Value #2: The Bible

The Bible is the directly inspired, inerrant word of God. The same God who created the world and who sent His Son to die on a Roman Cross to pay for the sins of all mankind.

By inspired, I mean that in the original, the exact words that God wanted written were transcribed onto the pages by over 40 authors on three continents in three different languages over a period of nearly 1,500 years.

By inerrant, I mean that the original text contains not a single mistake or contains anything that is incorrect or false. That which is historical is historically accurate. That which is prophetic can be trusted to occur. Those claims which it makes concerning the condition of mankind and spiritual matters are trustworthy.

I intentionally caveat my statements by referring to the original, because only in the original did God direct the writing. Transcriptions, translations and the passage of manuscripts through time and various owners all are subject to the inconsistencies which plague any ancient text.

Additionally, only in the original language in the form it was used at the time of the writing is the text perfectly accurate. Changes in connotation and usage can vastly alter the inferred meaning of a text long after it has been written. Consider how many American high school students struggle to understand the comedy and subtleties of Shakespeare, simply because the language is unfamiliar. And Shakespeare is written in English, supposedly the native tongue of the readers.

However, as to the reliability of the existing manuscripts consistency with the original, there are few if any ancient documents which are as well evidenced to support the conclusion that we have reliable copies of the original text. And to the veracity of the translations, no translation is perfect, but there are several decent and practically useful versions in modern languages. I would not split hairs, theologically without studying the original texts, but for the basics, any commonly accepted translation is sufficient for a person to understand.