Can the Bible Be Trusted? How God Preserved His Word

Can the God of the Bible be trusted? Imagine if God were to make a promise and not keep it. That would be completely outside of His nature. But if that is what He decided to do, who is going to hold Him accountable? If He chooses to deceive us, we are going to fall for it. Yet there is nothing we could ever do about it.

The reality is that He is God whether we agree with Him or not. He does what He wants, and no one can stop Him or say, “What are You doing?” But thankfully, the reality is that He is faithful. He is trustworthy.

The sun came up this morning, and the earth still turns because He has set it up to do so and has promised that it will continue. For thousands of years, He has never broken that promise. The fact that our reality does not change day by day tells us that God is faithful.

He has never failed. Even when we fail Him, He still honors His word. So if the Bible is the word of God, as it claims to be, then it can be trusted just as much as the One who entrusted it to us.

But even if the original Scriptures given by God were true, how can we be sure they have not been changed over time?

There are thousands of years’ worth of copies and translations. Humans can make mistakes. So how do we know they did not get things wrong and make our current Bible full of errors?

How can we be sure the Bible is still the same word that it was in the beginning?

If Humans Copied the Bible, Can We Trust It?

The scribes who copied and translated the Bible are like messengers. In order to establish trust in the messenger, we should first consider who sent them.

It is God who has sent His messengers to carry His word into the world. This God knows His messengers. He knows whether they will be faithful to carry His word in truth. So, if we are to question the faithfulness of those who wrote the Scriptures under His guidance, we should first remember that God Himself chose them specifically for the task.

And it was not just the original authors whom He entrusted His word to. It was also everyone after them who would pick up the torch and carry it on. He has not left His word to the mercy of time and men. He has always been involved in its transmission.

We are told that God’s word—His message sent by way of Scripture—will not perish. It will prosper, and it will accomplish that for which it was given.

God is faithful. God has declared that His word will not fail, will not pass away, will not be corrupted, and will not return void. And God knows whom He sends to copy and translate that message.

He knows how to preserve His word. And while mankind is prone to error, He is not. He is active in the lives of His messengers. In 1 Samuel 19, we read the story of the wayward King Saul, who intended to kill David against God’s will. Yet even the wayward murderer was compelled to prophesy the true words of God. Even sinners can be under the influence of God and faithfully share His word.

We should keep this in mind when we question whether the Scriptures have been faithfully preserved. Because it is not just the messenger who is involved. It is the One who chose whom to send as well.

Why the Bible Isn’t a Game of Telephone

Any time we ask whether the Bible has been changed, the game of “telephone” is often brought up. You start with one person giving someone a message, and then have them tell the next person what it was. This continues until the last person tells everyone what the message was. The fun part is that it is never the same as the original message by the end.

But there are a few things that are different about how the Bible has been copied compared to how the game of telephone works. These differences help prevent the original message from being distorted or changed over time.

The Scriptures are not just spoken—they are written down. That one fact makes a big difference. It is easy to get the message wrong when it is passed by word of mouth, but when it is written down, it becomes much easier to preserve and transmit accurately.

If each person copied a message and passed it along, you may get one or two changes due to bad handwriting. But there are so many other copies of the same passages that you are able to compare them and identify differences.

Did Copying Errors Change the Bible?

When you hear people talking about scribes making errors in certain passages, you are often not told about the hundreds of other scribes who got it right. This leads many people to think the Bible is full of errors simply because one or two scribes were wrong, when in reality those differences were noticed (which is why they are known in the first place) and examined against other copies.

Variants do not prove the original text was lost. They help us determine what the original text was in the first place. There is not a shortage of copies to compare either. There are thousands of manuscripts available for comparison.

Another thing to note is that the Scriptures were not confined to a single hidden group or location. Copies existed across many regions, allowing them to be publicly examined and compared.

These are incredible safeguards that help preserve the accuracy of the text. Even today, scholars examine manuscripts in great depth, scrutinizing every detail they can. That is why there are sometimes still debates over what the text should say. It is not necessarily because the text is unknown, but because it continues to be rigorously tested. Even when something seems settled, it is examined again.

What other book do you know of that has endured so much testing, public examination, and attempts to discredit it—both honest and dishonest—yet retained its integrity?

Copies can be verified against one another. Even if you have one copy with a typo (easily corrected once found), you still have many other copies without that typo. So the fact that the Bible has been copied many times does not mean it lost its original message.

Has the Bible Been Lost in Translation?

