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Addendum: Is the Bible Reliable? The Internal Consistency of the Scriptures
Are the Scriptures reliable? The answer is an unequivocal, Yes! The Bible can be relied upon to accomplish its stated purpose: it is useful for teaching, correcting and training in righteousness so that the man of God and the woman of God may be thoroughly equipped and completely prepared to accomplish God’s purposes of redemption here on earth (…every good work). And one of the most outstanding – even unparalleled – confirmations of the Bible reliability is its own internal consistency. That the Book of Mormon, or the Koran, or even a political work like Marx’ Communist Manifesto should have an internal consistency is to be expected. Each had only a single author. It would seem likely that there should be an internal cohesiveness respectively since one author penned the words. Even so, the internal consistency of the Holy Scriptures would not be remarkable if only one person had written the Bible at one setting. But, in fact, dozens of writers, writing over 1500 years, from different parts of the world, and under various circumstances all wrote concerning one common theme. Consider the amazing composition of the Bible. Sixty-six books • Representing various kinds of literary genre (various kinds of literature) o History o Law (civil, criminal, ethical, religious, sanitation and hygienic, etc.) o Religious and lyrical poetry o Didactic treatises (instruction/education) o Parables and allegory o Biography o Personal correspondence o Personal memoirs and diaries o Prophecy and apocalyptic literature • Written over a period of 1500 years (over 40 generations) • Written by several dozen authors from various walks of life, e.g.: o Moses: political leader, trained in the universities of Egypt o David: Shepherd, King, and exceptional military leader o Solomon: Wisest King (most brilliant man, for that matter) to ever live o Daniel: Prime minister in a foreign king’s court o Nehemiah: cup bearer in a foreign king’s court o Matthew: tax collector o Luke: a Gentile doctor o John: fisherman o Peter: fisherman o Paul: Rabbi and tentmaker by trade o James: ½ brother of Jesus o Not to mention the various prophets that wrote throughout the Old Testament • Written from different localities/countries/continents o Asia (Middle East) o Africa (Northern: Sinai Peninsula) o Europe