“All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness: That the man of God may be perfect, throughly furnished unto all good works” (2 Timothy 3:16-17 KJV). Nevertheless, a very common charge made against the Bible today is, “You can’t trust the Bible. It’s full of all kinds of contradictions and errors.” You may have heard this kind of thing from a friend or coworker. Maybe you have even heard this stated on TV, but is it true? Is the Bible an unreliable book full of errors and contradictions? To answer this question, let us look at some of the more commonly cited “proofs” for the assertion that the Bible contains contradictions and errors.
Some, in an attempt to prove the Bible contains contradictions, will point to the number of horse stalls that Solomon is said to have had in 2 Chronicles 9:25 (4,000) and 1 Kings 4:26 (40,000). On the surface this does appear to be a contradiction, but is it really? The 4,000 mentioned in 2 Chronicles is most likely speaking of horse stables while the 40,000 mentioned in 1 Kings is speaking of individual stalls. If each stable housed 10 stalls, then that would account for the supposed contradiction.
Another supposed contradiction has to do with John 20:12, which mentions two “angels,” and Luke 24:4, which mentions two “men.” Those who present these texts as contradictions ask us, “Were there two men or two angels at the tomb of Jesus?” Again, there is absolutely no contradiction here at all. It is important to recognize that one text may simply state what someone saw and another may explain the event. For example, in Genesis 18:22, we are told that “two men” went down toward Sodom. In the very next chapter, we are told that those two men were angels (Genesis 19:1). This is not a contradiction or an error; angels often appeared in human form throughout the Bible. One text mentioned that they appeared in human form while the other tells us that they were actually angels.
What can we say about the inspiration and reliability of the Bible in a positive way? The first thing to note is that the Bible itself claims to be the inspired Word of God. In the King James Version, the phrase “thus saith the Lord” is found 415 times. Jesus and the New Testament authors believed the Old Testament was God’s inspired words (Mark 12:10; John 2:22; Acts 8:32; Romans 11:2).
We see a similar claim for the New Testament. Jesus claimed to speak the words of God (John 8:46-47; 18:37). The apostle Paul also viewed his own writings as Scripture (1 Corinthians 14:37-38). The apostle John thought that what he taught was from God (1 John 4:6), and the apostle Peter viewed Paul’s writings as equal to the inspired Scriptures (2 Peter 3:15-16).
Of course, the fact that the Bible claims to be the Word of God doesn’t necessarily make it so, but we do need to take the claim seriously. Eminent scholar John Warwick Montgomery said, “Historical and literary scholarship continues to follow Aristotle’s eminently just dictum that the benefit of doubt is to be given to the document itself… This means that one must listen to the claims of the document under analysis, and not assume fraud or error unless the author disqualifies himself by contradictions or known factual inaccuracies.”
It’s one thing for the Bible to claim to be divinely inspired, but quite another to prove it. Here I present only two examples to show that the Bible is reliable and divinely inspired. The first is that the Bible contains remarkable scientific foreknowledge. For example, God told Abraham to administer circumcision on the eighth day of a child’s life (Genesis 17:12). Why on the eighth day? We now know that this is the best day to circumcise a child because the body produces high levels of vitamin K and prothrombin relative to the eighth day, which are blood clotting agents.
The second is that the Bible contains remarkable future predictions, hundreds and even thousands of years before the events took place. For example, Psalm 22:16 spoke about the Christ to come that His hands and feet would be “pierced.” This psalm foretold of the kind of death the Christ would experience, and it mentions the piercing of his hands and feet, a clear reference to crucifixion. However, crucifixion was not a common practice at the time in history when Psalm 22 was penned. Not only that, but the Jews themselves didn’t practice this kind of thing. It wasn’t until hundreds of years later when the Roman Empire came into existence that we find crucifixion becoming a common practice. Yet, the Bible predicted that Jesus would be crucified. These are only two examples out of the many proofs that could be given for the Bible’s reliability and inspiration.
It’s clear that the Bible claims to be the inspired Word of Almighty God from beginning to end. We can trust the Bible because when it speaks about geography, it’s reliable. When it mentions rulers and empires, it’s reliable. Science has shown there is divine foreknowledge contained within it. Prophecies found hundreds and thousands of years before Christ find their fulfillment in him. There is more than enough evidence to prove that the Bible is trustworthy, reliable and authoritative. We can have confidence that the Bible truly is the Word of God.
