BB
Mrs. Glenn
College English
6 April 2011
Absolute Truth Centuries of conflict and debate surround one of the most influential books of all time and its contents, and debates and disagreements will continue until the end of time. The Bible is attacked and defended in nearly every aspect and subject. Many scientists and historians have spent countless hours attempting to discredit the Bible. Although the Bible is so vigorously attacked by dozens of famous and influential people who claim it is not accurate, it is still unable to be slandered as an unreliable or erroneous source because of factual accuracy of the Bible with its original manuscripts, scientific truths described in the Bible, and historical evidences. The evidences supporting the Bible are overwhelming but are typically overlooked or are not well known. The foremost test of the Bible’s dependability is by examining the factual and contextual accuracy of the Bible with its older manuscripts. This matter has been inspected by both secular and Christian linguists. Secular scholars suggest that, because of the large numbers of translations and transitions from different languages, the Bible has lost its accuracy and precision concerning its context (Rhodes). The large number of changes is a concern with Christians, but fortunately scholars have discovered older manuscripts such as the Dead Sea Scrolls, found between 1947 and 1956, which were found in thousands of fragments to complete over 850 scrolls (Dead Sea Scrolls-A Compelling Find). These and other finds have been observed closely to test the meticulousness of the Bible to the much older manuscripts. Over 150,000 variations were found, which may seem like astronomical differences, but in actuality the changes are majorly small grammatical and spelling differences (Rhodes). Overall, ninety-nine percent of the changes are insignificant, and the other one percent, or about fifty variations, was significant but in those variations the context and doctrine has not changed (Rhodes). Therefore the Bible can be trusted based on its contextual accuracy with the older scripts. In addition, the Bible was written over a period of 1400 to 1800 years by more than forty different authors and they are all still amazingly cohesive and share the same massage, even with other translations (“When Was the Bible Written”). Moreover, prophecies written by authors, such as Isaiah and David, are fulfilled in the works of other authors, such as Matthew and the other gospel writers, hundreds of years later, such as in the case of the fulfillment of the messiah as Jesus Christ, and also fulfilled in more modern times such as Israel becoming a nation once again. Jesus, in fact, fulfilled all prophecies of the coming messiah in the Old Testament, which can be seen by looking solely at the New Testament (written by other authors than those who first told the prophecies); furthermore Jesus fulfilling only eight would be a 1x1017 chance (“Prophecies Fulfilled by Jesus”). These odds are like filling the state of Texas two feet deep in silver dollars, placing one different one in the pile, and having a blindfolded person grab the right one (“Prophecies Fulfilled by Jesus”). The cohesiveness of the Old and New Testament alone, even with over four hundred years between, is substantial enough to illustrate the Bible’s accuracy and, more importantly, its consistency concerning the context. Although the Bible is sound, based on the contextual precision, that does not yet prove the Bible is trustable in its entirety. The next test of the Bible’s reliance is by verifying scientific truths in the Bible. The Bible contains numerous scientific revelations. Many have not been realized as such until a more thorough gaze. Some scientific findings in the Bible include more general facts such as the “earth being round and is hanging in space”, the air having weight, “the wind having regular patterns and the rain clouds being evaporated water”, and