How can we know that the Bible really is God’s word and it what it says is true?
Well, first of all, because the Bible says so.
Whoa! Hold the phone! The Bible is true because the Bible says it’s true? That’s a circular argument!
Listen, it’s perfectly reasonable.
If we said the Bible was something the Bible didn’t say that would be a problem, wouldn’t it? But even on its own, the reasoning isn’t circular. The Bible is self-affirming. We use history to examine history, right?
Well, like the Bereans in Acts 17:11, we can use scripture to affirm scripture.
The brothers immediately sent Paul and Silas away by night to Berea, and when they arrived, they went to the synagogue. Now these Jews were more noble than those in Thessalonica, and they received the word wit all eagerness, examining the Scriptures daily to see if these things were so. Many of them believed, with not a few Greek women of high standing as well as men. (Acts 17:10-12)
The Bible is…
- A compilation of 66 books,
- written in the span of over 1,500 years,
- by 40 different writers
- from different walks of life
- on three different continents,
- in three different languages.
And yet, it consistently tells the same story with God as its author.
It’s writers were not aspiring to write canon. They wrote what God told them to. The Bible reveals the fallenness of man and our need for redemption; and the holiness of God and His plan of redemption!
That’s exactly the kind of book you’d expect God to write!
We know that the Bible is true because…
- The Bible says it is.
- Because Jesus says it is.
- Because history affirms it.
- Because it’s prophecies have come true.
- Because it’s logically consistent
- Because what it says we will experience we experience, and
- Because it has stood the test of time
The apostle John said that the Spirit of God bears witness to the truth and it is greater than any witness of man.
The Spirit is the one who testifies because the Spirit is truth… If we receive the testimony of men, the testimony of God is greater, for this is the testimony of God that He’s borne concerning His Son… And this is the testimony, that God gave us eternal life, and this life is in His Son. (1 John 5:6-12)
There are things that may affirm the Bible outside the text, but the Bible affirms itself just fine when we understand the text.
(Many of the Bible stories and verses we think we know, we don’t! When We Understand the Text is an internet-based video ministry committed to righting some of the wrong understanding of scripture, all while advancing the gospel of Jesus Christ. Check out more at WWUTT.com!)