A Practical Guide to the Logic, Philosophy and Thoughts of Christianity

Section 2 - Article 10

Article 10 - The Supremacy of the Bible

This article addressed the supremacy of the Bible, and its crucial role in the Christian life. It dwells briefly into the history of the Bible, and the problem of the many versions, and upholding that the Authorized Version is the most accurate English translation to date.

To be a Christian who has not met and spoken to Jesus physically, the Bible is very important. To be an effective Christian, it is necessary to believe that the Bible is the complete infallible word of God. Christians who do not believe in the completeness of the Bible have no authority. They have no authority over demons, no authority over diseases, no authority over principalities. It is akin to having a silent God who simply sits and watches, doing nothing. As with many things in life, the completeness and dependency on the written word of God requires faith. Faith in God that He had preserved His word for later man to learn and read the biblical accounts as required.

2 Timothy 3:16 states clearly that all Scriptures are God-breathed, and can be used for doctrine, reproof, correction, and instruction. If the Bible is incomplete, then what are we going to use? An incomplete erroneous Bible to correct errors? There are some who believe that the Bible is holy, but Man had lost aspects or it, or did not compile it properly, or did not translate it properly, resulting in an incomplete Bible full of errors. Some believe that the compilation of Paul's letters was evidence of this. Paul's letters were written over many years, and many are believed to have been lost or corrupted. While some were indeed lost, they were so because they are not needed by God in his message to man. Surely God would not let something that He would hold the future generations accountable for be lost? Regardless of surrogate writers and penmanship where people wrote letters on behalf of Paul, or letters being lost, the remaining surviving pieces gave a perfect statement together, and told one single story. Similarly, despite obvious differences between Paul, Peter, and other authors in the New Testament (NT) in personalities and styles, the whole NT is in harmony with each other on the salvation through Christ alone. Since these documents were written over a span of 40 - 80 years, the agreement of the message is a miracle in itself. In fact, the NT, being only a few hundred years younger than the youngest book in the Old Testament (OT), was also harmonious in the accounts of God and Messiah. This harmony extends to the Pentateuch which is itself, around a thousand years older than the youngest books in the OT (Moses, the believed writer of the Pentateuch, is likely to have written it around 1500 BC compared to the latter Prophets around 500 BC). Contributors in between include Jonah, Malachi, Jeremiah and others, but they all had the same perfect harmonious testimony to the biblical message of God's supremacy, mercy, love, and plan of Salvation. It is undeniably a miracle, having different authors of different ages, writing about different things, but coming together to give the same divine message over thousands of years.

If the believer believes in the omnipotent power of the personal God, it is not difficult to believe that God preserved His Word in the Bible and that He performed a miracle at the compilation as well. To say that the Bible is not complete because it was lost or became dust, is like saying God healed the blind, but the person now requires glasses to see clearly; or that God healed the lame, but the person walks with a limp! It implies an incomplete miracle!

The Almighty Who freely gave His Word and gospel across nations, across cultures would have preserved His words through translation as well (surely there is no need to ensure that it reaches everywhere if it was not preserved?). Saying this, the people in the book of Acts spoke in other tongues. Therefore, to do the work of God (such as spreading the word to other languages in translation), God must also be involved (I can do nothing except through Him who strengthens me.). Throughout history, God had used Man to do His work. And if God can use man, He can also use man to preserve His words, and this is present in the canonization of the Bible.

Without faith, it is impossible to please God. Therefore, faith in God's preservation of His word is also necessary. To make it inerrant only in the originals tongues (Autographs and Apographs) would be too gnostic, where only people who learn and know the original tongues can read the entire Bible in its entire glory. And since not all men have the original writings, would it not be the same as claiming that we no longer have the word of God with us? One must begin to wonder if God would leave us in such an incomplete helpless state as the age of the devil draws near. Jesus said to Thomas "Blessed are those who believe without seeing." Since we do not have anything to see, we must have something we can believe in or read the accounts from.

If one does not believe in the preservation in the widely used languages, of today, below are a few questionable points.

1) What, then, is Christian's authority? Are we sure that the Bible we read is true? Did Jesus really give us authority in His name? Is His name or the bestowment of power accurate/uncorrupted?