Back to: How We Got The Bible
Since the Scriptures lie at the very foundation of their faith in Christ, it has been incumbent upon Christian apologists to provide evidence for the inspiration of the Bible.
It is one thing to claim divine inspiration for the Bible and quite another to provide evidence to confirm that claim.
-Geisler/Nix, From God to Us
Before examining the supporting evidence for the inspiration of Scripture, let us summarize precisely what it is that inspiration claims.
The Three Elements in Inspiration
- The first element in inspiration is God’s causality. God is the Prime Mover by whose promptings the prophets were led to write. The ultimate origin of inspired writings is the desire of the Divine to communicate with man.
- The second factor is the prophetic agency. The Word of God comes through men of God. God employs the instrumentality of human personality to convey His message.
- Finally, the written prophetic utterance is invested with divine authority. The prophet’s words are God’s Word.
Objective Evidence the Bible is the Word of God
- Truth can be known.
- that truth can be known is undeniable, for the claim “Truth cannot be known” is a truth which claims to be known. The claim that we can know that we cannot know truth is self-defeating.
- The opposite of true is false.
- The Law of Non-Contradiction
- Avicenna – “anyone who is not convinced of it should be beaten and burned until he admits that to be beaten is not the same as not to be beaten, and to be burned is not the same as not to be burned.”
- It is true that a theistic God exists.
- (a) If God does not exist, then obviously the Bible, however unique it may be, cannot be the Word of God. For unless there is a God, He cannot have a Word;
- (b) If God exists, then there can be a Word of God.
- So, for someone to disprove the Bible is the Word of God, he would have to disprove that God exists.
- If God exists, then miracles are possible.
- Thus, to disprove the possibility of miracles one would have to disprove the existence of God, which no one has succeeded in doing.
- Miracles can be used to confirm a message from God.
- But if God exists, and miracles are possible, then they can confirm a message from God.
- The New Testament is historically reliable.
- There is more evidence for the reliability of the New Testament than for any other book from antiquity—for it has more, earlier, and better manuscripts than for any other book from antiquity
- In the New Testament Jesus claimed to be God in human flesh.
- Jesus claimed to be YHWH (Jn 8:59, 10:31-33)
- Jesus claimed to be equal with God (Mk 2, Jn 5)
- Jesus claimed to be Messiah-God (Matt 22)
- Jesus accepted worship
- Jesus blessed those who called Him God
- Jesus requested that people pray in His Name
- The sum total of all the evidence for Christ’s claim to be God is overwhelming. No human being of any other major religion ever made such claims. Further, Jesus’ immediate followers accepted this claim (John 1:1; 20:28; Matt. 16:16–18; Col. 2:9) and worshiped Him as God (see above). Even non-Christian writers recognized this. Pliny the Younger (112 CE) wrote of the early Christians: “They sang in alternate verses a hymn to Christ, as to god” (Letters, 10:96).
- Many miracles confirmed Jesus’ claim to be God.
- The same historically reliable documents that inform us of Jesus’ claims to deity also give us His credentials to deity—miracles.
- Therefore, Jesus is God.
- if God exists, miracles are possible. And if the New Testament documents are historically reliable, then Jesus claimed to be God and proved it by a set of unprecedented and unparalleled miracles. Hence, Jesus is God in human flesh.
- But whatever Jesus (who is God) teaches is true.
- If a theistic God exists, then He is by His very nature morally perfect and cannot deceive (Heb. 6:18; Titus 1:2). And a theistic God is by His nature all-knowing and cannot make a mistake (Ps. 147:5; Rom. 11:33). Hence, whatever God affirms is true, and is by its very nature true. Therefore, Jesus, being God, cannot affirm a falsehood. So, whatever Jesus teaches must be true.
- Jesus taught that the Bible is the Word of God.
- Therefore, the Bible is the Word of God (and whatever is opposed to it is false).
- The Law of Non-Contradiction dictates that the opposite of true is false (#2 above). Hence, if everything the Bible teaches is true, then everything in any other religion that is opposed to what the Bible teaches is false.
Other Evidence That The Bible is the Word of God
- Resurrection of Christ
- Prophecy
- Testimony of The Holy Spirit
- Transforming Ability of the Bible
- Unity of the Bible
- Archeology
- Influence
- Indestructibility
Evidence That Demands a Verdict
Do these arguments prove that the Bible is inspired? No, these are not proofs with rationally inescapable conclusions. Even an amateur philosopher can devise ways to avoid the logic of the arguments. And even if they did prove the inspiration of the Bible, it would not necessarily follow that they would persuade it to the satisfaction of all.
Rather, they are evidences, testimonies, or witnesses.
As witnesses, they must be cross-examined and evaluated as a whole. Then, in the jury room of one’s own soul a decision must be made—a decision which is not based on rationally inescapable proofs but on evidence that is “beyond reasonable doubt.”
So, what we have is evidence that demands a verdict.
Source: Geisler, Norman L; Nix, William E.. From God To Us Revised and Expanded: How We Got Our Bible (pp. 83-84). Moody Publishers. Kindle Edition.