The Bible claims to be inspired of God.
2 Timothy 3:16 (NKJV)
16 All Scripture is given by inspiration of God…
This differentiates it from all other books. Naturally, the contents of books are developed by MEN, but the contents of the Bible were breathed out by God Himself.
The Bible is the ONLY BOOK (written during the course of human history) which can LEGITIMATELY lay claim to the fact that “God said.”
The phrase “thus says the Lord” occurs quite frequently in the Holy Scriptures:
Isaiah 66:1 (NKJV)
1 THUS SAYS THE LORD:
“Heaven is My throne,
And earth is My footstool.
Where is the house that you will build Me?
And where is the place of My rest?
The phrase “thus says the Lord” literally means “this is what Yahweh has uttered” in the Hebrew (“kōh amar Yahweh“). This indicates a DIRECT quotation from God Himself—God is the speaker!
Similarly, Jeremiah 9:23-24 says, “THUS SAYS THE LORD (kōh amar Yahweh):
“Let not the wise man glory in his wisdom, let not the mighty man glory in his might, nor let the rich man glory in his riches. But let him who glories glory in this, that he understands and know Me, THAT I AM THE LORD, exercising lovingkindness, judgment, and righteousness in the earth. For in these I delight,” says the Lord (nuem Yahweh—”declares Yahweh”).
ONLY THE BIBLE has the audacity to talk this way (“God said”). God HIMSELF is SPEAKING to you, when you read the words in the Bible.
Throughout Bible history, God often spoke to His prophets and instructed them to write down what He said:
Jeremiah 30:2 (NKJV)
2 “Thus SPEAKS the LORD GOD OF ISRAEL, saying: ‘ WRITE IN a BOOK for yourself all THE WORDS that I HAVE SPOKEN to you.
So when we read the Books of the Bible, we are not merely reading men’s opinions—the Bible is “thus says the Lord“!
The Lord worked through the grammar and languages of men to reveal Himself. The Bible is therefore God’s inspired Word to mankind.
God has preserved this collection of 66 books all these years from corruption, so that we may come to know Him.
Some argue that, “the Bible was written by men, men are not perfect, therefore the Bible is not perfect.”
This logic is most flawed. Since God’s hand was in the writing of Scripture, it is inerrant. God protected the Bible, even from the errors of its human writers!
God HIMSELF supervised what made it into the 66 books we now call “the Holy Bible.” Notice that in the Bible, God would ALWAYS vouch for what He said. God ALWAYS protects His Word.
When people said what He did not say, He would IMMEDIATELY expose them:
Jeremiah 27:14-15 (NKJV)
14 Therefore DO NOT LISTEN to THE WORDS of the prophets who SPEAK TO YOU, saying, ‘You shall not serve the king of Babylon,’ for they PROPHESY A LIE to you; 15 for I HAVE NOT SENT THEM (to speak),” says the Lord, “yet they prophesy A LIE in My name, that I may drive you out, and that you may perish, you and the prophets who prophesy to you.”
He NEVER lets men ascribe to Him statements He didn’t make:
Jeremiah 14:14 (NKJV)
14 And the Lord said to me, “The prophets PROPHESY LIES in My name. I have NOT SENT THEM, COMMANDED THEM, nor SPOKEN TO THEM; they PROPHESY to you a FALSE VISION, divination, a worthless thing, and the DECEIT of THEIR HEART.
God is VERY protective over what He says—He watches over His Word jealously! And it is for this sole reason that we can be SURE that the Bible is accurate, even though MEN wrote it. God ensured that He corrected ANY error along the way, as it was written.
The Bible ALWAYS lets its reader know whether statements recorded therein are true or false, but the Bible ITSELF remains true.
God distinguished statements He didn’t inspire from those HE inspired by refusing to confirm the former. If someone falsely claims, “thus says the Lord,” God won’t confirm it:
Ezekiel 13:6-9 (NKJV)
6 They have envisioned futility and false divination, saying, ‘Thus says the Lord!’ But the Lord HAS NOT SENT THEM; yet THEY HOPE that the word may be CONFIRMED.
7 Have you not seen a futile vision, and have you not spoken false divination? You say, ‘The Lord says,’ but I HAVE NOT SPOKEN .”
8 Therefore THUS SAYS THE LORD GOD (“kōh amar Adonai Yahweh“—this is what God actually said): “Because you have SPOKEN NONSENSE and ENVISIONED LIES, therefore I am indeed against you,” SAYS THE LORD GOD (“nuem Adonai Yahweh“).
9 “My hand will be against the prophets who ENVISION FUTILITY and who DIVINE LIES; they shall not be IN THE ASSEMBLY OF MY PEOPLE, nor BE WRITTEN in THE RECORD OF THE HOUSE OF ISRAEL nor shall they enter into the land of Israel. Then you shall know that I am the Lord God.
