How Can I Know the Bible is True?

(Taken in part from Pastor Robert Jeffress series on “How Can I Know”, and from information with The New Evidence That Demands A Verdict By Josh McDowell.)

First, what does it mean that the Bible is true?

It speaks forth God’s authoritative message to mankind concerning doctrine, theology, character, purpose, etc. without error.  It is a finished product that cannot and will not be overturned with time.

The Bible itself makes these claims, which is important, because if it did not, then any claim of authority would be coming from just the outside and the critics would be quick to assert that the Bible never made such a claim for its authority from the Creator.  But it does.

2 Timothy 3:16-17 states, “All Scripture is inspired by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness; so that the man of God may be adequate, equipped for every good work.”

Jesus said, “Do not think that I came to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I did not come to abolish but to fulfill.  For truly I say to you, until heaven and earth pass away, not the smallest letter or stroke shall pass from the Law until all is accomplished.” (Matthew 5:17-18)

 Jude 3 states, “Beloved, while I was making every effort to write you about our common salvation, I felt the necessity to write to you appealing that you contend earnestly for the faith which was once for all handed down to the saints.”

 It is stated in Galatians 1:8, “But even if we, or an angel from heaven, should preach to you a gospel contrary to what we have preached to you, he is to be accursed!”

 Also, God made it clear that the Bible was not to be altered, “You shall not add to the word which I am commanding you, nor take away from it, that you may keep the commandments of the Lord your God which I command you”. (Deuteronomy 4:2) “Whatever I command you, you shall be careful to do; you shall not add to nor take away from it”. (Deuteronomy 12:32) “I testify to everyone who hears the words of the prophecy of this book: if anyone adds to them, God will add to him the plagues which are written in this book; and if

anyone takes away from the words of the book of this prophecy, God will take away his part from the tree of life and from the holy city, which are written in this book.” (Revelation 22:18-19)

Yet, one of the best proofs is that God challenged anyone else to write a book and predict the future has He has in His word.  “Thus says the Lord, the King of Israel and his Redeemer, the Lord of hosts: ‘I am the first and I am the
last, And there is no God besides Me.  ‘Who is like Me? Let him proclaim and declare it; yes, let him recount it to Me in order, from the time that I established the ancient nation.  And let them declare to them the things that are coming and the events that are going to take place’” (Isaiah 44:6-7).

And again, God seals it by saying, “for no prophecy was ever made by an act of human will, but men moved by the Holy Spirit spoke from God.” (2 Peter
1:21)

As Dr. Charles Ryrie put it, “Inspiration is God’s superintending of human authors so that, using their own individual personalities, they composed and recorded without error in the words of the original autographs His revelation to man”.

Some of it was direct word for word (i.e., the Ten Commandments written by the finger of God and various prophetic words given) and some of it was given indirectly through the anointing of the Holy Spirit. (See Exodus 20, Isaiah 1:2, Jeremiah 1:1-2, Psalm 95:7b-8, and Hebrews 3:7 relating to Psalm 95 for just a few.)

It is important to understand that God’s “revelation” does include mentioning the lies of Satan and men, emotional outbursts and situations, quotes from non-believers and the record of certain sins committed (even by those who wrote it, which is telling of its inspiration, because this is not what people would normally do, if they were making it up or writing it to talk about themselves).

The words of the original texts were without error.  Minor and insignificant copyist’s errors do exist, but no doctrinal truth is altered one bit by them.
Additionally, there are certain translation/version problems, because anyone
can write their own adaptation, and several have done just that, because of the profit on book sales that the Bible generates.  So, one must be careful in
selecting a scholarly version that was done by people who wished to remain true to the manuscripts from the originals.  The NASB and ESV are quality
translations.

