Do We Still Need the Bible Today? by Samuel H Johnson

My task is to answer this question DO WE STILL NEED THE BIBLE TODAY? This is a

fascinating topic. We are living in a generation and an age where the idea that the Bible is irrelevant, continues to gain momentum. The attack on the reliability and truth of the Bible is promoted in every area of life in our society – in schools, colleges and universities, in the media, on television, in politics, business, social and community organizations of every kind. One of the most radical thing that happened to America is the increased bias against the biblical viewpoint in schools. And people are convinced that this is good because of the separation of church and state. Children are taught evolution, that man came from apes, and that science disproves the Bible. Many people accept these ideas as truth without any question. There are even Christians who believe in evolution, an idea which opposes the Bible truth of creation. If creation is false, then how can anybody believe anything else in the Bible?  

Let us first examine this prevailing strategy that the Bible is irrelevant in the public square of ideas, particularly in schools and universities. This methodology is not an accident. If the children are taught that the Bible is not relevant today, by the time they become the adults of the society, a ban of some parts of the Bible will be easier to make the law of the land.  You may think that I am crazy but there are organizations proposing laws to make some sections of the Bible hate speech, mainly because it condemns certain lifestyles and practices. This trend to make some parts of the Bible hate speech is gaining momentum in many parts of the Western world including America. 

There is one organization I want to warn people about – the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC). The SPLC is based in Montgomery, in the state of Alabama, USA It was founded on great principles as an offshoot of the civil rights era. It is a nonprofit legal advocacy organization specializing in civil rights and public interest litigation, dedicated to "fighting hate and bigotry and to seeking justice for the most vulnerable members of our society”. Overall it does a fantastic job in exposing hate groups, especially the Klu Klu Klan (KKK) and other Nazi and white nationalists groups. However, it has labeled several non-profit Christian, socially conservative organizations hate groups because of their stand on the definition of marriage and other moral issues based Bible principles. Now the SPLC lumps these Christian conservative groups in with the Ku Klux Klan and other Neo-Nazi based organizations as hate groups. Yet the Southern Poverty Law Center did not label the Catholic Church, a hate group even though the Catholic Church has the same views as those conservative groups on those moral questions. In August 2017, the Washington Post reported that a federal lawsuit was filed by the Dr James Kennedy Ministries of Fort Lauderdale, FL against the Alabama-based Southern Poverty Law Center. SPLC tracks and publicly names organizations it considers hate groups. The list included Dr James Kennedy Ministries, also known as Coral Ridge Ministries Media Inc. for its stand against LGBT practices.

I believe that we should be for the competition of ideas instead of trying to ban or stop an idea by labeling an organization a hate group. Share your ideas on moral issues and let people decide. Give people a choice and that is why I am going to show why you can believe that the Bible is relevant today. It is the responsibility

of the parents and the church to teach Bible truths and equip the children for life. Our children need a proper biblical foundation to compete in the arena of ideas about the purpose of life, the Bible and its relevance in our society and the eternal life of mankind.

There is a fundamental reason why the world wants to eliminate the Bible from public life. According to the Bible every person is born with a sin nature and naturally wants to disobey any moral law or at least reduce or eliminate any restrictions. Some even believe that any moral restriction is an attack of their freedom of expression. However, many do not realize that this is a subjective outlook because my freedom of expression could be completely opposed to your idea of freedom of expression. So, who sets the standards? Is it the church? Is it the rich and powerful? Is it the political elite or the consensus of the regular people? This is a fundamental purpose of the law, to set an objective standard for the society.

What most of us fail to understand or remember is that the foundations of our laws in America were the Bible and English Common Law. And what was the root of English Common Law? The Bible of course. So, the Bible is at the root of all our laws. Yet in our society in 2019 our educational, political and civil systems are bombarded with calls to remove the Bible from everything. It is like uprooting your foundation. How do you uproot and overturn your foundation without any consequences? And where do you think it will eventually lead? Obviously chaos and eventually "every man for himself." The book of Judges in the Bible gives us many examples of what happens in society when everyone thinks that their personal rights and viewpoint is the sole measuring yardstick. Yes, you guessed it – chaos in society. The famous sentence in the book of Judges is – "And everyone did what was right in his own eyes". This breeds selfishness and pride. This outlook brings division and social disruption in our society. We see this scenario playing out every day in our politics in 2019. When will we learn?

As I have been saying, most people want to live as they feel without any moral standards or restrictions and without any accountability. Every individual believes that their personal moral standard is best. Their motto is - whatever feels good do it or just do you. However, for Christians, the Bible provides an objective standard outside of human reasoning, human intellect or human bias.

