Once we have established that God had a purpose for His creation, we establish that God's revelation of Himself is visible, trustworthy and inspired. We observe that God revealed Himself through nature, the revealed Word (the Bible) and ultimately the person of Jesus. This is evidenced by mankind's response to the creation, the moral conscience and the consistency of the biblical narrative and prophetic proclamations/fulfillments over the span of 1,500 years.
God's revelation of himself is abundant and widely visible. The general nature of God the Creator and the consequences of man's sin are evidenced by the created order. The specific nature of God the Redeemer is evidenced by the Bible, the written Word of God. These types of revelation come to us progressively through the ages. God's ultimate revelation of truth is in the person of Jesus Christ.
This conclusion is supported by the following truth claims.
Summary: God's purpose in General Revelation is to reveal himself generally, to everyone. God reveals his power and nature externally through the created order. He also reveals his nature internally through our moral consciences. Ultimately, God's purpose in General Revelation is to draw attention to himself, and to create within us a thirst that causes us to yearn for a more complete knowledge of him.
This claim is supported by the following evidence.
Summary: The study of religious beliefs among indigenous tribes finds that ecological forces helped shape these beliefs within each civilization. Studies also show that religious beliefs among indigenous tribes are surprisingly similar consisting of moralizing gods or agents, spirits, punitive systems of morality and other common beliefs. Many anthropologist and sociologists credit these punitive systems of moral conduct with the formation of complex civilizations.
There is much disagreement among scholars about the origins of religion. Some believe religion is a normal outgrowth of a mature society where systems of morality (mores, norms, rules) emerge over time to maintain a sense of social order. Others believe that religion is man's naive attempt to explain the mysteries of celestial objects (sun, moon) and other phenomena (natural calamities) with a powerful and punitive god.
What is the origin of religions? Were they merely man-made to maintain social order or were they derived from evidence of a creator-god found in the created order?
The study of the religious beliefs among indigenous tribes provides some interesting insights into the origin of religions. Because of their geographic isolation, indigenous tribes are less likely to be influenced by the religious beliefs of neighboring civilizations. There are an estimated 300 million indigenous religious practitioners in the world.
Anthropologists have studied indigenous tribes for years [REF-ENC01]. They argue that ecological forces helped shape religious beliefs. Learning from nature, civilizations reasoned that natural calamities were bad. They then associated these calamities with punishment from either a Moralizing High God (MHG) or from a belief in systems of Broad Supernatural Punishment (BSP). In either case, these punitive systems reward societies and individuals who act rightly and punish those who act wrongly.
Their findings also suggest that the religious beliefs held by most geographically isolated civilizations are surprisingly similar, not dissimilar. These common beliefs are presented in Column 1 of Table 1 below.
| Indigenous Tribe Common Belief |
Christian Belief |
| existence of an all-powerful, all-knowing, creator-god and other deities |
existence of an all-powerful, all-knowing, creator triune God (Father, Son, Holy Spirit) |
| existence of evil | existence of evil and sin |
| existence of spirits and a spiritual realm | existence of angelic and demonic realms |
| existence of morality consisting of good and evil, right and wrong (local, relative moral code) |
existence of morality consisting of good and evil, right and wrong (universal, absolute moral code) |
| existence of an afterlife | existence of heaven and hell |
| use of prayer, rituals and artifacts to relate with God | Roman Catholics: crucifix, mass, sacraments Protestants: worship service |
Spiritual prayers and rituals are used among indigenous tribes as a means to connect with and experience their god. This demonstrates that people of all civilizations have a desire and capacity to relate on a spiritual level with their gods.
The Christian analog to these common indigenous beliefs is presented in Column 2 of Table 1. The general nature of these systems of belief are similar.
Because of the point-for-point consistency between indigenous and Christian beliefs, and the commonality of beliefs among indigenous tribes, we conclude that the characteristics of the Christian God are reflected in the created order and are plainly observable by all people.
It is a well-known fact that the formation of complex civilizations is facilitated by religious beliefs based on BSPs that promote moralizing agents [REF-WAT01]. These punitive systems of moral conduct help maintain social order without the need of extensive law enforcement. It mitigates social wrongdoing. Essentially, the gods and spirits police individuals through the use of fear and punishment.
This demonstrates that God's system of moral conduct is beneficial for civilizations. It establishes and preserves civilizations (Deuteronomy 6:24 NLT). Ultimately it is a good gift from a benevolent God.
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Summary: There is newfound evidence that we are born with an innate sense of morality. Researcher from The Baby Lab at Yale University found that infants are able to discern between good and bad at an early age. Their claim is that human beings have gained this moral predisposition through the process of natural selection aided by the reinforcement of proper moral conduct.
How do we discern between good and bad, right and wrong? Is it something we learn from our parents? Or, is it something we are born with? These questions are being explored by an emerging field of psychology concerned with the science of morality.
Philosophers and psychologists have long believed that babies are born as moral blank slates, and that it is the role of parents and society to teach babies the difference between right and wrong; good and bad; mean and nice. But a growing number of psychologists now believe that human beings are born with an innate sense of morality [REF-EDG01].
"Evidence suggests we’re all born with some innate sense of morality and fairness, which makes us sensitive to the distress of others." David Pizarro (Psychologist, Cornell University) USA Today, 12-26-2017
"Babies are predisposed to interact with good people." [REF-CNN01] Karen Wynn (Head of the Infant Cognition Center at Yale University)
"There is a universal core that all humans share. These are seeds for our understanding of justice, our understanding of right and wrong. They are part of our biological nature." [REF-CNN02] [REF-BLM01] Paul Bloom, CNN 60 Minutes 2012 (Professor of Psychology, Yale University)
These research findings strongly suggest that human beings are not born with minds that are moral blank slates, but rather minds that are predisposed to make cognitively rational and moral decisions.
Perhaps the most well-known research on the origin of morality is conducted by The Baby Lab headed by Dr. Karen Wynn [REF-BAB01] [REF-BAB02] [REF-CNN01]. Wynn and her team developed the Puppet Show to assess the capacity of infants to make morally sound choices. Because infants have not yet developed cognitive abilities to make complex rational decisions, they make the best subjects with which to measure the innateness of morality.
Their findings indicate that infants from the age of 3 months to 24 months select the good puppet 80% of the time. Moreover, infants 3 months old select the good puppet 87% of the time. From their research, it appears that there is a predisposed moral agency at work, not random selection.
According to Paul Bloom, an infant's ability to make good decisions diminishes over time. He attributes this to an infant's need to compromise.
"This innate sense of justice is tragically limited. Although babies are born with an innate sense of morality, they are also born with flaws." [REF-BLM01]
This is evidenced by the fact that 3-month-old infants select the good puppet 87% of the time, whereas older infants select the good puppet only 80% of the time. For older infants who possess greater cognitive abilities, they have learned the art of compromise.
Universally, these researchers attribute this moral predisposition to making good choices to natural selection. Their claim is that the process of natural selection produces in us a moral DNA. This moral DNA codifies patterns of cognition that are refined and reinforced from one generation to the next.
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This area of study is commonly referred to as General Revelation where God shows himself generally, to everyone. It is ongoing, sustained disclosure about Himself or His attributes to all people at all times. General revelation is general in its scope (subject matter) and general in its content.
Two ways that General Revelation comes to us. First, we observe the nature of God externally in our world (outside us). Second, we observe the nature of God internally through our conscience (inside us).
God reveals himself to all people at all times through creation. This type of revelation is analogous to a broadcast radio tower. The message is broadcast loud and clear for everyone to hear. All are able to hear and understand the message.
Even where there is no Bible or knowledge of Jesus or any other specifics about God and Christianity, God is showing his glory through creation, so every human can know He is the creator. Nature is a grand theatre and every human being is in the audience. There is no one who does not have access to it. John Calvin (Commentary on the Psalms-Vol. 5) saw the world as God’s theatre where his glory is always on display,
"The whole world is a theatre for the display for the divine goodness, wisdom, justice, and power."