The authority and authenticity of the Bible was claimed by Jesus several times:

And He answered and said, “Have you not read that He who created them from the beginning made them male and female, and said, ‘For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh’? (Matthew 19:4-5)

But He answered and said to them, “An evil and adulterous generation craves for a sign; and yet no sign will be given to it but the sign of Jonah the prophet; for just as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the sea monster, so will the Son of Man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth.” (Matthew 12:39-40)

“For the coming of the Son of Man will be just like the days of Noah. For as
in those days before the flood they were eating and drinking, marrying
and giving in marriage, until the day that Noah entered the ark, and they
did not understand until the flood came and took them all away; so will
the coming of the Son of Man be.” (Matthew 24:37-39)

“But regarding the resurrection of the dead, have you not read what was spoken to you by God: ‘I am (not was) the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob’? He is not the God of the dead but of the living.”
(Matthew 22:31-32)

And again, Jesus said, “Do not think that I came to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I did not come to abolish but to fulfill.  For truly I say to you, until heaven and earth pass away, not the smallest letter or stroke shall pass from the Law until all is accomplished.” (Matthew
5:17-18)

The authority and authenticity of the Bible was claimed by the apostles as well:

Paul demonstrated it in 1 Timothy 5:18 where he wrote, “For the Scripture says, ‘You shall not muzzle the ox while he is threshing,’ (from Deuteronomy 25:4) and ‘The laborer is worthy of his wages’ (from Luke 10:7)”.

Peter showed it in 2 Peter 3:15-16 where he stated, “and regard the patience of our Lord as salvation; just as also our beloved brother Paul, according to the wisdom given him, wrote to you, as also in all his letters, speaking in them of these things, in which are some things hard to understand, which the untaught and unstable distort, as they do also the rest of the Scriptures, to their own destruction.”

Fulfilled Prophecy makes its own case.

There are numerous examples of this.  One is the prophecy concerning Cyrus, the ruler of Persia.  In Isaiah 44:28 it states, “It is I who says of Cyrus, ‘He
is My shepherd!  And he will perform all My desire.’ And he declares of Jerusalem, ‘She will be built,’ And of the temple, ‘Your foundation will be laid.’”.  This was stated in 539 BC well before Cyrus had even been
born, one 150 years in advance, that Cyrus would be the name of the ruler, who would order the return of the Jews to their land!

Another example is found when Isaiah prophesied in 700 B.C. that Babylon (not a real power then, to be a threat to Israel at the time) would overthrow Judah, which happened over a century later in 586 B.C. (Isaiah 39:5-6).  Also, Isaiah and Daniel predicted that Persia would then, in turn, conquer Babylon afterward. (Isaiah 21:9 and Daniel 2:36-39; 8:20)

Prophecies concerning Jesus Christ, the Messiah.

There were over 61 major prophecies for the Messiah.  Of these 61, many of them were entirely beyond human manipulation for a would-be-“messiah”.  Things like the place of His birth (Micah 5:2), the time of His birth (Daniel 9:25), the manner of His birth (Isaiah 7:14), His betrayal for thirty pieces of silver (Zechariah 11:12), the manner of His death (Psalm 22:16), for crucifixion had not even been invented at that time, the people’s reaction to His death (Psalm 22:7-8) and His burial in a rich man’s tomb (Isaiah 53:9).

If we take just eight of these types of non-manipulative prophecies, the odds of probability for their fulfillment would be 1 x 10 to the 17^th power.  The odds
of just eight of these types of prophecy being fulfilled would be like piling
up the entire state of Texas with silver dollars, two feet deep and then putting
an “X” on one and randomly burying it somewhere in the mix.  Then, we would send a blind man into the state, ask him to wander around for miles and miles, and then finally at a whim reach down and put up one coin, and
never have another chance to try again.  The chances of him selecting the
coin with the “X” on it are 1 x 10 to the 17^th power.  It’s not going to happen!  And that’s just eight of the prophecies!

The Unity of the Bible.

Just think about all the controversial topics that the Bible covers:  The character of God, man, Satan, sin, Heaven, Hell, origins, morals, etc.  Yet, we have an amazing consistency of theme and topics from the beginning to end.  What makes this so astonishing is that the Bible was written by 40 different authors over 1500 year time span, on at least three continents (separated by 2000 miles) and in three different languages.  These people came from all walks of life and various cultural influences.  They held different positions,
from kings to poor men, from priests to shepherd and from prophets to
refugees.  Some wrote when happy, others when depressed. 

To understand just how phenomenal this really is let’s move this into our modern world and severely limit the variables.  Let’s say we took 40 people all working in the same country (say France), speaking the same language, from the same culture, and all working in the same field (say accounting).  Then, we asked each of these 40 individuals to write down for us there personal views of just origins, God, morals, Heaven, Hell, mankind and Satan.  Then, we would collect all 40 separate volumes and put them together a one big book and call it “the Bible”.  What do you think we would have???  This would be the greatest laughable joke of contradiction and nonsense ever compiled! 
Although some very ignorant and arrogant people on planet Earth love to run
around claiming this is the case with the Bible, it’s just not so, and it is
nothing like the mess we would have if the Bible had been just randomly
scribbled down by men over a millennium and a half.

Again, the odds of this happening by sheer chance would be like having random people, subjectively bring hundreds of thousands of parts to a specific warehouse, over 1500 years.  Then, after the 1500 years all the parts would be assembled together into a perfect cathedral without any single piece missing or broken.  The supernatural is all over this phenomenon and denying the obvious fact of it, just because one chooses to be a diehard naturalist, is truly an extreme state of foolishness.

Moreover, when we look at other books like the Book of Mormon, which has no real historical support or the Qur’an, which was only written down by one man (a violation of the number of {two or three} witnesses for verification from the Law of Moses, by the way), yet none of its 114 Surahs focus on a single theme.  This is why even though such books attempt to use the Bible as a basis for where their faith comes from, they directly contradict it in many ways.

Early Acceptance of the Bible’s Message in Cultures That Were Hostile to it.

 The extent and repetition of acceptance of the message of Jesus Christ during the generation that could verify or deny the reality of the events and miracles could not have happened if it had all just been made up.  Many devout Jews and staunch pagans completely changed their faith and practices, often at the rejection from their culture and family.  In Jerusalem more than 10,000 Jews became followers of Jesus after His resurrection, following the miracle At Pentecost. This kind of massive shift of belief does not take place in a vacuum, or without dramatic evidence.

Most of the New Testament books were written between 40-65 A.D., as not one of them mentioned the fulfillment of Jesus prediction of the city of Jerusalem and the temple being destroyed, which took place in 70 A.D., which would have been noteworthy.

Jesus Christ – a true historical person.

Rarely, someone will go so far as to claim Jesus Christ was not even a true historical person, which is completely absurd on its face, because the same person would not deny Julius Caesar or Alexander the Great, yet there is far more documented evidence for Jesus Christ.  They will go on to vainly assert that there is nothing outside the Bible that mentions the existence of Jesus.

Sadly, there are some people that no matter how much proof you present to them they will never believe it anyway, not because it is not true and well documented, but rather because it interferes with their false belief system, and their ornery, self-justified rebellious position against God. 

In his book, The New Evidence That Demands A Verdict, Josh McDowell, a former embittered atheist himself, givens a plethora of well documented evidence supporting the validity of the Bible.  In this area McDowell points out that there were many extra-biblical historical references to Jesus Christ, and they usually were from people who were antagonistic to Christianity, which makes them very good witnesses, since they had nothing to gain by admitting the existence to the historical reality of something they disdained.  Many of these individuals are well regarded as excellent historians as well.  There was
Cornelius Tacitus, Lucian of Samosata, Suetonius, Pliny the Younger, Thallus,
Phlegon, Mara Bar-Serapion and yes, Josephus.  The notable details and
documentation are all in McDowell’s book for those who need to see them.
 Also, you can go to Josh.org for a wealth of free information on this
topic.

Archaeological Evidences – Although archaeology cannot prove the Bible conclusively, because we likely won’t ever dig up everything, it has never controverted the Bible, which is highly significant.  Further, considering just how much has been dig up over the years showing the Bible’s historicity to be valid, it is strong verification that goes well beyond coincidence. 

Additionally, we have historical documentation of the many writings of the early church era.  Letters found from some of the early church leaders alone contain quotations of all but eleven verses of the New Testament.  This
demonstrates that the verses were not changed or full of errors as liberal
(unbelieving) “Christian” and secular scholars wish to mislead people
to believe.  No doctrinal changes are found and a solid preservation of
the text has been maintained over the years.  People seek to discredit the
New Testament merely on the basis that if it is true, then it ends all support
for what they want to believe in, which is to the contrary.  For the
authoritative meaning of the New Testament greatly bothers the proud and
rebellious of heart who wish to avoid accountability to the true Creator, the
God of the Bible, based on His terms, instead of theirs. 

 Evidence For The Old Testament

In 1964, the ancient clay tablets of Ebla found in northern Syria from the third millennia B.C. mentioned some of the same ancient cities that the Bible speaks of, i.e., Sodom and Gomorrah (Genesis 19), which critics said
never existed, because the cities were only found in the Bible.  (The
attitude/bias that some hold against the Bible is unfounded, yet often very
strong. So, they take the position that since they do not wish to believe the
Bible, if there is no other reference to support it, then it could never have
existed, period.  Such critics have been humiliated often by the latest
archaeological discovery.  Yet, they never seem to learn.)

Jericho (Joshua 6) is another example.  Archaeologists found evidence for the sudden collapse of the cities walls and that the city had not been plundered, but burned.  This fits the biblical account perfectly.

Ashpenaz (Daniel 1:3) used to be ridiculed as a fictitious character, which was cited as “proof” by the skeptics that the book of Daniel was just a made up story.  Yet, a brick was dug up from the ruins of 6^th century B.C. Babylon with his name on it.

Even the great king David was considered to be pure Jewish mythology by the hardened doubters, but in 1994 an inscription was unearthed which verified the “House of David”, as if that was needed for any reasonable person.

 Evidence For The New Testament

Luke’s gospel – Sir William Ramsey was a skeptic that sought to discredit the Bible by doing a series of archaeological digs to dispel the Bible’s historical record.  Ramsey particularly focused in on Luke’s gospel, thinking it would be easy to expose.  However, Ramsey repeatedly found that when he explored and investigated for evidence, he found it to be exactly as Luke had recorded
it.  At first, he was stunned, but as his investigation continued over time, he became convinced that Luke was a foremost historian, who had been very
accurate and detailed in his record.  So much so, that he gave his life to
Christ!

Caiaphas the High Priest (Matthew 26:57) and Pontius Pilate (Matthew 27:2) have been verified by archaeological finds, as well as the theater in Ephesus, where Christians disciples associated with Paul were nearly put to death.  These examples are being mentioned here, because the ardent cynics have tried to use these issues as “proof” that the Bible could not possibly be true.  Sadly, this type of person will usually just move on to the next available excuse/item that no outside proof has been discovered for yet and continue on in their assertion that the Bible could not possibly be true, all the while completely ignoring the many significant finds that do verify the bible’s historic authenticity.

Common Objections To The Trustworthiness Of The Bible

The claim is made that there were too many copying errors by the scribes throughout the centuries.  Yet, here it is important to consider just how manuscript support and authentication is actually determined for any ancient piece of literature.  There are two factors that this determination is qualified
by: the number of surviving manuscripts and the distance of time between the
original writing and the surviving copies.

Manuscript support for the Old Testament

About 10,000 manuscripts or pieces of manuscripts are available for inspection concerning the Old Testament.  The scribes’ manner of copying was extremely meticulously checked and rechecked before being accepted.  Only a few mistakes were all it took for their long hours of copying to be rejected and burned, so that it could not be passed on.

However, a great testament to the accuracy in the copying that was done for the Old Testament writings is found in the Dead Sea Scrolls, which were first discovered in 1947, preserved in large clay jars in caves near the Dead Sea. These Scroll have been dated to no earlier than 100 B.C. by the hardest critics, with some scholars saying they could go back as far as 400 B.C.  The majority of scholars have settled somewhere in the middle around 125-250 B.C.

The reason this is significant is twofold.  First, before the Dead Sea Scroll discovery, the latest manuscript copy of the Old Testament was right around 900 A.D.  In other words, the Dead Sea Scroll were at least 1000 years removed/older than the previous manuscript copies, believed to be the oldest still in existence.  But that was nothing.  It was only when the two were
compared that the amazing copying accuracy was seriously verified for our
modern time period. For instance, there was a complete copy of the book of
Isaiah that was found to be over 95% perfect, word of word.  The small
number of discrepancies was found in words like “of” and “with”, or “in” and “on”, which did not change the meaning of the context.  In fact, no significant
change in meaning was discovered, causing the vast majority of scholars to
agree that we still do have an intact/correct rendition of the original that
has been well preserved.  This discovery alone puts to rest the many lies
concocted about the Bible being secretly confiscated in mass all over the world and then redone by corrupt priests sometime after the first century and through the twentieth century and then cleverly redistributed.  Yes, I know this
is absurd and utterly laughable, but you might be surprised just how many
people actually believe this fairy tale as a “justification” for rejecting the
authority of the Bible.

