Is the Bible true?
Every claim the Christian faith makes rests on a book, so the question of whether that book tells the truth is not one question among many — it is the first one. Commentators in this collection answer it by pointing to what the Bible says about itself, what Jesus said about it, and what can be tested by anyone who reads it.
The claim, and where to test it
Any book that says it comes from God must be checked against its own pages, not against outside opinion.
A. J. PollockIf we say that the Holy Scriptures are given by inspiration of God, the claim must clearly be backed up by the contents of the Scriptures themselves. The proof is found there and nowhere else. So the outcome of our enquiry — whether we have an inspired revelation from God — matters enormously to everyone, because if God speaks to man it must be a message of the deepest importance, since divine inspiration is the essence of authority.
That claim leaves no comfortable middle position where the Bible is merely a fine piece of literature.
A. J. PollockOn the other hand, if the claim to inspiration is false and untrue, then the Bible is the most wicked and blasphemous hoax ever forced on the gullibility of the human race, and it should have an evil effect on all who read it. If that is so, it should not be hard to prove it, discredit the Bible, and wipe it off the earth completely.
What Jesus said about it
When Jesus said Scripture cannot be broken, He was not defending one favourite verse.
Frederick W. GrantSurely nothing can be more definite, nothing wider in reach than this: "Scripture" — not just this or that passage, specially guided or guarded because of its special importance, but Scripture, as Scripture — "Scripture cannot be broken." So whether it is the statement that "In six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that is in them," or any other statement, however small it may seem to us, if Scripture makes it, its truth is guaranteed — "Scripture cannot be broken."
Prophecy that no group of men could have arranged
One line of evidence rests on the writers being unable to coordinate with each other.
A. J. PollockThese are deeply illuminating and precise. How could writers, separated from each other by centuries, living in different countries, generally ignorant of what each other wrote or would write, put on record prophecies that form one complete whole, prophecy fitting into prophecy with the utmost precision? This points to a divine power controlling and guiding their pens, a Master Mind energising each writer. The Bible is the one solitary book in all the literature of the world that offers this unique and unanswerable testimony to divine inspiration.
It refuses to flatter its own heroes
A book invented to promote a cause would handle its leading figures very differently.
Samuel RidoutThe Book is a record — a history of things as they are. There is no forcing of events in an artificial or unnatural way. The characters are described without the least attempt at what you might call "dressing up" for appearances. In this the absolute truthfulness of God's word stands in striking contrast with ordinary biography... But when we come to the Scriptures, the very men whose faith is our example are shown as they were. Noah's faith in preparing the ark is not allowed to hide his drunkenness after he came out of it. Again and again we are told of the faith of Abraham; and his acts of unbelief are not passed over either.
The attacks that never finished it off
The sheer volume of opposition is itself treated as a clue.
A. J. PollockIn 1806 the French Institute listed 80 geological theories hostile to the Bible. Would the French Institute have published these theories if it could have been foreseen that every one of them would be overturned as more light came to hand? The Book survives, and even flourishes, in spite of the attacks made on it. Men do not write hundreds of books against the Koran or the Zend Avesta or any of the sacred books of the heathen. Why this bitter and sustained attack? The Devil does not fight a false book, or a man of straw.
The test a reader can run personally
Beyond argument, there is the effect the book has on the person reading it.
William KellyWe prove in this way the value of the word of God as a living witness... The word of God is sent for the express purpose of testing every soul. If the heart is in earnest, I believe it. If I am not in earnest, I presume to judge it, and so my soul will be lost. The word of man flatters our nature and entertains our mind. The word of God searches the innermost thoughts and the heart, it awakens and probes the conscience, it shows what and where I am, and — more important still — it presents the remedy for my soul's disease.
Jesus tied certainty to willingness, and one writer draws the practical consequence.
L. M. GrantIf we do not have the honest intention of doing the will of God, or at least of being willing to do it, then we shall never be given the firm conviction of the teaching of God's Word. If we desire to do His will, we shall know about the teaching: it will be vital and real to us.
Summary
- Claim — the Bible presents itself as God speaking, and that claim must be tested from its own contents; there is no third option between a message from God and a hoax.
- Christ — His words "Scripture cannot be broken" cover Scripture as such, not only the passages that strike us as important.
- Confirmation — prophecies written by men who were centuries and countries apart fit together as one whole, which points to one Mind behind the many pens.
- Candour — the book exposes the sins of its own heroes, the opposite of how people write to promote a cause.
- Conscience — the final test is personal: the word searches the heart, and the one willing to do God's will is the one who comes to know it is His.