Unfortunately, this continuous attack on the Bible and its relevance is affecting Christians in that too many of us are not able to effectively explain why we believe the Bible to others as we should. We must be able to explain what we believe and why we believe what we believe in a winning manner. We find it easier to distribute Christian tracts and share bible verses on social media than defending the foundations of our belief. If I were to ask most Christians, why they believe the Bible I think I know how many of us Christians will respond. Two of the top five answers most likely answers will be

1.    I believe the Bible because that is the way I was brought up

2.    I believe the Bible because I tried it and it works for me

While these answers are good and reasonable, they do not justify nor confirm that the Bible is true, relevant today or reliable. What am I saying? They way we were brought up or our experience does not confirm the authority of the Bible. What am I saying? While our testimony of the way we grew up or how our belief provides the foundation for how we live, this cannot prove the authority of the Bible. The authority of the Bible must be independent of how we feel, independent of our experiences or independent of how we were raised. Now remember Christians are about sharing the gospel with unbelievers to win them to Christ.

Reason 1: I believe the Bible because that is the way I was brought up.

What about people who were brought up to believe another book? another philosophy or another religion? They are justified in their belief and their religious book has just as much authority as the Bible. In addition, you know that some of the things you were taught by your parents and guardians turned out not to be correct or true. So, the authority of the Bible cannot be based on the way you were brought up because your parents and guardians will make errors.

Reason 2: I believe the Bible because I tried it and it works in my life

Now what about the person who tried the Wicca religion? Or voodoo? Or a palm reader? Or obeah? And it works for them. Why should they listen to your Bible?

What do you say if someone asks - How to do you know the Bible is true or accurate? The point is that the Bible must be independent of how you feel or your experience. I know that truth can be hard on Christians, but we must be forthright and strategic about how we explain what we believe and why we believe the Bible. The souls of non-believers are at stake.

We live in a modern world where young people have access to a lot of information and they question everything. We must be equipped to show the reliability and truth of the Bible.

During my research I came across the writings of Dr. Voddie Baucham currently the Dean of the Seminary at African Christian University (ACU) in Lusaka, Zambia. I believe that his rendition of Why Christians Can Choose to Believe the Bible is one of the best methods we can use to share the Bible and Christ with non-believers.  He wrote:

The Bible is a reliable collection of historical documents, written by eyewitnesses, during the lifetime of other witnesses, who reported supernatural events that took place in fulfillment of specific prophesies, and claim that their writings are of divine and not human in origin.

Let me repeat that for you. The Bible is a reliable collection of historical documents, written by eyewitnesses, during the lifetime of other witnesses, who reported supernatural events that took place in fulfillment of specific prophesies, and claim that their writings are of divine and not human in origin 

I am going to go through this definition step by step to help us build up our ability to defend our faith in the Bible.

Let me assure you that every Christian can understand this, can do this, can build their confidence when sharing the gospel of Christ.

The apostle Peter wrote the following in I Peter 3:15  But sanctify the Lord God in your hearts, and always be ready to give a defense to everyone who asks you a reason for the hope that is in you, with meekness and fear.

This verse is saying that it is important to know what you believe and why you believe it, so you can give clear, simple and effective reasons for your faith, so you can win others to Christ. All Christians must be ready to give a reasonable defense of their faith without an argument but in a calm, peaceful manner.

Generally, people have the idea that anyone who believes the Bible is narrow-minded, "coo coo", even weird. Some would even ask - How could take that old book literally? Even when archaeology proves the truth of the Bible events to be accurate, many people would not accept that proof. Their response generally is to ignore the proof and bring up another question. Obviously, such people are not interested in truth, they just want to prove the Bible wrong or irrelevant in today’s society. We are not here to prove the Bible just to show why you can believe the Bible. Personally, I believe that the Bible is the law and constitution of the Kingdom of God and the Bible is the highest authority

#1. The Bible is a reliable collection of historical documents

First, the Bible is a reliable collection of historical documents. We are saying that it is reliable, it is a collection and it is historical.  All these three points are important because this demonstrates why the Bible is different from all other religious and ancient books.

The Bible was written on three continents, Africa, Asia and Europe. It was written in three languages, Hebrew, Greek and some Aramaic.  It contains 66 different books written by over 40 authors from many different walks of life – kings, shepherds, reformed killers, warriors, tax collectors, fishermen, historians and lawyers. These are 40 authentic authors who heard from God and inspired by the Holy Spirit. It's not one person who claims to hear from God and wants everyone else to believe him. The time span between the time the authors wrote the Bible was over 1,500 years. Imagine the time between when the first book was written, and the last book was over 1,500 years yet all the parts fit together into one book with one message – the restoration of the kingdom of God which Adam lost due to disobedience in the garden of Eden. Now that’s a collection. Today you can hardly get four eye-witnesses in a courtroom to give the same testimony about an incident. Imagine 1,500 years with consistency and no contradiction! That is the true definition of a collection.

