Is the Bible true? Can we trust the Bible? When someone asks these type of questions, we need to answer with truth. It doesn't give the bible any more credibility when we speak falseness about it. The Bible will stand or fall on its own. When questioned about the validity of the bible we need to give credible answers that have meaning. Just replying that "the Bible is the Word of God, so of course it's true" doesn't prove the credibility of the Bible. Instead, we need to give truthful and meaningful answers. For example, what are the concrete specific things that we know about the Bible the show that it is reliable?

Like any other book or writing, the Bible is true or false depending upon whether it contains truth or falsehood. Having a certain belief about the Bible does not make it true or false. Like any book, the Bible has to be judged and accessed by the character and truthfulness of the authors of the various components.

Many of the things written in the Bible we can't prove one way or the other. Other parts we can find out about.

Another way we can judge the trustworthiness of the authors of the bible is looking at the manner and .... of how they wrote.

Providing Proof

In any court trial (such as a person who claims to be the rightful heir of a large estate, etc.), the testimony of the claimant himself is not enough to prove his claim. There must be other reliable witnesses, documents, etc. to colaborate his testimony. To prove that the Bible is true we can't use the Bible (by itself) to prove that it is reliable. That would be like ONLY having the defendent's testimony as the only proof needed to claim his estate.

As I write this, I'm reminded that the Bible is a collection of the writings of fourty different authors of XXX number of years.

Follow the Logic

If something has mistakes in it, that doesn't make it untrue or worthless. We homeschool our children using homeschool text books. Sometimes we find typos in the text book. For example, in the Saxon mathbooks we have found several wrong answers in the teacher's manual. We just recognize that there is a typo and go ahead. We still value the lesson book. Having a mistake in the answers is no problem, as long as we recognize it as an error. But, if we thought of the teacher's book as Inerrant and infallible, then we'd have to see the incorrect answer as correct. That would cau Ese other problems.

Were the Authors Right about Everything?

The authors were human just like the rest of us. They were not perfect, they could make error judgements just like any other human. Even the most godly men make mistakes, even when they write things out. The difference is that when the realize they have made a mistake, they correct themselves.

The Maturing Process

In the life we grow and mature. The things that we think we know when we are younger, when we grow and mature we see how little we knew when we were younger. Paul the apostle was no different. When he was younger he said, "I am not the least among the Apostles." That was a prideful statement made by an immature man, and shows that not everything he wrote was perfect in faith and practice. Much later in life, after he had matured more, he said, "I am the least...." This showed how he had grown and matured over the years.

Like any of us, the apostles and prophets all had to grow and mature over the years. The advice they gave earlier in life was not as good as what they gave while later in life. If we look closely, we can see evidence of some of the apostles and others actingly immaturely and had to be corrected. i.e. look at how Peter ate with the Gentiles until the Jews came, then he drew back. Paul corrected him for his hypocracy. In another instance take a look at how Paul and ... got into a sharp disagreent about John Mark rejoining them after Mark had disserted them earlier. The argument was so strong that they split up. This was an immature behavior.

When we begin to realize that the apostles were human, and had human frailties like the rest of us, we begin to see how improperly they acted at times.

Does that mean that what they wrote was worthless. Of course not!