Manuscript support for the New Testament

Nearly 25,000 manuscripts or pieces of manuscripts are available for inspection concerning the New Testament.  This number of manuscripts is so prolific that out of some 20,000 lines in the Greek New Testament, only 40 are in question.  That’s 99.998% purity!  More importantly, not one of these tiny fractions, of the 40 lines, has any relevance on any Christian doctrine!

When we combine this with the nearness of the originals, which was previously pointed out that most had been written prior to 70 A.D., to the comparatively short number years between the originals and the surviving manuscripts, there really is no question of the New Testaments authenticity, accuracy and authority (because it is true and clearly demonstrates itself to be the divine word of God). 

These figures do not even take into account all of the documented manuscripts of the quotes of Scripture from just seven of the early Patristic (church leaders’) quotations, which are in agreement with the surviving manuscripts of the New Testament.  Over 36,000 quotes from the New Testament have been found to date that verify the authenticity of the original biblical manuscripts.

To grasp the gravity of this, just take a look at how the New Testament stacks up against all other major literary works of antiquity, for distance between the original and the number of copies that have survived!

AUTHOR   BOOK        WRITTEN      EARIEST COPIES   TIME GAP  # OF FULL                                                                                                                       COPIES

Homer        Iliad          800B.C.             400B.C.                 400 yrs.             643

Herodotus History    480-425 B.C.      900A.D.                1350yrs.                 8

Thucydides  History   460-400B.C.     900A.D.               1300yrs.                  8

Plato                             400B.C.            900A.D.               1300 yrs.                 7

Caesar   Gallic Wars   100-44 B.C.       900A.D.              1000 yrs.               10

Tacitus     Annals        100A.D.            1100A.D.              1000 yrs.               20

Pliny (2nd) Nat. Hist.   61-113 A.D        850A.D.                 850 yrs.                7

The New Testament    40-100 A.D.    150-325 A.D.        50-225 yrs.         5366 

No one questions the historic authenticity of these other literary works of history, even though they have far less support.  Therefore, the common objections and claims that the Bible is impure, a copy of a copy of a copy, etc., or that it was changed and redone at some point between the original writings and our modern day, so that can no longer be trusted, are merely sheer fanciful thinking by those who do not care for its authority.  This is the real reason it is constantly, viciously attacked and slandered, because its meaning is both true and final concerning the souls of mankind.  The likes of Homer, Caesar and Plato are no threat to the wicked and unbelieving, but Jesus Christ is.  This is why the attacks against God’s holy word will not stop until Jesus returns.

How Did We Get The
Bible In Its Present Form?

(In other words, who
decided which writings or books were valid and which were not?)

The Old Testament
Canon (Standard).

Two main tests were used to examine authenticity of the biblical text.  The bibliography test and the internal evidence test.  The bibliography test involves the accuracy of textual transmission of the copying process.  As mentioned previously, the discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls has basically put an end to the imaginations that the critics have invented over the years about
this.  Sadly though, many of the same, well refuted “evidences” of skeptics
in the past are still regurgitated by many who would just prefer not believe.

Also, many of the claims to alternate authorship, and thus authenticity, are still commonly parroted.  For instance, the Torah (Pentateuch or the first five books of the Bible) where written by Moses.  Yet, liberal (unbelieving) “higher” critics (or the so-called “Christian” intellectuals) invented four separate authors for the Torah (JEDP) and claimed it was written much later (400-500 B.C.) than the time of Moses, with many clever contentions (lies) cited as proof.  They had many people fooled until the Samaritan copy from 700 A.D. was brought to the forefront of the debate.  The Samaritan copy could only have been copied from an earlier version and thus the JEDP criticism was completely discredited. Nevertheless, there are those who still use it today as “proof” for the reason they do not believe the Bible. 

