Yesterday I was having a very interesting conversation with a loved one, who, at the end of the day, wonders how anyone can believe that the Bible is the actual, inerrant word of God.
This is a very important question for the Christian faith. If we can not rely on this book to contain God's absolute, authoritative, inerrant word, then the whole of Christianity is suspect.
So...can a reasonable, thinking person have that belief? Is the Bible truly God's holy word?
Frankly, I am not an authority on such an important question. Therefore, I am going to hand the question off to someone who is an authority, Dr. Wayne Grudem. Dr. Grudem is one of the world's most respected theologians, and has written extensively on this very subject.
Here are some of the questions that Dr. Grudem will cover:
- How is it possible that the book of Genesis, supposedly written by Moses, exists today with no changes in his original text?
- How do we know that the books contained in our New Testament are the only books that God would have us read. What about the Gnostic Gospels? Did the Catholic church really suppress God's real information, as purported in Dan Brown's "DaVinci Code"?
- How is it possible, for a rational person, to believe that these words are the actual, inerrant words of God?
- There are other faiths, the Mormons for example, who make the claim that God has a third book, the Book of Mormon. What about the Muslim Qur'an?
As you can see, there are many voices regarding God's word to us. How are we to know?
Here is Dr. Wayne Grudem, in a series of studies, from Scottsdale Bible Church, on just this topic:
- The Old Testament Canon
- The New Testament Canon
- The Authority of the Scriptures - (Part #1)
- The Authority of the Scriptures - (Part #2)
- The Inerrancy of the Scriptures - (Part #1)
- The Inerrancy of the Scriptures - (Part #2)
- The Inerrancy of the Scriptures - (Part #3)
If you are uncertain of this question, or furthermore, are uncertain how to answer this question, spend some time with Dr. Grudem. He is easy to listen to, and brings tremendous perspective on this very important issue.
Update - John MacArthur: Making a Case for the Bible
