Analysis Of 'Is The Bible True'

William C. Placher in his article, “Is the Bible true?”, attempts to explain to the reader the reasons why we can believe in the Bible. Placher states that to understand how the Bible is true we need to first accept its genres, recognize its attitudes toward historical details, and consider the social context of the language in which it was written. When a person understands the meaning of the Bible they then can trust the Bible as a guide to life, and a way of understanding the world. After reading the article, multiple times, I have come to the conclusion that I do not believe Placher proved his thesis with the points he presented. The article began with Placher discussing the different genres in the Bible and how “different genres have different rules” (924). At first he uses the story of the good Samaritan as an example

To began this section Placher summarizes the Bible’s vision of the world, “…This is the real world…So if you buy into this picture… then anything real has to fit into this framework. Your life…thus will make sense only if [it has a] place within this grand story” (928). After this statement Placher recognizes that the biggest element in trusting the Bible is that the reader first comes to trust God. Once a person comes to trust the Lord they are caught in a cycle of trusting the Bible because God inspired the Bible, Placher explains. Finally Placher ends his article with the explanation of the Bible giving the reader a new language and mindset to describe the world around them. When a person uses the language that is present in the Bible instead of the language that is of the world their minds change, for example an “action wasn’t just ‘inappropriate’ or even a ‘crime’ it was ‘sin’” (928). Through such examples Placher proves that “to trust the Bible” is to “let it define our world and provide a language for thinking about the world”