The writings held sacred by other religions are greatly inferior to the Bible. Hindus revere the Vedas, and Buddhists the Pali texts, but anyone who rejects the esoteric practices and philosophies that these writings promote would have no reason to read them. They offer the reader nothing of value except the pleasure that comes with mastering something dense and difficult. The other so-called scriptures are even less inviting. The Book of Mormon has no admirer outside Mormonism, and the Koran excites little interest outside Islam.

The Koran, based on visions of Mohammed, lacks both substance and imagination. The author's conception of the afterlife, for example, is simply a fantasy that his own personal desires—desires conditioned by his own cultural experience—will be perpetually fulfilled. He says that the blessed will recline on couches and converse with each other. What kind of furniture is he talking about? The kind in his own house. He says that they will wear the finest clothing. As he describes it, the finest clothing is the apparel of a wealthy sixth-century Arabian. What will the blessed eat? The finest of fruits, he says. His notion that they will eat the sweetest delicacies he knew is about as plausible as someone today imaging that in heaven we will eat German Chocolate cake. For drink in Mohammed's Paradise there will be rivers of wine, milk, and honey, but apparently no coca cola.

Uniqueness of the Bible

No other religious writing has a stature comparable to the Bible's. Even a skeptic may recognize that the Bible is a great book, important as a work of literature, a record of history, and a treasury of moral wisdom.

By every relevant test of credibility, the Bible appears worthy to be believed.

Authorship. Its authors were pious men whom no unjaundiced person could seriously accuse of deliberate lying or manipulation. Indeed, some Biblical writers went to a martyr's death rather than recant their faith in God. According to credible traditions, both Paul and Peter were martyred by the Romans, Paul by beheading (the most humane form of Roman execution, reserved for Roman citizens like Paul) and Peter by crucifixion.

Internal consistency. Although the Bible is the work of many different authors spread over a great span of places and years, its spiritual teachings are marvelously self-consistent, as are its historical narratives.

Accuracy. No credible ancient document or artifact contradicts these historical narratives.

Point of view. The Bible in all parts has a transparent honesty that refuses to flatter the reader, to multiply sensational detail, or to gloss over the faults of revered men. The only hero that the Bible recognizes is God Himself. Even in its portrait of Abraham, father of the nation Israel, the Bible exposes conspicuous flaws, and such flaws as his cowardice in the face of Pharaoh's desire to take his wife, Sarai, are not even endearing (Gen. 12:10-20).

Caliber of its ethical teachings. The Bible teaches ethical ideals far loftier than those found in other religious writings. The oldest system of laws in the Bible is the law of Moses, which many people ignorant of its provisions wrongly suppose to be harsh and inhumane. The truth is quite otherwise. The Mosaic code displays many evidences that the author is a Being of supreme tenderness and love. It spares a man from military service if he has recently built a home or planted a vineyard, lest he die before he can enjoy the work of his hands (Deut. 20:5-6). It even grants an exemption to a man on his honeymoon (Deut. 24:5). In the laws of what other society, ancient or modern, do we see compassion of this kind? Further, the Mosaic code stipulates that a captive woman taken as a wife is never to be subsequently sold or treated as a slave since "thou hast humbled her" (Deut. 21:10-14). Apart from divine direction, a human lawmaker in the time and culture of Moses would never have been concerned to protect the rights of captive women. Some of the regulations in the Mosaic code demand kind treatment of animals (Deut. 25:4). Others require simple neighborliness (Deut. 22:1; 23:24). The code is imbued with concern for the needy, the alien, the fatherless, and the widow (Deut. 24:17, for example). It enjoins farmers to pass over some of the crop at harvest time so that the poor can gather whatever remains (Deut. 24:19).

A divine perspective transcending all human perspectives can be seen also in the moral teachings of the New Testament. In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus articulates a new conception of love, a conception so exalted that it is unequaled in any other ethical system known to man. Love according to Jesus is a selfless love for all mankind, not excluding enemies (Matt. 5:44). He is the only founder of a religion who insists that love carries with it the obligation to perform every conceivable good on behalf of others (Matt. 7:12).

Treatment of the supernatural. If the Bible contained the thoughts of man rather than the thoughts of God, its backdrop would be ancient mythology, and much of its content would be clearly mythological in character. But the outlook of mythology is entirely foreign to the Bible. The Bible never ascribes personality to natural objects or forces. Rather than seeing God in a grand fusion with the universe, the Bible teaches that His essence is distinct and transcendent. The angels that the Bible places higher than man but lower than God live within a spiritual realm rather than within the realm of nature. Furthermore, unlike mythology, the Bible gives us a God who is perfect in knowledge, absolute in power, and unfailing in holiness.

Resilience under attack. Many educated people have learned a smattering of so-called higher criticism, which treats the Biblical writings as mere story and fable written long after the time when their principal characters supposedly lived. Higher criticism makes some pretense to be a science, but it is really a highly speculative theory of history—a theory that has stubbornly refused to die despite a growing mass of contrary evidence. Although no archaeological discovery in the last century has proved irreconcilable with the traditional view that the Biblical writings are authentic, many discoveries have utterly contradicted some view of the higher critics. Yet higher criticism continues to be well respected because it is the only alternative to taking the Bible seriously.

When an ordinary person hears learned attacks on the Bible, he may assume that these spring from logic or evidence. In fact, they spring from another foundation—from the assumption that miracle and prophecy are impossible, even unthinkable. For example, the overarching reason for the late dates that critics assign to Old Testament books like Daniel and Isaiah is that with uncanny precision these books tell of certain future events. So, the critics conclude that the events must have come first.

Isaiah reveals the name of Cyrus long before he lived (Isa. 44:28; 45:1). In Daniel 11, the prophet provides a detailed survey of Jewish history between 500 and 200 BC.