What can we learn about God from General Revelation? First and foremost, that God IS. He exists. We can learn of his attributes and character: He is creative, orderly, expressive, artistic, powerful, majestic, transcendent (above and beyond us). He is the author of beauty, pattern, structure, growth. He is the giver and creator of life.
The visible world displays the knowledge of a transcendent God. We can know by looking at creation that we have not created it, we are not God.
This claim was originally espoused by the apostle Paul in his Epistle to the Romans.
19 They know the truth about God because he has made it obvious to them. 20 For ever since the world was created, people have seen the earth and sky. Through everything God made, they can clearly see his invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature. So, they have no excuse for not knowing God. (Romans 1:19-20 NLT)
In this passage, Paul is saying that from the created order God's power and nature are abundantly obvious and self-evident. By using logical and empirical methods we can readily observe the power and nature of the transcendent God. This claim is true whether we look through a telescope to observe the heavens or through a microscope to observe the microbial world.
According to Psalm 19,
1The heavens proclaim the glory of God. The skies display his craftsmanship. 2Day after day they continue to speak. Night after night they make him known. 3They speak without a sound or word; their voice is never heard. 4Yet, their message has gone throughout the earth, and their words to all the world. (Psalm 19:1-4 NLT)
In this passage, the psalmist is declaring that we can observe the magnificence and handiwork of God in his creation.
The message God is broadcasting to all mankind is not audible, it is visual. It is not subject to interpretation as is audible communication.
The notion that God reveals himself in creation is best evidenced by the emergence of religious beliefs among indigenous tribes [ATH-EV71]. Numerous sociological and anthropological studies reveal that most indigenous tribes have well developed religious beliefs derived from nature and human experience.
From nature, they derived religious beliefs that include the existence of a creator-god, spirits and a spiritual realm. From both nature and a God-given moral conscience, they derived religious beliefs that include the existence of evil and systems of morality that govern social conduct. These belief systems are reinforced by rituals that build community and perpetuate their beliefs from one generation to the next.
Religious beliefs among indigenous tribes are surprisingly consistent. Because of this consistency and the consistency with Christian religious beliefs, one can conclude that God's imprint of nature and the human conscience is clearly observable by all peoples. It further demonstrates that God's imprint on the created order was done with intention.
God reveals himself in the human hearts. Genesis declares that we made in God's moral image (Genesis 1:27). Innately, we are designed with a conscience to discern right from wrong.
According the apostle Paul,
14"Even Gentiles, who do not have God’s written law, show that they know his law when they instinctively obey it, even without having heard it. 15They demonstrate that God’s law is written in their hearts, for their own conscience and thoughts either accuse them or tell them they are doing right." (Romans 2:14-15 NLT)
From this passage, we learn the following:
This conscience serves us when we are presented with conflicting truths. These conflicts cause within us an inner sense of moral dissonance. As we rely on our God-given sense of morality, we are able to discern right from wrong. We experience peace when we choose rightly or guilt when we choose wrongly.
This type of discernment is different than "common sense". Common sense is shaped by external influences such as popular opinion and normative, social practices.
This notion of an inner sense of morality is best evidenced by research findings from The Baby Lab at Yale University. Affectionately known as The Baby Lab, Karen Wynn and her team found that infants are able to discern between good and bad at an early age. Through the use of a puppet show, 3-month-old infants select the good puppet 87% of the time, whereas older infants select the good puppet only 80% of the time. Their claim is that the reason morality diminishes over time is because of the infant's need to compromise.
Researcher attribute this moral innateness to the process of natural selection. Through natural select we refine and codify our moral predisposition into DNA. Their claim is that this process is aided by human reinforcement of proper moral conduct.
Christians, however, credit the nature and origin of our moral predisposition to God. We learn from Genesis 1:27 that all human beings are created in the image of God. God's image refers to our spiritual capacity to understand and experience God and his Law. Therefore, this sense of morality is more than biology. It is a spiritual function of the human soul (Hebrews 4:12).
God has left behind markers in creation. These markers are self-disclosing. They are not hidden but readily visible to every human being. These markers ultimately point us to the nature of God, and the nature of evil.
These markers include:
While we live in an age of prosperity, we sense that something is missing in life. God's purpose in General Revelation is to create within us a thirst that causes us to yearn for a more complete knowledge of him.
Summary: God not only revealed himself to everyone through His created world, but also revealed himself in human words. This process of divine inspiration is affirmed by testimony from the writers of scripture and Jesus. The overarching storyline of the Bible is remarkable singular and invariant even though it is composed of 66 books and written 40 writers over the course of 1,500 years. This demands that there is a single author, namely God.
This claim is supported by the following evidence.
Summary: The writers of the Bible affirm that God's Spirit breathed into them the words of God himself. God guided them in thought and word to record God's meaning and intentions, not theirs.
What do the writers of scripture say about the inspiration of their writing? Were their thoughts directed by their own understanding, or was it directed by God himself?
Overwhelmingly, the writers of the Bible affirm that God's Spirit breathed into them the words of God himself. God guided the writer's thoughts and words so that the meaning and intent of their writing reflected God's meaning and intentions, not theirs [REF-GEI03].
The general claim for inspiration in the Old Testament is based on the fact that it presented itself to and was received by the people of God as a prophetic utterance (2 Peter 1:20-21). Books written by God’s prophets were preserved in a holy place. Moses placed the law in the ark of God (Deuteronomy 10:2). Later it was preserved in the tabernacle for teaching future generations. Each prophet after Moses added his inspired writing to this collection.
The key to the inspiration of the Old Testament is the prophetic function of its writers. A prophet was the mouthpiece of God. He was chosen by God. He was called a man of God, revealing that he was chosen of God. His occupation was a messenger of the Lord (Isaiah 42:19).
All of the Old Testament writers were prophets. All the traditional authors of the Old Testament were designated prophet by either title or function. About a dozen times, the New Testament indicates that all the inspired writings from Moses to Jesus are considered to be the imperishable word of God (Matthew 5:18, Luke 16:16). Jesus speaks of the Law and Prophets being "all the Scriptures" (Luke 24:27).
The inspiration of the New Testament is based on the promise of Christ that his disciples would be directed by the Spirit in their teachings about Him. His disciples claimed this promise, and there is clear indication that the writers of the New Testament themselves, as well as their contemporaries, recognized it as accomplished. Jesus did not write any books. He commended the authority of the Old Testament and promised to inspire the New Testament. He promised divine authority for the apostolic witness about Himself.
He commissioned the twelve apostles and promised them the direction of the Holy Spirit (Matthew 10:7). The apostles claimed for their teaching precisely what Jesus promised, the authority of God. They made specific claims in their writings for divine authority. Luke claims to give an accurate account of what "Jesus began to do and teach" (Acts 1:1). He implies that Acts records what Jesus continued to do and teach through the apostles. The first church is said to have been characterized by devotion to "the apostles’ teaching (Acts 2:42).
Even the teachings of Paul were subjected to apostolic approval (Acts 15). The New Testament church itself is said to be "built on the foundation of the apostles and New Testament prophets" (Ephesians 2:20, Ephesians 3:5).
The qualification that a member of the twelve apostles must be either an assistant or an eyewitness of Jesus’ ministry and resurrection eliminates any succession of apostles beyond the first century. There is no apostolic teaching that is not found in the 27 books of the New Testament. The 66 books alone are considered inspired or divinely authoritative because only these have been found to be truly apostolic or prophetic.
The apostle Paul states that all scripture, Old and New Testaments, is god-breathed.
17God uses it to prepare and equip his people to do every good work. 16All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, 17so that the servant of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work. (2 Timothy 3:16-17 NIV)
The Bible claims verbal inspiration for itself. Second Timothy 3:16 says that it is the grapha or writings that are inspired. The explicit reference is to the Old Testament.
