How Do We Know that the Bible is True?
This website is focused on suffering from a biblical perspective—so, a good question is, Is the bible true? The following content is an outstanding writeup on how we know the bible is true… The evidence is so overwhelming that one could not read this writeup and stay neutral—the facts are the facts—the Bible is the Word of God. You can trust and rely on the Bible as the ultimate and unerring Word of God.
(Origin Unknown)
Who wrote it?
66 books written by more than 40 authors
Each with different levels of education, social position, age and style of writing
From 10 countries, 3 different continents and using 3 different languages
The Bible includes over 3,000 characters, 1,500 places and hundreds of topics
Authors lived at different times over a period of 1,600 years
And it's all consistent !
How can that be?
Because each of the writers were inspired by God in their writing. The Holy Spirit carried men along, moving and guiding them as they wrote in their own words what God wanted them to say.
"All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work." II Timothy 3:16
"Above all, you must understand that no prophecy of Scripture came about by the prophet's own interpretation. For prophecy never had its origin in the will of man, but men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit." 2 peter 1:20-21
The bible claims to be the word of God (hundreds of times) and also proves to be the word of God.......Of course, any book can claim to be the word of God—the koran does that - so does the book of mormon—but neither of these two can actually prove it - - and the Bible does......
So - what are the evidences that the bible is the Word of God?
Miracles
There are no miracles in the koran—mohammed refused to perform any miracles to support his statements......The koran even says that Jesus performed miracles including resurrection from the dead—and that miracles were performed by prophets of God - - When mohammad was asked to perform a miracle to support his statements, his response was to read a chapter of the koran.....
The Bible is the only book in the world that is confirmed by acts of God to be the word of God.
Moses, Elijah, the Prophets and Jesus all performed miracles to demonstrate they were telling the truth about God..
Jesus performed over 3 dozen miracles as documented in the Gospels. Everytime anyone asked directly, Jesus healed ! With His disciples, He used miracles as proof of who He was (Believe me when I say that I am in the Father and the Father is in me; or at least believe on the evidence of the miracles themselves - John 14:11). In Acts 2:22, Peter, one of the apostles, said "Men of Israel, listen to this: Jesus of Nazareth was a man accredited by God to you by miracles, wonders and signs, which God did among you through him, as you yourselves know.(they were eyewitnesses to these miracles!) In John 3, Nicodemus, a Pharisee, said to Jesus, "Rabbi, we know you are a teacher who has come from God. For no one could perform the miraculous signs you are doing if God were not with him."
You see - - - Miracles are acts of God to demonstrate a prophet of God is telling the truth of God.....
Prophecies - the Bible gives hundreds of predictions hundreds of years in advance - - that came true...
There are approximately 2,500 prophecies in the Bible, 2,000 of which have already been completely fulfilled- 100% - exactly the way the Bible said they would!!!!!!! The remaining 500 speak of future events.
Let's take a look at the life of Jesus --- the chance of 1 man fulfilling just 8 Old Testament prophecies has been calculated at 1 in 100,000,000,000,000,000 '(one hundred million billion - a number which is millions times greater than the total number of people who have ever walked the planet !). If you took this number of silver dollars , they would cover the state of Texas 2 feet deep. If you marked one silver dollar among them, then had a blindfolded person wander the whole state and bend down to pick up 1 coin, what would be the odds he'd choose the one that was marked? This is the same odds that anyone in history could have fulfilled just 8 of the prophecies ! The probability of fulfilling 48 prophecies was one chance in a trillion, trillion, trillion, trillion, trillion, trillion, trillion, trillion, trillion, trillion, trillion, trillion, trillion ! That's one chance in a 1 followed by 157 zeroes!
----- yet 60 major Old Testament prophecies, having 270 ramifications were fulfilled by the life of Christ !