Spiritual Nourishment

As we noted in a previous lesson, the Christian life is a process of growth from spiritual infancy to spiritual maturity. Just as bodily growth depends on nourishment, so also does spiritual growth. The food that enables a believer to grow is the Bible (Matt. 4:4). To a babe in Christ, the Bible is milk (1 Pet. 2:2). To a mature believer, it is meat (1 Cor. 3:2; Heb. 5:12-4).

We find a list of the nutrients that the Word of God supplies in 2 Timothy 3:16-7.

Doctrine. The Bible informs us about all necessary truth that is beyond the reach of our own experience. It affirms the existence of God and paints a full picture of His character. It tells us about heaven and hell, the two places of eternal destiny. It surveys both the beginning and the end of world history. It relates the ministry and redemptive work of Christ. In its record of prophecy and miracle, it provides an evidential foundation for Christianity. And, of surpassing importance, it shows us how to be saved.

Many Americans, especially in the South, say they believe in God and heaven, but decline to accept the full truth and authority of the Bible. They do not realize that their belief system is founded largely on the Bible and their Christian heritage. They are choosing to believe the doctrines they like and to reject the doctrines they do not like. But their procedure is arbitrary. If the Bible is untrustworthy in some things, it is untrustworthy in all things, and their belief system stands on slippery ground. In fact, however, the Bible is trustworthy in all things.

Reproof and correction. The Bible is God's way of contradicting our fallible human notions. Just as foolishness is bound in the heart of a child (Prov. 22:15), so it is bound in the heart of a sinner. The aim of Biblical correction is to bring us to repentance and faith.

Instruction in righteousness. The Bible presents itself as a moral guidebook (Psa. 119:11, 105) with the objective of provoking us to good works from a pure heart (1 Tim. 1:5).

All Truth

The Bible is God's Word to man. Nothing in the Bible is extraneous to divine revelation. The whole of it comes from God. Yet today, many who profess a Biblical Christianity boast that they see mistakes in the Bible. Their willingness to cavil at God's Word is reckless and arrogant. We will lay out four unanswerable arguments that the Bible is in fact inerrant.

• The Bible, speaking of itself under the names "the law of the Lord," "the word(s) of God," or "the word(s) of the Lord" ascribes perfection to itself.
  • Several texts agree, for example, that the Word of God is pure—that is, without any adulterating falsehood or deception (Psalm 19:7-11; Prov. 30:5-6; Psa. 12:6).
  • Another text, speaking even more plainly, says simply that the Word of God is true (Psa. 119:160).
  • Elsewhere, we find the remarkable assertion, "For ever, O Lord, thy word is settled in heaven" (Psa. 119:89). It is absurd to imagine that a patchwork of truth and error would be a fixture for eternity. Surely, truth alone is worth preserving.
  • In debate with those who mocked His claims, Jesus resorted to an argument drawn from the Psalms (Psa. 82:6) and then added, as a warning against trying to evade His argument, "The scripture cannot be broken" (John 10:34-36). The term "scripture" refers to the whole corpus of sacred writings. "Broken" is better rendered "annulled" or "abolished." By resting His argument on the brief statement, "Ye are gods" (two words in the Hebrew), Jesus is conferring authority upon very small portions of Scripture—indeed, upon individual words. He is saying most emphatically that everything in the Bible is fully true and reliable.
  • We find an equally reverent view of Scripture in the writings of Paul (2 Tim. 3:15-17). He says that all Scripture is inspired and that all Scripture is profitable to the reader. Surely he did not imagine that anything false was inspired or profitable.
• God is a Being who excels in honesty and forthrightness. Truthfulness is at the core of His character (Psa. 146:6; 2 Sam. 7:28; Rom. 3:4; Heb. 6:18). He would never compromise His character by allowing errors within the book that He expects us to treat as His vehicle of self-revelation. We cannot reckon any portion of this book as erroneous without making God an accomplice in falsehood.
• If the Bible contained errors, it would be impossible to sift them out except by relying on human judgment. Either we would look to presumed experts for guidance, or we ourselves would try to find the errors. But our present view of reality is extremely narrow. We have lived but a moment, seen but a tiny corner of the universe, and learned but a thimbleful of knowledge. Moreover, we have a perverse nature that often prefers nonsense to the truth. Why then should we make ourselves the final arbiters of where truth lies in the Word of God? Any assertion we judge to be mistaken may only be God's attempt to correct our ignorance.
• Trusting human judgment to find the errors in the Bible, if they existed, could not lead to assured results. In those churches that reject the inerrancy of Scripture, the attempt to separate truth from falsehood is a subjective procedure, unaided by any generally accepted rules. No two practitioners of destructive criticism agree as to exactly which assertions are erroneous. Clearly, then, if we also were to decide that the Bible contains errors, we would soon fall into utter confusion as to how much of the Bible is trustworthy. Soon thereafter, nothing in the Bible could evoke from us the unclouded faith and simple obedience that God desires. But God assures us that He has not spoken to us in mumbles amid noise (Isa. 45:19). Since God promises that He will speak to us plainly, and since the supposition that the Bible contains errors has the effect of muffling His voice, we must dismiss the supposition as false. The Bible does not contain errors, but is inerrant.

Objection

Many spurn the inerrancy of Scripture because they doubt that God could convey complex, perfect truth through mere men using mere human language. But we tend to project our own weaknesses upon God. In His inspiration of Scripture, as in the Incarnation, the Holy Spirit was able to create a miraculous blend of the divine and human. Some of the words came to the author as the spoken words of God. Some came to him as the creation of his own mind. Yet because of their divine character, all the words are fully true, and their scope is not limited to the author's prior knowledge. And because of their human character, all the words exhibit the author's peculiar style, personality, and experience.