How do you know that the Bible is true?

Question

And if you're going to just say "we know it's true because it says it is" or some other such stupidity, please don't bother answering.
If you are going to say "because it's the Word of God", I expect to hear that God came down and told you this personally.

Answer 1

Excellent question... I'll preface this by stating that I do believe the Bible is God's Word... I didn't always believe that. Through a process of questioning and study over 3 1/2 years time I reluctantly came to that conclusion... one I wasn't looking for.
My field of study was microbiology... Life science. Dealing in such an area you are confronted with the questions of life, death, origins, genetics, disease... the stuff of life. Naturally, being the sentient being I am, I came to ponder my life and its intrinsic meaning (if any) and its' place in the universe.... that took me into philosophy and religion.
It is difficult to condense ones' spiritual journey into a couple of paragraphs, but I'll try.
First off, I'll cut to the chase getting rid of the philosophical ramblings of existence.. I think, I exist, the world exists as does the passage of time, therefore that implies causality and events have beginings and endings. Entropy exists universally with small reversals of increasing complexity only if external forces are applied, i.e., life.
Patterns of design and complexity exist throughout the universe implying a designer... the laws of thermodynamics as we understand them indicate the universe is decaying in informational complexity, i.e., it is winding down to an end point. Bottom line- the universe had a begining and will end... it cannot stand on its own... there must be something more out there which takes us out of the realm of obsevational science into the depths of the extraterrestial/supernatural.... Something that is omnipotent, omniscient , and eternal. It is at this point you are looking for aliens or God.
I am a sci-fi junkie and science freak. As much as I would like to " explore strange new worlds and seek out new civilizations..." I do not accept the existence of aliens or life as we know it on other planets. With respects to the late Carl Sagen, the numbers, math and science don't support that conclusion... but that is another question for a different time. That leaves me with God... now to figure out 'whose god",huh?
I am assuming this intelligence I've labeled God wants to be known and, being all-knowing and all-powerful, would leave a foolproof way to 'be known'. Now using the process of simple logic we can narrow the possilbilities... Atheism vs. Theism or 'no god' vs. 'God'...atheistic beliefs are ruled out, leaving theistic beliefs.
Next consideration... Pantheistic beliefs (the universe is god) vs. supernaturalism . Since we have aleady noted the universe's degradation and loss of information towards entropy over time, the logical conclusion is that pantheism is incorrect. ( the only way to validate pantheism here would be do deny the existence of time, reality , or the outside world... suppositions I cannot in good conscience or in a right mind hold as true.
Next category to analyze would be polytheism vs. monotheism..
.. many distinct gods vs. one All-Powerful God. Most, but not all, of the polytheistc religions are also pantheistic ( previously ruled out ). The characteristics of this God we defined earlier were embodied as one source or, if a number of beings, all unified in power, purpose, understanding and strength... still essentially one. To my knowledge, there is no polytheistic befief system that fits that description...not one.
So, what's left? Agnosticism, Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. Agnosticism can be further dissected into a) impossible to know if God exists crowd, and b) impossible to know any details about God crowd. We can rule out 'a)' since we have already determined God does exist, leaving us with 'b) God is unknowable', Judaism,Christianity, or Islam.
I could go on in depth here, but I'll cut to the end for now. (If you really want the whole process I went through, I'll share it with you... it involved taking classes in religious studies, Greek, Hebrew, Textual and Historical Criticism (HIgher Criticism), as well as studies in Islam and Buddism... all without getting a Religious Studies degree in addition to the Microbiology. I go a little freaky in things at times... that's who I am, I guess.)
Wow, long 'cut to the end',huh? It all boils down to who Jesus was. If he, as a historical figure, proves to be the messiah he said he was, it renders Islam, Judaism, and Agnosticism b as wrong. You originally asked about the veracity of the Bible. you are, of course, talking about a series of 66 books written over 2200 years with a uniform theme. The prophecies regarding Jesus alone were enough to freak me out. Daniel 9:24-25 tells of the messiah's birth, written in Persia 500 years before Jesus was born. Isaiah tells of Jesus' character and describes his crucifixtion centuries before the Romans invented this mode of execution. There are literally hundreds of prophecies regarding Jesus that can be verified reliably via history, archeology, and critical study. I could go on... I have a plethora of information on the subject.
This leads to your question regarding the veracity of the Bible and the issue of truth. I could go into textual and historical criticism to ferret out inconsistencies and possible glosses in biblical text ; apocryphal and pseudo-apocryphal writtings of the day... maybe puruse conspiritorial theories of the day both then and now... but to what effect?
I don't know if your query was sincere or not... I hope it was and you are really searching. If you are truly looking for the truth, don't stop. Ask the nasty tough questions... God can take it... thank you for the opportunity to exercise my mind in these areas. If you are serious and need resources, I certainly can supply a list... I'm sure you can Google a bunch too... just no assurance what you'll get there... like I said... God can take it... can you? Blessings in your search.

