Is the Bible accurate?
Most people have asked, or at least wondered, something to the effect of, “How do we know the guys who wrote the Bible just didn’t make all that stuff up?” Such questions dealing with the Bible’s trustworthiness and accuracy should be answered honestly and clearly. The approach to assessing whether the Bible is accurate in…
Is the Bible true?
Logic requires that there is only one objective “truth” for any specific claim. Contradictory claims cannot be equally true. For example, the statements “the hamster is in its cage” and “the hamster cage is empty” cannot both be true simultaneously. This evaluation of truth applies to spiritual matters just as well as logical or physical…
Has the Bible been corrupted, altered, edited, revised, or tampered with?
The books of the Old Testament were written from approximately 1400 BC to 400 BC. The books of the New Testament were written from approximately AD 40 to AD 90. So, anywhere between 3,400 and 1,900 years have passed since a book of the Bible was written. In this time, the original manuscripts have been…
What does it mean that the Bible should be our sole authority for faith and practice?
The statement “the Bible is our only rule for faith and practice” appears in many doctrinal statements. Sometimes, it takes a similar form, stating that the Bible is “the final authority,” “the only infallible rule,” or “the only certain rule.” This sentiment, whatever the wording, is a way for Bible-believing Christians to declare their commitment…
What is Verbal Plenary Preservation?
“Verbal Plenary Preservation” is an argument from textual criticism, which is the study of ancient copies of original manuscripts in order to determine the author’s intended meaning. Ultimately, biblical textual criticism seeks to determine what the original, divinely inspired autographs actually said. To find out which Bible translation is closest to the original, we must…
What is verbal plenary inspiration?
The Bible is God’s Word to humanity. It was written by human authors, but God prompted and guided them to write what they did. Every word, word form, and word placement found in the Bible’s original manuscripts was divinely and intentionally written. This is the orthodox view of the church and is known as verbal…
What does it mean that the Bible is inspired?
When people speak of the Bible as inspired, they are referring to the fact that God divinely influenced the human authors of the Scriptures in such a way that what they wrote was the very Word of God. In the context of the Scriptures, the word “inspiration” simply means “God-breathed.” Inspiration means the Bible truly…
What does it mean that the Bible is infallible?
The word infallible means “incapable of error.” If something is infallible, it is never wrong and thus absolutely trustworthy. Similarly, the word inerrant, also applied to Scripture, means “free from error.” Simply put, the Bible never fails. The Bible claims to be infallible in 2 Peter 1:19, “We also have the prophetic message as something…
Can the infallibility of the Bible be proven?
The word infallible refers to being incapable of error or wrong. When people speak of the Bible as infallible, they claim it is completely trustworthy, fully true, and without the ability to teach any error. Claims of the Bible’s infallibility have always been part of Christian belief, but can such claims be proved? First, the…
What is ipsissima vox? What is ipsissima verba?
The Bible often records conversations. This sometimes raises the question of whether the words transcribed are the exact ones spoken in that conversation or just a summary or paraphrase of them. There are two different approaches to records of speech, known as ipsissima verba and ipsissima vox. Ipissima verba (“the very words”) refers to the…