How Can I Know The Bible Is True? | Part 1

Even if we accept that there is a Divine Creator, how do we know that He is the God revealed in the Bible instead of the god described in any of a multitude of other religious writings?

1. What Do We Mean When We Say the Bible Is “True?”

• Inerrant

The word “inerrancy” refers to the quality of the final product found in the Bible. I like the way my friend and former seminary professor Dr. Charles Ryrie summarizes the concept of inerrancy: “The Bible tells the truth.” Dr. Ryrie goes on to explain that “truth” can and does include “approximations, free quotations, language of appearances, and different accounts of the same event as long as those do not contradict.” Simply put, the inerrancy of the Bible means there is no untruth in the Bible.

• Inspired

The term “inspiration” explains the process by which God communicated His message through human beings into the written words found in the Bible without any error. “How could imperfect men be expected to produce a perfect Bible,” skeptics often ask. The Apostle Peter answers that question: “For no prophecy [of Scripture] was ever made by an act of the human will, but men, moved by the Holy Spirit spoke from God” (2 Peter 1:21). It is important that we claim no more and no less than the Bible claims for itself when it comes to the subjects of inerrancy and inspiration.

• Definition of Inspiration

Of all of the definitions of “inspiration” I have read, Dr. Charles Ryrie offers the simplest, and yet most complete, explanation of the process of inspiration that led to the product of an inerrant Bible: “Inspiration is God’s superintending of human authors so that, using their own individual personalities, they composed and recorded without error in the words of the original autographs His revelation to man.”

• Explanation of Inspiration

a) “God superintending men”

God oversaw the whole process of inspiration. His guiding hand protected the biblical authors from making mistakes when they penned the words found in our Bible.

b) “Their own individual personalities”

This phrase reminds us of the dual authorship of the Bible. While God originated the message found in every word of the Bible, He poured that message through the individual personalities of the authors He chose. He used the emotional outbursts of King David, the angry rebukes of Moses, the skepticism of Solomon, and the systematic reasoning of Paul to deliver His message. 

c) “Composed and recorded”

Some of the Bible contains God’s direct dictation, such as the Ten Commandments found in Exodus 20 or God’s message to the seven churches found in Revelation 2-3, in which God basically said to the Apostle John, “Get a pen and a piece of papyrus and write these words…” 

However, most of the Bible was composed rather than recorded. For example, when David pleaded with God, “Be gracious to me, O God, according to Thy lovingkindness” in Psalm 51, David was not recording God’s message word for word. He didn’t say, “God, should I put a comma after ‘me’?” No, this psalm represents a heartfelt cry from David, pleading for God’s mercy. Yet, it was still part of God’s message for us today.

d)“His revelation”

Does the Bible contain any lies? Of course it does! Genesis 3:4 records Satan’s lie to Eve about the consequences of eating the forbidden fruit. “You shall not die!” As Dr. Ryrie explains, the phrase “His revelation” has to be broad enough to include Satan’s lies, research (Luke’s gospel was the result of research rather than first-hand experience), emotional outbursts (Romans 9:1-2), quotations from non-biblical sources (Titus 1:12), approximations, paraphrases of Scripture (such as those used by the writer of Hebrews), and the language of appearance (such as “the four comers of the earth”). 

e) “Without error”

As previously discussed, this simply means that the Bible tells the truth in all of its words. The Scripture is truth without any mixture of error.

f) “In the words of the original manuscripts”

The terms “inspiration” and “inerrancy” only apply to the original manuscripts ( or “autographs”) of the writings of the biblical writers. Of course, we no longer have those original manuscripts, but thousands of copies have been produced from those lost originals. We will discuss the amazing accuracy of those copies later, but the question, for now, is whether a belief in the inspiration and inerrancy of Scripture really matters if it only applies to original manuscripts that no longer exist. The fact that we do not have the original manuscripts does not diminish the importance of whether those manuscripts were the authentic Word of God. If the original manuscripts of God’s Word were filled with myths and errors, so is the Bible you hold in your hand today.

