We Believe the Scriptures, both Old and New Testaments, to be the inspired Word of God, without error in the original writings, the complete revelation of His will for the salvation of men and the Divine and final authority for Christian faith and life.

Many people today view the Bible as a “good moral book” and do not believe that it’s words are the actual words of God. For this reason, they believe that the Bible contains many errors, especially pertaining to matters of history and science. Moreover, the confidence with which many secular scholars attack and belittle the Bible as “mythical” and inaccurate can leave Christians full of doubt and questioning whether or not they can trust the Bible at all. Nevertheless, when the evidence for the traditional Christian view of the Bible (the inspired and inerrant Word of God) is allowed to speak, it becomes evident that Christians have not divorced faith from reason but have a very reasonable faith. While it is not possible to prove that the Bible is the Word of God, it is possible to show that Christians do not have to ignore facts or take it on blind faith in order to accept this truth.

To begin, the Bible repeatedly claims to be God’s Word. In 2 Tim. 3:16 it claims that all “Scripture” (i.e. God’s written word) is inspired by God (Lit. “God-breathed”). That would be to say, the words of the Bible have their origin in the mind of God who in essence “breathed” them out. God did not dictate His word to those who wrote them down, but rather God inspired men to record His ideas in their own words and styles of writing. Even though one can clearly see a marked contrast in the writing styles of the different biblical authors, one should not say that these authors mixed their own ideas with God’s words, for “prophecy never had its origin in the will of man, but men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit ” (2 Pet. 1:19-21).

The Old Testament writers received direct revelation from God which was immediately received by the people of God as His word (Cf. Deut. 18:18-20, Isaiah 1:2, Jeremiah 1:1-2.) In fact, there are over 1500 claims in the Old Testament that it is the word of God. As the writings of the New Testament were being written and collected, the early church also recognized their authority because those who wrote them were either disciples and eyewitnesses of Jesus (1 John 1:1-2) or close associates of eyewitnesses (Luke 1:2). These writers also recognized the authority of their own writings (1 Cor. 14:37-38; 1 Thess. 2:13; Rev. 22:18-19, 2 Peter 3:15-16.) In addition to receiving revelation from the Lord, the New Testament writers quoted from and affirmed the Old Testament Scriptures as the Word of God numerous times (Acts 4:25, Matt 5:18), even affirming the historicity of such Biblical stories as Jonah and the great fish. Although many “false writings” arose during the period immediately following the writing of the New Testament, the early church excluded them from the canon of Scripture because they did not have widespread support, could not be traced to an actual apostle, or clearly contradicted the other writings of Scripture.

Historically, the church has affirmed the 66 books of the Bible as the Word of God and its rule for faith and practice. The one exception to this fact did not arise until after the Protestant Reformation when the Catholic church included several additional books called the Apocrypha into the canon. The Apocrypha were written before the time of Christ and widely known and read by the Jewish people. Despite this fact, the Jews (who received the Old Testament) never recognized the Apocrypha as the Word of God. They were not even recognized by Christians for almost 1500 years. This is the main reason Protestants do not accept these books as the Word of God.
Because the Bible claims to be the word of God, it is either what it claims to be or the most fraudulent book ever written. It cannot merely be a “good moral book,” for if it is not the word of God, then it contains thousands of lies and cannot be trusted. Therefore it is either the inspired word of God as it claims, or the most fraudulent book ever written.

…without error in the original writings.

Since the Bible is inspired by God, and God is all-knowing and incapable of telling lies (Num 23.19), the Bible should be without error. Therefore, the presence or absence of contradictions and errors within the text will either strengthen or refute its claim to inspiration. Despite the fact that the Bible has been scrutinized and criticized more than any other book in the history of mankind, its claim to inspiration has weathered the storm and stood the test of time. No one has been able to convincingly demonstrate that the Bible contains errors, for every so-called error has an equally valid explanation for why it is not an error.

Before giving evidence of the Bible’s accuracy, however, it is important to note what those who hold the inspiration and inerrancy of the Bible (evangelicals) are and are not defending. First, evangelicals claim that the Bible is inerrant in the original manuscripts. They acknowledge that copyists did make mistakes and that there are differences between existing copies. The reason this does not present a problem, however, is that there are well over 10,000 copies of the original manuscripts, and by comparing them with one another, evangelicals can determine the wording of the original text with a high degree of confidence. Second, the Biblical authors used the language of description (i.e. “the sun stood still”). The statement that the sun stood still was never meant to be a scientific statement but a description of what the author saw. Modern day news programs use the same type of language when they describe the “sunset” and “sunrise.” Third, when quoting people, the Biblical authors often recorded the thought and not the exact words. For this reason, one gospel writer might have different wording when quoting Jesus than another gospel writer. Finally, the writers frequently used round numbers. Therefore what may appear to be a contradiction between two different authors may simply be one author deciding to round to the nearest 100 and another author recording the exact number.

The Bible is a collection of 66 books (39 Old Testament and 27 New Testament) written over a period of 1500 years by 40 different authors from all walks of life (from kings to fisherman) and in three different languages. Given this tremendous diversity, if there was ever a sacred book where one would expect to find contradictions, the Bible is it. Nevertheless, the Bible does not contradict itself and is amazingly unified in its subject and theme. The unifying subject of the entire Scriptures is Jesus Christ (Luke 24:27, John 5:39, 45-57), and the unifying theme is God’s work of redeeming a ruined creation from a fallen state to its original position and condition. In a word, the theme of the Bible is salvation (in its broadest sense). Every page of Scripture presents some aspect of this subject and theme.