For example, his descent from Abraham, Isaac and Joseph
From the tribe of Judah
From "the house" of David
His virgin birth
In a place called Bethlehem
The Psalms foretold his betrayal, His accusation by false witnesses, His crucifixion with criminals (a method of execution that did not even exist at the time of the prophecy!)
The piercing of His hands and feet on the cross
The soldiers gambling for His clothes
The piercing of His side
And that His bones were not broken at His death
His resurrection - that He would not decay but ascend on high
Jesus even predicted His own death and resurrection
- - and all these things happened !
He said to them,
"This is what I told you while I was still with you: Everything must be fulfilled that is written about me in the Law of Moses, the Prophets and the Psalms." Luke 24:44 (Jesus speaking to his apostles about the entire Hebrew Bible - or Old Testament - - saying the whole Old Testament is fulfilled by Me - - The Messiah)
And beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, he explained to them what was said in all the Scriptures concerning himself. ." Luke 24:27 (Jesus speaking to his apostles)
Certainly a few of the prophecies could have been fulfilled by reading the OT and performing the act. For example, the book of Zechariah told us that the Messiah would ride a donkey into Jerusalem....However, how could He control:
the Sanhedrin offering Judas 30 pieces of silver to betray Him?
How could He arrange for his ancestry, the place of his birth, the method of his execution, the gambling for His clothes, His legs not being broken on the cross?
His resurrection?
When he was born ? (The book of Daniel 9:24-26 said the Messiah would appear a certain length of time after King Artaxerxes I issued a decree for the Jewish people to go from Persia to rebuild the walls of Jerusalem. That puts the anticipated appearance of the Messiah at the exact point in history when Jesus showed up !)
The Book of Daniel also points to the exact year of Jesus' death on the cross - - 483 yrs after the command to build the walls of the temple (444 B.C.)..... (483 - 444 B.C.=39AD....... but the 483 yrs is figured on a 365 day yr and the Jews used a 360 day year - - - which is 5 days per yr x 483 years=a reduction of 6 yrs....... 39AD - 6AD=33 AD - - the year of Jesus death..........Unbelievable - - - - show me another book in the world that makes such stunning prophecies that all proved, to date, to be true.
More examples?
God's prophets also predicted the downfall of many nations - Ammon, Edom, Moab, Philistia - and cities such as Babylon, Nineveh, Tyre and Sidon - - and not one of them exists today.
About 150 years before Cyrus, king of Persia, was born, Isaiah predicted his birth, gave his name, and told that he would release the Jews from captivity (Isaiah 44:28). And Josiah, one of Judah's kings, was named 300 years before he was born (1 Kings 13:2).
Only God could have revealed these facts, a clear indication of the supernatural nature of the Bible.....
Scientific Accuracy
The Bible includes scientific facts accurate far beyond human knowledge of science at the time they were written - like, the earth was round and suspended in space, like wind circulation, the water cycle, aerodynamics, that there are a countless number of stars, blood circulation in the body, the second law of thermodynamics
all proven to be true later by scientists.
Take water, for example. It evaporates from the ocean, collects in clouds, and falls on the earth as rain or snow. This cycle accords with what the Bible says in Job 26:8, 36:27-28 and Ecclesiastes 1:7 - -- but for centuries, scientists did not understand this phenomenon.
Up until only a few centuries ago, people believed the earth was flat, but several hundred years before Christ, Isaiah wrote of the circular shape of the earth (Isaiah 40:22). Centuries before that, Job had said the earth is suspended on nothing (Job 26:7).
In 1628, William Harvey discovered the circulation of blood in the body. Long before that, the Bible recorded the fact that the life of living beings is sustained by their blood (Leviticus 17:11)
The Bible is so accurate that the Science Research Bureau has for years publicly offered a reward to any person who can prove the existence of a scientific blunder in the Bible. The offer was made in 27 countries and still remains uncollected.
Manuscript Evidence - (meaning written evidence)
The Bible has stronger manuscript support than any other work of classical literature in history - Homer's, Plato's, Aristotle's, Caesar's etc.. Also, we have better historical documentation for Jesus than for the founder of any other ancient religion !
