Can I trust the Bible?

“We believe the Bible to be the word of God as far as it is translated correctly; we also believe the Book of Mormon to be the word of God.” Joseph Smith Jr., Eighth Article of Faith

"Heaven and earth shall pass away: but my words shall not pass away." Jesus, Mark 13:31

(Watch videos at www.LeeStrobel.com on this subject and other related topics. The majority of the information presented here is the work of Josh McDowell 's book The New Evidence that Demands A Verdict.)

The Bible is True

"Every word of God is pure: he is a shield unto them that put their trust in him." Proverbs 30:5

The Bible is true, every word of it. Joseph Smith taught that the Bible was corrupted in the first century. However the Dead Sea Scrolls are physical proof that the Torah is letter perfect. Two thousand years of letter perfect preservation testifies to G-d's divine protection. I will show you why the Bible, not the Book of Mormon is “the most correct of any book on earth”. (Joseph Smith, History of the Church, 4:461)

"I will worship toward thy holy temple, and praise thy name for thy loving kindness and for thy truth: for thou hast magnified thy word above all thy name." Psalm 138:2

The Bible is the Word of One God-One Voice from Genesis to Revelation. Every word in the Bible comes directly from the mouth of God; whether it’s Jehovah/YHWH of the Old Testament, or Jesus of the New Testament speaking; they are one and the same. The words of the prophets in the Old Testament, or the Apostles of the New Testament were all inspired by the Holy Spirit. It is God speaking, and God is One;

“All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness: That the man of God may be perfect, throughly furnished unto all good works.” Apostle Paul, 2 Tim 3:16-17

According to the Apostle Paul, the Bible is all we need to be perfect, "thoroughly furnished unto all good works".

The words "inspiration of God" translated directly from the Greek theopneustos means "God breathed”. God “spoke” the Word into existence. It is His and it contains everything we need to be complete in Him. "Plain and precious parts" aren’t missing. God tells us that the Bible’s information is "perfect", and complete; nothing has been corrupted. We should use it "for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, and for instruction in righteousness". Our Heavenly Father has given us everything necessary to know Him, and do His will.

"Knowing this first that no prophecy of the scripture is of any private interpretation. For the prophecy came not in old time by the will of man: but holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost." 2 Peter 1:21-22

The Bible must be understood in context. If you look closely, you will see a pattern in Joseph Smith's contradictions of the teachings of Jesus Christ. Joseph frequently took a single scripture out of context and builds a whole doctrine around it. Baptism for the dead is one example. It goes against the patterns, types, and shadows that God laid out in the Old Testament. It contradicts what Jesus taught in Luke 16 about Abraham and Lazarus. Yet the LDS Church has hundreds of temples where in everyday they are doing vicarious work for the dead. The Bible doesn't contradict itself. It reveals and fulfills. It's "One God, One Voice, from Genesis to Revelation".

“But the Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in my name, he shall teach you all things, and bring all things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you.” John 14:26

The four gospels are the testimony of eye witnesses to the Savior's three year ministry. Four different vantage points, all were written within forty years of the events, all corraborate each other. How could they remember? Jesus promised them that the Holy Spirit would bring every thing He taught them to their minds.

Jesus plainly said, “The law and the prophets were until John (no more prophets,): since that time the kingdom of God is preached, (in it’s fullness, no new revelations, no new ordinances, everything necessary for salvation has been revealed.) and every man presseth into it.” Luke 16:16 (Revelation now comes to us by the Holy Spirit and His Word not by prophets.)

The Bible has the "fulness of the gospel" and we should be "pressing into it."

The first question that needs to be answered is, can we trust the Bible as a truthful source?

God tells us that we can trust His Word to be true.
We will examine the prophecies of the Bible, have they all come to pass?
We will hear from textual and literary scholars.
We will examine the Dead Sea Scrolls and see what they reveal.
We will see if the Bible's truthfulness is verified by hard evidence.

1. God Tells Us That We Can Trust His Word to be True

Jesus said, “Heaven and earth shall pass away, but my words shall not pass away.” Matt 24:35

The heavens are still above me and the earth is still under my feet; His Word has not passed away.

After His resurrection Jesus walked on the road to Emmaus with two of his disciples…

"And beginning at Moses and all the prophets, he expounded unto them in all the scriptures the things concerning himself." Luke 24:27

The Bible shows us that Jesus trusted the Old Testament.

"The grass withereth, the flower fadeth: but the word of our God shall stand for ever." Isaiah 40:8

"Thy word is true from the beginning: and every one of thy righteous judgments endureth for ever." Psalm 119:160

Forever is more than all the generations of man, it stretches into infinity. In it you begin to glimpse the immensity of Almighty God.

