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Is the Bible telling the truth?

Most of the people did not believe that the Bible is telling the truth. Professors from all over the
world have been trying to find resources to prove that he Bible is not wrong and it’s accurate. Finally,
they developed 3 types of tests. The first one is the transmission test, the second one is the internal test,
and the third one is external test.

First is the transmission test. Transmission test means bibliographical test. It was recorded that
the archeologists found 14 000 or more copies of the New Testament while Caesar’s, Plato’s, Pliny’s,
Suetonius’, Thucydes’, and Aristotle’s copies only have 5 to 10 copies. This shows that the Bible is
reliable because it has more than 13 000 copies of Old Testament and 14 000 copies of New Testament
to compare with. It is also recorded that the archeologists found more than five thousand New
Testament Greek manuscripts, eight thousand New Testament Latin manuscripts, and another one
thousand New Testament manuscripts in other languages (Syrian, Coptic, etc). Those copies are more
than enough to reconstruct the original copy of the New Testament and the accuracy is 99.5% which is
higher than Homer’s manuscripts. The time span between the time when the manuscripts were written
and the time when the manuscripts were found is only 100 years. The shorter the time span, the more
accurate the Bible will be because they still have the chance to ask the writers and authors about the
accuracy of the writings and stories that are written on the manuscripts. The other documents such as
Homer, Herodotus, Euripides, Thucydides, Plato, Aristotle, Caesar, Catullus, Livy, and Tacitus were found
950 years to 1900 years after the manuscripts were written. This fact reduces the accuracy of the
manuscripts, plus the fact that their copies of manuscripts are not as many as the Bible’s. The quality of
the Old Testament manuscripts is also excellent because of the great reverence the scribes held towards
the manuscripts. Numbers of letters, words, lines, etc were counted properly. If there’s a single mistake
found, the whole thing will be destroyed and the scribe will have to write it again from the beginning.
Quality of the New Testament manuscripts is also excellent because they found thousands of New
Testament manuscripts. I also said in the beginning that the New Testament is 99.5% accurate. The
remaining 0.5% can often be ascertained with a fair degree of probability by the practice of textual
criticism.

Second is the internal test. The internal test was proven by the claim of biblical authors. They
said that the Bible is not secondary, but primary. This statement means that the Bible is telling the truth
because most of the biblical authors were eyewitnesses of the events they have recorded. Their writings
and stories revealed their integrity and commitment to the gospel of Jesus Christ. The pureness of the
Bible can also be proven with John 19:35, “The man who saw it has given testimony, and his testimony is
true. He knows that he tells the truth, and he testifies so that you also may believe”, John 21:24, “This is
the disciple who testifies to these things and who wrote them down. We know that his testimony is
true”, I John 1:1, “That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with
our eyes, which we have looked at and our hands have touched—this we proclaim concerning the Word
of life”, I John 1:3, “We proclaim to you what we have seen and heard, so that you also may have
fellowship with us. And our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son, Jesus Christ”, and II Peter
1:16, “For we did not follow cleverly devised stories when we told you about the coming of our Lord
Jesus Christ in power, but we were eyewitnesses of his majesty”. Each book of the Bible is also a witness
to a body of truth. Another fact to prove that the Bible is true is that neither Islam nor any other religion
can present any specific gospel concerning the coming of their prophets. While in the Bible, we can find
gospels and prophecies extending hundreds and sometimes more than a thousand years into the future
that tells us about the coming of a prophet. In Psalms 22:16, it said “Dogs surround me, a pack of villains
encircles me; they pierce my hands and my feet”. That verse symbolizes the crucifixion of Jesus Christ.
For your information, crucifixion didn’t exist until hundreds of years after Psalms was written. There are
still lots of examples in the Bible that concerns us about the coming of Jesus Christ or any other
prophets, hundreds of years before that specific prophet comes. The Bible is not just a book of
philosophies, it is also a book of history because it continually promises important historical events that
comes exactly as it is promised. Another example that can prove that the Bible is telling the truth is by
blood. Think about this; would someone lost their life for lies? There are lots of people who died
because of their belief in Jesus Christ. Andrew, Bartholomew, James son of Alphaeus, Philip, and Simon
died because of crucifixion. James, Jesus’ brother died because of stoning. James son of Zebedee, and
Matthew died because of sword. John son of Zebedee died because he was thrown to a prison island.
Peter died because he was crucified upside down. Thadeus died because of arrow. And Thomas died
because of sphere. Would someone die in a horrible and humiliating way because they believe in lies?

The last one is the external test. The trueness of the Bible can be checked by external evidence
because the scriptures continually refer to many historical events. The history of Jesus Christ can also be
found in the early Roman, Greek, and Jewish sources. These sources confirm the major details of the
Lord which are written in the New Testament. A first century historian named Flavius Josephus also
made a specific reference about John the Baptist, Jesus, and James. He also gave many background
details about major people in the Bible such as the Herods, the Sadducees, Pharisees, high priests such
as Annas, Caiaphas, etc, and also the roman emperors that were mentioned in the Bible. First and
second century writers also mentioned about Jesus. Roman historians such as Cornelius Tacitus and
Suetonius, roman governor Pliny and the Greek satirist Lucian also mentioned about Jesus Christ. Jesus
is also mentioned in the Jewish Talmud. This proves that Jesus does exist and his stories, gospels, etc are
true. Archeological evidence also proved that the biblical statements, people, and events are true. For
example, the Nuzi tablets (found in 1925-1941), Mari letters (discovered in 1933), and Ras shamra
tablets illustrate the accuracy of Genesis. Some professors and scholars once said that the Mosaic Law
was not written by Moses itself because writings have not been invented during Moses’ time. However,
archeologists found thousand of tables and scripts written hundreds of years before Moses’ time. There
are also some critics that said that the Bible is wrong because the Hittite Empire doesn’t exist. In 1906,
archeologists found the Hittite capital. This is one more prove that the Bible is true. In II Kings 15:29, a
king of Assyria named Tiglath Pileser was mentioned. Some scholars said that the king doesn’t exist. But
then, archeologists discovered Tiglath Pileser’s capital city. Moabite Stone also reveals the information
of the reign of Omri, the sixth king of Israel. The Taylor Prism describes Sennacherib’s siege of Jerusalem
during the time of Hezekiah. The New Testament also has plenty of external evidence in form of places
such as the Pool of Siloam, the Pool of Bethesda, Jacob’s Well, Bethlehem, Nazareth, Cana, Capernaum,
Chorazin, the residence of Pilate in Jerusalem and “the Pavement” in John 19:13.
In conclusion, the Bible is also a history book and everything that is written in it is true. The
trueness of the Bible has been supported by lots of evidence. The Bible also passed all three tests which
is the transmission test, the internal test, and the external test. The accuracies and the qualities of the
books and gospels in the Bible have also been proven by lots of external and internal evidences.

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