A few facts:
There's more evidence that the New Testament is an accurate historical record than any other ancient book ever written!
The Bible has more manuscripts, earlier manuscripts and better copied manuscript than any book from antiquity!
If you can't believe the Bible is historically reliable, then you really can't believe most any other book of history is reliable!
For example, Plato wrote in 400 B.C. - - the first copy we have of his writings are dated 900 A.D. - - - this is a time gap of 1300 yrs and - - - we have only 7 copies of Plato's writings from 900 AD....... Why are we so sure what we have today on Plato is accurate?
The average for most historical books from the ancient world is a gap of 1,000 yrs between the time written and the first copies......1,000 years !!!!
However, for the New Testament - - we have fragments from 114 A.D. (probably 25 yrs after the book of John was written), books from 200 A.D. most of New Testament from 250 A.D. and the complete New Testament from 325 A.D. - - - remember, Jesus died on the cross in 33 A.D.
Not even one word of the Bible has been passed down by word of mouth - - every word comes from manuscript evidence, which has been proven to be accurate!
Manuscript Evidence - New Testament (NT)
There are more than 24,000 manuscript copies of the New Testament (NT), with only a 25 yr. time span between the original and the manuscript copies. The Iliad ranks next - it has only 643 manuscript copies with a 500 year time span between the original and the copies. Only 40 lines in the New Testament are in doubt between these 24,000 copies, compared to 746 lines in doubt of the Iliad's 643 copies. The NT errors consist primarily of misspellings and duplications and affect no fundamental doctrines. So, why are we more apt to believe in the accuracy of Homer's Iliad over the Bible? Or….. just for fun….., how can we prove Napoleon lived? Since we were not there for Napoleon's life, we need to look at the evidence. In the same fashion, we need to look at the same type of evidence to prove the Bible ! Secular historians confirm the many events, people, places and customs chronicled in the NT, including the birth, life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. In addition, most of what is written is from an eyewitness account!
William F. Albright stated that every book of the NT was written between 50-75 A.D. by a baptized Jew.
Noted Roman historian Colin Hemler, who wrote a book named Acts and the Setting of Hellenistic history, stated the Book of Acts had to be written between 60-62 A.D. - - and he gives hundreds of facts to support his conclusion..
Manuscript Evidence - Old Testament (OT)
The Dead Sea scrolls, discovered in 1947, are dated before the time of Christ (150 BC), and yet, as an example, the book of Isaiah taken from these scrolls is identical to the original Hebrew Bible (written in about 700 BC) in greater than 95% of the text. The 5% variation is due to slips of the pen and variations in spelling. Our OT manuscripts come from a group called the Talmudists. The Talmudists transcribed the OT on specially prepared skins of clean animals. Each skin had to contain a certain number of columns, each being 48 to 60 lines and exactly 30 letters wide. The spacing between consonants, sections and books was precise, measured by hairs or threads. The transcriber could not deviate from the original in any manner and no words could be written from memory. If one error was found, the entire copy was destroyed. The Talmudists were extremely, extremely exact in every letter written and every space on the skin.
Manuscript Evidence - Other
There are 39 ancient sources other than the NT and OT documenting the life of Jesus, from which enumerates more than 100 reported facts concerning Jesus' life, teachings, crucifixion and resurrection.
The original manuscript is without error - but not every copy - 2 kings 8:26 said - king ahaziah is 22 yrs old and - - . 2 Chronicles 22:2 said king ahaziah is 42 yrs old - - both can't be correct - - the second can't be correct or he'd be older than his father....There are minor errors in the later copies - - but not in the original manuscripts......