2. The prophecies of the Bible have all come to pass with incredible accuracy.

“According to Deuteronomy 18, a prophet was false if he made predictions that were never fulfilled. No unconditional prophecy of the Bible about the events of the present day has gone unfulfilled. Hundreds of predictions, some of them given hundreds of years in advanced, have been literally been fulfilled. The time (Daniel 9), city (Micah 5:2), and nature (Isaiah 7:14) of Christ’s birth were foretold in the Old Testament, as were dozens of other things about His life, death, and resurrection (see Isaiah 53). Numerous other prophecies have been fulfilled, including the destruction of Edom (Obadiah 1), the curse of Babylon (Isaiah13), and the destruction of Tyre (Ezekiel 26) and Nineveh(Nahum1-3), and the return of Israel to the Land (Isaiah 11:11). Other books have claimed divine inspiration, such as the Koran, the Book of Mormon, and parts of the (Hindu) Veda. But none of those books contain predictive prophecy. As a result, fulfilled prophecy is a strong indication of the unique divine authority of the Bible.” Geisler and Nix, According to a General Introduction to the Bible, ’86,196

3. The Bible is the Most Trustworthy Book of Antiquity

Textual and literary scholars assert that the Bible is the most trustworthy book of antiquity. They tell us that:

Four Gospels were written by eye witnesses to Jesus’ ministry. Matthew, Mark, Luke and John.
The bulk of the New Testament is letters written by the Apostles to the Church. The Apostles were also eye witnesses. These epistles (letters) were never handed down by word of mouth. They were meticulously copied, and hand carried by trusted envoys to the different Churches.
As Jesus’ disciples took His message to the world it was written in many different languages and scattered abroad. Instead creating contradictions and drifting farther from the truth, each of the letters, each in a different language, corroborates and supports the exact same message.
Because of the numbers of existing manuscripts they can be cross examined to see if they are authentic and accurate.
There are thousands more surviving manuscripts of the New Testament than any other piece of ancient literature.
The only existing manuscripts of other pieces of ancient literature were copied hundreds of years after the death of the author.
These other texts are still consider the works of the ascribed authors, and taught as such in our colleges today.

AUTHOR	BOOK	DATE WRITTEN	EARLIEST COPIES	TIME GAP YEARS	NO. OF COPIES
Homer	Iliad	800 B.C.	c. 400 B.C.	c.400	643
Herodotus	History	480-425 B.C.	c. A.D 900	c.1,350	8
Thucydides	History	460—400 B.C.	c. A.D. 900	c. 1,300	8
Plato		400 B.C.	c. A.D. 900	c. 1,300	7
Caesar	Gallic Wars	100- 44 B.C.	c. A.D. 900	c. 1000	10
Livy	History of Rome	59 B.C. –A.D.17	4^th century(partial) mostly 10^th cent.	c. 400 c. 1,000	1 partial 19 copies
Tacitus	Annals	A.D. 100	c. A.D. 1100	c. 1000	20
Pliny Secundus	Natural History	A.D. 61-113	c. A.D. 850	c. 750	7
New Testament		A.D. 50-100	c.114 fragments c.200 books c.250 mostly complete NT c.325 complete NT	+50 yrs. 100 yrs. 150 yrs. 225 yrs.	5366

If these existing manuscripts of the New Testament were destroyed, we could reconstruct the entire New Testament just from the writings of the Church Fathers where they quoted from the original source. (The New Evidence that Demands a Verdict by Josh McDowell, pg.38)

4. The Dead Sea Scrolls Prove the Bible’s Accuracy

With the discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls we now have physical evidence that the Bible has been preserved for us. The Book of Isaiah Scroll was dated to over a hundred years before Christ. It is word for word the same as we have it today. Why is that important? According to Joseph Smith the Bible was corrupted after Christ was on the earth, yet the Dead Sea Scrolls date before that time. The Dead Sea Scrolls are literally “the voice of one crying from the dust.” They show that the Bible has been preserved exactly as it was written. It is hard evidence that God has preserved His Word.

5. The Bible’s Truthfulness is Verified by Hard Evidence

We find more tangible evidence every day that vindicates the Bible’s content.

Archeological discoveries are revealing that places like Jericho, and people groups such as the Hittites really did exist.
Geographical maps show us that the places of the Bible still exist; Jerusalem, Bethlehem, Egypt, etc.
The Languages of the Bible are still spoken. Hebrew children in Israel today can read the Book of Isaiah Scroll that was discovered in Qumran.
The Science of the Bible is starting to make sense as our knowledge of God’s Universe increases.
The People of the Bible still exist. The DNA of the children of Israel is the same.
The History told in the Bible is corroborated by the historians of other nations.

In every way the Bible is true. So we should heed the consequences of taking His Word lightly. The Savior warned us of the danger of dismissing His words.

Whosoever therefore shall be ashamed of me and of my words in this adulterous and sinful generation; of him also shall the Son of man be ashamed, when he cometh in the glory of his Father with the holy angels. Mark 8:38

He that rejecteth me, and receiveth not my words, hath one that judgeth him: the word that I have spoken, the same shall judge him in the last day. John 12:48

"My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge: because thou hast rejected knowledge, I will also reject thee, that thou shalt be no priest to me: seeing thou hast forgotten the law of thy God, I will also forget thy children." Hosea 4:6

Joseph Smith revealed a gospel that is unique in its doctrine and completely contradicts God’s Word. We’ve already established that Joseph and Jesus differed on the nature of testimony, and the truthfulness of the Bible, now let’s examine the rest of the restored gospel.