Infallible or Fraud: Is the Bible Truly What it Claims to be?
Over the centuries, the Bible has been continually questioned by skeptics. In our humanity, we are naturally bent to have doubts. As time progresses and cultures shift to be more skeptical and philosophical, it becomes harder for us, in our humanity, to fully trust in the accuracy of the Bible. If you have been in the church for very long or have attended an apologetics course, you have likely heard some difficult questions brought up about the Bible’s accuracy. It’s a topic that Christians and non-believers alike struggle to find peace with. We naturally question if the Bible truly is the single, divine source of God’s word. We ask how we can know beyond a doubt that the correct texts were included in the canon and were not forged or mistranslated. Beyond that, we question how we can trust that key texts were not removed from the modern Bible, and that the right texts were excluded. For many, this topic can be overwhelming, and unfortunately, many Christians choose to ignore the questions instead of facing them head-on. However, through the power of the Holy Spirit’s work in the lives of believers, we are meant to examine the Bible, search it for error, and trust in God’s divine plan for this text. Timothy Paul Jones writes in his book, How We Got The Bible, “This God-inspired book wasn’t an afterthought or an accident! Eternal eons before God created darkness and light, God had already decided that he would reveal his kingdom not only through spoken word but also through written words. The Bible you possess today is the perfect product of this eternal plan.” (Jones 8). So, if we believe that God is the Lord of Lords and the eternal Creator of the universe, then we must believe that the Bible is the holy word of God, is preserved with accuracy, and is a supernatural means to reveal his redemptive plan to all who believe. With that in mind, we can examine the word of God for fallacy or error.
Paul writes in 2 Timothy 3:16-17 that, “All scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work.” While yes, humans who are prone to error authored the contents of the Bible, Paul writes that it is fully inspired by God, meaning there is more to the Bible than just the ramblings of men. It is crafted by the patient Spirit of God, guiding the writings of men for centuries. So what happens when men get in the way? In the 3rd and 2nd centuries BC, some church leaders struggled with this. They began to translate the Bible into Greek, naming it the Septuagint, but over time, some non-divine documents worked their way into the collection (Jones 48). The Jews of that day did not view the added books, called the Apocrypha, as holy scripture, nor did the authors. Many Christian leaders deny the Apocrypha’s authority, but others continued to include it. This caused a rift among Christian leaders, so some translated the Bible without including any apocrypha, some only included a few apocryphal texts, and some included all of the books of the Septuagint. Today, we still see this when we compare the differences between the Protestant, Roman Catholic, and Orthodox Bibles. As protestants, we reject the teachings of Apocryphal literature because it contradicts the Bible and adds new doctrines that are not included in the Bible. 2 Maccabees introduces salvific themes of Purgatory that directly contradict the doctrine written in Hebrews 9:27 (Stewart). There are countless instances in the Apocrypha of false doctrine, which is why these 11-12 books are left out of protestant Bibles. And while these books should not be held to the same authoritative level as the Bible, Martin Luther argues that, “[These books] are still both useful and good to read.” (Jones 51). The apocrypha is by no means scripture, but its moral teachings and insights into the times of the Old Testament can be helpful for understanding.
So, where did the canon, the collection of books that we have today, come from? The ancient Jews had a clear understanding of which books were divinely inspired by God. They already had a collection of the Torah, Psalms, Proverbs, and prophetic texts. But in the years leading up to Christ’s first coming, in God’s years of silence, the Jews recognized the silence from God as a time to draw nearer to him, preparing their hearts for the promised messiah to come. They took the time to recognize the authoritative texts and tie the Old Testament together (Jones 53-54). The canon of the Bible is closed, and is not open to any additions or subtractions, because we believe that God has given us a sufficient amount of information to believe in his salvation. As was quoted on the first page, 2 Timothy 3:17 says that scripture equips us. The closing paragraph of Revelation 22 says, “I warn everyone who hears the words of the prophecy of this book: if anyone adds to them, God will add to him the plagues described in this book.” (Rev. 22:18). God has perfectly orchestrated and preserved the canon of the Bible to give the sufficient information to repent and believe.
While it is impossible to articulate an entire defense of the accuracy and infallibility of the Bible within a three-page double-spaced essay, I will close with this: the more we dig and search for answers and the more we try to debunk the canon of Bible, the more we see the validity of the Bible. The discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls manuscripts in 1947 further solidified the timeline and history of the Bible’s origin (Brittanicae). Plus, when scholars compare today’s translations with those early manuscripts, they see very little error, and the largest errors found are minor typos and misspellings. Over thousands of years, translated and transcribed over and over again, from rock and papyrus to printing press, and yet the Bible remains without error even today. That, my friend, is no work of man, but the divine and infinitely powerful work of our Creator.
Works Cited
“Dead Sea Scrolls.” Encyclopædia Britannica, Encyclopædia Britannica, inc., 25 Mar. 2025, www.britannica.com/topic/Dead-Sea-Scrolls.
GotQuestions.org. “What Is the Doctrine of the Sufficiency of Scripture?” GotQuestions.Org, 1 Nov. 2010, www.gotquestions.org/sufficiency-of-Scripture.html.
Jones, Timothy Paul. How We Got The Bible. Rose Publishing, 2017.
Stewart, Don. “Why Were the Books of The Old Testament Apocrypha Rejected as Holy Scripture by the Protestants?” Blue Letter Bible, www.blueletterbible.org/faq/don_stewart/don_stewart_395.cfm. Accessed 6 May 2025.