The Old Testament is replete throughout, with passages that tell us it was passed down from generation to generation in a very public way (cf. Deuteronomy 31:24-26, Joshua 24:26, 1 Samuel 10:25 and Zechariah 7:12 – for but a few examples).  It was even carried into captivity, understood and acted upon (Daniel 9:2).

The internal evidence is the history and documentation of people, places and events through archaeology.  The list for this area is far too extensive to even begin to adequately address.  Nonetheless, as mentioned previously, the ancient tablets of Ebla from the third millennia B.C. confirmed the real historical data of a great deal of the names and places found in the Bible.  Egyptian chariot wheels from the time period of Moses have now been found at the bottom of the Red Sea, on both sides of the crossing, where God had parted the water (http://www.squidoo.com/redseacrossing).  The real Mt. Sinai in southern Saudi Arabia, with a charred mountain top and the near-by rock that was split and water miraculously poured out of it, when struck by Moses have been found as well (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K-eSRcr9CWw).  

Again, critics have repeatedly claimed that a certain city or person never existed, just because no evidence outside of the Bible had yet been discovered.  Yet, things like the “non-existent” Hittite civilization just keep being dug up, one after the other, repeatedly verifying the Bible gives us a reliable historic record.  Again, no archaeological find has ever contradicted the Bible. 

Contrast this to the book of Mormon, where archaeology has never been able to be used to verify any of the wild claims of Joseph Smith’s invented great civilizations that supposedly once occupied the Americas, even though Mormons have been digging for evidence for 150 years!

The 39 books of the Old Testament where established at the very latest in 250 B.C., as this was when they had been copied and complied into the Septuagint, or the Greek language version of the 39 books of the Old Testament.  The themes had to remain consistent about God, His plan and man’s purpose.  The prophetic inspiration given in the Bible’s pages had to pass the test of being non-contradictory, which they have.  All these things together show us why the Bible can be trusted as God’s authoritative word.

What about the Apocrypha  (the word means hidden or doubtful)?

The Apocrypha was added at a later date to the Septuagint, however the Jewish religious leaders never recognized it, as it did not match the supernatural inspiration or compare to the divine authenticity of the other 39 books.  Jesus never recognized it as well.  Although it contains some good history, it also contains some contradictory passages, which is the main reason it was rejected as being on par with the other inspired books of the Bible.  Even the Catholic Church did not officially recognize it until 1600 years later.  When tiny portions of certain books within the Apocrypha are mentions in the New Testament, it only means that tiny part was being validated as uncorrupted and inspired.

 The New Testament Canon (Standard). 

Within the New Testament itself, an extensive internal verification was given for much of it.  Peter validated all of the writings of Paul, even though the two of them did not always get along and Peter admitted Paul’s words were hard to understand at times (2 Peter 3:15-16 and Galatians 2:11-14).  As previously mentioned, Paul validated both the Old and New Testaments in 1 Timothy 5:18.  Paul goes on to say in Galatians 1:8 that if anyone, human or angelic, should offer us an alternative gospel that God’s divine curse would be upon them!  Jude confirmed that the faith had been delivered, once for all, and that the words of Jesus Christ and the apostles were all valid (Jude 3 & 17).  The 27 books of the New Testament canon were “officially” recognized and accepted at the council of Hippo in 393 A.D. and this recognition has held since that time, in spite of many attacks against it.

What about the Gnostic
“Gospels”?

The Gnostic gospels have been repeatedly used in an
attempt to assault the canon of the New Testament.  However, none of these
writings were done by first hand witnesses and most were penned well into the second and third centuries A.D.  These extra books were immediately
rejected by the church leaders as being fraudulent, for they denied the
humanity of Jesus (that he had a human body), saying He was only present in
spirit.  Several other heresies are contained within them as well, which
is why they are so popular with non-Christian critics. 

What about the
“errors” and “contradictions” in the Bible?

Language of appearance
(or metaphors).

