Why do people not read or trust the Bible? Part 2

The Isaiah Scroll

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Question: Why do people not read or trust the Bible? (Part 2)

ATP: One of the great and unfortunate reasons that people do not trust the Bible is because they have been misinformed.

There is a myth out there in the general population that "because the Bible was copied and recopied over the years, it is unreliable." Nothing could be further from the truth.

Take the lesson learned from the discovery of the Isaiah Scroll of the Dead Sea Scrolls fame.

Although I am on the Board of Governors of a university that houses a world renowned institute for the study of the Dead Sea Scrolls, I am no expert or even a novice researcher when it comes to these documents. However those who are experts tell us that the Isaiah Scroll discovered near Qumran, within sight of the Dead Sea, hence the name "Dead Sea Scrolls," puts to rest the argument I mention above.

Dating nearly one thousand years older than any other previous copy, the Isaiah Scroll is for all practical purposes, identical to the later manuscripts. For a thousand years the text was copied and re-copied by hand, but the functional result was not changes and unreliability as the critics would have us believe.

Rather what we have is the ancient equivalent of a Xeroxed copy, fully attesting to the veracity of the document's internal integrity.

That of course, says nothing of the truthfulness of the document or the historical accuracy of what is contained in it. Those are separate--and easily answerable by the way--arguments.

But what we have for all who are intellectually honest and willing to face facts, is an archaeological/historical piece of evidence the weight of which cannot be denied: the Biblical documents have not been adulterated over time by bad copy methods.

Yes there are ancient manuscripts that differ slightly from other manuscripts. But in no case are any of these differences such that any major doctrine is affected in any way.

So don't be led astray by intellectual sounding arguments that suggest that the Biblical documents are an internal mess because copyists over the years didn't do their job well. That is a fallacy.

Biblical documents are the most studied and verified documents of antiquity. If you can't trust them, you can't trust any ancient document.