How can we trust the Bible?

God would have been justified if he never spoke to man again. But instead of taking away his words in wrath, God gave us more in his mercy. He revealed that the only way of salvation for fallen man was in Jesus Christ, his Son and his eternal, personal Word. God not only gave us a complete and perfect rule for faith and life, but he also caused it all to be written down in the sixty-six books of the Old and New Testaments so that the truth might be preserved and spread throughout the world.

Now that the word of God is written down in the Bible, Satan continues his subtle attacks. Man, being now blinded by sin and in opposition to God, is only too willing to listen to Satan’s suggestions, which offer him a pretext for rejecting the word of God and continuing to sin without remorse. Notwithstanding all this, God, in his mercy, says, “Come now, and let us reason together... though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool” (Isa. 1:18). Allow me to reason with you in God’s name regarding the authority of Scripture, and may God bless it to your soul.

First, consider God’s own testimony found in the Bible. He says, “The law of the Lord is perfect, converting the soul: the testimony of the Lord is sure, making wise the simple” (Ps. 19:7). God’s claims about his word exclude all rivals. Truthful human witnesses can speak accurately with a kind of “historical” authority to specific present facts or past events. Still, only God speaking in Scripture can speak to man with divine authority that commands and binds his conscience as to what he must think and do: “To the law and to the testimony: if they speak not according to this word, it is because there is no light in them” (Isa. 8:20) and “If we receive the witness of men, the witness of God is greater: for this is the witness of God which he hath testified of his Son” (1 John 5:9). The best way to know the authority of Scripture is to search the Scriptures themselves in obedience to the command of Jesus Christ: “Search the scriptures” (John 5:39). But search them with prayer, for only the Spirit of God can enable you to receive the things revealed in the Bible: “Open thou mine eyes, that I may behold wondrous things out of thy law” (Ps. 119:18).

Second, consider the wonderful characteristics of Scripture. The Bible is like no other book and shows itself to any fair mind to be the word of God:

The Bible is a heavenly book that raises the soul to admire and praise the God of heaven in his purity and glory and rebukes man’s natural earthly mindedness. Other books, like Muslim and Mormon writings, turn heaven back into earth by promising sex in heaven.

The Bible is a powerful book. Powerful miracles, such as the parting of the Red Sea through Moses and Jesus’ resurrection from the dead, confirm it. Simple texts of Scripture, such as “him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out” (John 6:37), have powerfully converted sinners and made them into willing servants of God. Biblical preaching has sustained suffering Christians and benefited all of Western society by bringing about the Reformation from the influence of popery.

The Bible is a unified book. Though given through many human authors over centuries, the books of the Bible speak with one voice, calling sinners to reconciliation with God and holy living before him through faith in Jesus Christ. Micah prophesied that Judah’s ruler would be born in Bethlehem some 700 years before Christ (Mic. 5:1), and Matthew recorded the fulfillment in the birth of Christ (Matt. 2:5–6). About 14 centuries before Christ, Moses commanded the slaying of a Passover lamb for the deliverance of Israel (Ex. 12:21). And John the Baptist and the Apostle Paul showed the fulfillment in Christ (John 1:29 and 1 Cor. 5:7). The moral law of God as the rule for holy living was revealed through Moses (Ex. 20) and is reiterated in the New Testament (Mark 10:19, Rom. 13:9).

The Bible is a commended book. The Christian church does not give authority to Scripture, but it does recognize the authority of the One who speaks in Scripture, as Jesus said, “My sheep hear my voice” (John 10:27). In turn, the church throughout the centuries has called on men to hear the authority of God speaking in Scripture. For example, the Council of Constantinople (AD 381) affirmed that the Holy Spirit “spake by the prophets.” The council directed this phrase against the errors of a group called “the Montanists,” who denied the authority of the Old Testament. Moreover, as you read this article today, a minister of the Christian church is calling upon you to acknowledge the authority of Scripture because it is God who speaks through Scripture.

Third, consider that the Bible stands as the only possible authoritative rule for man and that all the rivals to Scripture fall away.

Our feelings cannot be the rule that prescribes what someone must believe and do because reason is a higher rule than our feelings. And people whose feelings rule them are like children. But reason cannot be the authoritative rule, either. Reason can indeed deduce what is, including the fact that there is a God. Or, if one begins with the light remaining in a person’s conscience, reason can, to an extent, deduce what ought to be done, as the moral philosophers did. However, reason cannot deduce a way for fallen, sinful man to be reconciled to God because it never can reason its way to the Triune God (Father, Son, and Holy Spirit) or discover the sin-atoning blood of Jesus Christ through his death on the cross. In fact, reason itself is corrupt in fallen man. Everyone recognizes that men have cleverly used their reason in various attempts to justify heinous crimes.

Neither can Jewish traditions be the authoritative rule. Jesus set them aside, saying, “Thus have ye made the commandment of God of none effect by your tradition” (Matt. 15:6).

Neither can Islam’s Qur’an be the authoritative rule for all men since translations thereof are considered mere interpretations, and few will ever be able to learn classical Arabic even to read the Qur’an. Muhammad did no miracles to confirm his doctrine and his life was notoriously devoid of grace. The Qur’an itself never claims that the Bible has been corrupted, and in fact, commands doubting Muslims to “seek out the people of the book [the Bible], for they know.”

Neither can the church fathers nor church councils be the ultimate authoritative rule. Yes, they wrote many true and useful things, but they were mere men, and we must test such teachers by Scripture (Gal. 1:8) and receive only what has authority through Scripture.

Certainly, the pope of Rome cannot be the authoritative rule when it comes to Scripture. The popish claim that the Bible needs an earthly judge outside of the Bible to settle controversies is pretentious because God alone (speaking in the Bible) is his own interpreter (Gen. 40:8 and 41:16). The newly re-displayed papal throne or “chair of St. Peter” is a visible symbol of the pope seizing without any biblical right the place that belongs solely to God, the only lawgiver (James 4:16), including the pope’s dissolving of lawful marriages and proclaiming new holy days. He thus fulfills the prophecy of Scripture concerning the man of sin who would sit in the temple of God and claim to be like God (2 Thess. 2:4).

Finally, the writings of the cults cannot be the authoritative rule. All are of very recent origin, and many include the false claim that the Bible has been corrupted, whereas God promises to preserve his word forever (Ps. 119:89).

Dear reader, will you not receive the Scriptures of the Old and New Testament as the very word of God? If you stumble at the word, being disobedient, you will only fulfill the will of God, who has appointed some to stumble (1 Peter 2:8). You cannot escape fulfilling the authoritative will of God. Therefore, be willing to comply with his authoritative call to turn from sin and to come to him through Jesus Christ, his crucified and risen Son. ❦