I WILL STAND STRONG 30 DAY CHALLENGEUzorak

Standing on God’s Word 

Hands down, the Bible is the most influential book in history. Nothing comes close to its transformative power. That’s why gaining confidence in the Bible and becoming a defender of its trustworthiness is crucial for Christians. 

That being said, here’s an acronym—B.I.B.L.E.—that I (Jason Jimenez) have put together to demonstrate how you can trust in the brand, inspiration, background, literature, and errorless teaching of the Bible. 

Brand- An absolutely amazing feature of the Bible is the basic continuity within the biblical accounts of creation, fall of man, redemption, and final consummation of the New Heaven and New Earth. These forty authors lived in a span of 1,600 years from each other in different times and locations, speaking and writing in different languages, and yet, piecing the story together just the way the Holy Spirit spoke it through them (2 Peter 1:20-21).

Inspiration- The phrase “inspiration of God” comes from two Greek words, theos (God) and pneustos (“to breathe”). When combined, the two words form theopneustos, which means, “God-breathed.” This is found in 2 Timothy 3:16, “All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness.” Jesus said, “Every word comes from the mouth of God” (Matthew 4:4; 5:17-18) and is “unbreakable” (John 10:35). So, when you read or hear the Word of God, it’s like feeling the very breath of God. That’s how intimately powerful the Word of God is! 

Background- The church used certain criteria in order to confirm what books God inspired: (1) Was it written by a prophet (spokesperson) from God? (2) Was he confirmed as a prophet of God (by miracles or other means)? (3) Is it consistent to other revelations and truths contained in other inspired books? (4) Does it reveal the life changing power of God? (5) Did the early church accept and live out its truths? These questions acted as a guide to measure (canonize) the books of the Bible, and ensure that each one is doctrinally aligned from Genesis to Revelation.
By the first century, the Jewish historians accepted all the Old Testament books as part of the Word of God. Jesus and the New Testament writers accepted the whole Old Testament, citing most of the books as the word of God. Throughout the second century, many of the Church Fathers, such as: Clement, Polycarp, Ignatius, Irenaeus, and Justin Martyr, recognized the divine authority of both the Old and New Testaments as inspired books of God and used them as Scripture in the church. By the time of the Synod of Hippo (A.D. 393) and the Council of Carthage (A.D. 397), the councils decreed the twenty-seven books as Divine Scripture. Up to this point in church history, most of the Western and Eastern churches affirmed the “New Testament” as the canon of Scripture. It wasn’t the Church who made the New Testament books authoritative—they simply affirmed that they were already divinely inspired.

Literature- The authenticity of the Bible has been tested on two levels. First, there is the accuracy of the biblical manuscripts. The Bible has early, more abundant, and more accurately copied manuscripts than any book from the ancient world. There are nearly 6,000 manuscripts of the New Testament in Greek (and counting!). They are earlier and more accurate than other books from the ancient world with over 99% accuracy. In fact, 100% of the basic teaching of the Bible is conveyed in the copies. Not to mention the accuracy of the biblical writers.

Errorless Teaching- While there are minor errors (misspellings) in copies of the Bible, there are no errors in any major teaching of the Bible. Many of the writers were either eyewitnesses or contemporaries of eyewitnesses (Luke 1:1-4; Hebrews 2:3-4). Further, much of what they wrote has been confirmed by history and archaeology (there being literally hundreds of finds confirming the reliability of the Bible). Luke mentions over 80 details just in the book of Acts. All of which have been confirmed to be true.

The Bible is the greatest book of all time! Nothing compares to its message and the veracity of what Scripture teaches. You can say with confidence that “every word of God is pure” (Proverbs 30:5) and has the power to transform lives (James 1:21). No other book in the world possesses the life-transforming power—known as the Bible.