If you don't already know, I am at a secular college purely to evangelize. I have been taught so much about God’s love, the equality of sins, theology, and most importantly humility. I could go on a long tangent about each of these but for this blog, I am going to talk about what I have learned about theology, specifically HISTOLOGY. These are the two questions I am going to address:
How can I trust the Bible when it has been translated so much?
and
how can i trust the bible is historically accurate?
This is a very good question and to make sure I have FACTS to back this up, I have attended several lectures, in-person sermons, and read books all specifically regarding this question.
The question first arose when my religion teacher went into detail about the mistranslations of the bible. (Keep in mind she is Christian but cannot teach from a theological viewpoint because it IS a secular college).
After hearing that lecture, looking at all of the different bibles, and soaking it in, I wrote to God (and I quote),
02.19.2022
“God,
With all of the mistranslations and Martin Luthers’, how am I supposed to trust that the bible is fully true? Almost as if one man's wisdom is another man's conviction?
I love you. Amen.”
Exactly ONE day later God answered this question for me…
(can we literally recognize that I walked into a random church for the first time ever…aka not my home church… and the sermon was answering THIS EXACT QUESTION- including a reference to a professor possibly making your faith in the bible shaken- AKA WHAT HAPPENED TO ME).
There are two sources I am going to quote for you to really back this all up with as much info as I want to (followed by a part 2).
First, let's note that the New Testament is 99.5% PURE (pure = the translation holds it’s original meaning). I would have to walk you through a whole lecture as to why the mistranslations don't hold significant value but the main reason is that the theme of every translation is the same and so is Jesus’ character which is ultimately what we care about most. So, let’s evaluate if we can even trust the bible before we decide if we trust it’s translations.
How can i trust the bible is historically accurate?
SOURCE ONE: The sermon
In each of the 2 sources, there will be a process that I will walk you through. Before I walk you through this process I need you to think like a HISTORIAN, not a theologian. Historians don't look at the Bible as God's word, but they look at it as a historical document when they want to evaluate its credibility…
Internal test:
When asked why you trust the bible, it's a circular argument to say “because the Bible says to”. So, let's get deeper…
Just to throw it out there 2 Timothy 3:16 does tell us “all Scripture is inspired by God and beneficial for teaching, for rebuke, for correction, for training in righteousness;"
Moses, Daniel, and Paul are three writers of the bible.
Moses - wrote the first few books of the Bible around 1445BC in Egypt in the Hebrew language.
Daniel - wrote Daniel around 600BC in Babylon in Aramaic language.
Paul - wrote Acts in about 60AD in Athens (in ch. 17) in the Greek language.
Each of these books of the bible was written by three different authors on 3 different continents; Asia, Africa, and Europe.
Wait- but then how is what each of them say so in unison? How does the bible have ONE theme?
Because the Spirit of God inspired their writing…
What is that theme?
A faithful God and His love for unfaithful man.
External Test:
THIS IS SOOO GOOD…
John 5:2 "Now in Jerusalem, by the Sheep Gate, there is a pool which in Hebrew is called Bethesda, having five porticoes."
There was an atheist archeologist, Lee Strobel, who wanted to debunk the bible by finding its contradictions to actual Earth. So, he went to look for these 5 porticoes surrounding a pool in Jerusalem that John talked about… and what did he find?
Exactly this. 40 feet underground. How long would it take for something to be buried 40 feet underground? Ya… needless to say the man is now a devoted Christian.
And guess what? Never has there been an archeologist who found anything that passed in contradicting any historical detail in the bible.
In part 2 I will go into my second source and talk about this in a more detailed process but for now, soak that in.
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