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The Best Seller Nobody Reads

How can I know for sure the Bible is true and trustworthy?

This is a question every Christian ought to be able to answer. Unfortunately, we are living in unprecedented times of biblical illiteracy. We even have some people who are attempting to be Christians with little, if any, use of or appeal to the Bible. 

Mark Twain defined a classic as “a book which people praise and don’t read.” That describes the way people view the Bible in our culture today. As Christians, we need to understand the reality of biblical illiteracy, first in our own lives and families, but also in the church. Then we need to ask God for a revival of interest and commitment to the Holy Scriptures.

The “Holy Scriptures” (v. 15, NIV) with which Timothy grew up were primarily the Old Testament. Yet by the time Paul wrote this letter, it is plausible that Christians considered other more recent writings to be Scripture. For example, Peter referred to Paul’s writing as Scripture in 2 Peter 3:15-16.

The Bible is inspired by God. What does that mean? The Bible has a divine origin, which means the Bible’s message came from God through human agency. Paul gave us a clue and a word picture in 2 Timothy 3:16: “All Scripture is given by inspiration of God” (NKJV). The English words “is given by inspiration of God” translate the Greek word theopneustos, which means God-breathed or breathed out by God. In this case I prefer the English Standard Version rendering of 2 Timothy 3:16: “All Scripture is breathed out by God.”

When discussing 2 Timothy 3 and the inspiration of Scripture, many theologians fail to include the next verse: “that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work” (v. 17, ESV). Only through this infallible, God-breathed message can men and women of God be complete, using the Bible as the exclusive guide for their lives and for the practice of faith.

Just as God breathed the breath of life into a created being, God breathed into a Book. Therefore, we believe the Bible is a living Book. The Bible speaks to us as no other book can.