The New Testament is also considered Scripture. Peter includes the epistles of Paul along with the "other scriptures" of the Old Testament (2 Peter 3:16). 1 Timothy 5:18} quotes the gospel of Luke (Luke 10:7) and refers to it as "Scripture."
When the New Testament describes itself as inspired it uses a Greek word, theopneustos, which means God-breathed (Greek theos means God; Greek pneuma means spirit, wind, breath).
In the Old Testament, we find a Hebrew word ruach, which is the word for breath and spirit. Genesis 2:7 tells us, "God formed a man from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life and the man became a living being." It wasn’t until God breathed the breath of life into Adam that he became a living being.
The apostle Peter states that the writers of scripture, Old and New Testaments, were carried along by God's Spirit.
20Above all, you must understand that no prophecy of Scripture came about by the prophet’s own interpretation of things. 21For prophecy never had its origin in the human will, but prophets, though human, spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit. (2 Peter 1:20-21 NIV)
Peter is saying here that the human writers of Scripture were "carried along" (Greek: pheronemoi) by the Holy Spirit. What this means is that God inspired the writer’s choice of words and the whole of Scripture, not just parts. God, through the Holy Spirit, guided the writer's thoughts and word choices while preserving their personalities so that the meaning and intent of their writing reflected His meaning and intentions. God’s ideas and writer’s words are in perfect alignment. God did not override the author’s natural writing style but used it to bring the text into being.
God maintained the integrity of his words given to human authors so that exactly what he wanted to say was communicated. The very words are God’s and all of the words are God’s, but the human author’s style of writing comes through. God chose to use human authors who communicated God’s message in human words so that His communication to us, then and now, would be recorded. He was telling us about himself, revealing himself in ways we can understand.
Luke uses this same word in Acts 27:13-15 NIV where he describes how their ship was "driven along" (pheronemoi) by the wind and the storm at sea. The word is an ancient Greek nautical term that means "carried along." In 2 Peter 1:20-21, Peter is describing the human authors were carried along by the Holy Spirit, just as a sailing vessel is carried along by the wind. Just as the boat has an intended destination, the "destination" of the writers of Scripture is the text of the Bible. Their end result of their God-led journey is the content of Scripture.
The testimony of the writers of scripture clearly states that neither the prophets of the Old Testament nor the apostles of the New Testament wrote based on their own understanding or interpretation but wrote what they heard from God himself through the divine influence of the Holy Spirit.
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Summary: Because Jesus is God, he is able to claim with authority that the Old Testament scriptures and his teachings are divinely inspired. Throughout his ministry he declares the scriptures to be authoritative, eternal, immutable, inerrant, supreme and prophetically accurate.
What does Jesus say about the inspiration of the scriptures? Did he attribute the truth of the scriptures to individual writers, or did he attribute it to God?
Jesus affirmed that all scripture is divinely inspired. He states emphatically that the Old Testament and his teachings are rooted in God's truth [HIS-EV29].
These characteristics set scripture apart from all other sacred writings. No other collection of writings spanning 1,500 years has this degree of consistency. Therefore, the universal truths presented in scripture must transcend its individual writers, and originate from a single author, God himself.
Because Jesus is God [PHY-DS06], he is able to claim with authority that the scriptures are divinely inspired.
Summary: The meta-narrative of the Bible, is singular in meaning and purpose, even though the 66 books of the Bible were written by approximately 40 men of diverse backgrounds over the span of 1500 years. This strongly suggests one author, God himself.
A meta-narrative is an overarching theme or storyline that gives context and meaning to all smaller themes and individual stories [REF-MET01]. Generally, meta-narratives can be summarized in just a few sentences.
In the case of the Bible, the meta-narrative is the main theme and storyline that spans all 66 books from Genesis to Revelation. It provides a big picture that ties the individual books and stories together into a single story. The individual books and stories support and reinforce the meta-narrative of the Bible.
The following is a summary of the biblical narrative:
This meta-narrative progressively unfolds from the Old Testament to the New Testament. It culminates in the person of Jesus, God's ultimate expression of himself (John 10:22-30).
During the course of the Old Testament the meta-narrative is presented as a foreshadow of the redemptive work of Jesus. The exodus of the Jewish nation from Egyptian slavery (Exodus 1-40) and the ritual of atonement (Leviticus 4:1-5:13), are foreshadows of Jesus' salvific work of atonement. Even the symbolism used in the Book of Revelation (Revelation 5:5-6) reflects on the finished work of Jesus (the Lion represents a messianic figure, the Lamb represents the sin sacrifice and the Ram represents the one who conquers death).
The following observations can be made from the Biblical meta-narrative.
According to John Walvoord, there are approximately 650 unique prophecies recorded in the Old Testament and 530 unique prophecies recorded in the New Testament [REF-JFW01]. Other scholars have enumerated similar numbers of prophecies [REF-EWH01] [REF-JBP01]. These prophecies support the Biblical meta-narrative. They predict the consequences of man's failure and the redemptive work of the coming Messiah.
Scholars who have studied Biblical prophecy have concluded that those prophecies already fulfilled have been fulfilled with pin-point accuracy. What is remarkable is that the interval between prophecy prediction and prophecy fulfillment often spans hundreds and in some cases thousands of years.
One must conclude that only God would be capable of accurately predicting these events and ensuring their fulfillment. At best, man's predictions would be random or 50/50. Again, this demonstrates one author, God.
This singular meta-narrative presented in the Bible strongly suggests one author, God himself.
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Christians claims that the Bible is set apart from all other sacred texts as being inspired by God. How can we know if the Bible writers were truly inspired by God? What evidence is there to support this claim?
God not only wants to reveal himself to everyone through His created world [BIB-IS10], he also wants to make himself known in human words. Another way to understand God's revelation is that God himself inspired the writers of the Bible. Essentially, the Spirit of God moved men to write God-breathed words.
In the process of inspiration, God does not just act, and humans respond with their own insight and judgment. Rather, God is working by the Holy Spirit to superintend (oversee, watch, direct). When we use the word inspiration in theology, we carefully define it. It is the process of God speaking, and humans receiving and writing down what he said. God wants to speak to us in human words that we can understand. Both the writings and writers were inspired.
The primary elements of inspiration as defined by Geisler and Nix [REF-GEI03] include: God's causality, prophetic agency, and divine authority. God initiates the process of inspiration by speaking to and through men of God. He communicates to men through the use of human senses (audibly, visually) and through a process of illumination and enablement. He makes his truth known and then employs the writer's individual personality to convey his message by guiding the writer's thoughts and choice of words. The resulting text carries the full weight and authority of God himself because God is the originator and conveyor of message.
This process of inspiration is affirmed by the following is evidence:
We conclude that God inspired the writing of scripture, not man. The continuity of scripture and prophetic accuracy demands one author, God himself.
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Summary: The veracity of the Old Testament is found in the skillful and meticulous care of the Scribes, Masoretes and Essenes, verified by the Dead Sea Scrolls. The discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls provided scholars with Old Testament texts that predated 69 AD, the date the scrolls were hidden.
This claim is supported by the following evidence.
Summary: The Masoretic scribes were entrusted by the nation of Israel with copying the ancient Old Testament texts. They approached their duties with the utmost of reverence and care. The methodologies they used contained the necessary checks and balances to ensure that the copies they produced were of high fidelity.
Masoretic scribes were Jewish scholars who worked on the Old Testament text from 600-1000 AD [REF-GEI03]. They are credited for their production of what is known as the Masoretic Text [REF-MTX01] [REF-MTX02].
The creation of the Masoretic Text was an attempt to correct the textual errors of the Old Testament that were introduced during the Babylonian captivity. Their goal was to restore the Old Testament text to its original autographic state and introduce safeguards in the copying process to preserve these texts.
According to Sir Frederic Kenyon (1863-1952),
"Besides recording varieties of reading, tradition, or conjecture,
the Masoretes undertook a number of calculations that do not enter into the ordinary sphere of textual criticism.
