Divinely Dependable

Ryan Cox • July 22, 2019

At a recent CTF event, an attendee had questions about the reliability of the Bible. The questions were not scientific or historical, but rather concerned dependability. As has been wondered by many, including faithful Christians: How accurate is the Bible? How do we know that after so many years, no one has tampered with the Biblical text?

These are great questions and worthy of our inquiry. We should desire to know the reliability of our Bibles and whether or not we can depend upon them to accurately relay to us the Word of God.

The answer to these questions is unequivocally YES! We can trust our Bibles. The majority of English versions do a good job at reliably translating the Biblical manuscripts. Some may be more accurate than others, and there are certainly some that are not accurate translations but are paraphrases derived from the composers’ perspectives. A word of caution should be given regarding the paraphrases as they are an interpretation, not a translation.

Someone, however, might ask, “But with so many versions, how can I check to know if the Word of God is being accurately and appropriately translated?”

That is the amazing result of the science of textual criticism! Textual criticism is the process of examining the thousands of ancient manuscripts to make sure we have an accurate understanding of the original, divinely inspired manuscripts.

Regarding the Old Testament, some of the older manuscripts are the Masoretic Text (Hebrew, 800s A.D.), Codex Alexandrinus (Greek, 400s A.D.), the Latin Vulgate (Latin, 405 A.D.), Codex Vaticanus (Greek, 300s A.D.), and Codex Sinaiticus (Greek, 300s A.D.). These, however, are separated from the original manuscripts by several centuries. How are we to tell if they are accurate?

The discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls in 1946 and later answered that very question. Included in the 981 manuscripts (to date) were 225 Old Testament manuscripts dating far earlier than most others. For instance, the “Great Isaiah Scroll” (1QIsa ^a ) dates to possibly as far back as 356 B.C. ¹ This places the manuscript within nearly 300 years of authorship! This is remarkable for a book of the Bible written over two and half millennia ago!

But what is even more remarkable is how these Old Testament manuscripts affirmed the accurate transmission of the text over thousands of years. Dr. Gleason Archer, Jr. stated in A Survey of Old Testament Introduction that it “proved to be word for word identical with our standard Hebrew Bible in more than 95 percent of the text. The 5 percent of variation consisted chiefly of obvious slips of the pen and variations in spelling.” ²

Regarding the New Testament, the data is overwhelming. Based on the databases of The Center for the Study of New Testament Manuscripts and the Leuven Database, there are 5,856 Greek manuscripts, many of them dating from the second and third centuries A.D. ³ This puts some of them within decades or a century of the original authorship. It is estimated that through these manuscripts, the internal consistency of the New Testament today is around 99.5% textually pure. ⁴

But that’s not all! There are also 19,284+ ancient translations by which to verify the texts. ⁵ And, in addition to the manuscripts, there are countless quotations from the early church leaders, with many dating to just decades or a century from the original New Testament autographs. From just 7 early church leaders, one can count 36,289 New Testament quotations. ⁶

By not preserving the original manuscripts but instead preserving tens of thousands of ancient copies, the Lord displays His wisdom in making sure we have the resources that confirm the text has not been tampered with. If there was only the one original, then whoever possessed it could corrupt it, and we might not ever know the difference!

In contrast, it is speculated that there have been 20 versions of the Quran when its adherents claim it to be unaltered. ⁷ It is also speculated that the Book of Mormon has undergone 3,913 changes. ⁸ The “explanation” by Mormon apologists is that all the publishers and typesetters are to blame for the changes. ⁹

With so many ancient sources through which to cross-reference, there is no doubt as to the accurate transmission of the Biblical text. We can trust our Bibles to accurately convey the Word of God. It is divinely dependable! Question is, to whom will we share it?

¹ Joseph A. Fitzmyer. A Guide to the Dead Sea Scrolls and Related Literature . William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 2008, pp. 14-15.
² Dr. Gleason Archer, Jr. A Survey of Old Testament Introduction . Moody Publishing, 1996, p. 25.
³ Sean McDowell, Ph.D. “What is the Most Recent Manuscript Count for the New Testament?” 13 March 2018, https://seanmcdowell.org/blog/what-is-the-most-recent-manuscript-count-for-the-new-testament, accessed 16 July 2019.
⁴ Matt Slick. “Manuscript evidence for superior New Testament reliability”. Christian Apologetics & Research Ministry. 10 December 2008, https://carm.org/manuscript-evidence , accessed 16 July 2019.
⁵ http://www.biblestudymanuals.net/bible2.htm , accessed 16 July 2019.
⁶ “Are the New Testament Gospel Documents Reliable?” http://www.gospelclearinghouse.com/wordpress/the-new-testament-revised/13 , accessed 16 July 2019.
⁷ “The 20 Versions of the Qur’an today”. http://www.bible.ca/islam/islam-quran-changed-20-versions.htm , accessed 16 July 2019.
⁸ http://www.utlm.org/onlinebooks/3913intro.htm and http://www.bible.ca/mor-1830-changes.htm , accessed 16 July 2019.
⁹ George Horton. “Understanding Textual Changes in the Book of Mormon”. December 1983, https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/ensign/1983/12/understanding-textual-changes-in-the-book-of-mormon?lang=eng , accessed 16 July 2019.

