Proof The Bible is True?

Question

How do we know the bible is true? I would like actual FACTS not "You just have to believe." Can someone actually tell me that the bible is TRUE? can it be proven? If it can please explain.

Answer 1

Proof is within you.

No one person, beyond your own perception, can show you the Truth within your own being. I can no more sway you to my beliefs than you can sway me to yours.

What we must come to realize is that regardless of the differences in our beliefs, there is usually something deeper within us that is the same.

It is the connection to that deeper "something" (*wink*) that will give you the truth you need. But, it is only you that can seek it.

Answer 2

Certain parts of Holy Scripture are easily verified historically.

Other parts are prayers, poetry and testimony.

How can you "prove" a poem? How can you "prove" a prayer? You can't prove the Book of Psalms. You can't prove the Book of Proverbs. You can't prove Song of Songs.

Out of the 73 books in a Catholic bible...
( here is a list http://www.drbo.org/ )

... you can prove 1 through 4 Kings via historical data. You can prove 1 & 2 Maccabees via historical data.

As for the rest that is "testimony" - bits and pieces can be proven. But by and large the rest can't be verified. How do you verify prophecy? We know that Jesus fortold the destruction of Jerusalem within 40 years of his death. I once saw a list of 100 prophecies that Jesus made which came true.

But is that proof of the bible? Your call.

Answer 3

All of the Bible? Every last word? Completely true and accurate in every way?

1 Kings 7 (describing a huge bath in Solomon's temple):
"23 He made the Sea of cast metal, circular in shape, measuring ten cubits from rim to rim and five cubits high. It took a line of thirty cubits to measure around it."

Given:
π = (circumference of a circle) / (diameter of the same circle)
OR
π = C / D

biblical C of Solomon's circular bath: 30 cubits
biblical D of Solomon's circular bath: 10 cubits
C / D = 3;
π ≠ 3

Despite proportedly divine revelation, the authors of the bible didn't grok a mathematical principle that Babylonians figured out around 1800BC. The Bible is not infallibly true.

Sorry.

Answer 4

That is a bit of an open question don’t you think? It would be hard to cram 2000 years of Theological study, review and theory into one little answer here on Yahoo. Additionally, people have spent their entire lives on this subject and libraries are full of books on the subject.

If this is not an idle question and you are interested in discovering the answer I suggest you check out some books on Bibliology and hermeneutics;

*Hendricks, Howard G. and William D. Hendricks. Living By the Book. Chicago, IL: Moody
Press, 1991. (Hermeneutics, beginner)
*Mathison, Keith A. The Shape of Sola Scriptura. Moscow, ID: Canon Press, 2001.
(Bibliology, intermediate)
*Wegner, Paul D. The Journey from Texts to Translations. Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Academic,
2000. (Bibliology, intermediate)

Answer 5

Do you mean like a photograph that is 5636 years old to show Noah's ark? (Whoops, no cameras yet)

Do you mean the staff that Moses used to part the Red Sea? (Whoops, that was lost about 5100 years ago)

Are you interested in the videotape of Jesus' crucifixtion? (Oh boy, no videos invented 2000 years ago.)

I am afraid that the proof of events that took place 2-6000 years ago would only have word of mouth passed down through generations and of course the written word on papyrus, stone or walls.

But if you want to leave a positive time capsule for the future, consider leaving the DVD and the player to play it on. This way, there won't be any cynical "Doubting Thomas'" whining that they don't believe anything.

There really was a world taking place before electricity and cameras...honest! You must BELEIVE it!

Answer 6

Sure. The Bible -can- prove itself because it's not just one book, it's a collection of many books, and ones that were written earlier and later. Well, many of the Old Testament books are books of prophecy, and in the New Testament these prophecies come true. Especially the book of Daniel, even scholars agree that this book is authentic prophecy, while they argue about the other ones, Daniel is proven to have been written something like 487 years before. And most of the Bible has been proven true through archeological findings, they are constantly showing that descriptions of kings, and Kingdoms, and who was alive etc. are all accurate according to the Bible. It's pretty self-evident that the Bible is an accurate book, even if you don't believe the miracles that happen.