They numbered the verses, words, and letters of every book.
They calculated the middle word and the middle letter of each.
They enumerated verses that contained all the letters of the alphabet, or a certain number of them; and so on.
These trivialities, as we may rightly consider them, had the effect of securing minute attention to the precise transmission of the text;
and they are but an excessive manifestation of a respect for the sacred Scriptures, which in itself deserves nothing but praise. The Masoretes were indeed anxious that no one jot nor tittle, not one smallest letter nor one tiny part of a letter,
of the Law should pass away or be lost."
Sir Frederic G. Kenyon, Paleographer and Former Director of the British Museum [REF-FGK01] [REF-FGK02]
The Masoretes were not just interested in copying the Old Testament but were preoccupied with the nature of the text itself. They went beyond their duties by
The Masoretes were so exacting that if a mistake was found on a page - even one letter - the page was burned and recopied correctly.
The Masoretes had a great reverence for the scriptures they copied. In preparation for copying the Old Testament texts, they purified themselves through the Jewish cleansing ritual. This was to prepare them for the handling sacred texts.
The Masoretes were entrusted with the transmission of Old Testament texts by the nation of Israel. Therefore, they were meticulous in their stewardship of these ancient texts. They regarded their duties as a high calling from God.
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Summary: The Dead Sea scrolls demonstrate the transmission accuracy of the Old Testament. Prior to the discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls, the oldest Masoretic copy of the Old Testament was from about 1000 AD. Now with the discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls the earliest manuscript predated 69 AD, the date the scrolls were hidden.
Why are the Dead Sea Scrolls so important?
The Dead Sea Scrolls are powerful evidence of how accurately the Bible was transmitted. The Dead Sea scrolls demonstrate the accuracy of Old Testament copies between 69 AD and 980 AD. They demonstrate the accuracy of the scribes who copied the Old Testament before the time of Christ. Prior to the discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls, the oldest copy of the Old Testament was from about 1000 AD. But that changed in 1947.
In 1947, a Bedouin shepherd boy tending his flock in Qumran, near the Dead Sea, left his sheep and goats to search for a stray. Tucked into the cliffs, he spotted a cave and he picked up a stone and tossed it in the interior. The stone shattered something, so he went inside and found large clay jars, many of which were still intact, their lids still in place. While most of the jars were empty, some contained seven scrolls wrapped in linen that had turned black over the centuries. The seven scrolls, initially thought to be of no value, turned out to be the Dead Sea Scrolls that contained biblical texts.
This was truly an amazing discovery. Every book of the Old Testament was represented (except Esther), and many non-biblical writings as well. The scribes who copied these manuscripts had been alive when Jesus was alive, and these pieces of paper and parchment were as old as Jesus!
The manuscripts were hidden in caves in 69 AD when the Romans were about to attack Jerusalem and lay undisturbed for almost two thousand years. Suddenly, we could compare our Bibles to Old Testament texts that were not 1000 years old—but 2000 years old!
Let us take Isaiah as an example of a biblical writer: back around BC 700, Isaiah writes his prophecy. (The book of Isaiah discovered near the Dead Sea was dated approximately BC 100. [REF-DDS02]) About 800 years later, Jesus is crucified. Then, around 1000 AD, the oldest manuscript containing the Old Testament is copied by the Masoretes; that is the oldest piece of paper with Old Testament writing on it in existence. In modern times, people had their Bibles, based on the Masoretic text that is 1000 years old - but that is still 1700 years after Isaiah wrote it.
The obvious question was, "How much had the text changed since Jesus’ day? We could have never known the answer before the Dead Sea Scrolls were found, but now we can know! When those copies from the time of Jesus were compared to the copies from 1000 AD, there were no significant alterations – after 1000 years of hand-copying the text! The Dead Sea Scrolls confirm the accuracy of the transmission of the Old Testament. The Dead Sea Scrolls dated from around the time of Christ yet were virtually identical to manuscripts from 1000 years later.
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Summary: The Greek Septuagint is the earliest extant Greek translation of the Old Testament texts written in Hebrew. The oldest manuscripts of the Septuagint are contained in the Codex Vaticanus from the 4th century AD. Scholars are in general agreement that the Septuagint provides a reasonably accurate record of the Masoretic text and the Dead Sea Scrolls.
The Greek Septuagint is the earliest extant Greek translation of the Old Testament texts written in Hebrew [REF-SEP01] [REF-SEP02] [REF-SEP03]. The king of Egypt, Ptolemy II Philadelphus, asked seventy-two Jewish scholars to translate the Hebrew Old Testament into Greek for inclusion into the Library of Alexandria. Greek was spoken by Egyptians. Thus, the name Septuaginta.
The first five books of the Old Testament, also known as the Torah or Pentateuch, were translated from Hebrew to Greek in the 3rd century BC. The remaining books of the Old Testament were translated in the 2nd century BC.
The oldest manuscripts of the Septuagint include fragments of Leviticus and Deuteronomy (Rahlfs nos. 801, 819, and 957), and fragments of Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy, and the Minor Prophets (Alfred Rahlfs nos. 802, 803, 805, 848, 942, and 943). Relatively complete manuscripts of the Septuagint are included in the Codex Vaticanus from the 4th century (340 AD) and the Codex Alexandrinus of the 5th century (450 AD).
A comparison of the Septuagint and the Masoretic Text is subject to the semantic nuances of translation from Hebrew to Greek [REF-SEP01]. Scholars are in general agreement that the Septuagint provides a reasonably accurate record of the Masoretic Text.
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The Old Testament was written from BC 1400-400. It was written in Hebrew and Aramaic and passed down from generation to generation of Jewish people, who from the time of their writing, accepted them as the authentic and inspired Word of God.
During the time of the Old Testament, the responsibility of copying the texts of the Old Testament was given to scribes. The Jewish scribes knew they were not handling just any set of writings. They approached their work with the diligence and passion of an important calling.
There were rules for copying the texts of Scripture and they knew they were handling the words of God himself as they were copying. The work of the scribes and the Masoretes who succeeded them ensured that the Old Testament texts were preserved to perfection. The Jewish scribes and Masoretes were some of the best educated and highest paid people. They continued their work up until the time of Jesus and continued even after the destruction of Jerusalem in 70 AD until around 1000 AD.
The veracity of the Old Testament is found in the skillful and meticulous care of the Scribes, Masoretes and Essenes, verified by the Dead Sea Scrolls. The integrity of the Old Testament was established primarily by the fidelity of the transmission process.
The reliable transmission of the Old Testament is evidenced by the following facts:
When the Masoretic copies of the Old Testament are compared with the Dead Sea Scrolls, scholars found that the 5% variations in text are due primarily to orthographic errors. These errors were likely introduced prior to the production of the Masoretic Text of 600 AD.
"Even though the two copies of Isaiah discovered in Qumran Cave 1 near the Dead Sea in 1947 were a thousand years earlier than the oldest dated manuscript previously known (980 AD), they proved to be word-for-word identical with our standard Hebrew Bible in more than 95 percent of the text. The 5 percent variation consisted chiefly of obvious slips of the pen and variations in spelling."
Gleason Archer, Encyclopedia of Bible Difficulties (Zondervan, 1982, 2001)
"The Qumran Biblical documents cover the whole Hebrew Bible with the exception of the book of Esther, and are about one thousand years older than the most ancient codices previously extant. With this newly discovered material at their disposal, experts concerned with the study of the text and transmission of the scriptures are now able to achieve far greater accuracy in their deductions and can trace the process by which the text of the Bible obtained its final shape. Moreover, they are in position to prove that it has remained virtually unchanged for the last two thousand years."
cited by Missler, Chuck., The Bible: An Extraterrestrial Message (Coeur d'Alene, ID: Koinonia House Inc.) 1996. p 9.
