Is the Bible true?

But God's word IS true. Every single word as originally given is true. Nothing in it is or can be false; we can rely on it and its veracity completely.

No, depend upon this, God loves us a great deal too well to put into our hands a book that cannot be trusted. I say this soberly, and seriously, and I have no hesitation in saying — spite of the infidelity of the day — that I believe that the Scriptures are the Word of God, from cover to cover. And, in spite of all that is said against it, the more I study the Bible, the more do I find out its unity, its completeness, its reliability, its absolute impregnability against all the attacks of the enemy; and that it is the revelation of God to my soul. I have found light, and always increasing light, through the Scriptures. And to you I commend them most earnestly and fervently.

Thus he asserted, as though he spoke for Christians generally. But there are Christians in their tens of thousands, who utterly repudiate such weak and illogical unbelief. Leaving that aside, however, let us address ourselves to the main question. Ought we, or ought we not, to accept the Bible in its words, its views, its moral sentiments, its histories, its opinions, and we would add, its assumptions, as true? Let us allow the Bible to propound to us concerning itself the very question that the Living Word addressed to His critics, "Which of you convinces Me of sin? and if I say the truth, why do ye not believe Me?" (John 8:46).

I want you to be sure of this, that it is not unintelligent to believe in the Bible! Serious study of the Word of God will show that the Lord Jesus Christ of the Bible is altogether what He claimed to be and that the Bible is worthy of our entire trust. We must then be willing to make an honest and total commitment to God.

The Bible states clearly that it is the word of God: it assumes verbal plenary inspiration and therefore infallibility. Let us thank God that He has been pleased to reveal Himself to man in such a reliable way. The Bible is the safest point in the universe: "Heaven and earth shall pass away, but my words shall not pass away" (Lk. 21:33).

After all, if God has given us the Holy Scriptures surely they are faultless from beginning to end. This is the attitude of faith. And thank God the copies of the original and the translations therefrom are so good and reliable that we may rest content that we have God’s own veritable word in our hands. Hoping this may help you.

We have now reached the main object of the foregoing recital of what are now historical facts, related by the angel long before they occurred, demonstrating, it may once more be affirmed, both the presence of God and the character of inspiration. It is the habit of the present day to seek among ancient ruins and antique inscriptions and tablets for confirmation of the Bible records. It seems to be forgotten that God is not dependent on man for the authentication of the revelation He has made, and that if the word of God is not its own witness (see John 3:33) no amount of human evidence will establish it as such in the soul. Besides, the facts adduced, and the translations made from ancient cylinders and monuments assume a very different aspect and importance according to the views of the various interpreters. But accepting the Bible as the veritable word of God, and maintaining therefore its absolute "inerrancy" (to borrow a new theological term) where there is no dispute as to readings or translation, we have an infallible guide, a trustworthy standard of appeal, and thus the certainty that the events predicted must have a real and actual fulfilment, and that the historical facts recorded are given with the most truthful accuracy. It is of all moment, if we would understand the divine records, that we should begin with an undoubting faith in the infallibility of Scripture.

We are told that the inerrancy of Scripture “is a principle which is nowhere asserted or claimed in Scripture itself.” If holy men of old spoke as they were moved by the Holy Ghost (2 Peter 1:21) most of us who believe that it is impossible that God should lie (Titus 1:2) would consider this fact sufficient to establish the veracity of Scripture. Have not the Prophets said: “Hear ye the word of the Lord”? And has not our Lord said that Moses wrote of Him, and that had the Jews believed Moses they would have also believed Hun, “but if ye believe not his writings, how shall ye believe My words?” Evidently He assumed that they ought to have had no difficulty in recognizing writings. Perhaps the “Higher Critics” of those days, who were, I suppose, the Sadducees, had disentangled for the people the folklore from the fact! Paul speaks of things that eye has not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, things that God has prepared for them that love Him; and of these things, he says: “God has revealed them unto us by His Spirit.” And then as to their communication to others, he says: “Which things also we speak, not in the words which man’s wisdom teaches, but which the Holy Ghost teaches.” And again “If any man think himself to be a prophet or spiritual, let him acknowledge that the things that I write unto you are the commandments of the Lord” (1 Cor. 2:9-13; 14:37). The Lord Himself, His apostles, and all His prophets, use the Scriptures as the only court of appeal regarding all questions that bear any relation to divine things. A single passage from the inspired volume settled every question that could possibly arise. The Scriptures were neither to be added to, not taken from. The Thessalonians received the Gospel preached by Paul, who says “Not as the word of man, but as it is in truth the Word of God” (1 Thess. 2:13), and for this he gave thanks to God. There is not a single hint given by either our Lord or His apostles that there might be error in the text. A Book such as these critics tell us the Bible is would never here been put into the hand of any man by the living God. I know Him well enough to be able to say that with the utmost confidence. I will say more than that: I will say that I know Him sufficiently to affirm, that if He has given us this Book as a revelation of the purposes and counsels of His love His ways with His rebel creature, His government of the world, the way He has taken to bring to pass His eternal counsels, He would not have allowed it to be corrupted by the drivellings of the human mind wandering in the fogs and mists of its abandonment of Himself, but would have watched over it with infinite solicitude, and would have preserved it from the defiling slaver of the old serpent.

Surely nothing can be more positive, nothing wider in reach than this: "Scripture" — not merely this or that passage, specially guided or guarded, because of special importance, but Scripture, as Scripture, — "Scripture cannot be broken." Is it then the statement that "In six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is," or any other, however insignificant it may seem to us, if Scripture makes it, then its truth is guaranteed — "Scripture cannot be broken."

I need scarcely say, to those who may read the following remarks, that we must get the truth of God from the revelation which He has made to us by means of the Holy Scriptures. Our own natural thoughts, even when they seem to be right, reasonable, and in agreement with that revelation, are useless, and more likely than not to lead us into a morass of error, from which we may never in this life find deliverance. The Word of God only is inerrant, and in it only is life, health, and blessing; and these are all there just because it is His Word, the revelation of Himself—Himself, I say, for “the Word was with God, and the Word was God” (John 1:1; 8:25).