Is the Bible true?
Asking whether the Bible is true is really asking who wrote it. The book claims to come from God Himself, and that claim can be tested — against the words of Christ, against its own unity, against fulfilled prophecy, and against your own conscience.
What the book claims about itself
Every question about the Bible's truth starts with its own account of where it came from. The writers say they were not passing on rumours or their own best guesses.
J T MawsonThe Scriptures are God-breathed; the men who wrote them were moved by the Holy Spirit. They did not get what they wrote from hearsay, or from their own imperfect observation, but from the source of all true knowledge — from God Himself.
Some try to keep the ideas of Scripture while letting go of its actual wording. One writer warns where that path leads:
William KellyIf you give up the words of Scripture to the unbeliever, he will not leave you the thoughts of God. You may try to separate the truth from the words of God, but truth is communicated by words.
Christ staked Himself on it
For anyone who takes Jesus seriously, His own treatment of the Scriptures settles a great deal. He used them in every conflict, and never once treated them as unreliable.
Samuel RidoutNo thoughtful reader can fail to be impressed by our Lord's complete dependence on the whole word of God throughout His entire life… We would search in vain for the slightest uncertainty on His part about the truth and authority of the Scriptures. "The Scripture cannot be broken" (John 10:35)… It is as if our Lord declared that He stood or fell with the word of God; that if it were not true, neither was He.
One mind behind many hands
The Bible is not one book but a library, written across centuries by people who mostly never met. That fact is usually raised as a problem; commentators treat it as the evidence.
J. N. DarbyIn spite of this great diversity of times and of authors there is a perfect unity of design and of doctrine — a unity whose separate parts are so linked with each other, and so entirely adapted to each other, that the whole work is clearly that of one and the same Spirit… Now there is only One who lived through all the ages during which the various books of the Bible were written, and that One is the Holy Spirit.
Prophecy that could have been disproved
Detailed predictions are a risky thing to publish, because they can be checked. That is precisely what makes them useful here.
Difficulties of UnbeliefThe Lord Jesus Christ constantly appealed to the prophecies about Himself as proof of His mission, and the apostles did the same. These prophecies are in great detail. If they were not true, how easy it would be to prove that Jesus is not the Christ; but if they are true, then the conclusion is unavoidable — the book is given by the inspiration of the Spirit of God.
It has outlived its attackers
The Bible has been banned, burned and dismantled by scholars, and it is still here. One writer lists the campaigns and their outcome — while being honest that translations themselves are human work:
Walter ScottThe pagan persecutions of the first Christian centuries; the fires of the Middle Ages, in which cart-loads of the Scriptures were burned; the centuries in which reading the Scriptures in the common language was forbidden… these, and the countless attempts of ancient, medieval and modern times, have covered the enemies of divine revelation with lasting confusion, while our dear old English Bible is as invulnerable as ever. Do we say it is a faultless version? No — but its mistakes and blemishes only show the blundering hand of man, while leaving untouched the matchless perfection of the sacred Scriptures.
The proof you can only get first-hand
External evidence is real, but commentators keep pointing past it to something more direct. A book that exposes you is doing something no argument can do.
Frederick W GrantThere is no doubt plenty of external witness to its truth; but the surest of all is its own direct testimony to a person's heart and conscience. Without Scripture he is a riddle his own wit cannot explain: he does not know where he came from or where he is going; he knows neither himself nor God.
That kind of knowledge is more like tasting than debating:
J. N. DarbyI know what a knife is when it cuts me, and honey when I taste its sweetness. It is not a matter of proof.
Why honest reading matters
There is a condition attached to finding out. Jesus said that anyone willing to do God's will would know whether the teaching came from God.
James BoydThe ability to receive and understand the divine Word lies in the willingness to understand it in order to do it.
What it is true for
The Bible is not offered as a collection of verified facts to admire. It has an aim.
Hamilton SmithFirst, the Scriptures are able to make us wise to salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus. Second, having been directed to Christ so that we find salvation in Him, we shall further discover that "every Scripture" is "profitable" for the believer.
Summary
- Claim — Scripture says it is God-breathed, not hearsay; drop its words and you lose God's thoughts with them.
- Christ — Jesus called Scripture unbreakable and leaned on it all His life; He stands or falls with it.
- Confirmation — one design running through many writers and centuries, plus detailed prophecies that could have been disproved but were fulfilled.
- Conscience — the surest witness is not outside the book: it reads you, like a knife you feel rather than an argument you weigh.
- Consequence — its purpose is to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ, and that is found by those willing to obey what they read.