The timeline of Old Testament autographs and manuscripts is presented in Figure 1. This timeline compares the periods for which the Jewish scribes and Masoretes copied Old Testament texts.
Figure 1 also depicts in ORANGE the comparison of the oldest extant Masoretic Text (1000 AD) with the text of the Dead Sea Scrolls (69 AD), and the Masoretic Text with the oldest extant Septuagint (400 AD). Because of the proficiency of both the Jewish methodologies (69-600 AD) and Masoretic methodologies (600-1000 AD), we assume that the same proficiencies were used by earlier Jewish scribes from the time of the original autographs (BC 1400-400) until the time of the Dead Sea (69 AD).
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Summary: The veracity of the New Testament is established on the vast number of ancient manuscripts, the early dating of those manuscripts, and the low percentage of variations among those manuscripts. Through a systematic and exhaustive process known as biblical criticism, 99.8% of the lines of the original autographs were reconstructed.
This claim is supported by the following evidence.
Summary: It is a well-established fact that the New Testament has been rigorously scrutinized by hundreds of biblical scholars throughout the ages. Methodologies known as criticisms, have been applied to reconstruct the original autographs of the New Testament. In recent centuries, historical and textual criticisms have formed the foundation of all biblical literary inquiries. Application of these methodologies have produced a high-fidelity reproductions of the original autographs.
With 24,000 New Testament manuscripts, how can anyone accurately recover the text of the original autographs?
Readers of the New Testament can be assured that the original texts have been recovers with pinpoint accuracy. This is because hundreds of biblical scholars have applied methodologies know as criticisms to these ancient manuscripts to authenticate and accurately reconstruct the precise words of the original authors.
Today, biblical scholars largely use historical and textual criticisms to authenticate and reconstruct biblical texts.
New Testament manuscripts are examined using all forms of biblical criticism [REF-CRT01]. The major types of biblical criticism are:
For a more detailed description of each type of biblical criticism consult Encyclopedia Britannica [REF-CRT02].
Historical criticism was first developed during the 18th century by German theologians Heinrich Paulus, Rudolf Bultmann and others.
Historical criticism, also known as higher criticism, has to do with the determination of a text's genuineness. This type of biblical criticism is concerned with the nature of the manuscript as a whole. This includes the date of the manuscript, its literary style, its structure, its historicity and ultimately authorship [REF-GEI03].
Manuscript dating is performed using two approaches, paleography and mass spectrometer radiocarbon dating. Together these approaches are used to accurately date biblical texts.
Paleographers assist biblical critics with precisely dating papyri by examining handwriting and comparing manuscripts to other manuscripts of a known date. Fortunately, biblical critics and paleographers have a large number of ancient manuscripts at their disposal, many of which have been found within the last century.
Textual criticism was first developed during the 18th and 19th centuries by both German and English theologians. Textual criticism fast became the foundation among scholars of all biblical literary inquiries ever since.
Textual criticism, also known as lower criticism, has to do with the evaluation of a text in an effort to reconstruct the autograph [REF-GRE01]. This type of biblical criticism is concerned with the content of the text itself. This includes the wording, grammatical form, syntax, spelling, punctuation, etc. The historicity of the text is also authenticated during the process of Textual Criticism.
Textual critics study variations across all manuscripts to decide whether the differences represent unintentional orthographic errors (e.g. misspellings, words inadvertently omitted, punctuation errors, minor word transpositions) or intentional changes involving grammar smoothing or various word/phrase changes. From the variations of manuscripts, a reconstruction of the original autograph is produced.
It is a well-established fact that the New Testament has been rigorously scrutinized by hundreds of biblical scholars throughout the ages. Their formal training and meticulous attention to detail has ensured that the New Testament texts we revere today are an accurate reconstruction of the original autographs.
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Summary: The New Testament autographs are reconstructed from approximately 24,000 early copies or fragments written during the first few centuries. Textual criticism is applied to reconcile 138,000 word/phase variants. After the variants have been classified as unintentional orthographic errors and intentional changes, only 40 lines of the 20,000 lines that comprise the New Testament are in question. This results in an accuracy of 99.8%. Compared with Homer's Iliad, the next most-copied book, the New Testament is 25 times more accurate.
With approximately 24,000 copies or fragments of the New Testament, it would seem an insurmountable task to reconstruct an accurate reproduction of the original autographs. Thankfully, through the systematic use of biblical criticisms, most notably historical and textual criticisms, this reconstruction effort is tractable.
For a complete list of the earliest New Testament manuscripts, refer to [REF-QRY01] and [REF-NTM01].
To reconstruct an ancient text accurately, scholars need lots of copies, and early copies. This has been developed into a science, called textual criticism [BIB-EV02]. The key is to keep going back to the earliest known copies.
The oldest fragment of the New Testament is a tiny piece of the gospel of John, dating from around 125 AD, copied just three decades after John’s original composition. It is called the John Ryland’s papyrus P52. Other ancient portions of the NT include the Bodmer papyri P66 (200 AD) and the Chester Beatty papyri (250 AD). The oldest complete (or nearly complete) copies of the New Testament are the Codex Vaticanus and Codex Sinaiticus, both from around 340 AD and 400 AD, respectively.
In fact, the dates of some of the earliest New Testament fragments are within 25 years of the autographs ( [REF-NTM01], [REF-DBW01]). This places some manuscripts within the lifetime of those who may have eye witnessed the actual events being written about.
Additionally, the early church fathers of the 2nd century quoted the New Testament so extensively and often that apparently all but eleven New Testament verses are found in quoted writings. In other words, one could put together the entire New Testament just from the quotations from the early church fathers [REF-GEI04].
A summary of all New Testament variants is presented in Table 2 [REF-QRY01].
Textual critics studied the variations within the manuscripts to decide whether those differences represent unintentional orthographic errors (e.g. misspellings, words inadvertently omitted, punctuation errors, minor word transpositions) or intentional changes involving grammar smoothing or various word/phrase changes. The latter category of intentional changes is only found in 38 places with 10 or more word changes [REF-QRY01]. All remaining variants are unintentional orthographic errors.
According to Geisler and Nix,
"Once the counting procedure is understood, and the orthographic variants have been eliminated, the remaining significant variants are surprisingly few in number. In fact, most of the variants found in the early Christian manuscripts have nothing to do with theology or ideology. Far and away most variants are a result of mistakes pure and simple - slips of the pen, accidental omissions, inadvertent additions, misspelled words, blunders of one sort or another." [REF-GEI03]
The New Testament is estimated as being 99.8% accurate. This is based on the fact that only 40 lines (400 words) are in question of the 20,000 line that comprise the New Testament. Therefore, only an estimated 0.2% of the lines - 40 divided by 20,000 lines - are in question [REF-GEI03].
So, how does the New Testament compare with Homer's Iliad?
Homer’s Iliad is the next most-copied book of the ancient world. It has almost the same number of lines of text as the New Testament. It has more extant manuscripts than any other book besides the New Testament. It was considered sacred, was written in Greek, and underwent textual changes and criticism much like New Testament manuscripts.
By comparison, Homer's Iliad only has 600 copies or fragments. The number of New Testament copies and fragments is astounding—nearly 4000% more than Homer's Iliad!
In terms of accuracy, Homer's Iliad has 764 lines in question of a total of 15,600 lines [REF-GEI03]. This is equivalent to a 4.9% error or 95.1% accuracy. Therefore, the New Testament is 25 times more accurate than Homer's Iliad!
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Scholars use the term autographs to describe original manuscripts of a work of literature - and the books of the Bible. We do not have any autographs - any original manuscript - of any book of the Bible. That may seem like a problem because if we do not have the originals, how can we be sure the copies have not been changed?
For comparison, we do not have any autograph of any work from antiquity. So, the Bible is no different from any other religious text or work from antiquity - they all come to us from copies, not originals. The problem of transmission is an issue for any information that comes to us from antiquity, secular or religious.
