday afternoon reading as we relax on our day off? Is there an actual reason to read the Bible? We understand that God gave us the Ten Commandments. Is that the only thing that God gave us? Is it possible He chose to give us more guidance on how to behave? I submit the purpose of the Bible is to provide us with more help and guidance on how to live a righteous life. The Ten Commandments state very clear instructions on how to behave as human beings. The Bible builds on that to offer stories as illustrations on behavior—both good and bad. It provides valuable history to help us understand how people did good things and bad things as well as the consequences of those actions. The Bible is so valuable to us in so many ways that I have not listed. It’s up to the readers to discern all that information in order to grow and prosper in life.
Now, we come to the moment of truth. Is the Bible infallible? No, it isn’t—for all the reasons I have already presented. The writers of the Bible were fallible human beings who wrote some things well and who messed up a few things. It was written by human beings who had different perspectives than other writers had—which led to contradictions and errors—not intentional deceptions. It was written by writers who forgot oral histories as they were retold over and over again over many centuries before being written down. It was written by writers whose original manuscripts were lost, withered by time, or destroyed by unknown causes.
The next question is, “Should we read the Bible literally?” The answer is absolutely NOT! When the Bible has been translated from copies of copies of copies, how can we know whether the Bible version we read is valid or not? When we read Bibles that have been translated over and over and over, how can we tell which version offers the truth? When we have so many versions of the Bible in English, let alone hundreds of other languages, how do we know which version is the best version? The Catholic Bible has 73 books while the Protestant version has 66 books? Then we have many different Protestant versions! Which one is the most valid? Since we have addressed and discussed the original two questions, is that all there is? The answer is no.
The bottom line is that God intended us to believe in him and His Son with faith. He told doubting Thomas after the resurrection that he believed because he had seen and felt the wounds of Jesus. However, Jesus further said that blessed are the people who believe even though they have not seen or felt the wounds of Jesus. God wants people who believe. Previously, Jesus told his Disciples that even though he told them things on earth that they found difficult to believe, why would he tell them of heavenly things which would be even harder for them to believe. God wants people of faith. There is enough information in the Bible for people to believe in spite of the contradictions, embellishments, errors, or what have you. Believers do not need to fear any issues that critics may offer. The critics are blind, as it were, and cannot see. That is exactly how God intended it to be. God wants people to choose their beliefs based on faith instead of reliance on proof which doubters would not believe anyway.