2. Evidence for the Trustworthiness of the Bible

• The Bible’s Claims About Itself

Some people make a similar argument about the Bible: “The Bible never claims to be the inerrant, inspired Word of God. Instead, it is rabid religious fundamentalists who are making such assertions.” Yet, consider what both the Old and New Testaments claim about themselves.

• The Inspiration of the Old Testament

Claimed in the Old Testament

Hundreds of times in the Old Testament, you find the phrase “The Lord said” or something similar in references like Exodus 20:1, Isaiah 1:2, and Jeremiah 1:1-2. 

Claimed by the Apostles

When the Apostle Paul declares that “all Scripture is inspired by God,” he is referring primarily (but not exclusively, as we will see) to the Old Testament. Paul described every word of the Old Testament as “God-breathed.” 2 Timothy 3:16 says, “All Scripture is inspired by God and is profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness.” The Apostle Peter also primarily refers to the Old Testament with this explanation: “For no prophecy was ever made by an act of human will, but men moved by the Holy Spirit spoke from God” (2 Peter 1:21).

Claimed by Jesus Christ

Jesus Christ also believed in the inspiration and inerrancy of the Old Testament. It almost seems that Jesus went out of the way to put His stamp of approval on those stories in the Old Testament that are most routinely labeled as myths by liberal scholars. 

• The Inspiration of the New Testament

Claimed by Paul

But what about the inspiration and inerrancy of the New Testament? Do the New Testament writers claim the same degree of inspiration for their own writings as they do for the Old Testament? It surprises many people to learn that the New Testament writers actually labeled some of their contemporary works as “Scripture.” For example, Paul uses both the Old and New Testament to defend his instruction to pay those who work at preaching generously.

Claimed by Peter

Peter referred to Paul’s writings as an authoritative source to support his own argument. Even more significantly, Peter included Paul’s writings in the category of “the Scriptures.” Admittedly, the internal testimony of the Bible about itself is perhaps the weakest of all the evidence for its trustworthiness. Nevertheless, it is important to realize that when we declare that the Bible is God-breathed and free from error, we are not claiming more about the Bible than Jesus, the apostles, or the biblical writers claimed about the Scriptures.

• Fulfilled Prophecy

The Prophecy Concerning Cyrus

One of the strongest arguments for the credibility of the Bible is the amazing number of fulfilled prophecies one finds in Scripture. Detailed predictions about specific individuals, nations, and events were foretold hundreds of years before they occurred, and their fulfillment has been historically verified.

The Prophecies Concerning Jesus Christ

It is important to note that no other religious books, such as the Koran, the Confucian Analects, or the Book of Mormon, contain specific prophecies that can be independently confirmed, yet hundreds of such prophecies can be found in the Bible. 

Old Testament Prophecies About the Messiah:

1. Place of His birth (Micah 5:2)
2. Time of His birth  (Daniel 9:25)
3. Manner of His birth (Isaiah 7:14)
4. His betrayal for 30 pieces of silver (Zechariah 11:12)
5. Manner of His death (Psalm 22:16)
6. People’s reaction to His death (Psalm 22:7-8)
7. His burial in a rich man’s tomb (Isaiah 53:9)

• The Unity of the Bible

Contrast the origin of the Bible with two other well-known religious books. Muslims believe that the Koran is God’s final revelation to man. They claim that over a period of 23 years (610-632  A.D.) Allah dispatched the angel Gabriel to Mohammed to reveal deep spiritual truths. Yet, in spite of having a single author, there is an amazing lack of unity in the Koran.

Ken Woodward, writing in Newsweek magazine, contrasts the Koran with the Bible: “As sacred texts, however, the Bible and the Qur’an could not be more different. To read the Qur’an is like entering a stream. At almost any point, one may come upon a command of God, a burst of prayer, a theological pronouncement, the story of an earlier prophet, or a description of a final judgment. None of its 114 suras, or chapters, focuses on a single theme.”  

Next time, we are to look at another powerful piece of evidence for the trustworthiness of the Bible and also answer three common questions about the Bible such as:

1. What about the mistakes and contradictions in the Bible?
2. How do we know the copyists didn’t make mistakes?
3. How do we know the right books are in the Bible?