10 Reasons To Believe In The Bible

(From Our Daily Bread / Radio Bible Class) 

1.  Its Honesty:  the Bible is painfully honest.  It shows Jacob, the father of God’s “chosen people,” to be a deceiver.  It portrays David, Israel’s most loved king and spiritual leader, as an adulterer, conspirator, and murderer.  The Bible represents human nature as hostile to God.  It predicts a future full of trouble.  It teaches that the road to heaven is narrow and the way to hell is wide.  The Bible was not written for people who want simple answers or an easy religion.

2.  Its Preservation:  In a cave by the Dead Sea, a 2,000-year-od copy of Isaiah’s writing was found that is essentially the same as the book of Isaiah that appears in our Bibles.  God has preserved His Word from error.

3.  Its Claim For Itself:  If the authors of Scripture had not claimed to speak for God, it would be presumptuous for us to make that claim for them.  The Bible would then be a collection of unsolved mysteries, embodied in historical and ethical literature.  But the Bible’s authors did claim to be inspired by God.  Because millions have staked their present and eternal well-being on those claims, the Bible cannot be a good book if its authors consistently lied about their source of information.

4.  Its Miracles:  If the Red Sea did not part as Moses said it did, the Old Testament loses its authority to speak in behalf of God.  If Jesus did not rise bodily from the dead, the apostle Paul admits that the Christian faith would be built on a lie (1 Corinthians 15:14-170.  The New Testament names its witnesses to the resurrection of Christ, and did so within a time-frame that enabled those claims to be investigated (1 Corinthians 15:1-8).  Many of the witnesses ended up as martyrs for their claim that Jesus had risen from the dead.  Many have died for what they believed to be the truth.  But people do not die for what they know to be a lie.  The resurrection is powerful evidence of the Bible’s authenticity.

5.  Its Unity:  Forty different authors over a period of 1,600 years penned the 66 books of the Bible.  Yet, the 39 books of the Old Testament and 27 of the New Testament tell one unfolding story of God’s plan of redemption.  Together they give consistent answers to the most important question we can ask:  Why are we here?  How can we know God?  How can we make peace with our Maker?

6.  Its Historical And Geographical Accuracy:  Many have doubted the historical and geographical accuracy of the Bible.  Yet modern archaeologists have repeatedly unearthed evidence of the people, places, and cultures described in the Scriptures.  Time after time, the descriptions in the biblical record have shown to be more reliable than the speculations of scholars.

7.  Its Endorsement By Christ:  Christ endorsed the Bible not only by His words but by His life.  He made it clear that He believed the Old Testament Scriptures (Matthew 4:1-11, 5:17-19).  He believed the Bible was a book about Himself.  He said, “You search the Scriptures, for in them you think you have eternal life; and these are they which testify of Me.  But you are not willing to come to Me that you may have life” (John 5:39-40).

8.  Its Prophetic Accuracy:  From the days of Moses, the Bible predicted events no one wanted to believe.  Before Israel went into the Promised Land, Moses predicted that Israel would be unfaithful, that she would lose the land God was giving her, and that she would be dispersed throughout all the world, regathered, and then re-established (Deuteronomy 28-31).  Those events happened as prophesied.  Central to Old Testament prophecy was the promise of a Messiah who would save God’s people from their sins and eventually bring judgment and peace to the whole world.

9.  Its Survival:  The Bible has been in existence for 2,000 years.  During that long history, no other book has been as loved or as hated as the Bible.  No other book has been so consistently bought, studied, and quoted as this book.  The Bible is still the book by which all other books are measured.

10.  Its Power To Change Lives:  History is marked by those who claim to believe in the Bible and have been changed and bettered by it.  The Ten Commandments are a source of moral direction to countless numbers of people.  The psalms of David have comforted many in times of trouble and loss.  Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount has given millions a pattern for right living.  Paul’s description of love in 1 Corinthians 13 has softened angry hearts.

You’re Not Alone:  You’re not alone if you have questions about the reliability of the Bible.  The Scriptures, like the world around us, are marked by elements of mystery.  Yet if the Bible is what it claims to be, you don’t have to try to sort out the evidence on your own.  You can be sure that the Author will help you to find satisfying answers to your searching questions.

One important key to understanding the Bible is that it was never meant merely to bring us to itself.  Every principle of Scripture shows us our need of the forgiveness that Christ secured on our behalf.  It shows us why we need to let the Spirit of God live through us.  It is for such a relationship that the Bible was given.

For further reading:  “Can I Really Trust The Bible?” by Radio Bible Class.  Read it online at www.discoveryseries.org/q0402 or request a printed copy by writing to RBC Ministries at USA: P.O. Box 2222, Grand Rapids, MI 49501-2222 or CANADA:  Box 1622, Windsor, ON N9A 6Z7

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