Answer 7

Gabrielle, what a great question. As a Christian, I doubt the Scriptures, is God there, did Jesus really rise from the dead, etc. These are all normal though, because there are examples within the Bible itself of profound and embarrassing doubt. Thomas was a hands on person. He did not believe his fellow disciples who he had served with for three years when they had told him they saw Jesus alive after his cruxcifics. "I will not believe until I see the holes from the nails in his hands, and the wound in his side" John 20:25 my paraphrase. Also, Peter doubted by denying Christ three times, even though he said he would "die" for Christ. So doubt is normal and is not uncommon for even the deepest faith. I affirm your questions and hope you continue to take into account the evidence from a objectable point of view. God desires a relationship with you and He affirms what you are doing as well because we are not only to love God with our heart, soul, and strength...but our mind as well.
The Bible is a document that is viewed by most Christians as the true and perfect word of God. Catholics, Baptists, Lutherans, Pentecostals, Methodists, etc view it as God's inspired word. Even in the early church, the Old Testement was excepted as authentic by adopting the Septugent version of OT. As far as the New Testement, most of the 27 books were widley excepted by the church as being authentic except for 2 Peter and Rev. They were later affirmed though by a bishop in the 300's and reaffirmed at the Counsel of Florence and Trent in the 1500's. All 27 books have the same general theme, each addressing different things. Over a billion Christians have put their faith in what the Bible says and except the process of how the books were chosen. There are other gospels and books that were written, for example the gospel of Thomas. These were not authentic writeings though, had to do Gnosicism, and were written much later then the other canonical books(Second, Third, and Fourth Centuries vs First Century). The more time that goes by, the more distorted history gets. It would be like me writeing about the Civil War right now and calling that authentic history documentation. It just isn't. The canon, or standard, books of the NT are authentic.
As far as the genuiness of the NT documents and if we have preserved them or not, we have good evidence they are. We have 5300 scribes of Greek, 20,000 scibes in Syriac, Coptics, etc, and many quotes from the NT in other Aposlotic Fathers writeings as well. The OT, or Septuegent, was passed down in two different societies, Samarian and Jewish peoples. They hated each other, but both there documents were practically the same with a few differences. An example of a differences was what city they recognized as their capital. It would be like our history during the Civil War. Which is the capital? Richmond or Washington DC? They had the same thing going on. Even though they had minor differences, the overall history and doctrine is the same. The history was recorded on both sides of our Civil War, and no one doubts either sides history reliablity just because they called things, places of battle, and capital recognition different names. Thus we should not with OT history. It adds to the authenticy of the documents, not take away.
Now that we know doubt is ok, how the books were choosen, and the reliablity of the scripture documents, I want to talk about faith. The Bible is straight foward about this. It says "Faith is being sure of what you hope, and certain of what you do not see." Hebrews 11:1. God gives us alot of imformation on how to have a relationship with him, how to live a fruitful life, and experience fruitful relationships. It is also a leap of faith. There is always doubt, but I would invite you to take a risk with a Guy who loves and wants to be loved. He invites you with open arms. Hope this helps with your question.

Philemon 1:3,
Jonathan

PS A side note to the answer above mine about 1 Kings 7:23. Technically speaking, this should be 31.416 as the answerer points out. I do not doubt their math ability. What I do doubt is that he/she was not there when the measurement was taken. According to a Zondervan Commentary, thirty may be a round number here, or perhaps the measurement was taken a bit below the rim or on the inside circumference. The thing is, there are reasonable explanations for this measurement. This was not as digitally inclined society as we are today. Frankly, I would like more abstractness in our way of life! Thank you for your time :).

Answer 8

i don't comprehend you. Your information is basically some historic information? of path you could discover chariots and ineffective human beings and horses on the backside of any river. of path you will hit upon razed cities everywhere interior the international. yet how did you be able to discover their names? exchange into there a billboard asserting "WELCOME TO SODOM AND GOMORRAH! inhabitants earlier INVOKING GOD'S WRATH: a million,000,000"? No, there exchange into no such concern. No archaeologist who has no schedule to "prepare" that those cities existed could declare them to be this or that. And "the tower of Babel"? the place have you ever been those final century? of path there are ziggurats interior the mesopotamian area; In Iraq, Iran you hit upon some nonetheless status. Bible is a e book that tells historic activities from the slender perspective of a trifling participant of that era: the Hebrews. So does that prepare something? you're speaking approximately Jesus sitting on the main suitable hand of God the father? What has "the tower of Babel" have been given to do with that? in case you prepare human beings a photo of a ziggurat, does that prepare that God the father did so and so? you ought to strengthen your horizon and be greater mature. human beings existed earlier Christianity and that they did good issues and additionally terrible issues and no account of their deeds in a non secular textual content fabric makes that textual content fabric greater actual or much less actual.

Answer 9

The bible is scientifically proven to be true. For example, in Isaiah 40:22 it says: "It is He who sits above the circle of the earth, And its inhabitants are like grasshoppers, Who stretches out the heavens like a curtain And spreads them out like a tent to dwell in." So it was written in the bible many years before people actually discovered that it was round, that the world was round. Also, Job 26:7 says: "He stretches out the North over empty space, and suspends the earth over nothing at all." So Jehovah, God had really inspired these men who wrote the bible to write it. Otherwise, how would the men of those days be able to figure out such complex things by themselves?

Answer 10

She wants to know if it can be proven not only to see if god exists but to know if its at all acurate in historical sense. Like if it is just a bunch of stories can some be proven to be true.

Answer 11

What, the WHOLE Bible? That's not even slightly likely, is it?

On the one hand you have an historical record of some ancient north African savages, which is interesting despite being full of holes.

On the other, you have their mythology, which is mostly just silly.

Overall, it's not a very nice book, but it has some anthropological interest.

CD