Devotional: October 7, 2013

 

Is the Holy Bible Holey?

Bible Reading: Matthew 4:1-11

 

People need more than bread for their life; they must feed on every word of God. Matthew 4:4

 

“THE BIBLE is like Swiss cheese,” Brianna argued. “It’s tasty in some spots, but it’s got a lot of holes in it too.”

Some people praise the Bible for its help and inspiration. “I especially like Psalm 23,” they might say. “It’s so beautiful.” But if you press them far enough, they even­tually admit they don’t think much of the Bible at all. “Of course, there are problems in the Bible,” they say. “I mean mistakes and all. But that doesn’t bother me. After all, it wasn’t written to be a history textbook. It’s accurate where it needs to be, like in matters of faith and doctrine.”

The holey Bible theory is a myth. Much of the time people who make that claim have only vague ideas what “mistakes” they’re talking about. The Bible isn’t full of holes. It’s the inspired Word of God, written over a period of about sixteen hundred years by about forty different authors. It has been remarkably preserved from the original manuscripts by painstaking copyists and careful scholars. The Old and New Testaments are the most accurately preserved and widely attested documents of the ancient world.

The followers of Jesus can’t ignore the fact that the Lord himself believed in the accuracy of the Scriptures. He said, “The Scriptures cannot be altered” (John 10:35). He related the experience of Jonah as fact, not fiction. He quoted Scripture in his desert battle with Satan. He regarded the teachings, historical details, and events of the Old Testament as accurate.

The New Testament writers likewise confirmed the reliability of Scripture. The apostle Paul wrote, “All Scripture is inspired by God and is useful to teach us what is true and to make us realize what is wrong in our lives. It straightens us out and teaches us to do what is right” (2 Timothy 3: 16). And Paul also acknowledged the in­spiration of the New Testament writings with statements like, “What I am saying is a command from the Lord himself” (1 Corinthians 14:37).

In the Bible you can find different perspectives of the same event-different em­phases in retelling incidents, in other words-and other apparent discrepancies. Still, when you open the Bible, you are reading the inspired, preserved, reliable Word of God. It’s reliable because the loving, powerful God who gave it to you is reliable.

REFLECT: How would you answer a non-Christian friend who thinks the Bible is full of holes?

PRAY: Pray for your friends who think the way Brianna thinks.

Josh McDowell

www.josh.org