How reliable is the Bible? How do we know it is truly the word of God? What evidence is there that justifies our respect for and allegiance to the Book? In this installment, we will consider the things that prove the Bible to be a reliable revelation of the mind of God to the world.<\/p>\n
Peter wrote to Christians who had been born again “not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by the word of God, which liveth and abideth for ever<\/em>” (I Peter 1:23). He added, “But the word of the Lord endureth for ever. And this is the word which by the gospel is preached unto you<\/em>” (I Peter 1:25). Jesus said, “<\/sup>Heaven and earth shall pass away, but my words shall never pass away<\/em>” (Matthew 24:35). The Psalmist wrote, “Thy word is true from the begin\u00adning: and every one of thy righteous judgments endureth for ever<\/em>” (Psalm 119:160).<\/p>\n The Bible is the one and only book revealing God’s word to the world. Others have made pious claims to being divine revelation but all have been abundantly shown to be fraudulent. Probably the most infamous of all is\u00a0The Book of Mormon.\u00a0<\/i>The first part of the Mormon document is a flat denial of the reliability of the Bible.<\/p>\n The\u00a0Book of Mormon\u00a0<\/i>reads,<\/p>\n “Neither will the Lord God suffer that the Gentiles shall forever remain in that awful state of blindness, which thou beholdest they are in, because of the plain and most precious parts of the gospel of the Lamb which have been kept back by that abominable church, whose formation thou hast seen. Behold, saith the Lamb of God, after I have visited the remnant of the house of Israel–and this remnant of whom I speak is the seed of thy father–wherefore, after I have visited them in judgment, and smitten them by the hand of the Gentiles, and after the Gentiles do stumble exceedingly, because of the most plait and precious parts of the gospel of the Lamb which have been kept back by that abominable church, which is the mother of harlots, saith the Lamb” (1 Nephi\u00a013:32-35).<\/i><\/p><\/blockquote>\n Joseph Smith, Jr., whose work is pure plagiarism, had to put this in the Mormon book to set the stage for a “latter-day revelation.” His false assumption is that the Bible has become corrupt through the efforts of Catholicism. He means the Roman Catholic Church when he speaks of that “abominable church.”<\/p>\n The plain passage Smith’s book,\u00a0The Book of Mormon,\u00a0<\/i>contradicts is as follows: “The words of the LORD are pure words: as silver tried in a furnace of earth, purified seven times. Thou shalt keep them, 0 LORD, thou shalt preserve them from this generation for ever<\/em>” (Psalm 12:6-7).<\/p>\n Jeremiah was commanded to write all of God’s denunciations against Israel. The prophet sent Baruch, who served as penman for the words, to go before Jehoiakim and read the scroll. The reaction of Jehoiakim is recorded as follows:<\/p>\n “Now the king sat in the winterhouse in the ninth month: and there was a fire on the hearth burning before him.”And it came to pass, that when Jehudi had read three or four leaves, he cut it with the penknife, and cast it into the fire that was on the hearth, until all the roll was consumed in the fire that was on the hearth<\/em>” (Jeremiah 36:23).<\/p><\/blockquote>\n In the apocryphal book of 1 Maccabees, there is a record of Antiochus IV who made it a capital offense even to possess a copy of the Old Testament records. He gathered all he could find and burned them — but we still have the Old and New Testaments.<\/p>\n The Bible is the one and only book that could possibly stand the test to which it has been put. No other book could survive such efforts to destroy it. The old book is reliable and true.<\/p>\n One of the enemies of the Bible was Jean Jacques Rousseau. He confessed, “I must confess to you that the majesty of the Scriptures astonishes me; if it had been the invention of man, the invention would have been greater than the greatest heroes.”<\/p>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" by Dudley Ross Spears How reliable is the Bible? How do we know it is truly the word of God? What evidence is there that justifies our respect for and allegiance to the Book? In this installment, we will consider the things that prove the Bible to be a reliable revelation of the mind of…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[568,219,687],"class_list":["post-55328","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-article","tag-accuracy-of-the-bible","tag-bible","tag-mormons"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":57255,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/the-ideal-bible-teacher\/","url_meta":{"origin":55328,"position":0},"title":"The Ideal Bible Teacher","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"December 23, 2006","format":false,"excerpt":"by Johnny Ramsey via\u00a0Gospel Minutes, Vol. 55, No. 39, Sept. 29, 2006 Jesus was born to die, but He lived to teach. I know that we have all heard that, but there are some statements that we hear over and over again that never get old. We have also heard\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-content\/uploads\/2006\/12\/Bible-Reading-5.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":17032,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/how-did-the-correct-books-get-added-to-the-bible\/","url_meta":{"origin":55328,"position":1},"title":"How did the correct books get added to the Bible?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"November 19, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Hi, I was wondering if you could help me with this question I have. I know that in II Timothy 3:16 it says that all scripture is \"God breathed and profitable for teaching, for conviction, for correction, for instruction in righteousness\". This is a wonderful thing, but I have\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":18175,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/peter-cant-be-referring-to-the-physical-elements-being-destroyed-can-he\/","url_meta":{"origin":55328,"position":2},"title":"Peter can’t be referring to the physical elements being destroyed, can he?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"March 19, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: To get to my point here, it is stated in the study you gave me on \"The Second Coming of the Lord\" that in II Peter 3 is talking about the \"end of the world.\" Let us have a closer examination of it, and we will find it means\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":34614,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/what-bible-reading-can-do\/","url_meta":{"origin":55328,"position":3},"title":"What Bible Reading Can Do","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"April 27, 2021","format":false,"excerpt":"by Jefferson David Tant Since God's plan included the Scriptures, which were divinely inspired, it should be obvious that he had a purpose in mind for revealing his will for us so we could read and understand. So let us consider a few things that are revealed as to how\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/04\/Bible-Reading-2-300x200.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":27839,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/god-is-speaking-to-you\/","url_meta":{"origin":55328,"position":4},"title":"God Is Speaking to You","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"November 20, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"by Clem Thurman via Gospel Minutes, Vol. 58, No. 49, Dec. 4, 2009. One person claims that God revealed to her in a dream what she was to do with her life. A man says that God spoke to him, openly, telling him what he was to do religiously. Yet\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/11\/ear.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":20836,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/why-is-the-quran-different-from-the-bible\/","url_meta":{"origin":55328,"position":5},"title":"Why is the Qur’an different from the Bible?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"November 12, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Even though I live in a very conservative Muslim society, I grew up in a somewhat liberal Muslim family. Furthermore, my Muslim upbringing was unique due to my father's and mother's serious involvement in Islam. I personally do not consider myself very religious. 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