Written by Lauren Helton
It is the best-selling book of all time, with 5 billion copies sold and distributed, far surpassing any other work in history. Never has a book been so cherished and so influential as the sacred Scripture of the Christian faith. But what is it about the Bible that has convinced so many to believe it is true and worthy of their devotion?
The Bible Itself
For those of us who know the God of the Bible, we don’t have to look further than the Bible itself. We believe it is the inspired Word of God, given to us so that we can know Him. 2 Timothy 3:16 says, “All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness.” First and foremost, this is why we believe the Bible is deserving of our faith. There is no more reliable source we can look to than God Himself, as the Author of all life and creation.
However, there are many other sound reasons to believe in the validity of the Bible.
The Continuity and Consistency of Scripture
First, let us look at the book itself. The Bible was written over a span of 1,500 years by 40 diverse authors from different backgrounds in three languages across three continents. Its volumes contain history, law, prophecy, poetry, and letters. Yet, despite all of this variety, its uniformity of message and consistency is astonishing.
At its core, it follows the true account of God’s creation, man’s rebellion, and God’s design to redeem us through the work of His Son, Jesus Christ. The narrative is intertwined throughout the tapestry of Scripture, weaving it all together into a beautiful masterpiece revealing God’s sovereignty and grace.
Manuscript Transmission and Preservation
The exacting way the Bible was passed down over the centuries gives us good reason to have confidence in the text. The Hebrew Old Testament was meticulously hand-copied over the centuries by teams of Jewish scribes who had developed careful procedures to ensure no errors were transmitted. The discovery of the Dead Sea scrolls in the 20th century confirmed the Scripture was remarkably unaltered and showed that we still have the same Old Testament that Jesus had. As with the Old Testament, we can compare a wealth of surviving copies of the New Testament for accuracy to ensure we have the original text. Because of this, we know that the New Testament we have today is 99.5% accurate to the original. The vast majority of differences are minor spelling or copying errors, and very few affect the meaning of the passage.
Historical Evidence
Scholars often judge the authenticity of a historical text by the amount of time that elapsed between the actual events and the document’s writing. Most New Testament books were written within 40 years of the events they document, some as early as 15 years. For an ancient manuscript, this is remarkably close. Christianity sprang up and grew in the same time and place where an abundance of eyewitnesses could validate or refute the accounts. Events such as the miracles of Jesus, His crucifixion and subsequent death, burial, and resurrection, and His appearance to over 500 people afterward (most of whom were still alive during the writing of nearly all of the New Testament) all would have been easily contested by the local people if they had been mere fabrications.
Not only were the accounts undisputed, they spread like wildfire, despite strong opposition and persecution by Jewish leaders and the Roman government. People were being hunted down and killed for believing in Jesus, so there was no reason to support these accounts if they were simply lies or were not compelling.
The detailed knowledge of people and places in Scripture, verified by modern archaeology, is also a solid indicator of genuine eyewitness testimony. It would be nearly impossible for someone not living in those specific times and places to know much of this information.
Fulfilled Prophecies
One of the most persuasive arguments for the authenticity of Scripture is the fulfillment of thousands of prophecies in stunning detail. There are around 2,500 prophecies in the Bible, and approximately 2,000 of these have already been fulfilled in every detail. The odds that all of these prophecies have been fulfilled by mere chance without deviation is less than 1 in 102000. The chances that only eight of these prophecies about Jesus would be fulfilled are 1 in 1017. To illustrate how unlikely even this much smaller probability is, it is the same odds as covering the whole state of Texas in silver dollars two feet deep and having someone blindfolded walk across the state and pick out the one silver dollar that was marked on the very first try.
These facts, along with an abundance of other evidence, lead us to believe that Scripture is reliable. All told, the case for the authenticity and accuracy of the Bible is strong and allows us to have confidence that God’s Word is worthy of our faith.
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