Manuscript Evidence - Summary
If all the NT manuscripts were destroyed and all the Bibles today were destroyed - - - we could still reconstruct virtually the whole Bible from the quotations from the Early Church Fathers, who lived from the 2nd through the 4th century. For example, there were 36,289 quotes from the NT from the writings of the Early Fathers - Irenaeus, Clement, Origen, Tertullian, Hippolytus, Eusebius, to name a few .......These 36,289 quotes represent every verse from the NT except 11 - - most of these 11 are from 3 John....
How Do We Know the Original Manuscripts are accurate?
The original manuscripts were written by eyewitnesses. Skeptic David Hume presents 5 points to determine if you have a "good witness", as follows:
1. Do the witnesses contradict each other?
2. Are there a sufficient number of witnesses?
3. Were the witnesses truthful?
4. Were they nonprejudicial?
In response - -
1. There are absolutely no contradictions in the Bible...There are, however,divergencies - meaning not every story is told the same - - but these stories do not contradict each other.....Consider this, if you had 4 witnesses in a court case, and they said the exact same thing, you would know for sure there was collusion - - that something wasn't totally correct...Or consider this - - have four people attend a baseball game and request each write a paper on what they witnessed - - you'll receive reports with different areas of emphasis.
2. The Bible records, for example, that 500 people saw Jesus after His resurrection. And - - the book of the Bible that states this (I Corinthians) was dated at 55 AD - - - this is 23 yrs after the actual resurrection took place - - - Most people reading I Corinthians were alive when the resurrection took place ! No other book in history can make a claim like this one.....
3. The witnesses lived and died by what they preached
4. Jesus was with them for 3.5 years, telling them he would be resurrected - - and they didn't believe the resurrection report - - they were biased against what they heard - not prejudicial for it......
How do we know that the manuscripts have been accurately translated to today?
There are many translations of the Bible - in fact, there are over 1,200 translations of the Bible in the English language alone! Some of the translations are bad, some are good and some are better.... Most of the translations are good - meaning they include all the fundamental (major and minor) doctrines of the faith correctly... Following are two bad translations:
1. The New World Translation of the jehovah witnesses; it is cultic and a bad translation - period.
2. The Revised Standard is a bad translation as it has been done by very liberal scholars, focused on sharing their own liberal message. For example, Isaiah 7:14 in the NASB version says "Therefore the Lord Himself will give you a sign: Behold, a virgin will be with child and bear a son, and she will call His name Immanuel." The Revised Standard version of Isaiah 7:14 says a "young maiden" will be with a child, instead of "virgin".... The NT clearly states that Mary was a virgin (See Matthew 1:18 - "Now the birth of Jesus Christ was as follows: when His mother Mary had been betrothed to Joseph, before they came together she was found to be with child by the Holy Spirit. "
Archaeological Evidence
No archaeological find has ever disproved anything written in the Bible. The Bible tells the story, in minute detail, of every city in a 1,000 mile radius of Jerusalem, and archaeological finds in these cities have always supported what was written in the Scriptures.
As a comparison, archaeologists see no direct connection between archaeology and the subject matter of the book of mormon. No book of mormon cities have ever been located, no book of mormon person, place, nation or name has ever been found, no book of mormon artifacts, no book of mormon scriptures, no book of mormon inscriptions.......nothing which demonstrates the book of mormon is anything other than a myth or invention has ever been found.
How about an example - - the Bible refers to the Hittite people 36 times. Since no record outside the Bible had affirmed their existence, objectors said the Bible could not be trusted. However, excavations in Turkey have now shown that the Hittite Empire was extensive.
The Ebla tablets, discovered in Syria in the 1960's, include the names of Ur, Sodom and Gomorrah, cities that Bible opponents said did not exist. These tablets also dispel the notion that since writing was not practiced in the 1400's B.C., Moses could not have written the first five books of the Bible - - Yet these tablets were written about a thousand years before Moses !
The Bible's references to the many Assyrian kings are accurate since archaeologists have uncovered Assyrian artifacts that record the names of all these kings.
Certain customs recorded in Genesis are also noted in the Nuzi tablets found in present day Iraq.