Answer 2

Do a study on Daniel 2 and you will believe it is too. Daniel wrote the book several centuries before Christ and yet told about the world happenings through to the end and beyond. If you check the time frame stated in that book alone to history, you will find everything happened as predicted down to the letter. So how could a mere man know what was going to happen for thousands of years to come without a little help from above? He fortold the four great kingdoms of the world and the one that would be set up that would crush all those before it, that is, God's Kingdom. Look at history and you will find it all happened just as it said it would. With that kind of evidence, why would I not know it is true? If one book is that accurate, I think I can trust the rest to be accurate too.

Answer 3

before the old testament was written, there was prophecies, and once they came true, they were recorded because the prophecies were so unimagineable and when they came true, they had to be recorded. also, the scriptures were discovered and although the bible is not complete (as in not everything found was put into the bible), the stuff is historically true. a lot of historians used the bible to map out things from the journeys of the authors of the books. the OT (old testament) also contains historical boring things like geneaologies, and those people were found to be really alive (including jesus).

the NT (new testament) now. a lot of the books in the NT are repeated stories of when Jesus was alive. there were hundreds of thousands of witnesses to the things Jesus did. his disciples wrote different accounts from their point of views and they were found and put together. that just shows in itself it's true, to have several people be with jesus, write about them and looked at each of them and comparing them, they're the same. also, the NT is a lot of letters, like paul writing to churches, and was made into a book in the Bible.

although translated to many languages, the Bible speaks the word of God and people in the past have tried to destroy it, but God wouldn't let it. it's been teh #1 selling book for years and years. God speaks the truth, God's word is the Bible, the Bible is the truth. (sorry don't mean to get premises 1, 2 and "therefore" on you, but i hope that helped!)

Answer 4

I know it through the answers to my prayers, but that won't help you.

There are other historical books available that verify the things in the bible. In the 1950's I think, they found the dead sea scrolls, that had a lot of the original writings of the persons who have books included in the bible. That is a start.

In 1827 +/- an ancient record was found in America, (Upstate New York), that had the historical and religious record of the peoples of North and South America in it. It confirmed the basic truthfulness of the bible, as well as added testimony of Jesus as the Christ prophesied of in the Old Testament. It was a totally separate record, recorded by a different group of writers, in a totally different setting, that confirmed the basic teachings of the Bible. You are invited to read it yourself and draw your own conclusions. You can get a free copy at www.lds.org and just ask for a copy of the Book of Mormon - Another Witness of Jesus Christ.
Please, get one and read it as a skeptic. Write down your questions and arguments and challenges and discuss your findings with the persons who deliver your book. You will be surprised at what you find. The Book of Mormon will explain and prove the truthfulness of the Bible and will bear witness that Jesus is the Christ and that the atonement is real.
Try it. You will be surprised.

Answer 5

I have pondered that question for years and have done a lot of research on the origins of the "Bible". Here is some of what I have learned followed by my answer to your question:

(If you find me too long-winded, skip to my insightful answer section at the end!)

The "Bible" was originally written as hundreds of individual scrolls (books) in Hebrew and Greek, written thousands of years apart by dozens of different authors.

At some point in time, the Catholic church officially decided which "books" to keep and which to disgard and produced the official "Bible". This process was called cannonization and as you can imagine was very politically driven. Books that did not agree in context with the current teachings of the church were left out and even destroyed.

Then over the centuries the "Bible" was translated to Latin, then to many other languages. Martin Luther himself did dozens of translations from Latin to German, constantly correcting and revising his own work; so it stands to reason that not all of his translations were absolutely correct or infallabile. In fact in his first translation he left out one of the 10 commandments on purpose! (The one about graven images.) Later due to political pressure he put it back in!

The "King James" Bible which is considered to be the "true" Bible by many wasn't even translated from the original Hebrew and Greek. It was translated from the Latin version, which came from the Greek/Hewbrew. In other words, it is a translation of a translation! King James hand-picked a group of scholars and clerics to do the job and laid down ground rules. (such as no footnotes). In other words it was a big, political compromise to produce a translation that everyone (the King, scholars, and the Chruch) could accept.


The current Catholic Bible has several books that the Protestant Bible doesn't and the Mormon Bible is different still.

Furthermore, most Bibles contain dozens, if not hundreds of blatent inaccuracies and contridictions. Example: One gospel says Judas hanged himself, another says he "fell headlong in a field and his guts spilled out". The mental gymnastics that most christians use to explain away this conflict is "first he hung himself, and then the rope broke and he fell...".

The need for such rationalizations and justifications come from most Christian's belief that every word in the Bible is infallable and inspired by God. But how can this be if we have translations of translations of translations? What we have today as "The Bible" is not the original Greek and Hebrew scrolls!

And finally, when Jesus referred to "the Word" he could not have been referring to books of the New Testament that had not been written yet. Jesus is never quoted as saying there would be more books either, nor did he write any, of course. Even when Paul wrote his "letters" he did not intend for them to be taken as gospel. (That would have been a sacreligious thought!) He was just writing letters, not trying to write a Bible and furthermore Paul was not one of the diciples and never met, lived, or walked with Jesus.

Anyway, my answer:

The collection of translations we call the "Bible" contain history, poetry, proverbs, parables, dreams and teaching. They are not true, false, right or wrong - they just are what they are. TRUTH is something that God reveals to you personally and gradually during a lifetime of prayer, study, and meditation. So, read your Bible, Torah, Quran, or whatever and pray to God, Allah, Budda, or whatever you call the Creator - and the TRUTH will be revealed to you in your heart. (You won't hear a booming voice).

Additional Note:
When pastors preach don't think in terms of right or wrong, true or false. They are not the ultimate authority, they are just seekers like you. Listen to the message - not the words - and then think and pray. Don't get caught up in debate over silly, inconsequential issues. (Like whether or not the Garden of Eden really existed)

Answer 6

It isn't. There are hundreds of discrepancies between biblical accounts of things and known facts, and scores of internal inconsistencies (one place says one thing, and another place says something contradictory). An obvious error is the tale of the great flood. It is easy to see that it could not have happened -- to bury the entire land mass of the planet would take a billion cubic miles of water, more than four times as much as exists on the entire planet. And, after the sea receded (where would the water go?) the earth would be too salty to support life. One could go on and on, but that's enough to get the idea.

Answer 7

I believe it is true just like I believe Washington was the first president of the USA. I wasn't there can't prove it but it is historical. King David was a real king, the tombs are real, the sphinx is real. So please disprove it to me. The island of Patmos is also real. The places in the Bible still exist to this day. Maybe Mount Sinai is a figment of my imagination. Maybe Crete is also a figment of my imagination. Try reading the Bible and following the places on the inter net. You will see and learn a lot. If you learn nothing of God you will learn history.

Answer 8

How do you know it is not true. Have you read it. When you read it you find people in places at times in history and if you check they match up. They have found numerous archaeological finds that back up the bible like cities and writings on walls and tablets and scrolls. They even found wood on top of the Mt. that Noah's boat rested on after the great flood and it matches up with the type of wood the bible states he used, gopher wood. To believe that the Bible is the inherent word of God is Faith

Answer 9

When one comes to God in faith, the Holy Spirit testifies within one's soul that the written word is true. Of course, from the standpoint of a mere human non-believer, there are historical facts that can be verified to attest to the accuracy of the Holy Bible; however, the Holy Spirit's inner testimony is required for true verification. To a non-believer, it will always seem to be a mystery. If God wants you to hear, he will give you ears.

Answer 10

Well there are some facts in the Bible. For the most part though, its mostly falacies created to empower men in the time it was written. They were being suppresed by certain people, and in order to overcome this they needed to make something up to help. I believe that there are parts in the Bible that are fact. I believe in one God. Not Jesus p.b.u.h. as God, but as a prophet. Christians couldnt get the support without portraing Jesus as God. They will burn in hell for it, may God have mercy on their souls.

Answer 11

Because it is honest. It reports such things as Lot's adventure with his incestuous daughters, Abraham's impatient decision to take Hagar, David's foolishness over Bathsheba, etc, etc, etc.
By the way, God can and does communicate with His kids...but you didn't want to hear about that, did you?