Glad you asked - do you really think the Bible is from God?

Glad you asked – do you really think the Bible is from God?

Yes, because Jesus treats it as from God.

If we think Jesus is the God then his view of Scripture must define ours.  Jesus affirmed the Old Testament (e.g. in Matthew 19:4-5) and commissioned the New Testament (e.g. in John 16:13) as God’s Word. So the first question is not then ‘can I trust the Bible?’ but ‘can I trust Jesus?’  Our view of the Bible is determined by our view of Jesus. 

So we start by going to the ‘Gospel’ accounts of Jesus’ life, assert their historical accuracy (see the next point) and make our decision about who Jesus is.  Our decision about Jesus then determines our decision about the Bible.

Yes, because the historical reliability of the New Testament documents is overwhelming.

Compared to many accepted ancient accounts the New Testament’s historical creditability is brilliant.  Today no serious minded historian denies the accuracy of the New Testament versions we have today.  It is
historically accurate and from it we can form a reliable view of Jesus.  Skeptics do not initially need to accept the Bible’s ‘spiritual’ authority, but its ‘historical’ accuracy.  From that we can determine our view of Jesus, which then determines our view of the Bible (see point 1 above).

Here’s two ways the accounts of Jesus are ‘proved’ accurate by historians:

i.             That the time between the original document and the oldest copy we have is well within the necessary parameters.

ii.            That the number of agreeing copies we have today is overwhelming within necessary parameters.

These are parameters set by secular historians, and the Bible fulfils these criteria easily.  It can be trusted as history.  The table below gives some comparisons.

	Date of original document	Date of oldest surviving document.	Time between original & oldest copy.	Number of ancient agreeing copies today.
Thucydidus’ historical accounts*	431-400 BC	AD 900	1300 years	73
Caesar’s Gallic war*	58-50 BC	AD 825	875 years	10
Tacitus’ historical accounts*	AD 98-108	AD 850	750 years	2
The New Testament	AD 40-100	AD350	310 years	14000

* All fully accepted as historically accurate yet with vastly less evidence for credibility than the New Testament.

Yes, because the Bible itself says it is from God.

The Bible explicitly affirms itself as God’s words, both in the Old and New Testament.  For example:

·      Ezra 7:6, 10 describes the early Old Testament as God’s Word.

·  The Old Testament prophets repeatedly understand they are speaking God’s Word with phrases such as ‘Thus says the Lord…’ and ‘The Word of the Lord came to me…’

· 2 Timothy 3:16-17 views ‘all Scripture’ (probably referring to Old Testament) as God spoken.

·      2 Peter 3:1-2 describes Old and New Testament as the words of God (cf 2 Peter 3:16-17 also).

Yes, because the New Testament fulfills predictions made by the Old that prove it is from God.

There are almost 200 Old Testament prophecies that come to fulfillment in the New Testament: many around Jesus’ birth and an enormous 31 during the last few days of Jesus’ life.  Both times Jesus could not have orchestrated or engineered events, which were outside his control, to cleverly fit those predictions.  The mathematical possibility of chance fulfilling these is impossible.  Though written by many authors, in three languages over a 1500 year period these predicted prophecies verify a divine unity to the Old and New Testaments.

Yes, because billions of people across the globe and across time subjectively know it’s true.

The final convincing reason for the divine authorship of the Bible is the reality that the Bible is how God reveals himself and works in the world today.  Millions of people across time, and today, affirm personal allegiance and confidence to the Bible as God’s Word.

What do you think?

Are there other reasons?

Do these reasons convince you?  Why? Why not?