Why is the Bible important? What sets it apart? Is it authentic and really the inspired word of God? As followers of Christ, we are commanded to not only read and study God’s word but also be ready at any time to defend our faith with others (1 Peter 3:15).
This post is taken from excerpts from my upcoming eBook entitled, “Defending the Bible”.
Any responsible look at a single Christian belief should be based on what God says about that subject. Therefore, it makes sense to start with the basis for these beliefs—God’s words, or the Bible. One topic the Bible thoroughly covers is itself; that is, the Bible tells us what God thinks about his very words.
The Importance of the Bible
All the words in the Bible are God’s words. Therefore, to disbelieve or disobey them is to disbelieve or disobey God himself. Oftentimes, passages in the Old Testament are introduced with the phrase, “Thus says the Lord” (see Ex. 4:22; Josh. 24:2; 1 Sam. 10:18; Isa. 10:24; also Deut. 18:18–20; Jer. 1:9). This phrase, understood to be like the command of a king, indicated that what followed was to be obeyed without challenge or question. Even the words in the Old Testament not attributed as direct quotes from God are considered to be God’s words. Paul, in 2 Timothy 3:16, makes this clear when he writes that “all Scripture is breathed out by God.”
The New Testament also affirms that its words are the very words of God. In 2 Peter 3:16, Peter refers to all of Paul’s letters as one part of the “Scriptures.” This means that Peter, and the early church, considered Paul’s writings to be in the same category as the Old Testament writings. Therefore, they considered Paul’s writings to be the very words of God.
Since the Old and New Testament writings are both considered Scripture, it is right to say they are both, in the words of 2 Timothy 3:16, “breathed out by God.” This makes sense when we consider Jesus’ promise that the Holy Spirit would “bring to” the disciples’ “remembrance” all that Jesus said to them (John 14:26). It was as the disciples wrote the Spirit-enabled words, that books such as Matthew, John, and 1 and 2 Peter were written.
Remember the writers were not writing a Bible. These were letters historical in nature—there was no New Testament during the life of Paul, Peter, James, and other NT writers.
The books that make up the Bible were written over a period of about 1,600 years by approximately 40 different writers who were from a variety of different backgrounds and education levels. Some were fishermen or farmers, some were educated scribes, and some were kings. One might expect that a group of men who were so different, writing on such unrelated subjects, over such a lengthy period of time, would have produced a book that was a tangled mishmash of inconsistencies, errors, and absurdities. Yet this is not the case. Yet when we look at this book (written by such different men over so many years), it shows an amazing unity —as if a single, guiding hand was behind it.
The Old Testament starts with the beginning of the universe and ends in Malachi with the promise of a coming Messiah. The New Testament starts with the birth of the Messiah in Matthew and ends in Revelation with the destruction of the universe and the promise of heaven. Every book in the Bible connects to the other books perfectly to tell the story of man’s sin and God’s plan of salvation.
When the New Testament was Written
The four Gospels in the New Testament are all within the first century, written shortly after Jesus’ crucifixion, in the lifetime of the disciples. That’s far better than most other biographies. For example, the main biographies about Alexander the Great were written around four hundred years after his death, yet how many are arguing about the authenticity of him? It’s not just that the Gospels are temporally closer to Jesus than other biographies are to their subjects, but they are so close that eyewitnesses were still alive at the time.
Paul wrote many letters that even pre-date the Gospel accounts. For example, if the Crucifixion was in 30 A.D., Paul’s conversion was as early as 34 A.D., and his first meeting in Jerusalem was around 35-37 A.D., then we could see that the time between the event of Christ’s crucifixion and Paul receiving the information about His death, burial, and resurrection (in Jerusalem) would be as short as five to seven years. If the receipt of the creed Paul spoke of in 1 Corinthians 15:3-5 occurred during the Jerusalem visit, this creed would have had to pre-date that meeting, placing it within 3-5 years after the crucifixion—an incredibly short time.
By affirming the Bible is God’s special revelation to us, the importance of the Bible is clearly understood. It is therefore essential for every one of us to know about our Bible and be ready to present a case for it. We have a duty to share the Truth with a lost world and in doing so, be prepared to also defend the reason for the faith we have inside of us.
For a more in-depth study, I heartedly recommend this book by scholar Craig Evans:
