What is Bibliology and Why is it Important?

What is truth? How can we know anything for sure? Is the Bible the legitimate source of truth? Is it authoritative?

Those questions fall under the category of the term bibliology which refers to the study of the nature of the Bible as Revelation. How did God make Himself known and how were those writings passed down through the ages? Those may or may not be questions you’ve wrestled with in the past. I know I have wrestled with several of them.

I grew up in the church where I was taught: “Jesus loves me this I know, for the Bible tells me so!” I always just “accepted” the Bible as true and the Word of God without much questioning. That is until I went to college and seminary. While in school, I learned about alternative perspectives on the Bible held by scholars much smarter than me. I was forced to rethink my presuppositions regarding the truthfulness of scripture.

There are eternal implications in the answers we give to the questions I listed above.

If the Bible is true and makes “truth claims”, then I want to make absolutely certain that I not only trust these claims but stake my entire life on them. But if the Bible is just one “religious” book among many, then it can easily be discarded, especially on areas with which we may disagree.

But here’s the crux of the matter:

If the Bible is from God and can be trusted, then it means that humans will have to stand under its authority which comes from God Himself.

If the Bible is true, then it must become the normative standard by which to judge every part of one’s own life. And that is the reason that we must start here.

One of the reasons that many people struggle to believe that the Bible is authoritative and without error is because of all the apparent scientific errors and contradictions that seemingly exist in scripture. This is huge, because if the Bible at any point can be shown to be in error, even just a tiny bit, then one would have to wonder why the rest of it can be believed as well.

Entire, lengthy books have been written on this topic, but here are a few examples to consider.

One example is Mark 4:31, where Jesus says a mustard seed is the smallest of all seeds when in fact this is not botanically accurate. Would not the omniscient Jesus know this to be true?

Or how about 2 Samuel 24:1-2, where God is the one who provokes David to take a census, and in 1 Chronicles 21:1-2 it is Satan who provokes the census.

Finally, how about the creation account? In Genesis 1:25 it appears that man is the last thing God created but in Genesis 2:7 man appears to be the first thing God created?

While looking more closely at those examples, one could posit the following: To the claim that Jesus wouldn’t be allowed to say that the mustard seed was the smallest seed would be to hold him to a standard that wasn’t true for a first-century Jew.

Today, we constantly use everyday language like talking about the sun “rising and setting.” While not technically and scientifically accurate, they are still accepted as truthful phrases. When it comes to understanding who tempted David to take the census, this problem is resolved when one realizes that God often uses or allows secondary causes to do His will.

Finally, the Genesis 1 and 2 contradictions can be avoided when one realizes that the creation account need not be understood chronologically in the first place. A helpful definition of the Bible as “without error” is offered by David Dockery.

He says, “When all the facts are known, the Bible (in its original writings), when properly interpreted in light of the culture and communication means which had developed by the time of its composition, will be shown to be completely true… in all that it affirms, to the degree of precision intended by the author.”

The biblical writers claim to be writing the very words of God. (2 Timothy 3:15-16 and 2 Peter 1:20-21) In John 5:45-47, Jesus begs the question, if you did not believe what Moses wrote, then how will you believe me? Moses’ writings (Genesis through Deuteronomy) are thought to have the same authority as Jesus to compel one's belief.

While Jesus saw the Old Testament as the Word of God, and the New Testament writers believed they were writing the Word of God as they were led by the Spirit of God, the more important question is this: Do you believe the Bible is the authoritative Word of God?

Even if you don’t believe it and it turns out that it actually is true, this belief has eternal consequences. We must ask ourselves if it is the biblical worldview or something else that makes the most sense of life as we see or experience it. Jesus is the ultimate barometer here.

As author Tim Keller puts it: “If Jesus rose from the dead, then you have to accept all that he said; if he didn’t rise from the dead, then why worry about any of what he said? The issue on which everything hangs is not whether or not you like his teaching, but whether or not he rose from the dead.”

It starts and stops with Jesus, for He himself claimed in John 5:

“You study the Scriptures diligently because you think that in them you have eternal life. These are the very Scriptures that testify about me, yet you refuse to come to me to have life.” – John 5:39-40

I invite you to ask God whether or not the Bible is true. And if it is, I pray that through His Word you would encounter Jesus, who is Himself, the Word. (John 1:1)