What's the big deal about the Bible anyway? The Bible. The center of a person's life... or the center of ridicule. What is it? Why is it important? A professor, who spent 42 years studying Eastern books said, "Pile them on the left side of your study table; but place your own Holy Bible on the right side - all by itself, all alone - and with a wide gap between them. For....there is a gulf between it and the so-called sacred books of the East which severs the one from the other utterly, hopelessly, and forever....a veritable gulf which cannot be bridged." Scripture is unique. It is a collection of 66 books by more than 40 authors from different walks of life: fishermen, philosophers, peasants, kings, scholars, poets, and statesmen -- all took part in writing these books. They wrote from different kinds of places, such as; a prison, a palace, and in the wilderness, and in times of peace, war, and exile. These books were written on three continents and in three languages. They cover many controversial subjects, as well as containing inspired poetry, detailed history, biographies, letters, and prophecies. With all these differences, you'd think we'd have a mess. But, we don't. From the beginning to end, there is one continuous theme: God revealing Himself to us and His attempts at reconciling us to Himself. Let me ask you this; if you took just 10 books, all on the same controversial subject, and different authors from different times, cultures, and languages, would these authors agree? Well, God has put together such a collection of books. He has done this so we could know Him.

So, is the Bible really all that accurate? You've head it before. Maybe it's by friends or a teacher....but, you've heard it: "Sure the Bible is a good book, but, it's got mistakes." Well, take a look at the evidence and decide for yourself. With regards to the Old Testament, the Jewish copyists of the Hebrew Scriptures had to follow strict rules: Each copy had to be written in a certain number of columns of 30 letters width and with a certain number of lines to each column. Each copy had to be made from a certified original. Every letter was copied one at a time from the original. They could not even write one letter from memory. The distance between each letter was measured by a single hair or thread. Every letter on every page and book was counted against the original. The number of times each letter occured in the book was counted and compared against the original. If one of these rules (and many others) were broken, the entire copy was destroyed. What about the New Testament you ask? There are two important factors involved in determining the reliability of a historical document: The number of manuscript copies still around and, the time between when it was first written and the oldest copy still in existence. Let's compare the New Testament with some other writings of olden days. The New Testament was written over a time period of 60 years. We have over 24,000 copies and some of the copies we have are only 25 years removed from the originals! Caesar's work, The Gallic Wars, was written over a 56 year period. We have 10 copies, the closest to the original is 1,000 years removed. We have 643 copies of Homer's Iliad and there is a 500 year span between the original and oldest existing copy. So you see, no other work comes close to the New Testament. So why do so many put down the Bible as being inaccurate and untrustworthy?

Author: Dawson McAllister of Dawson McAllister Live! Copyright © 1997, Dawson McAllister Live!, All Rights Reserved - except as noted on attached "Usage and Copyright" page that grants ChristianAnswers.Net users generous rights for putting this page to work in their homes, personal witnessing, churches and schools.