How can I know the Bible is true?
Almost everyone who takes the Bible seriously eventually asks how they can be sure it is more than a very old, very influential human book. The writers below answer from two directions at once: the outward evidence anyone can weigh, and the inward certainty that no argument can manufacture.
Who Can Give the Certainty
Many people look for an outside authority to guarantee the book for them. One writer answers that the guarantee has to come from the same source as the book itself.
C. H. MackintoshThe question is this: "How are we to know that the book which we call the Bible is the word of God?" Our answer to this question is a very simple one. It is this: the One who has graciously given us the blessed book can give us also the certainty that the book is from Him. The same Spirit who inspired the various writers of the holy scriptures can make us know that those scriptures are the very voice of God speaking to us... If the Holy Spirit does not make us know and give us the certainty that the Bible is the word of God, no man or body of men can possibly do it; and, on the other hand, if He does give us the blessed certainty, we do not need the testimony of man.
Starting From Christ
A book that claims to be inspired proves nothing by that claim alone. So one writer suggests beginning somewhere firmer.
The Bible TreasuryWe may take it that if the writers declare themselves to be inspired, their evidence is sufficient: is this so? Ordinarily, it would not be — it would be merely begging the question. This case is certainly unique, but to be on the safe side, we may take up one position which is unassailable. That position is the authority of the Son of God, which none can consistently call in question. If we can show that He states that the Old Testament Scriptures are inspired, then it must be acknowledged to be unassailably true.
Mackintosh presses the same logic to its conclusion. If Jesus is who He said He is, His treatment of the Scriptures decides the matter:
C. H. MackintoshThis divine Person constantly appeals to the scriptures — to Moses, the Prophets and the Psalms — as to a divine standard. Did He not know them to be the word of God? Undoubtedly. As God, He had given them; as Man, He received them, lived by them, and owned their paramount authority in all things.
One Book From Many Hands
The Bible is a library, not a single volume, and that is exactly what makes its coherence hard to explain away.
A. J. PollockOne of the most impressive things in Scripture is its unity. This unity is impossible apart from inspiration. When we find writers, separated by centuries, writing in different countries, writing on themes utterly beyond human understanding, writing from different standpoints, writing, as a Puritan author happily phrased it, "without collusion or collision," we can only come to the conclusion that these writers were divinely inspired.
Prophecy Written Before the Event
A second outward evidence is the Bible's record of predicting what later happened.
Michael HardtThere is no book in the world that can boast of — or that even claims to have — anything comparable by way of fulfilled prophecy. The precision and number of fulfilled Biblical prophecies can leave no doubt in any honest mind. Biblical prophecy has been — and the future part will be — fulfilled.
Still, one writer warns against leaning on outside confirmation as though God needed it: "if the word of God is not its own witness... no amount of human evidence will establish it as such in the soul" — Edward Dennett.
The Book That Reads You
The most personal evidence is what happens when you actually read it.
J. N. DarbyThe word of God is a two-edged sword; it has no handle: all is blade. It is the word that judges people, and they cannot judge it. "It is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart." A man comes to me and tells me about various readings and the like: I reply, How do you like "a man that tells you all things that ever you did?" The word of God does not talk about all sorts of fine bits of learning, but it deals with a man's conscience. That is the way that the word of God is known.
What to Do With Unanswered Objections
Nobody can answer every difficulty, and the writers do not pretend otherwise. Darby separates the two things that are usually confused:
J. N. DarbyIf no answer could be given to an objection, and yet there were positive proof of that against which the objection was brought, this would only prove that the solution of the difficulty was not known... It is quite true I cannot explain light to a blind man; but everyone who sees knows he is blind.
There is also a moral condition attached to finding out, drawn from the Lord's words in John 7:17:
Truth & TestimonyIf 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 of the teaching: it will be vital and real to us.
Summary
- Source. The One who gave the book is the only One who can finally certify it; no committee, church or scholar can supply what He alone gives.
- Seal. Christ treated the Scriptures as God's own standard — so trusting Him and doubting them cannot be held together.
- Signs. Many writers across many centuries agree without collusion, and prophecy written beforehand has come to pass.
- Search. The word has no handle, only a blade: you do not judge it, it reads your conscience — and that is how it becomes known.
- Surrender. Willingness to do God's will is the doorway to certainty; unanswered objections do not cancel positive proof.