Bible: Room for doubt?

A letter to the editor to my local paper claims that the Bible leaves no room for doubt. Really now?

Two recent columns (Leonard Pitts and Don Stevenson on June 26 and 29) may cast doubts on the truth of the Bible.

Pitts wrote about a grieving mother who, he implied, was right to question the Bible.  Stevenson, a minister, commended doubt as “the very agent of truth.” Regarding news or science, I agree that doubts can be agents of truth. But confidence in the Bible is the agent of God’s revealed truth.

Yes, doubt can lead you to truth in news and science. Science is driven by doubt and curiosity. Without scientists yearning to discover the unknown, and doubting that they already know it all, we wouldn't be anywhere close to the advanced society we find ourselves in. Doubt drive science forward... onwards and upwards. But how is confidence in the Bible an agent of truth?

Jesus said in John 8:32: “You shall know the truth….”  God’s truth can be known by reading the Bible.

In John 8:45, Jesus said, “I tell the truth.” In John 14:6, Jesus said, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.”  In John 17:17, Jesus prayed, “Your word is truth.” Everything Jesus said is true, and every word in the Bible is true. We can read, study, correctly interpret the Bible and know God’s revealed truth. This path to God’s truth is faith, not doubt.

Sorry, but the Bible saying it is true is not proof that it is true, nor is it a path to truth. All that is, is a circular argument that leaves us no closer to the truth. Anyone can do the same as the Bible as well. I could write a book today telling of some fantastic deity. Perhaps an all-powerful cat that created everything when it scooped together a bunch of cosmic lint while trying to get to a toy it kicked under it's sofa. But you can rest assured, the book also says over and over that this actually happened, and that his purrs are unquestionable wisdom and truth. Would such a book convince you? Does a book claiming its self to be true make it true? Of course not! And the same is true of the Bible.

God has not revealed “all” truth in the Bible. He did not write about calculus or physics. But all that he wrote in the Bible is true. Psalm 119:142 says, “Your law is true.” Verse 151 says, “All your commandments are true.” Verse 160 says, “The entirety of your word is truth.”

Too bad that's not true... In Genesis, God creates light prior to the stars (and Sun). Creating the light before the light source is illogical and incorrect. The same is true with the claim that sea life was created after flowering vegetation and trees.Wrong order again. Leviticus 11:13-19 says that bats are birds. 1 Kings 7 suggests that the value of Pi is exactly 3. Mark 13:25 and Revelation 6:13 say that the stars can simply fall from the sky to Earth. This proves that the supposed creator of stars has no idea what they are, where they are, and how big they are. There are many other examples, but it should already be clear that the claim that the Bible is 100% truth is 100% false.

Titus 1:2 says that God “cannot lie.” Numbers 23:19 says, “God is not a man, that he should lie.” God always speaks truth, and the Bible is God’s word, and the Bible is true. Therefore, 1 Timothy 3:15 says that the church is “the pillar and support of the truth.” 

Except that he does lie. Genesis 2:17  has God saying that eating from the tree of knowledge of good and evil will cause them to die, many translations saying they will die that very day. This isn't what happened, so since God is all-knowing, it would mean that he lied. If Jesus is God (and all-knowing) it was again a lie when he told his disciples that he would return within their lifetime (Luke 9:27). Either Jesus lied, or was not fully omniscient as God. The church isn't much better. It persecuted Galileo for his statement of the truth.

Since we have limited knowledge, 1 Corinthians 13:9 says, “We know in part.” The part of truth we confidently know is the Bible. God’s written word is true and without error.

Pastor Jerry Cooper

Virginia Avenue Baptist Church

But the Bible isn't without error. In fact it's rather chocked full of them. The time to believe something is true is not when it is simply claimed to be true, but when it can actually be shown to be true. In regards to the Bible, we're still waiting...


-Brain Hulk

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