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September/October 2025 Printed Newsletter

October 2, 2025

Flooded Marine Reptile

By Matt Miles • October 2, 2025

The Flood during Noah’s day was a devastating judgement against the sin and wickedness of the time. Most people focus on what the Lord did as He saved the eight people and animals on the Ark. Yet while they were being saved, the Flood destroyed the earth and left behind some remarkable things. Geology around the globe shows water burial of plants and animals. Many of the animal remains show signs of drowning and then burial. One particular reptile that shows this is the Ichthyosaurus. From what we can understand, water was her home for everything in life, even giving birth to live young. This well designed creature may even help us trust the Word of God when it comes to the history of the Flood. In our Mobile Museum of Earth History we exhibit a research replica of an ichthyosaur called Stenopterygius quadriscissus . She is from Holzmaden, Germany and is one example of hundreds that have been found in the area. The reason we can so confidently state this fossil is a “her,” when we rarely know for sure about fossil animals, is because she is pregnant. She has three babies present with her remains: one under her tail, one in or near the birth canal, and one still inside. Our fossil is in situ, which means the fossil remains in the rock matrix it was buried in. So, the presence of momma and babies are how they were buried and not articulated in some manner after excavation. This is important to show the rapid, watery burial that must have taken place to lock this scene in the fossil record. The Flood trapped organisms all over the world in different life positions. Sometimes the fossils left behind have shown eating, hunting, sleeping, swimming, nesting, or drowning. When it comes to ichthyosaurs around the planet, there is a significant number of females that seem to be pregnant. They have been found in the fossil record on at least four continents. A fair assumption would be that Ichthyosaurs had a certain time of year they mated and gave birth to young, much like sea turtles today that nest from late spring to late fall depending on the region around the world. So it should come as no surprise that we find pregnant ichthyosaurs all around the world as the Flood lasted an entire year. It would have buried the females that were pregnant near their location of habitat. Evolutionists maintain that ichthyosaurs lived tens to hundreds of million years ago and each of the mothers found in the fossil record just died while giving birth. This is difficult to support in a millions magnitude time scale. That would mean every time a disaster happened, millions of years apart, the right conditions existed to quickly bury ichthyosaurs that just so happened to be pregnant. It just might take some “faith” to trust that “miracle” would happen over and over again through eons of time. Or you can have faith that the Word of God’s history is correct with a judgement of man’s sin bringing global devastation through the Flood during Noah’s 600th year of life. The Word of God is trustworthy, with even the fossil record showing us glimpses of historical evidence in support of our faith. I’m so thankful we don’t need blind faith to trust our salvation! Blessings.

Our God Whom We Serve Is Able

By Ryan Cox • October 2, 2025

14 Nebuchadnezzar spoke, saying to them, “Is it true, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-Nego, that you do not serve my gods or worship the gold image which I have set up? 15 …if you do not worship, you shall be cast immediately into the midst of a burning fiery furnace. And who is the god who will deliver you from my hands?” 16 Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-Nego answered and said to the king, “O Nebuchadnezzar, we have no need to answer you in this matter. 17 If that is the case, our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the burning fiery furnace, and He will deliver us from your hand, O king. 18 But if He does not, let it be known to you, O king, that we do not serve your gods, nor will we worship the gold image which you have set up.” Daniel 3:14-18 In the 6th century BC, three young men stood up for their faith in the one true God, for which someone attempted to kill them. Today, in the 21st century AD, one young man was gunned down for his faith in the one true God. And sadly, Charlie Kirk is not the only one. According to The Esther Project, martyrdom for the cause of Christ is commonplace around the world ( theestherproject.com/statistics ). On average: 322 Christians are killed monthly. 214 churches or Christian properties are destroyed monthly. 772 forms of violence (beatings, kidnappings, etc.) against Christians are committed monthly. 100,000 to 160,000 Christians are killed annually in the 21st century. 1.093 million Christians were martyred between 2000 and 2010. And more than 70 million Christians are believed to have been martyred since the 1st century, with more than half killed in the 20th century alone under communist and fascist governments. And how should Christians respond? Peter wrote, “ if anyone suffers as a Christian, let him not be ashamed, but glorify God in this name ” (I Peter 4:16). Jesus took this a step further; He told us, “ …love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you ” (Matthew 5:44). Now, as Shawn Grant, minister at Kissimmee Christian Church, FL, preached on the Sunday following the assassination, th at may not be what you want to hear right now, but that is what Jesus has told us we must do. Why? So the world will see the difference Jesus makes! The night of and the days after the assassination, businesses did not have to board up their stores. Police and soldiers did not have to be deployed. There were no riots, no property damages, no police spat upon – only tears, prayers, and a witness to the world that Jesus is the answer. So noticeable is this to the world, there were more international press requests for the Charlie Kirk memorial service than are requested for Super Bowls. Within seven days of his death, Kirk’s ministry Turning Point USA had received over 54,000 campus chapter requests. And most importantly, scores of videos of young people considering or even deciding to give their lives to Jesus have been posted to social media platforms.