This unifying theme can be seen, for example, in the first few chapters of the first book of the Bible. A casual reading of the text might leave one wondering what—if anything—the first few chapters of the Bible have to do with Jesus Christ. But it is here that one learns of man’s rebellion against God, his fall from His original position, the subsequent curse placed over all creation, and the need for redemption (Cf. Romans 8:19-21). Likewise, it is here that God first promised a redeemer who would come through the seed (offspring) of the woman (Genesis 3:15) and restore (Rom 16:20) mankind to a right relationship with Himself. It is also here that one finds the man and the woman beginning to produce offspring. They have two sons, Cain and Abel, (Genesis 4:1-2). Cain, an unrighteous son, rises up and kills Abel, a righteous son (Genesis 4:3-8). As a result, God punished Cain by sending him away from his home and forcing him to wander over the face of the earth. God also declared to Cain that the world would hate him and want to destroy him, but that He would not let it destroy him.

A casual reading of this story might lead one to believe that it is simply a history of the beginning of mankind. A further examination of the details of the story, however, reveals the amazing unity of the Scriptures and the revelation of Jesus Christ. This story forms what the Bible calls a type, a prophetic picture of things that God would later reveal. These details have been fulfilled in the Son, Jesus Christ, who is the seed that was promised (Gal 3:16). God’s righteous son, Jesus Christ, came to earth but was slain by God’s unrighteous son (Israel is called God’s firstborn son in the Old Testament; Exodus 4:22). Just as God punished Cain for killing his brother by driving Him from His home and forcing him to wander over the face of the earth, God punished His son Israel for killing their brother (Jesus Christ) by driving them from their homeland and forcing them to wander over the face of the earth. This occurred in AD 70 when the Roman emperor Titus came against Jerusalem, destroyed the city, and murdered over 600,000 Jews. Since that time, the “hand” of the world has been against them (no other people group has been more persecuted than the Jews). Even so, God has preserved the Jews and not allowed them to be destroyed.

This is only one example of many types throughout the Old Testament which reveal something about God’s Son or about His plan of redemption. The more one studies the Bible, the more it becomes clear that this book has a divine author. No other “holy book” compares with the quality of the Bible. Despite its diversity, the Bible does not contradict itself at any point but rather presents one unified subject and theme.

The Bible has also been shown to be remarkably accurate in history, archaeology, and prophecy. The Old Testament alone contains over 2000 predictive prophecies, and these are not vague generalities but very specific prophecies about things to come. Those that have been fulfilled exactly as prophesied (some are yet to be fulfilled) lend strong testimony to the divine origin of the Bible. Who would have thought, for example, that after being scattered throughout the world for almost 2,000 years, the Jews would return to the land of Palestine, a virtual wasteland, and become a great nation. But anyone who believed the Bible was the word of God would not have been surprised, for in Ezekiel 11:16-25 God spoke concerning Israel saying,
I shall gather you from the peoples and assemble you out of the countries among which you have been scattered, and I shall give you the land of Israel.”’ 18 “When they come there, they will remove all its detestable things and all its abominations from it. 19 “And I shall give them one heart, and shall put a new spirit within them. And I shall take the heart of stone out of their flesh and give them a heart of flesh, 20 that they may walk in My statutes and keep My ordinances, and do them. Then they will be My people, and I shall be their God.

There are likewise numerous specific prophecies concerning Israel’s Messiah that were fulfilled at the first coming of Jesus Christ. For example, The prophecy of Micah 5:2 that the Messiah would come from Bethlehem is seen to be fulfilled in Matthew 2:6 (Cf. Isaiah 53:7 fulfilled in Mt. 27:13-14, Isaiah 53:9 fulfilled in Mt. 27:57-60, Psalm 22:1 fulfilled in Mt. 27:46, Psalm 22:3 fulfilled in Mt. 27:39, 42-44, Psalm 22:16 fulfilled in Mt. 27:35).

Archaeological discoveries also testify that the Bible is trustworthy. Secular scholars have frequently made absolute claims about the inaccuracy of the Bible without using disclaimers (i.e. “in my opinion”, “I believe”, “I think”). Despite the confidence with which they speak, not one archaeological discovery has proved the Bible to be wrong in its recounting of historical details. In contrast, many of the absolute claims of inaccuracy have been proven false. One example of this surrounds the Bible’s many references to the Hittites. For decades scholars denied the existence of the Hittites since no archaeological discoveries had confirmed the existence of this great nation. Yet in 1911, Dr. Hugo Winckler went to the area where, according to the Bible, the Hittites were supposed to have lived and discovered over 40 of their cities. The skeptics were proven wrong.

In the field of archaeology, one does not find Christian archaeologists becoming atheists, but one does find secular archaeologists becoming Christians. Sir William Ramsey is an example of one who devoted his whole life to disproving the Bible. He was a respected, wealthy atheist with a Ph.D. from Oxford. In attempting to disprove the Bible, he unearthed hundreds of findings that confirmed its accuracy. After 25 years of digging, he shocked the whole critical world by declaring himself to be a Christian .
Just as with a witness being cross-examined in a court of law, if the Bible is accurate in its details, then one can have greater confidence that it can be trusted in other matters as well. Since the Bible demonstrates such remarkable unity despite its diversity, has fulfilled hundreds of specific prophecies, and is accurate in its historical details, it is not unreasonable for Christians to conclude that it is the inspired, inerrant word of God.