Apostles
11 of the apostles died martyrs deaths on the basis of two things: the resurrection of Christ and their belief in Him as the Son of God. These men, and literally hundreds of thousands of others like them, did not die for a lie. Although many men have died for a lie that they thought was the truth, the apostles knew the resurrection was fact - - they were eyewitnesses to the event, they touched Jesus with their own hands ! Given the documented moral quality of their lives, they would not perpetuate a lie.
Post resurrection appearances of Jesus
After His resurrection, Jesus Christ appeared to:
Mary Magdalene (John 20:10-18)
To the other women (Matthew 28:8-10)
To Cleopas and another disciple on the road to Emmaus (Luke 24:13-32)
To the 11 disciples and others (Luke 24:33-49)
To 10 apostles, and others, with Thomas absent (John 20:19-23)
To 7 apostles (John 21:1-14)
To the disciples (Matthew 28:16-20)
He was with the apostles at the Mount of Olives before His ascension (Luke 24:50-52, Acts 1:4-9)
In the Book of Acts, the following references are made:
"God has raised this Jesus to life, and we are all witnesses of the fact." Acts 2:32
"You killed the author of life, but God raised Him from the dead. We are witnesses of this." Acts 3:15
"....ate and drank with Him after He rose from the dead" (To Cornelius in Acts 10:41)
"For many days He was seen by those who had travelled with Him from Galilee to Jerusalem. They are now His witnesses to our people." Acts 13:31
In the book of I Corinthians, Chapter 15 verses 5-7, it states that he appeared to Peter, and then to the twelve (apostles). After that, he appeared to more than 500 of the brothers at the same time, most of whom are still living, though some have fallen asleep (meaning died). Then he appeared to James, then all the apostles and then to Paul...... In effect, Paul is writing - - if you don't believe me, go ask the people who saw him, most are still living!!!!
The amount of testimony and corroboration of Jesus post-resurrection appearances is staggering. To put it into perspective, if you were to call each one of the witnesses to a court of law to be cross examined for just 15 minutes each, and you went around the clock without a break, it would take you from breakfast on Monday to dinner on Friday to hear them all. After listening to 129 straight hours of eyewitness testimony, how could you walk away and be unconvinced?
Remember, no one, not even the Roman authorities or Jewish leaders ever claimed the tomb still contained Jesus body.
Jesus
Some people believe Jesus was only just a great prophet, but Jesus claimed to be God - - No great prophet can ever be described as a liar, so He is either God or a great liar - - or a lunatic.... In addition, Jesus consistently quoted the OT as fact and came to earth to fulfill all the prophecies therein. If you believe in Jesus, you must believe in the OT. Every attribute of God is found in Jesus Christ, per the New Testament:
Omniscience - In John 16:33, the apostle John affirms of Jesus, "Now we can see that you know all things."
Omnipresence - Jesus said in Matthew 28:20, "Surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age" and in Matthew 18:20, "Where 2 or 3 come together in my name, there am I with them."
Omnipotence - "All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me, Jesus said in Matthew 28:18.
Eternality - John 1:1 declares of Jesus, "In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God, and the Word was God."
Immutability - Hebrews 13:8 says, "Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today and forever."
The OT paints a portrait of God by using such titles and descriptions as Alpha and Omega, Lord, Savior, King, Judge, Light, Rock, Redeemer, Shepherd, Creator, giver of life, forgiver of sin, and speaker with divine authority. It's fascinating to note that in the New Testament each and every one is applied to Jesus.
The above evidences result in the following truth; The Bible is the Word of God and Jesus is the Divine Messiah, the Son of God - -just as Scripture predicted many times and in many ways
Is the Bible the complete Word of God?
God inspired 66 books of the Bible - no more, no less.....
The early church fathers determined which books were inspired..
