Periodically, I hear the question, “How do I know I can trust the Bible?” This is a legitimate question and one that deserves an answer. While time does not allow for a complete answer to this, I would like to remind us of what the Apostle Peter had to say about this.
I love what happens in the final six verses of 2 Peter 1. Peter, the Apostle alludes to his memory of what happened on the Mount of Transfiguration. You can read about this in Luke 9:28-36. I can’t begin to imagine what this must have been like for Peter, James, and John. They were eyewitnesses to not only Moses and Elijah talking to Jesus about his coming death and resurrection, but they also witnessed the glorification of Jesus and heard the voice of His Father, God, announce to them, “This is my beloved Son; hear him.”
Eyewitnesses were considered the number one reliable source for anything that happened. Eyewitnesses always trumped the “hear-say” or the speculation of the day. Yet Peter introduces us to a more reliable or as he put it, “a more-sure word.”
He is speaking of the Holy Spirit who spoke into the hearts of 40 men over a period of 1500 or 1600 years. He describes how this happens by drawing a word picture of a sailboat being carried along by the wind.
This is how he describes how the breath of God, the Holy Spirit, breathed the Word of God into the hearts of these men so they could write the living Word of God that would live on for generations to come.
Those on board were not in trances, they did not become robotic in how they spoke or wrote. They maintained their unique personalities which came through in their writing. They were also influenced in their writing by their cultures and by the circumstances they found themselves existing in. Much changed in the world over the 1500 years. The only thing that did not change was God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit.
Peter wasn’t putting himself, James, or John down. He was not faulting their memories. He was saying though that as reliable as three eyewitness accounts of this event might be, they were not as reliable as the Holy Spirit breathing into the hearts of 40 men could possibly be.
When men such as Moses, Ezra, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Matthew, Mark, or Paul wrote what the Holy Spirit breathed into their hearts, we had a “more sure word” than an eyewitness account.
We do not follow cleverly devised fables but we have the God-breathed, living, and dynamic Word of God that we can put our trust in.
And I really like what the Apostle was prompted to write in 2 Peter 1:19, “you will do well to pay attention to it.”
Always in Pursuit!
Don
In Pursuit! 