There are approximately 24,000 early copies or fragments of the New Testament from within the first few centuries after it was written! No other literature or work of history from the ancient world has as many copies– or as early copies – as the New Testament.
The veracity of the New Testament is established on the vast number of ancient manuscripts, the early dating of those manuscripts, and the low percentage of variations among those manuscripts. The fidelity of the New Testament can be seen in the many copies in existence, church father citations and low percentage of variants.
According to Ravi Zacharias,
"In real terms, the New Testament is easily the best attested ancient writing in terms of the sheer number of documents, the time span between the events and the document, and the variety of documents available to sustain or contradict it. There is nothing in ancient manuscript evidence to match such textual availability and integrity." [REF-ZAC01]
This claim is evidenced by the following facts:
These facts clearly demonstrate that the New Testament we have available today is a trustworthy reproduction of the original autographs. We can be assured that the words we read are the very words written by the original authors two thousand years ago.
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Summary: The 66 books of the Bible were carefully recognized as inspired by God and authorized by God's people for use in Jewish and Christian communities. A strict set of criteria was used to qualify each book as inspired.
This claim is supported by the following evidence.
Summary: The canonization of the Old Testament is referred to as a growing collection of books written by prophets of God. These books were handed down to the nation of Israel by a succession of prophets from Moses to Malachi spanning some 1,600 years from BC 1500-400. Various criteria are used to confirm the inspiration and authority of the 39 books of the Old Testament canon.
The Old Testament is comprised largely of the books of the Law and the Prophets. The books of the Law, the Pentateuch, were written by the prophet Moses. The remaining books were written by a succession of nineteen prophets after Moses. Books of Moses were cited from the time of the prophet Joshua (BC 1500) to the prophet Malachi (BC 400).
We have not myriads of books, disagreeing and conflicting with one another
(like the pagan Greeks
have), but only twenty-two (Josephus merged some books to get 22,
but we know from elsewhere that these are the 39 we are familiar with)
containing the record of all time and justly accredited.
Of these, five are the books of Moses, containing the laws and the history
handed down from the creation of the human race right to his own death;
From the death of Moses to the time of Artaxerxes,
who was king of Persia after Xerxes, the prophets who followed Moses have written down in thirteen
books the things that were done in their days.
The remaining four books contain hymns to God and principles of life for human beings.
From Artaxerxes to our own time a detailed record has been made (the Apocrypha),
but this has not been thought worthy of equal credit
with the earlier records because there has not been since then the exact succession of prophets.
How firmly we have given credit to these
books of our own nation is evident by what we do; for during all the ages,
no one has been so bold as either to add anything to them,
to take anything from them, or to make any change in them.
It is natural for all Jews immediately from their very birth, to esteem
these books to contain Divine doctrines, and to persist in them, and,
if occasion arises, to be willing to die for them.
Josephus, Against Apion, 1:8 (written about 97 AD)
The Old Testament canon consisting of the 39 books of the Law and the Prophets was settled and acknowledged over time. As the books were handed down from the prophets, they were accepted by the prophets, and the Jewish rabbis and community at large. According to Geisler and Nix [REF-GEI03]:
"The canonicity of some (34 of 39 books) was never seriously challenged by any of the great rabbis within the Jewish community. Once these books were accepted by God's people as being from the hand of the prophet of God, they continued to be recognized as divinely authoritative by subsequent generations."
The Jewish nation accepted the Old Testament canon as closed after the prophet Malachi (BC 400). God was not speaking through any prophet from BC 400 until the time of Christ.
The 5 books that were not originally accepted by the Jewish rabbis were the wisdom books consisting of the Song of Solomon, Ecclesiastes and Proverbs, and the books of Esther and Ezekiel. These books were later accepted into the Old Testament canon as their divine authority was vindicated [REF-GEI03].
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Summary: The primary tests for canonicity of the New Testament books were apostolic origin, doctrinal soundness and wide acceptance by the church. In many cases, the original autographs were handed down from the apostles to their apprentices in the faith, the early Apostolic fathers. Twenty of the 27 books of the New Testament were accepted by the Apostolic Fathers as early as the first half of the second century. The remaining 7 books were later accepted into the canon at the beginning of the fourth century.
In the first few centuries, there were many false books and writings claiming to have divine authority and wanting to be considered scripture. These writings of suspicious authorship are referenced to as the pseudepigrapha. There was not much debate about the canon in the first hundred years after Jesus’ resurrection.
It was when a heretic named Marcion came along in the second century (140 AD) and rejected the Hebrew Bible, rejected the God of the Old Testament and propagated the teaching that there was only one God, the God of the New Testament. He rejected anything Jewish, rejected any New Testament book that spoke about the Old Testament and anything Jewish. He saw the god of the Old Testament as mean and angry, a demi-god, a lower being than the true god. He was denounced as a heretic.
Marcion and other heretical teachings forced the church fathers to carefully review their collection of authoritative writings. They needed to come up with some basic criteria to test these writings to see if they measured up to being divinely inspired by God.
There were three main tests for New Testament canonicity [REF-GEI01] [REF-WLC03]:
Luke was not an apostle but traveled extensively with Paul and interviewed eyewitnesses to Jesus’ ministry. His writings had an indirect "apostolic authority" because of his connection with Paul and his careful research of other apostolic teaching known elsewhere.
Mark also was not an apostle, but tradition says that he was Peter’s scribe. Mark’s work has "apostolic authority" because of that connection with Peter.
Paul had a dramatic conversion where he met the resurrected Jesus and became one of the most prolific New Testament writers. Because of his missionary journeys, the Gospel was spread to much of the known world because of his preaching and teaching. The other apostles accepted his conversion experience as authentic.
Irenaeus refers to the apprenticeship of Mark and Luke under Peter and Paul, respectively.
Matthew also issued a written Gospel among the Hebrews in their own dialect, while Peter and Paul were preaching at Rome, and laying the foundations of the Church. After their departure, Mark, the disciple and interpreter of Peter, did also hand down to us in writing what had been preached by Peter. Luke also, the companion of Paul, recorded in a book the Gospel preached by him. Afterwards, John, the disciple of the Lord, who also had leaned upon His breast, did himself publish a Gospel during his residence at Ephesus in Asia. Irenaeus of Lyons; Against Heresies, Book III [REF-IRE01]
So, to be included in the New Testament canon, a book had to be written by an apostle or a person close to an apostle (an amanuensis, a traveling companion, someone who sat under an apostle’s teaching).
Any book with factual or doctrinal errors could not be inspired by God. God cannot lie, and His Word is true [BIB-IS14]. A book was not automatically considered inspired if it agreed with other apostolic teaching, but if it contradicted the Old Testament, it was rejected.
In their book, From God to Us, Geisler and Nix state:
"Much of the Apocrypha was rejected because of the principle of authenticity. Their historical anomalies and theological heresies made it impossible to accept them as from God despite their authoritative format. They could not be from God and contain error at the same time." [REF-GEI03]
- Did the original people and leaders that the writings were given to recognize them as authoritative writings based on first century apostolic teaching?
- Did many leaders accept the writings, not just a few leaders?
- Were the writings widely used in many different regions of the church, not just one city?
- Did churches keep using them over a long period of time, or was its popularity short-lived?
The original books of the New Testament (autographs) were likely handed down from the apostles to their apprentices in the faith, the early church fathers. This unbroken chain of custody from apostles to Apostolic Fathers guaranteed the authenticity and authority of the autographs. For example, Irenaeus, Bishop of Lyons, was a student of Polycarp, Bishop of Smyrna who in turn was a student of the Apostle John.
Early church leaders quote extensively from the New Testament. This shows their recognition of its divine origin. If all the manuscripts from the first three centuries were destroyed, it would be possible to reconstruct virtually the entire New Testament just from their quotations of it. One scholar, Sir David Dalrymple, believed that by his count, only eleven verses of the New Testament were missing from their writings! God determined which books were authoritative, but the people of God used these tests to discover which books were inspired and which were not.