5 tests to determine if the books were inspired:
1. Was the book written by a prophet of God? The prophets, apostles, disciples were spokespersons for God
2. Was the writer confirmed by acts of God? - - Miracles were performed by the writers to prove they were prophets of God
3. Does the message tell the truth of God? There has never been any proof provided otherwise.
4. Did it come with the power of God? - Romans 1:16 - I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God for the salvation of everyone who believes: first for the Jew, then for the Gentile. Hebrews 4:12 says - -For the word of God is living and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart.
5. Was it accepted by the people of God? - - - -Immediately - - - By the time of Ireneus (130AD-202AD) every book of the NT had been quoted as scripture. The reason for this is so very important - - and that is that the books were accepted by the people of God - - immediately accepted by the people of God........not hundreds of yrs later
Are there any books missing from the Bible?
God inspired 66 books of the Bible - no more, no less.....
What about the "lost books of the Bible"? There are 15 books, of which the Roman Catholics have accepted 11 of these as inspired. The Roman Catholics did this at the Council of Trent at 1546 AD. The Roman Catholic Bible has 46 Books in the OT as compared to the 39 Books for the Protestants......... The remaining "3 books" are included as part of the Book of Daniel and one part added to the Book of Esther.....
However, these extra books were not included in Jesus "Bible".....Jesus taught about the entire OT - - virtually every OT book was quoted in the NT - -and yet these 15 books were not included in Jesus teaching. Also, the Jewish Canon didn't include the 15 Books, the Jewish historian Joesphus (who lived at the time of Christ) didn't include them - - - neither did Philos - the Jewish philosopher before the time of Christ. The Books were not included by Jewish scholars in the Jewish Bible....... Not one of these 15 books claims to be inspired, not one includes supernatural predictions and not one provides any new messianic truth about Christ. The 15 Books also include errors of both a historical and doctrinal nature. 2 macabeeans 12;46, for example, includes a part of praying to the dead, which is inconsistent with Scripture.
in 1517, Martin Luther tacked the 95 thesis on the door of the church in rebellion against the Catholic system of indulgences. Luther argued against Catholic ideas like purgatory and praying to the dead. Twenty nine years later, at the Council of Trent, the Roman Catholics added these books in direct opposition to Luther. Interestingly, one of the books that the Roman Catholics rejected was 2 Esdras, which stated no one should pray to the dead - - so the Catholics excluded the Esdras book - and included the macabees books....
The greatest Catholic scholar, named Jerome, didn't believe the Catholics should add these apocryphal books to the Canon - - and he refused to translate them, stating that "over my dead body will these Books be added to Canon"......After Jerome died - - the Roman Catholics added these books, at the Council of Trent...
Is there new revelation outside the Bible?
The Book of Revelation 22:18-19 says - - I warn everyone who hears the words of the prophecy of this book: If anyone adds anything to them, God will add to him the plagues described in this book. And if anyone takes words away from this book of prophecy, God will take away from him his share in the tree of life and in the holy city, which are described in this book. don't add to it - - don't take away from it - - - for it is the entire word of God ..............
The only place in the world you will find apostolic teaching is in the 27 books of the NT.
To be an apostle and therefore have revelation from God, you had to be an eye witness to the resurrection:
Acts 1:20-22 - "'May another take his (Judas') place of leadership.' Therefore it is necessary to choose one of the men who have been with us the whole time the Lord Jesus went in and out among us, beginning from John's baptism to the time when Jesus was taken up from us. For one of these must become a witness with us of his resurrection."
I cor 9:1 - Paul says -- "Am I not free? Am I not an apostle? Have I not seen Jesus our Lord? Are you not the result of my work in the Lord?
2 Cor 12:12 - The things that mark an apostle—signs, wonders and miracles—were done among you with great perseverance.
So, the latest revelation comes from apostles -- and they were with Jesus and performed miraculous powers in his Name. Therefore, there is no new revelation outside the Word of God..
Jesus said, "I am the way, the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me."
John 14:6