The Bible is different from other ancient religious or secular books. It is not one author who says he heard from God and so people should follow him. The difference between the Bible and other holy books, is most holy books have one author who states he received a message from a god, an angel or nature. The Bible with 40 authors with the same message over 1,500 years is reliable. Compared to the Bible with 40 authors within 1,500 years, other ancient books are not as reliable.

The Bible is filled with names, dates, places and events. There are over 25,000 archaeological digs relating to the subject matters reported in the Bible. None has contradicted the Bible, and most have affirmed the scriptures. No other ancient books comes close. 

Many times, you see front page news about some archaeologist who claim that he/she found an artifact that proves the Bible untrue. We always read these claims on the front page of newspapers and magazines or breaking news on television. However, when further investigation proves their claims to be false, it is rarely reported on the front pages. It is usually hidden in some obscure page. Like I said before, people are constantly trying to find errors in the Bible but when they are given the truth their response is typically to look for another error. They never say, "You know maybe I was wrong about that claim". The typical response is But what about this or what about that.  The truth is people are not interested in the truth of the Bible, they are interested in justifying their own preconceived ideas about the Bible.

False Claims #1 There was error in translation

The Bible is not like a rumor – one person tells another who tells another so by the time we get to the 8th person, the original information is lost.  The Bible is sourced from the original Hebrew, Greek and Aramaic manuscripts which can be tested. All copies and translations are from the same source, compared and verified. Look at this chart which provides a typical demonstration of how the books of the Bible were copied

This generic example is about the Apostle Paul who wrote the book of Romans.  In ancient times skilled copiers called scribes copied the original manuscripts of the writer. There were usually 8 to 12 scribes who copied the book. Then there would be a comparison between the copies and the original. If one scribe made an error, all the copies were destroyed, and the scribes would repeat the process until all the copies were accurate. This is how the integrity and reliability of the Bible was preserved. Archaeological artifacts bear this out.

False Claims #2 Men wrote the Bible

We can compare the source manuscripts of the Bible and some of the ancient books found in colleges, universities and institutions of higher learning. The ancient writings of Aristotle and Socrates, the writings of Julius Caesar’s Gallic Wars and the Homer’s classic Greek poem, the Iliad, are recognized as some of the pinnacle writings of the ancient world and these writings are central to the foundations of Western civilization and thought. We will compare the Bible to these writings.

We have documentation for the New Testament as early as AD 50 to 120 years of the writing of the original manuscripts. The New Testament has over 6,000 manuscripts.  Aristotle's poetry has about 12 manuscripts with earliest manuscripts written about 1,000 years after they were written. Julius Caesar Gallic Wars has less than 12 manuscripts and are about 1,000 years after the originals. Homer’s Iliad has about 640 manuscripts, the earliest being about 2,150 years after the original. There are zero, yes it's not a mistake, zero manuscripts about Socrates and Alexander the Great, yet no one doubts that the authenticity of existence of them as real people!

 Let me show you a chart which will demonstrate what I just wrote:

Here is a comparison of source manuscripts of the bible and other ancient books. The New Testament has over 6,000 manuscripts authenticated today which many scholars can corroborate, Aristotle 12 manuscripts, Julius Caesar 12 manuscripts, Homer’s Iliad 640 manuscripts  and Socrates 0, (yes 0).The comparison is explosive. 6,000 verses 640, 6,000 vs 12. This is laughable yet many professors in universities still claim the Bible is out dated but the teach about the reliability of Julius Caesar, the ancient Greek philosophers and even Alexander the Great. This is educational hijacking on the highest order and poor scholarship. The Bible has more manuscripts, earlier manuscripts and more reliable manuscripts than all other ancient books in our colleges, universities and institutions of higher learning. It is a no contest.

If the Bible is not considered trustworthy then there is no ancient document or book in the world today in any institution of higher learning that is trustworthy.

This is Part 1 in answering the question Do we still need the Bible today? We demonstrated that the Bible is a reliable historical book and more reliable and more accurate than all the ancient books in the colleges and universities in Western countries. I hope that the truths I shared will give you additional confidence in explaining why you can choose to believe the Bible and it is relevance today. The next time in Part 2, I will look at the three other truths about the Bible. 

The Bible was written by eyewitnesses, during the lifetime of other eyewitnesses. 
The writers reported supernatural events that took place in fulfillment of specific prophesies. The writers claim that their writings are of Divine and not human in origin

Please share this information with others, your family and friends. We want to see improvement in our lives, the lives of our young people and in our communities. You can reach us with your comments, your ideas and your suggestions by sending an email to hadtrt@gmail.com . We would like to hear from you.

And remember that you always need to Hear and Do The Right Thing. Knowledge is powerful, but the wisdom of God is the principal thing.