Is Scripture Reliable? 4 Common Objections and How To Answer.
Is Scripture Reliable? 4 Common Objections and How To Answer.
Scripture claims it is God's reliable and infallible Word in several places throughout the Bible. Skeptics continue to question the reliability of Scripture. There is overwhelming evidence that supports the Bible being exactly what it says it is. Infallible, without error, and useful for building up in righteousness.
There are four common objections that skeptics make to the reliability of Scripture. Here is a quick guide to those objections and a response to them.
OBJECTION 1: Oral Tradition is unreliable
Answer: Oral tradition is reliable for three specific reasons.
1. It was held in the highest regard.
2. Jewish children are taught to remember oral material accurately so that it can be handed down.
3. Handed down collectively to the entire community, which meant that it would be reliable because the entire community depended on it.
OBJECTION 2: Written by Men
Answer: Scripture is clear that writers were inspired by God (2 Peter 1:21; 1 Corinth 2:13)
OBJECTION 3: Writers were biased (2 Peter 1:16; 1 John 1:1)
Answer: Historically, some of the most reliable historical reports of events were from those we may consider biased. For instance, reports of the Nazi Holocaust were from Jews, yet we don’t discount them as unreliable.
OBJECTION 4: Too much time had passed
Answer: The time between the original and manuscript copying is extremely short. Especially, compared to other documents we hold as accurate.
Generally, the shorter the time between the original writing and the manuscript, the more reliable a text is considered to be. Ancient classics have an average gap of over 1,000 years. A 700-year gap is considered good among works of antiquity. The chart below shows that New Testament manuscripts are overwhelmingly more accurate and have closer dates than other works.
AuthorDate WrittenEarliest CopyNumber of CopiesAccuracy of CopiesCaesar1st Century B.C.A.D. 90010___________TacitusA.D. 100A.D. 110020___________Thucydides5th Century B.C.A.D. 9008___________Herodotus5th Century B.C.A.D. 9008___________Homer9th Century B.C.__________64395%New Testament1 Century A.D.2nd Century A.D.5,000+99+%
