Here’s what I want you to see: Whatever position you take on the Bible is a position that you take by faith. If you accept the Bible as the Word of God, that is a position that you take by faith.
If you reject the Bible as the Word of God, that is a position that you take by faith. If you try to play neutral and tell yourself that you are not ready to accept the Bible as the Word of God that is also a position that you take by faith.
To choose not to believe the Bible is a choice to believe a critique of the Bible or a collection of evidence that undermines the integrity of the Bible. Some want to opt out of the faith element by saying I don’t believe in fairy tales and myths. If that is your position, that means that you believe the Bible either is or might be a collection of fairy tales and myths. Some want to dismiss the Bible out of date. It’s too old to matter any more. If that’s your position that means you believe truth has an expiration date. You have faith in the culture to construct its own set of beliefs and values.
Consider: Where do you stand with regard to the Bible?
There are a lot of reasons to believe in the integrity of the Bible.
1.
Manuscript Evidence – This is determined the number and age of manuscripts in existence.
A large number of manuscripts is good evidence as well as manuscripts that are close in age to the original autographs. The Bible has by far the best manuscript evidence of any ancient document.
2.
Witness of the Early Church – The early church writings reflect a very high view of
Scripture.
3. Witness of Modern Church – Many Christians say the same thing: the Bible speaks today.
4. Name and place details – There are numerous details that are not necessary to our understanding of the gospel but the original audience could use these details to verify the gospel accounts. For instance...
A certain man from Cyrene, Simon, the father of Alexander and Rufus, was passing by on his way in from the country, and they forced him to carry the cross.
Mark 15:21
Mark is giving his audience information they can use to check out his story. The people in
Mark’s audience could see for themselves if Mark is telling the truth.
5. Embarrassing details
The Bible records the failures of its leaders. If you are making up a story to convince people to follow your teachings, it makes more sense that you would simply out the embarrassing detail.
For instance...
 David’s affair with Bathsheeba and subsequent murder of her husband
 Peter’s denial

 Moses’ murder
 Peter’s hypocrisy
 Paul and Barnabas’ conflict – which was never resolved in Scripture
 The disciples run like cowards at Jesus’ arrest
All of these things are helpful but consider this:
If the Bible is true, then everyone’s eternal destiny can be read from its pages.
So... Who do you want to trust?
You can trust well educated Christians who give us good evidence in support of the Bible.
This is good and helpful but you need to go further...
You can trust Jesus
>Andy Stanley
Here’s some of what Jesus taught about the Bible:
Imperishable – Mt 5:17
Infallible – John 17:17
Inerrant – Mt 22:29
Historically Reliable – Mt 24:37-38; Mt 12:40
The best evidence from Jesus is this: When it came to the possibility of saving His life, when
Jesus was under duress, even then He submitted to the authority of God’s Word. When it cost
Him the most, Jesus readily submitted.
Read the story for yourself in Mark 14:32-49, giving special attention to verse 49.
•
Jesus submitted to the authority of Scripture – Mark 14:49
Jesus saw the Bible as having moral authority over His life. Jesus made decisions based on
Scripture. We all live under the authority of the Bible. There’s no way to wrestle out of that because Jesus not only taught the moral authority of Scripture; Jesus submitted to the moral authority of Scripture.
This is not classroom theory. This is life or death. Jesus can make a run for it and because of the lay of the land in less than 5 minutes He would be gone and no one would ever find Him...OR...
He can stay knowing it will mean certain and painful death.
Jesus gives one reason: The Scriptures must be fulfilled.