How Do I Know If the Bible Is True?

Maybe you've started to get curious about the Bible. I've seen so many people on social media talking about their curiosity. I've noticed guys like Wes Huff debunking a number of common myths. Because what a lot of people don't know, or they are finding out, is that the Bible stands on a lot of credible proof for its authenticity.

There is good reason to trust the Bible

One of the most common assumptions people make is that modern archaeology and scholarship have discredited the Bible. In reality, it's the opposite. The Bible has withstood 2,000 years of scrutiny - more than any other ancient book - and has only strengthened under the research.

Time after time, archaeological discoveries have confirmed people, places, and events that critics once dismissed as legendary or invented. Josh McDowell wrote a 2 book series covering many of these.

For example, people argued there was no evidence that King David ever existed. Then, archaeologists discovered an ancient stone inscription that mentioned the "House of David." It was the first mention of David ever found outside of the Bible.

The pool of Siloam, mentioned in John 9, was long dismissed as symbolic. Then archeologists found it. Also, the existence of Pontius Pilate who ordered Jesus's crucifixion was once questioned by critics. But, a stone inscription bearing his name and title was later found by archeologists.

There are a number of others, such as the confirmation of the Hitites, and many others. None of this proves every word of the Bible is true. But it does establish something important: the Bible is not a collection of fairy tales written in isolation. It is grounded in real history and talks about real people.

The manuscript evidence is very strong

Here's something most people don't know: we have far more manuscript evidence for the New Testament than for any other document from the ancient world.

We have over 5,000 Greek manuscripts of the New Testament, with thousands more in Latin, Syriac, Coptic, and other languages. The earliest fragments are from the first and second century. Most of time we only have a few dozen or hundreds of ancient manuscripts. These were widely circulated and existed only a short time after Jesus's death. By comparison biographies of Alexander the Great weren't written until over a hundred years later. Having a large number of copies so early make it virtually impossible for the story to corrupted. It also means that many people very early on found the books of the New Testament to be reliable. Conversely, books that were doubtful in authenticity, such as the Gospel of Thomas, were not widely copied.

Nobody questions whether we have reliable texts of Homer or Alexander the Great. The New Testament manuscript tradition is even more solid. Scholars have compared thousands of manuscripts and are highly confident that we know what the original authors wrote. The transmission is extraordinarily reliable. There's a whole academic discipline called textual criticism that is used to objectively assess ancient documents. the Bible has long been scrutinized for errors and it comes out stronger than any other ancient work.

The accounts of eye witnesses

The New Testament documents were written within the lifetimes of people who witnessed the events they describe. Paul's first letter to the Corinthians was written around 55 AD. It includes a list of eyewitnesses to the resurrection of Jesus, including a group of over five hundred people. Paul says, "most of whom are still alive." That's not the kind of claim you make if you're trying to build a legend. That's the kind of claim you make when you believe the evidence can withstand scrutiny. If I were going to make up a myth, I wouldn't choose 9/11 when so many people who witnessed it were still alive. Same for the Gospel accounts of Jesus.

The Gospels themselves contain the kind of specific, incidental detail — names, locations, cultural customs, and geography. These aren't consistent with fairy tales. They read more like historical accounts. They also contain details that are embarrassing or counterintuitive, like women being the first witnesses to the resurrection at a time when women's testimony was not legally accepted in the Roman world. If you were inventing a story, you wouldn't invent it that way. You'd pick more credible witnesses. The fact that the accounts include these awkward details is actually one of the signs they're recording what actually happened.

What about contradictions and difficult passages?

It's important to know that this often gets overstated and sensationalized by television documentaries. I've watched a few - one showed all the footnotes in the Bible while talking about all the inaccuracies. But, those footnotes in the video were cross reference notes. Some Bibles list out other verses in the Bible that are either being quoted from or talk about similar subject matters. It's helpful for reference and study.

That said, the Bible does contain passages that are difficult, confusing, or that seem to conflict with each other on the surface. Anyone who has read it carefully knows this. It's a library of 66 books spanning over a 1,000 years in writings. It's also in multiple languages, written by dozens of authors and includes poetry, history, law, prophecy, and letters.

The right response to a difficult passage is curiosity, not dismissal. And there are scholars and pastors who have spent lifetimes engaging these questions. Many study the original languages and Ancient Near Eastern studies to understand some of the cultural nuances in story telling. One thing we know - the Bible has small typographical errors but they don't change the overarching message.

Many wonder if the catholic church changed the Bible during Medieval times. But remember - since so many copies of the Bible existed within the first few centuries, it would be impossible to change the Bible without it being noticed. The ancient fragments and copies would reveal this.

Why are you asking this question?

There's usually something underneath your question about the Bible. Maybe it's a longing that the story might actually be true. A fear that it might demand something of you. A cynicism because you've been hurt in the past.

The Bible itself has a lot to say to the skeptic, the doubter, the searcher. Jesus, in the Gospels, never rebuked people for asking hard questions. He rebuked pride, self-righteousness, and indifference. But the person who came with genuine questions — he had time for those people. He still does.

I'll pause there to say any good and healthy church will welcome honest questions. The Bible and Christianity has already faced any of the questions you can think up. Good pastors will have a solid understanding from the academic reliability and can serve as helpful resources for your questions. If your in the Fort Mill or surrounding York county area, visit One Hope where we welcome questions and dialogue. We're a healthy church that loves coming beside people in their journey. After all, we've had questions too.

Tips for helping you

If you're genuinely wrestling with whether the Bible is trustworthy, here are a few honest suggestions:

• Read it yourself. Start with the Gospel of John or Gospel of Mark. Give it a fair reading.

• Engage with the best arguments on both sides. There are serious scholars who have wrestled deep questions. Take a look at people like N.T. Wright, Tim Keller, or C.S. Lewis, who was himself a former atheist and came to faith through careful intellectual inquiry. The case for the Bible's reliability isn't made only by people who were raised to believe it.

• Find a community where your questions are welcome. This matters more than people think. Studying a text in isolation is one thing. Exploring it alongside people who take it seriously — and who won't shame you for your doubts — is another thing entirely. A good healthy church is a good place to start. Talk to the pastor, he'll give you a good sense of the church culture and whether they welcome questions. If they are a good church they will.

  
  

You're welcome to bring your questions here

At One Hope Community Church in Fort Mill, SC, we take the Bible seriously — and we take questions seriously too.

Our Sunday services are built around expository preaching, which means we work through books of the Bible, in context, honestly. We try not to pretend the hard passages aren't there. We try to teach with clarity and humility, and we try to create a space where someone who's still figuring out what they believe can sit in the back row, listen, and not feel like they have to perform a faith they don't yet have.

If you're in the Fort Mill, Baxter Village, Tega Cay, or Indian Land area — or anywhere in York County — we'd genuinely love to have you join us.

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No experience required. No pressure. Just come as you are.

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