The Bible is trustworthy

I received an email from one of my favorite online bookstores where I especially like to order Bibles from. The opening of the message certainly caught my attention: “Shop our selection of slightly imperfect”

That really doesn’t give me a lot of confidence buying Bibles from a “slightly imperfect” discount sale. Now…I know what they mean…this is sort of a Bible bookstore version of a “scratch & dent” sale.

I’m sure these Bibles don’t have the book of Romans missing, or the first 11 chapters of Genesis. Probably the cover might be blemished or some corners got creased. But this is definitely questionable. Do I really want to buy a “slightly imperfect” Bible and wonder what exactly is wrong with it? Is there something missing or torn out? When I read the Bible, I want to have 100 percent confidence in what I have in front of me.

This is exactly the confidence that we have with the Bible. We know that God is perfect in all His ways, so therefore we can trust what God tells us about His own Word. In Psalm 18:30 (NIV), “As for God, his way is perfect; the word of the LORD is flawless. He is a shield for all who take refuge in him.”

In the same way that the truthfulness of God leads us to have confidence in trusting God…knowing that the Bible is without any errors shows us the credibility to trust the entire Bible.

All of the New Testament books were in wide circulation within the first century. With eyewitness still alive, the early church affirmed that the 27 books of the New Testament are indeed the God-breathed Word of God. So the question is, how do we know that what we have in 2019 is the same as that in the first century?

The New Testament documents are better preserved and more numerous than any other ancient writings. For example, there exists seven manuscripts by Plato…but the earliest copy is actually from 1,200 years after the original.

Then, we have the New Testament. There are 5,686 Greek manuscripts in existence today. The earliest of these are dated less than 100 years from the earthly ministry of Jesus. All of these manuscripts and even fragments have been compared together side by side, and the result is an amazing accuracy of 99.5 percent.

Okay, what about the remaining half percent difference? In the majority where there is a difference, or a “textual variant”…the decision is very clear. Within the half percent of differing wordings, there are only small instances where the decision is difficult. However…in these limited cases, the meaning of the sentence becomes clear when looking at the surrounding context.

When we recognize the authority of the Bible and trust the truthfulness of scripture…this shows us the unwavering trustworthiness of the Bible. We read in Proverbs 30:5 (NIV), “Every word of God is flawless; he is a shield to those who take refuge in him.”

God’s Word is perfect and flawless. So what is our response? The result is my trust…I know with certainty that I can take refuge in the Lord.