Can We Trust the Bible?

Four years ago I taught the young adults of our church to study the Bible for themselves. In that study we looked at almost all the necessary tools and skills of Bible Study that pastors, preachers, and other Bible scholars are accustomed to. They basically learnt that developing the habit of studying the Bible for themselves was one old time habit that has, since the first century (…and searched the scriptures daily to find out whether these things were so. Acts 17:11 nkjv), mushroomed many a giants of the faith. To achieve that comprehension, we used materials that I had gleaned from a number of resources. The book that I used the most was Living by the Book written by Howard and William Hendricks. It was second to the Bible during that study series. If ever you had the chance of laying your hand on this book please, gobble it; a master piece for any lay person who desires to learn to read and study the Bible for one's benefit.
As I pursue to encourage you to read and invest your life in the Bible, I have realized that a number, from time to time do wonder if they can trust the Bible; whether it is worth the reading and the life investment. Please read this short quotation from the Hendricks' comment on the unity of the Bible as God's revelation.
"Many of us want a word from God, but we don't want the Word of God. We know enough to own a Bible but not enough for the Bible to own us. We pay the Bible lip service, but we fail to give it "life service." In a world where the only absolute is that there are no absolutes, there is little room left for the authoritative Word of God as revealed in the Bible.
The question is, can we trust the Bible? It is credible? Is it reliable? Is it determinative for life in our time? Consider what Scripture says about itself.
If you have ever studied some complex or controversial subject in depth, you know the frustration of trying to find two or three authorities who agree on any and all points. It basically never happens.
The Bible stands in marked contrast. It is unique in that its parts conspire to form a unified whole. You see, the Bible is not only one Book, it is sixty-six books collected in one volume. These sixty-six separate documents were written over a period of more than sixteen hundred years by more then forty human authors who came from a wide variety of backgrounds.
Yet the Bible is a single unit, bound together by the theme of God and his relationship to humankind. Each book, section, paragraph, and verse works together with the others to reveal God's truth. That's why Scripture is best understood by relating its individual parts to the integrated whole.
The Bible presents itself as revealed truth from God. The word it uses for "revelation" actually means "unveiling," like pulling back a curtain to show what is behind it. In Scripture, God has revealed things that would otherwise not be known at all. He has unveiled that which is absolutely true – not speculated, not conjectured, and not hypothesized. It is truth that is entirely consistent – never controverted, compromised, or contradicted by other parts of the revelation." End of quote.
Think through dear friends, you can be assured that every time you sit down to read the Bible, you actually handle the very spoken Word of God. Hope you will choose to guard your heart by daily being engaged in reading the Bible this year.