There were false prophets and preachers present around the time the Bible was being written. But God did not allow the words of ANY FALSE PROPHET to be written in His Word (vs. 9).
God sovereignly ensured that neither them (false prophets) nor what they spoke was recorded in the Scriptures—God removes what they said from His Word! Only the writings of genuine, truly-inspired prophets of God (such as Isaiah, Malachi, Moses etc) make up the canon of Scripture.
Where the words of false prophets were written, the Bible would IMMEDIATELY tell us that they were lying, either implicitly or explicitly. 1 Kings 13, for example, records the words of the false prophet who lied to the man of God from Judah:
1 Kings 13:15-17 (NKJV)
15 Then he (the false prophet) said to him (the man of God from Judah), “Come home with me and eat bread.”
16 And he said, “I cannot return with you nor go in with you; neither can I eat bread nor drink water with you in this place. 17 For I have been told BY THE WORD OF THE LORD (bid-bar Yahweh—the speech of the Lord), ‘You shall not eat bread nor drink water there, nor return by going the way you came.’”
This is what God said. It is true. But vs. 18 records a false statement;
18 He said to him, “I TOO AM A PROPHET as you are, and an angel spoke to me by THE WORD OF THE LORD, saying, ‘Bring him back with you to your house, that he may eat bread and drink water.’” (HE WAS LYING TO HIM.)
Now, this prophet ascribed to God statements which He did not make. And IMMEDIATELY God inspires the writer of 1 Kings (Jeremiah) to make that clear.
Notice that this information was actually supplied to the text:
“HE WAS LYING TO HIM” (“ki-hes low” in the Hebrew which means “his words were untrue to him”).
This information was not part of the story but the writer is inspired by God to “digress” and add it there, to clear His name. God is saying through the author, “I didn’t say what this man said I said!”
It is clear that where you find lies recorded in the Bible, the Bible ALWAYS clarifies. This is why we can trust the Bible today!
The Bible is therefore SAFE. It CAN be reckoned dependable, in ALL that it reveals. True, some parts of it can be hard to understand:
2 Peter 3:15-16 (NKJV)
15 and consider that the longsuffering of our Lord is salvation—as also our beloved brother Paul, according to the wisdom given to him, has written to you, 16 as also in all his epistles, speaking in them of these things, in WHICH ARE SOME THINGS HARD TO UNDERSTAND, which untaught and unstable people twist to their own destruction, as they do also THE REST OF THE SCRIPTURES.
In Paul’s writings, as well as in the rest of the Scriptures, you may encounter difficult passages. However, know that God wants you to STUDY to understand those difficult passages. Don’t give up. Diligence is required:
2 Timothy 2:15 (NKJV)
15 Be DILIGENT to present yourself approved to God, a worker who does not need to be ashamed, RIGHTLY DIVIDING the word of truth.
That a portion of Scripture is yet to be understood does not make it erroneous. The Bible remains God’s inerrant, faultless, irreproachable and irreprovable Word to us—God gave us a Book! And because HE is trustworthy, His Word is also trustworthy.
All His Word says, will come to pass, “Do not think that I came to destroy the Law or the Prophets. I did not come to destroy but to FULFILL. For assuredly, I say to you, TILL HEAVEN AND EARTH PASS AWAY, one JOT or one TITTLE will by NO MEANS PASS FROM THE LAW till ALL is fulfilled” (Matthew 5:17-18).
In John 10:35, Jesus says “the Scripture cannot be broken.”
God’s Word is trustworthy because He cannot lie, “Paul, a bondservant of God and an apostle of Jesus Christ, according to the faith of God’s elect and the acknowledgment of the truth which accords with godliness, in hope of eternal life which God, WHO CANNOT LIE, PROMISED before time began” (Titus 1:1-2).
That promise Paul alludes to (in vs. 2) was made in His Word, “but has in due time MANIFESTED HIS WORD through preaching, which was committed to me according to the commandment of God our Savior” (vs. 3). Everything God promised in His Word concerning eternal life, He fulfilled.
Therefore Hebrews 6:18 says, “it is impossible for God to lie.”
Thus, the Bible in its ENTIRETY can be trusted as God’s inerrant revelation to man. It contains NO ERRORS WHATSOEVER in ALL it reveals. It is RELIABLE and DEPENDABLE in ALL it says. God gave us the Book we call the Bible today.
(For a thorough study on Bible Inerrancy, you may get the sermon “Can The Bible Be Trusted?” by Pastor Josh)
© Josh Banks Ministries. 2022.
