With the fading of nominal Christianity in the West, it’s easy for us Brits to forget that Christianity is growing rapidly around the world. A large percentage of the human race believe the Bible is our Creator’s word for us today.

But is it reasonable to believe what the Bible teaches? Can one religion be right and all other beliefs be wrong? Hasn’t “science” proven the Bible wrong?

Has Science Got Rid of God?

The Scientific Method determines whether something is factually true by observing and testing the evidence repeatedly. That means science can only really test the physical universe as it exists in the present. As the Bible’s teaching is based on history and teaches about spiritual realities, Science can’t really prove or disprove the Bible.

There are many, many scientists out there who firmly believe that the Bible makes sense of the world around us (here’s a list of some modern-day scientists who reject evolution – many of them are Christians). Of course, that doesn’t prove the Bible is true but it does disprove the common assumption that “no scientist believes the Bible”.

Furthermore, scientists can and do make mistakes. Sometimes what they teach as facts today they’ll have to admit they got wrong tomorrow. If your view of life is based only on what you’ve been told by a scientist, you could end up having to change your mind.

Why Believe?

We should believe the Bible because it’s a reliable collection of historical documents, written by eyewitnesses during the lifetime of other eyewitnesses. They report supernatural events. These events took place in fulfilment of specific prophecies. They claim that their writings are divine rather than human in origin. (2 Peter chapter 1 verses 16-21; 1 John chapter 1 verses 1-4; 1 Corinthians chapter 15 verses 1-8)

The Bible is a reliable collection of historical documents

Written over 1600 years, in 3 languages, by more than 30 authors from a variety of walks of life, from 3 continents. A book like this, claiming to be historically true (2 Peter chapter 1 verse 16), can be checked and tested. Many, many people have tested the Bible and it has stood up to their scrutiny (see links below).

…written by eyewitnesses…

Who wrote the Bible? People who were there and saw what they wrote about (2 Peter chapter 1 verse 16; 1 John chapter 1 verse 1-3). It wasn’t something they’d just picked up from someone else and might have got muddled up.

What Paul, Peter, John, and Luke (along with many of the Old Testament writers) claimed they’d seen and heard got them into real trouble! It was because they claimed that Jesus was God and had risen from the dead that Paul and Peter were put to death. So why would they make it up?

…written during the lifetime of other eyewitnesses

Most of the events recorded in the Bible didn’t happen in a corner. When Paul writes about the resurrection of Jesus in 1 Corinthians chapter 15 verse 1-8, there were over 500 other people who had seen Jesus alive after he died, most of whom were still alive when Paul was writing. 

So if the events recorded in the Bible didn’t happen, there would be so many people who knew it wasn’t true, the lie would have died out pretty quickly.

But can we be sure the Bible hasn’t been changed?

Yes, we can. For example, we’ve discovered more than 6,000 manuscripts (some estimates say over 20,000!) of parts of the New Testament, dating back to within 30-40 years of the life of Paul. We can compare all these manuscripts to check that nothing has been changed.

To change what the New Testament says without anyone knowing, you’d have to search 3 continents to find all 6,000 documents, painstakingly change the text (you’d need to know several ancient languages), and put them all carefully back where you found them in such a way that archaeologists couldn’t tell they had ever been disturbed.

…Also the early church made commentaries referencing the New Testament. So you’d need to find and change all those too!

They report supernatural events.

The message of the Bible is backed up by miraculous events that only God could do. These events were done through the people who claimed to be God’s messengers.

For example, they heard the voice of God speaking from heaven. Both in the New and Old Testaments we see people being healed miraculously. Remember how Jesus walked on the surface of a stormy lake? And then there is the death and resurrection of Jesus. Hundreds of people, including the writers of the New Testament, claimed to have seen him alive after they’d seen Him die.

These events took place in fulfilment of specific prophecies

There are hundreds of them, but here are just a few examples.

Isaiah chapter 44 verse 28: Isaiah predicts the reign and name of the Persian king, Cyrus – 200 years before his birth!

Micah chapter 5 verse 2: predicts that the Messiah would be born in Bethlehem – 600 years before Jesus was born in that very town.

Psalm chapter 22: Jesus quotes the opening words while dying on the cross. The rest of the psalm describes his experience on the cross in detail. Crucifixion hadn’t been invented when this psalm was written!

What’s the point? The ultimate source of the Bible must be someone who knows the future.

They claim that their writings are divine in origin.

Often people will say “I can’t believe the Bible – it was written by men.” If we dismiss information as unreliable simply because it has been written down and passed onto us by another person, there would be virtually nothing we could ever believe!

Over and over again, the Bible’s authors claim to be speaking for God. Yes, men wrote the Bible but they claimed that they were writing God’s Word. Looking at all the other reasons to believe the Bible, surely we need to take this claim seriously?

The Bible is Real. We need to get real.

The Bible really is the Word of God. There’s more than enough evidence. Perhaps the real reason we might choose not to believe the Bible is because we just don’t want to?

Whether we want to believe it or not, that doesn’t change reality. What the Bible says about Heaven, Hell, the past, the future, God and mankind is true for you today. Do you know what it teaches? Do you know you’re forgiven for all your sin? Are you trusting in the finished work of the Lord Jesus for your future in this life and the next?

Further Study:

We’ve only scratched the surface of all the reasons why we can be sure the Bible really is the Word of God. If you want to explore this topic more, here are some online resources to get you started.

Look up these videos on YouTube:

• Check This Out: The Nature of Science
• Evidence for the Bible (with Brian Edwards)
• Luke the Historian with Brian Edwards
• The British Museum, A Biblical Tour with Ian Cooper

Are you a reader? Here are some articles for you:

• Seven Compelling Evidences Confirm the Bible Is True
• How Do We Know the Bible Is True?
• Is the Bible True?
• If the Bible Is Wrong, I’m So, So Wrong
• The Authority of the Bible

This article was inspired by Voddie Baucham’s talk Why I Choose to Believe the Bible, available to watch on YouTube.

Your thoughts are welcome! Please feel free to leave some feedback, questions or even disagreements.