Twenty of the 27 books of the New Testament were accepted by the Apostolic Fathers as early as the first half of the second century.
The 7 books that were not originally accepted (not disputed) included Hebrews, James, 2 Peter, 2 John, 3 John, Jude and Revelation. These books were later accepted into the canon at the beginning of the fourth century after their authenticity and authority were settled by the Apostolic Fathers [REF-GEI03].
These early canons were lists of books or collections of books that were used. Included are the Muratorian Canon (170 AD), the Old Syriac Canon (200 AD), the Old Latin Canon (200 AD) and the Athanasius Easter Letter (367 AD).
All 27 books of the New Testament canon were fully settled and acknowledged by the Council of Carthage in 397 AD.
The Latin Vulgate (400 AD) was the first Bible that had all 66 books in one collection. The Latin Vulgate was the entire Bible translated into Vulgar Latin from Hebrew and Greek by the historian Jerome. Jerome was commissioned by Pope Damascus I in 382 AD.
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The Canon is a collection of books recognized by the Church as authoritative. The 66 books of the Bible were recognized as authoritative, not made authoritative. This is an important distinction. Canonicity is determined by God and discovered by man.
The word canon means ruler or measuring rod. It is derived from a word that means cane or reed (Greek, kanon; Hebrew, qaneh). In the ancient world, cane was used as a measuring stick. When applied to the books of the Bible, it means that they measure up to the standard of being divinely inspired. The canon becomes the yardstick for measuring spiritual truth from all other sources. It is our standard for measuring truth.
The process by which the canon of the Bible was recognized is based on the following considerations [REF-GEI03].
The Old Testament canon consisting of the 39 books of the Law and the Prophets was settled and acknowledged over time. As the books were handed down from the prophets, they were accepted by the Jewish rabbis and community at large. The Jewish nation accepted the Old Testament canon as closed after the prophet Malachi. God was not speaking through any prophet from BC 400 until the time of Christ.
Twenty of the 27 books of the New Testament were accepted by the Apostolic Fathers as early as the first half of the second century. All 27 books of the New Testament canon were fully settled and acknowledged by the Council of Carthage in 397 AD.
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Summary: What God revealed is true. This is evidenced by creation, the prophets, the apostles, Jesus and the Holy Spirit. Further, for God's truth is be true it must be transcendent, absolute, inerrant and infallible.
This claim is supported by the following evidence.
Summary: The truth of God's revelation is declared by creation, the prophets, the apostles, Jesus and the Holy Spirit. The apostles proclaim that Jesus is the incarnation of God's truth.
What evidence is there that God's revelation of himself is true? What or who testifies to the truth of God?
The Bible is replete with declarations of God's revealed truth. Over the span 1,500 years, God's revelation of himself becomes more and more specific. With the incarnation of Jesus, God's revelation comes to a climax.
According to the apostle Paul in his Epistle to the Romans, creation declares the truth of God.
19 They know the truth about God because he has made it obvious to them. 20 For ever since the world was created, people have seen the earth and sky. Through everything God made, they can clearly see his invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature. So, they have no excuse for not knowing God. (Romans 1:19-20 NLT)
Paul states that we can readily observe God's transcendent power and nature with the naked eye without the use of a telescope or microscope. God's revelation can be plainly observed and known by all.
Through the use of scientific methods, we also observe that the universe is governed by physical laws. These laws are constrained by physical constants which can be measured and validated [REF-NWE01]. These constants are true because they are invariant.
Thomas Aquinas (1225-1274 AD) argued that God's truth is proclaimed through both nature and scripture, i.e. nature (science) and scripture (theology) are in complete harmony. He asserted that any discrepancy is due to a misunderstanding of either science or theology. Aquinas' thesis was that all truth comes from God.
"The epitome of rationality, argued Aquinas, is recognizing that science drives us conclusively and compellingly toward the existence of God." R.C. Sproul, Defending the Truth [REF-RCS04]
The prophets of the Old Testament proclaimed the truth of God throughout the ages. God spoke to them or made himself known to them through visions. From the Book of Genesis (BC 1400) to the Book of Malachi (BC 400), God's truth about himself and mankind remains consistent with the broader meta-narrative of the Bible [BIB-EV77].
The prophet Samuel declares
"For you are God, O Sovereign Lord. Your words are truth." (2 Samuel 7:28)
Often the prophets of God contrasted the truth of God with the falsehood of mankind, and the justice of God with the injustice of mankind. This contrast is best illustrated in the Book of Isaiah,
14 Our courts oppose the righteous, and justice is nowhere to be found. Truth stumbles in the streets, and honesty has been outlawed. 15 Yes, truth is gone, and anyone who renounces evil is attacked. (Isaiah 59:14-15 NLT)
In this passage, the prophet Isaiah describes the moral climate of his age. He contrasts the injustice of the legal system with those who are righteous and honest. He personifies God's truth and declares that it has fallen like a corpse lying in the street.
This prophecy foretells the acts of injustice imposed on Jesus during his trial where he testified to the truth (John 18:37 NLT). In the hours leading up to his crucifixion, Jesus' truth claims were on trial before the Jewish Sanhedrin and the Roman procurator Pilate. The Jewish leaders charged Jesus with blasphemy because he claimed to be the Messiah, the Son of God, and with subverting the authority of the Roman Emperor by claiming to be the King of the Jews.
Jesus, the incarnation of God's truth, literally stumbles on the road to Calvary (Luke 23:26-27) and was put to death unjustly (Luke 23:4).
In John 1:1, the Apostle John referred to Jesus as the Word or the Logos. In the Greek, logos means "word" and "thought". In this context Jesus is portrayed as the full expression of God, God's ultimate revelation of himself. According to John, we witness the very nature of God in the life and teaching of Jesus.
Likewise, in Colossians 2:9-10, the Apostle Paul says "For in Christ lives all the fullness of God in a human body." Paul makes it clear that Jesus is fully divine [PHY-DS06] and reveals the true character of God.
Jesus frequently prefaced his teachings with the phrase "I tell you the truth" or AMEN. He used this phrase 68 times in the gospels. The significance of this phrase is often overlooked. Because Jesus used this phrase before a teaching, he implied that the teaching is absolutely true. In effect, Jesus is claiming, "I know this is true firsthand because I am the author of this truth!" [HIS-EV29]
Jesus not only speaks the truth of God but is the very essence of God's truth. Jesus claims to be the incarnation of God's truth when he said,
"I am the way, the truth, and the life. (John 14:6 NLT)
Jesus proclaims that the Holy Spirit will be his successor, and that the Holy Spirit possesses the same divine nature as God the Father and Jesus the Son.
The principal role of the Holy Spirit is to illuminate God's revealed truth and guide the believer in all truth. He will possess and equip all believers with God's truth, in all places for all time.
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Summary: Philosophers and critics throughout the ages have recognized that truth must conform to reality. Through the use of rational thought and empirical observation we are able to observe truth in the real world. Belief systems based on religious pluralism and moral relativism are inherently self-contradictory and thus invalid.
In an age of tolerance, truth has been "denigrated to the level of personal preference" according to R.C. Sproul [REF-RCS05].
Truth is independent of likes and desires. It is rooted in the transcendent being of God which exists apart from the created order of space, time and matter.
A valid religious belief system provides a comprehensive understanding of truth devoid of contradictions. If any of the tenets of a belief system are contradictory, the system of truth is invalidated based on the law of non-contradiction [PHY-IS02], and considered irrational and inconsistent.
Philosophers and critics throughout the ages have recognized the fundamental relationship between truth and reality. Noah Webster, author of the Webster Dictionary of 1825 states that "truth conforms to fact or reality". Ravi Zacharias defines truth as "that which affirms propositionally the nature of reality as it is". R.C. Sproul says that "truth is that which corresponds to reality as perceived by God".
