The God of the Bible is a God of unwavering truth. He is upright and trustworthy in nature and deed. At no time in history has God affirmed something contrary to fact or failed to follow through with his promises. The remaining history will prove likewise. Motivated by his own glory and love for sinners, this God gave special revelation through the act of inspiration, with the result being the 66 books of Scripture. Thus, inspiration establishes the fact of the inerrancy of all 66 books. The Bible is truth.

I was not raised in a biblically Christian atmosphere. Nor had I been exposed to the Bible. When the Lord drew me to himself in my twenties, one of my itching questions pertained to the integrity of the Bible. I’ve found this is a question on the minds of many, hence today’s post. But the more we investigate the Bible, the more we find that the Bible is like no other book.

A few weeks ago we began a series looking at some of the most critical and fundamental questions surrounding the Bible. What is the Bible? Where did we get it? Who decided what would, and would not be, in the Bible? How can it be said that the 66 books alone are the inerrant, infallible words of God?

These questions concern the topic of bibliology. We are attempting to address these over the course of the next several weeks. In our first post, we studied the topic of revelation, answering the question, “What is the Bible?”

Then, we answered, “How did God give special revelation?” “Where did the Bible come from?”

The logical place to go next pertains to the accuracy of the Bible. How accurate is the inspired revelation of the 66 books in the Bible? How do we know?

Since Scripture is God’s revelation given through inspiration, it is inerrant. Simply put, the inerrancy of the Bible means that the 66 books of Scripture are truth, containing no error.  In the original manuscripts, every word is entirely without error. Whatever Scripture affirms is true and not contrary to fact. Whether speaking of the six-day creation, a global flood, the grace and mercy of God, the resurrection and the future bodily return of Jesus Christ, the Bible is true, factual, and without error. In other words, the Bible is absolutely inerrant.

The question of inerrancy—how true is the Bible—depends upon the source and nature of the Bible. To understand the extent of the Bible’s truthfulness begins with asking, “What is the Bible?” and, “How did we get it?” We answered these in previous posts, here and here.

First, the Bible is special revelation. That is to say, the very words are disclosure from God otherwise unavailable to, or undiscoverable by, man. The Bible is the Creator’s objective revelation to us.

Second, the Bible was given by God through the act of inspiration. The Holy Spirit superintended the human writers of the 66 books of the Bible such that what they wrote were God’s words to humanity in the original writings. This means that to read the words of the Bible is to read the words of God. To study the Bible is to study the words of God.

But, what does this tell us about the extent of truthfulness in the Bible? We’ve observed something crucial about the nature and source of the Bible: its source is God. Its nature is disclosure from God. So, that demands the question, “Who is God that we should believe him?” The truthfulness of the Bible is a function of the truthfulness of the God who gave it. The words of the Bible can only be believed insofar as the God who gave the Bible can be believed.

How True is God?

To ask, “How true is the Bible?” is to ask, “How true is God?” The issue of inerrancy is an issue of the integrity of God.

Secular or extrabiblical sources have never succeeded in demonstrating that God’s word contains a single error. God does not need witnesses below or outside of himself to authenticate him. Nevertheless, it is worth mentioning that no one has proven that the Bible contains error. This is a remarkable testimony to the character of the Bible, and, therefore, the character of God.

More importantly, the Bible testifies to the utter trustworthiness of God.

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