The prophet Isaiah used language of appearance, much
like we do today.  In Isaiah 11:12 he spoke about “the four corners of the
earth”.  Atheists jump all over this and say this proves he believed the
world was flat and anyone who believes the Bible is true, must also think the
earth is flat.  Yet, every day we can turn on the news and weather report
and hear about when the sun will “rise” and “set” each day.  Still, we
know it is just the rotation of the earth and not the sun rising and
setting.  The poetic books in the Bible, like the Psalms, use much of this
kind of language.  Sadly, for centuries, cynics who hate God’s word have
used these kinds of examples to mock and ridicule the Holy Scriptures and those
who would believe them, without just cause.

Copyists’ errors.

2 Chronicles 22:2 and
2 Kings 8:26 is an example of a copying error.  Was Ahaziah 42 or 22 years
old when he became king?  He had to be 22 or he would have been older than
his father.  Copying errors are generally very easy to recognize and resolve. 
No copying errors have ever had any effect on the understanding of any of the
biblical doctrines, as they appear in the minuscule and fairly mundane details,
not in places that carry eternal significance, which is why I believe God
allowed it (to test and reveal the hearts of men – for the righteous seeker a minor challenge to their faith and for the wicked to reveal their insincerity and rebellion – for it is written, “the righteous shall live by faith” and “without faith it is impossible to please God” – Romans 1:17, Hebrews 10:38 and Hebrews 11:6).  

Poor translations
(into another language like English).

An example of this is found in Matthew 13:32, where
Jesus was making a comparison of faith to a mustard seed.  The text states
in the English “this is smaller than all other seeds”.  However,
the Greek states that Jesus was saying it was the least of all the seeds in a
local context of the area He was in, not the entire world.  Greek is a
very precise language and English is not, as it has been very fluid, changing
often over time.  Thus, there are many English language “distortions” from
the Greek that have been conveniently exploited by skeptics to promote their
unbelief.

Alleged Contradictions

 Approximations (the partial and the whole)

Again, the cynics are looking for anything, not to
believe, and so they often refuse to be careful or honest with the whole
context.  An example of this would be in the area of approximations. 
Numbers 25:9 lists 24,000 dying in relation to a particular event and 1
Corinthians 10:8 speaks of only 23,000 falling in one day connected to the same
event.  The skeptic then laughingly mocks; explaining Bible believers must
not be able to count either.  However, what they conveniently missed was
the time frame within the context.  The 23,000 fell in “one day”. 
The 24,000 was the total body count from the entire event.

Paraphrases

For instance, Luke 6 and Matthew 5-7 are considered by the skeptics to be the exact same account, yet it differs.  Jesus likely taught on the same topic many times during the years of His ministry.  Thus, the message would have had much similarity, but it cannot be expected to be a perfect word for word repetition.  Speakers will commonly vary their message to fit the crowd they are speaking to, so expecting a word for word match is ludicrous.  Also, Matthew was a direct witness and Luke went around interviewing several eyewitnesses compiling their accounts, thus this could simply be complementary eyewitness accounts of the same event.  Similar to eyewitnesses of a bank robbery, with several different accounts on how it went down, yet nobody would deny that the bank was robbed!  This is picking at the position of the gnats on the elephant, so one can attempt to deny the existence of elephant altogether.  This mentality is common among skeptics and it should be understood by anyone who would bother to listen to them.

The eyewitness accounts of the resurrection of Jesus Christ vary this way.  One witness points out two angels at the tomb, while another says there was one.  However, the witness did not say there was “only” one; they just focused on the one, which is not a contradiction, but simply another corresponding account from a different viewpoint.

Conclusion: The Almighty Creator took the time to communicate His love and standard/terms for mercy through the inspiration of the Holy Spirit in men and by the visitation of Himself in the form of God, the Son.  He has accurately preserved the record of this communication and His love for us in the Bible. We
have sinned against Him and death is the penalty for each sin we have
committed.  We have built the house without windows, locked the door and
set the place on fire.  He stands at the door and knocks, asking us if we
want to be rescued by Him.  Unfortunately, most will reject His help (His
forgiveness through Christ alone).  Instead, they will seek to find a way
out of the fire in that locked room on their own.  But sin and death are
too strong for them and they will never succeed, but rather parish in their own
futile attempt at righteousness.What about