But what about translations? Every language is different. There may not be words in one language to express exactly what is said in another. Even letters or forms of expression in one language may not exist in another. So, how can we be sure the translations of the Bible have not changed the message?

The phrase lost in translation represents a real issue. Sometimes a translation can dull the full meaning or nuance of a particular word. But that does not mean we have to learn Greek and Hebrew to know what the Bible really says.

Understanding context is one of the most important parts of reading in any language. If you understand context, you can gather the intended meaning of a passage even if the words do not carry exactly the same exact meaning.

For example, the word love has many meanings in English. But in Hebrew and Greek there are different words that express different kinds of love. Yet we do not have to know those Hebrew and Greek words to understand what kind of love a passage is speaking about.

If I tell you that I love my car, you can determine through context that I am not talking about the love of a husband and wife for each other. That is why translations do not necessarily change the overall message of a passage either. Context determines meaning, not just the dictionary.

Remember that it is the message that must be communicated, not the exact language. So when a word or letter is not available, translators use other words to express the intended meaning. This is how translation works. Translation does not remove or add meaning by itself—it helps the reader understand the message in their own language.

Other than those differences, translations are simply copies of the same message in a different language. Which means they can also be examined and verified in much the same way other copies can.

The Needle in the Haystack

God has been able to preserve His word through a series of checks and balances throughout history, so it still exists in its truest form. But that does not mean there are no counterfeits.

There are many liars in this world. Yet with all the lies sown by the enemy, there is still truth that runs, without fail, through time. It simply becomes harder to find amid the clutter of lies that try to surround it.

Satan, knowing he cannot destroy the word of God nor stop it from spreading, has only one other option. He tries to hide it from people by covering it with as many lies as possible.

The Bible is often misrepresented, slandered, falsely accused, and outright attacked unjustly and dishonestly. Unbelievers often repeat accusations they believe are unanswerable, even when those accusations have been answered before. They do not always realize that these claims may not come from neutral sources. Sometimes they come from hostile people rather than honest skeptics.

But Satan also adds false Christians, false prophets, false witnesses, false religions, false spirits, false gospels, and as many other distractions as possible. Because if he cannot stop the truth, he can at least try to keep people from finding it.

If you already believe the Bible has been discredited, distorted, and proven wrong, why would you open it to see whether those accusations are true? If everyone around you says it is wrong, why would you challenge that? If thee are a thousand other religions why would this one be any different? This is the kind of social influence Satan works through in the world. And it is deception, not truth.

How Can We Know the Bible Was Preserved?

What does the Bible say to demonstrate itself as the real needle in this pile of hay?

The Bible says that we can know whether the messenger is telling the truth if that message is proven true. Now, this may sound simple, and it really is. But you cannot test the message if you do not listen to it. If all you pay attention to are small, out-of-context clips presented by the prosecution, then you have not given it a fair trial.

False Christians do not act like the Bible says they should. But you need to make sure you hear what the Bible actually says a Christian should act like. False prophets do not have their prophecies come to pass. But you need to hear the actual prophecies in the Bible.

The point I am making is that unless you listen to the Bible itself in its full context rather than only what is said by the opposition, you do not have the ability to judge it properly. Yet that is exactly what people often do. It is easier to let someone else figure it out for you. But when we are talking about major consequences, that is not wise.

There is a lot of trash Satan piles on top of the Bible in an attempt to hide it. But only the Bible remains when everything is actually put to the test. False religions fail, false prophets fail, and criticisms of the Bible fail. Everything, when fully examined, fails except the Bible.

If you are still skeptical of that, then please see the Answering Skeptics section of this website. A lot of the arguments people use against the Bible are not as solid as they may think.

I do not expect to convince anyone of anything through just this one page. But I did want to give you a moment to consider that perhaps the Bible can be trusted. Perhaps the attacks against it are not because there is something wrong with the Bible, but because there is something wrong with the heart of mankind.

So I encourage you to continue learning. Do not just listen to one side of the story. Listen both to those who are against the Bible and to those who are for it. See for yourself who has the stronger claim.

One warning though: you will find what you seek. So do not seek to prove the Bible wrong or right. Seek to find the truth. I am confident you will discover that the Bible passes the test, just as many others have discovered.

In the next few studies, I will dive into the history of the Bible. I’ll let you know where it came from and how it got to where we are today. This is going to be an eye opening study for many people.

Continue To Unit 1:12 – Why Did God Give Us the Bible? Knowing the Real Jesus OR

Return To Christianity 101 Unit 1 – The Bible and Faith in God