Is the Bible True?6 min read

“All Scripture is given by inspiration of God and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness, that the man of God may be perfect, thoroughly furnished unto all good works.”
2 Timothy 3:16

We must find out who God is and what He desires. The key to this is found in the Bible, but first, we must know why we can trust it. After examining the facts, it should be clear that the Bible is no ordinary book and that the God Who exists is Jehovah, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. This is the key to eternal life; all must know the Truth, and the Truth is found in God’s Word.

Remember:
Before considering the facts that point to Scripture’s authenticity, we must remember two vitally important things:

1). The Bible claims to be the Word of God (2 Timothy 3:16); because of this claim, it is essential to know beyond doubt whether it is or is not. If it is the Word of God, there is a real fate that awaits each person who denies the Lord Jesus, and there is a real accountability to a real Creator.

2). It is the world’s bestseller, the most widely-read, and most widely-examined book ever in history. So many have a strong opinion either for or against the Bible; therefore, it is vital to know which side to choose. With such an emphasis on this book, we must take it seriously and examine it logically to know for sure if it is from God.

Inerrancy

When examining other ancient writings — such as the works of Aristotle or the Qur’an — we can find contradictions in them that conflict with history, science, and even contradictions within portions of the same book. This applies to several modern books also. However, when we look at the Bible, we see that it agrees with history, science, and itself. No contradiction is found on its pages. There are Bible difficulties, for sure, but no contradictions. Not only that, but the theme is unified, and a serious Bible scholar will find that the subject matter is almost unending and infinitely deep.

With such unity and depth, one would think it impossible to have been written by several people over different time-periods; yet this is the case. The sixty six books of Scripture were penned by several different authors, from different areas, with different careers, and even from different eras, some of which were over one thousand years apart! Probability and logic say that this is impossible — unless this is truly the Word of God. Imagine gathering forty random men from random countries, telling them to write a two thousand page book that is unified, accurate, and worth studying, even when they are oblivious to what each other wrote. How contradictory and opinionated that book would be. Yet this is not the case with Scripture; it is pure.

It’s Endurance

Not only is the Bible the most reliable regarding science, history, human emotion, etc., but it is the most enduring book. Every other ancient book has less than 9% of the Greek manuscript (handwritten) copies which the New Testament has. The number of manuscript copies of the New Testament in every language outweighs every other ancient writing by at least 3,800%! And while the accuracy of the few ancient manuscripts of other books is very slim, the accuracy of Scripture is 99.5% when all manuscripts are compared (and even that .5% is only comprised of small copyist errors). Remember that the Bible has more manuscripts than any other ancient book? More copies would normally mean more errors (more chances to make mistake in its copying), but not with the Bible. And though several have tried to destroy these manuscripts or even printed copies (Diocletian, Voltaire, the Catholic church, etc.), it is still the bestseller today! No other book compares to this.

Fulfilled prophecies

Christ’s death (Isaiah 53), His virgin birth (Isaiah 7:14), the destruction of Jerusalem in A.D. 70 (Mathew 24:2), the endurance of Scripture (Matthew 24:35), and Jesus’ betrayal for thirty pieces of silver (Zechariah 11:12) – these all have something in common: they are foretold in the Bible and have come true among several other prophecies. The Bible in the Old Testament has over 350 prophecies concerning the Messiah, and Christ fulfilled every one of them. The Bible as a whole also has hundreds of ‘last days’ prophecies that have come or are coming true. The weather man, who is trained and educated in meteorology cannot accurately foretell the weather that is merely a few days away. But Old Testament prophets, who were mere men, made accurate prophecies that have been fulfilled even thousands of years after they died. How would this be possible without God’s guiding hand on their writing?

Scientific Facts

Since the Bible is accurate about the future, we would expect it to be accurate about the past, despite common belief of the majority in the time which it was written. For example, in ancient times, common belief was that the earth was flat and rested on a turtle’s back or a man’s shoulders. However, Scripture written in that time period agrees with science today: earth is a free-floating sphere (Isaiah 40:22, Job 27:7). Multitudes of other examples can be given. While other ancient books simply conformed to the thinking of that time, the Bible stands alone in its scientific accuracy, and science that has been based on it has proven profitable (Matthew Maury and others prove this). If the Bible was written by different men over a period of 1,500 years, how could it be so accurate unless God wrote it?

Changed Lives

While many can mock the inerrancy of Scripture or its scientific facts (keep in mind that these claims against the Bible can easily be refuted in longer portions of writing), none can explain through natural means the changed lives of Scripture. The words of the Bible have changed fierce hearts of pagan tribes to hearts that love the Lord. Its truth has changed hardened atheists into believers, changed from loving sin to loving Christ. In fact, every born-again believer is proof of Scripture in action. Their repentance from loving sin to loving Christ shows that God’s Word is powerful, piercing, and promising to all that look into it with an unbiased and logical outlook.

What About Other Religious Writings?

Though other religious books (e.g. the Qur’an, the Book of Mormon, the NWT Bible, the Vedas, Sutras, etc.) claim to be from enlightened peoples, they don’t agree completely with history, science, and logic; and they don’t have the proof of changed lives like the Bible has. They can actually cause people to live in fear and can be completely false. For example, the Qur’an says in Surah 20:85-88 that a Samaritan led Israel astray in making the golden calf (Exodus 32), but Samaritans didn’t exist until 530 years after Moses. This is just one error among multitudes of others in the list of ‘other scripture’. Basically, the sacred writings of other religions are simply their thoughts or what they wish God had written (as with the Book of Mormon and the NWT Bible). Nothing compares to the true Bible, and logical research will prove this.

If it weren’t for the Bible, laws would have no foundation, and societies would be more corrupt than they are now. Without the Bible, there would be no absolute truth, there would be no hope, and there would be no meaning to life. How sad if it was not true! But thank God that He cared enough to give us His Word and gave us signs to prove that it can be trusted.