Safe For Today

I heard the preacher say with solemn mien,
"Take your version of the Bible and read."
I glanced about at the most reverent scene,
Each with open book, all ready to feed
On the word of God; from Satan, quick fear
Stabbed my mind, upset the worshipful state;
"Can people today be sure words we hear
Are from God? A tortured path is the fate
Of the Bible---tongue to tongue, age by age;
Copied by many, passed from hand to hand.
Some scrolls struck as fakes, some kept as God's page;
How can we know all this Your word withstand?"
"My Spirit kept each word safe for today,
That you won't mistake what I have to say."

Though we don't have a single page in the Bible that can be verified by comparing it to the author's own handwritten manuscript, we do have the results of years of archeology that have brought us closer to the original manuscripts. Though several different "versions" of modern Bibles, like the American Standard, the New International, the New King James, etc., exist, they show such small variances in wording that any one of them will serve quite well. Internal evidence, such as the lack of contradictory passages and the fulfillment of prophecy, also serves to verify trustworthiness. Linguists have improved their skills in Greek, Latin, Hebrew, and Aramaic, so that modern translations are more trustworthy than earlier ones.

Of course we must not expect the Bible to be a book of scientific precision. Approximately 40 authors are represented in the Bible, and they were ordinary men of their times. They used expressions in the vernacular of their day. For example, Psalm 19 states that the sun makes a circuit of the heavens every day, implying that it is the sun that revolves about the earth. In the 16th century, the world still believed Aristotle's statement that the earth was the center of the universe; all heavenly bodies revolved around earth. You really can't blame the church for accusing Galileo of heresy when he reported the results of his observations with his homemade telescope that had the earth and other planets circling the sun. Galileo was convicted of heresy and forced to recant. On his knees before the assembled cardinals, Galileo said he was wrong; Aristotle was correct; the sun did revolve about the earth. But as he arose from his knees, he was heard to mutter, "but the earth does move around the sun." Which, of course, it does.
Later the Catholic Church apologized to him, but Galileo was long deceased by then.

There might be occasions on earth, and in this life, when science and the Bible seem to contradict each other, but do not worry: when we reach heaven at the end of time, and know things we don't know now, there will be exact agreement between science and religion.