To fully understand the nature of truth we turn to the field of epistemology. Epistemology is the study of the nature of knowledge and the rationality of belief. It is based primarily on the theories of rationalism and empiricism.
Rationalism teaches that knowledge is the product of logic and reason (rational thought). Empiricism teaches that knowledge is a product of sensory perception (empirical evidence). Together, we use logic and reason to validate things we observe with our five senses.
The wholistic approach of rational thought plus empirical observation enables us to come to sound conclusions based on our experience of the real world.
Pluralists argue that all truth claims are equally valid. As applied to religious belief systems, religious pluralists argue that all religions are equally valid. Many of the pluralistic belief systems such as the Bahá'í Faith, Universalism, and Buddhism are based on personal beliefs as opposed to a single transcendent truth.
While religious pluralism is accepting of all belief systems, it is fundamentally self-contradictory. The Law of Non-Contradiction [PHY-IS02] says these competing belief systems are impossible and cannot coexist in space and time.
Similarly, moral relativism asserts that morality is not based on absolute standards. Rather, moral relativists ardently claim that there is no such thing as absolute truth and morality, but rather personal truth and morality. How are relativists absolutely certain that there is "no such thing as absolute truth" if there are no absolutes! Consequently, moral relativists are caught in their own self-contraction.
Another way to reason about moral relativism is to assume that if there are a seemingly infinite number of truth systems, then there must be at least one truth system that is absolute and self-consistent.
Religious pluralism and moral relativism are errant in assuming that there is no such thing as a transcendent truth. Apart from a transcendent truth, all other personal and contradictory truths are inherently invalid.
We can trust the processes of rational thought and empirical observation of the real world to guide us in discerning God's truth.
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The Greek word for truth is aletheia, which literally means to "un-hide" or "hiding nothing." It conveys the thought that truth is always there, always open and available for all to see, with nothing being hidden or obscured.
The Hebrew word for truth is emeth, which means "firmness," "constancy" and "duration." Such a definition implies an everlasting substance and something that can be relied upon.
God has progressively revealed himself throughout the ages. First, he revealed himself in nature. Then he revealed himself through the Old Testament prophets. Finally, God revealed himself through the person of Jesus Christ, his ultimate revelation.
During Jesus' trial, Pilate called into question both the existence and relevance of truth.
36Jesus answered, "My Kingdom is not an earthly kingdom. If it were, my followers would fight to keep me from being handed over to the Jewish leaders. But my Kingdom is not of this world." 37Pilate said, "So you are a king?" Jesus responded, "You say I am a king. Actually, I was born and came into the world to testify to the truth. All who love the truth recognize that what I say is true." 38"What is truth?" Pilate asked. (John 18:36-38 NLT)
It is clear from this dialogue that the truth of God is on trial. This is literally a "war of words" over the meaning of words such as truth, kingdom and power.
These questions have perplexed philosophers throughout the ages.
The truth of God's revelation is declared by creation, the prophets, the apostles, Jesus and the Holy Spirit [BIB-EV96]. God's revealed truth is abundantly available for all to see.
Through the use of rational thought and empirical observation, we can assess the nature of God's truth [BIB-EV97].
God's truth must be transcendent, absolute, inerrant and infallible to be true.
Because of these singular properties, God's truth is trustworthy.
Argument:
(P1) God Revealed Himself in Creation [BIB-IS10]
(P2) God Revealed Himself Through Prophets [BIB-IS11]
(P3) God's Revelation is Inspired [BIB-IS11]
(P4) God's Revelation was Transmitted Reliably [BIB-IS13]
(P5) God's Revelation was Authenticated by Church Councils [BIB-IS08]
(P6) God's Revelation is True [BIB-IS14]
(C) Therefore, What God Revealed About Himself is Visible, Inspired, Reliable, and Trustworthy
When you reveal something, you disclose or make known what already exists. God is invisible and cannot be seen. Revelation is how God makes himself known to us. He is revealing what is true about himself.
In revealing himself, God takes the initiative. We do not "discover" God, as if He is hiding and somehow, we find him. God is continually disclosing (uncovering) himself in a variety of ways.
Sometimes, people are not even looking for God, and He shows himself. Other times, people are hungry to know about Him, and He comes to them. Even our seeking is in response to a work He does to help us see our need or awakens our disinterested hearts.
Blaise Pascal said that there is enough evidence for the heart that really desires God to come to know him.
"To those who wish to see, God gives them sufficient light. To those who does not wish to see, God gives them sufficient darkness." Paraphrase, God gives enough light to those who wish to see him, but not so much light that we are forced to see him." Blaise Pascal
God's revelation of himself is progressive. God revealed himself over the span of millennia from the time of creation to the present age.
First, God revealed himself in nature. Then he revealed himself through the Old Testament prophets.
Jesus declares that the Old Testament scriptures prophesied about him.
"You search the Scriptures because you think they give you eternal life. But the Scriptures point to me!" (John 5:39 NLT)
John the Baptist also testifies about the Jesus.
31"He has come from above and is greater than anyone else. We are of the earth, and we speak of earthly things, but he has come from heaven and is greater than anyone else. 32He testifies about what he has seen and heard, but how few believe what he tells them! 33Anyone who accepts his testimony can affirm that God is true. 34For he is sent by God. He speaks God’s words, for God gives him the Spirit without limit. 35The Father loves his Son and has put everything into his hands. " (John 3:31-35 NLT)
From John's testimony we learn that Jesus is God's Son, he came from heaven, he was sent by God to speaks God's truth and he has been given full authority over all creation.
Ultimately, God revealed himself through the person of Jesus Christ, the climax of his revelation. The writer of Hebrews affirms that Jesus is the final revelation.
1 Long ago God spoke many times and in many ways to our ancestors through the prophets. 2 And now in these final days, he has spoken to us through his Son. (Hebrews 1:1-2 NLT)
God the Holy Spirit illuminates God's revealed truth in the present age.
"When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all truth. He will not speak on his own but will tell you what he has heard. " (John 16:13 NLT)
This passage informs us that the Holy Spirit guides us into the truth Jesus already revealed through his incarnation.
God's revelation of himself is preserved throughout the ages. The principle activities ensuring the preservation of God's revealed truth include:
All these activities are the work of God.
General Revelation give us knowledge of God as Creator.
God showing himself generally, to everyone. It is ongoing, sustained disclosure about Himself or His attributes to all people at all times. General revelation comes to us externally through creation (outside us) and internally through our innate moral conscience (inside us). This is analogous to a broadcast tower (general to all who hear).
Special Revelation gives us knowledge of God as Redeemer.
God revealing Himself by special means to specific people. This is analogous to a set of ear buds (specific to the person using them).
The Bible is God’s special revelation in human words. The most important and accessible example of special revelation for us today is the Bible itself.
For the word of God is alive and powerful. It is sharper than the sharpest two-edged sword, cutting between soul and spirit, between joint and marrow. It exposes our innermost thoughts and desires. (Hebrews 4:12, also see Romans 2, Romans 3:1-2, Timothy 3:14-17)
Jesus is God’s special revelation in human form. Jesus is a physical man who is recorded in history. Through Jesus, God came to people in time and space. He was special revelation.
"The Word because flesh and made His dwelling among us." (John 1:14)
Special Revelation gives us specific information that we could never glean from nature. The content of special revelation is specific knowledge of God as redeemer in the person of Jesus Christ. It tells us about Jesus the Redeemer, our sinful state and our need for redemption.
God's general revelation of himself is open and available for all to see. Creation speaks loudly of a creator God. His handiwork in the created order is visible and unmistakable.
In this age of human history, most people have heard about Jesus. This is evidenced by the fact that Jesus is the most famous person in the history of mankind based on numerous polls and surveys. What Jesus revealed in the New Testament has been regarded by most civilizations as the benchmark for human conduct and morality.
What is remarkable about the truth Jesus revealed is that it has stood the test of time! It has superseded all other truths.
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