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How Do We Know That the Bible is the Bible? (Part 1)
How do we know that the Bible is the Bible? By that I mean, how do we know that the 66 books that we call “The Bible” are really the 66 books that God wanted us to have, know, and believe? How do we know that no part of God’s inspired, inerrant Word has been left out, lost, or forgotten? How do we know that nothing extra, no human law or tradition, has mistakenly been added in?
Sometimes, people are tempted to answer those questions by ignoring them. “Just believe,” seems to be a common response. And while it’s true that Jesus commends childlike faith, it’s also important to know and understand what we believe, so that we may always be ready “to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have” (1 Peter 3:15).
Another common answer is to defer to a higher authority, like the Church or our pastor or to scholars and historians. That’s an incomplete answer, too. The Church, the communion of believers in the true saving God, has been around longer than the Bible. But does that mean that the Church is somehow responsible for the Bible, or that it had a hand in making the Bible? Absolutely not.
The Bible is God’s gift to the Church, not a man-made document created by, with, or in the Church. The Bible is God’s Word to man, not man’s word about God. No Church committee “decided” what books would be in the Bible. No Church tradition establishes the authority of Scripture. No Church council determined the “table of contents” of the Bible. The authority and the contents of Scripture come from God alone, thorough the inspiration of the Holy Spirit and the revelation of Jesus Christ, the Word of God incarnate.
The Bible is God’s gift to the Church. But that does not mean that the Bible dropped out of heaven, bound in burgundy calfskin complete with study notes, cross-references, and eight full-color maps. Like many of God’s gifts, the Bible came to us through means. Through the agency and activity of human beings, over centuries, God gradually brought into being the collection of inspired writings that we call the Bible.
This study is going to look at is the question of how the Church came to recognize the various parts of the Bible for what they really are ― the Word of God. By God’s grace, when we reach the end, we will have a greater understanding of how we know that the Bible is the Bible.
The Bible: Inspired, Authoritative, and Self-Authenticating
Before we directly tackle the issue of the contents of the Bible, let’s take a look at the claims that the Bible makes for itself. We call these claims the “internal evidence” for the Bible.
The Bible claims to be God’s Word. Over and over in the Old Testament we hear the prophets say, “This is what the Lord says.” In the New Testament, Paul points out that he and the other apostles spoke “not in words taught by human wisdom but in words taught by the Spirit” (1 Corinthians 2:13). This is no ordinary book, full of helpful advice or interesting stories from a fellow human being. This is a book that claims to be the words and thoughts of the creator of the universe.
And how, exactly, does the Bible explain the process by which God’s Words came to human beings? One word that we use to attempt to describe this process is “inspiration” ― literally, a “breathing-in” ― which refers to the phrase that Paul uses when he says that “all Scripture is God-breathed” (2 Timothy 3:16). Peter tells us more about the writing process: “Men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit” (2 Peter 1:21). As we consider these passages, and others, we see that the Bible is claiming to be God’s Word written by human beings in a special way.
Because they claim to be the actual words of God, the words of the Bible also claim to carry divine authority. Jesus says that his words are “Spirit and Life” (John 6:63) and that God’s word is “Truth” (John 17:17). The book of Hebrews tells us, “the word of God is living and active” (Hebrews 4:12). Paul wrote that the Gospel, the good news about Jesus, is the “power of God” (Romans 1:16). Truly, the words of Scripture have “authority” (Matthew 7:29).
But do the claims that Scripture makes about itself prove anything? Yes and no. No, in the sense that human logic and reason will never be satisfied with a “self-authenticating” Bible. The argument seems too circular. It’s like defining a word with itself, or the old parental standby “I told you so, and I’m the dad.”
But yes, in the sense that the authority with which Scripture speaks is the authority of God himself, and there is no higher authority by which to swear. In Genesis 22, and in other places in the Bible, God makes a claim and then swears by himself, because there is no higher authority to make appeal. It’s a circular argument, yes, but not one that has us chasing our own human tails. It’s a circular argument that comes from God and leads us back to God as well.
Do the claims that Scripture makes about itself prove anything? Yes, because in the words of Scripture we have the claims of God himself, who is Faithful and True (Revelation 19:11). To a Christian, the fact that the Bible claims to be the Word of God means that it is the Word of God. The fact that the Bible claims inspiration proves that it is inspired. Because God is who he says he is, the Bible is true. Because the Bible is true, God is who he says he is.
There is another testimony that also bears witness to the truth of Scripture. It is the testimony of the Holy Spirit, given by faith. When God’s Word speaks to a person, the power of God in the Gospel convinces the heart that its claims are true. Jesus said, “If anyone chooses to do God's will, he will find out whether my teaching comes from God or whether I speak on my own” (John 7:17).
The only way to know if a cup of coffee tastes good is to taste the coffee. The only way to ultimately know whether God is speaking the truth or not is to listen to his Word and to trust him. As God speaks to us in the Bible, he also gives us faith to accept his Word as Truth. There is no satisfactory logical proof for these claims; trust in the Bible is ultimately a matter of God-given faith.
The testimony of the ancient Church and the various historical facts that will be discussed in this series provide a rational and empirical basis for a “human” assurance concerning the Bible. But the ultimate and most conclusive answer to the question, “How do we know the Bible is the Bible?” is the witness of the Holy Spirit speaking through the words of the Holy Scriptures themselves, and the authority of Jesus Christ, who is the Word of God incarnate.
Yes, belief in the Bible is a “matter of faith,” but that should not cause us to worry or be ashamed of our “circular logic” ― on the contrary, we can rejoice in the sure and certain promises of our God. Luther said that “no reason is so firm that it cannot again be overthrown by reason.” Human reason is shaky ground. God-given faith, on the other hand, is being “sure of what we hope for, and certain of what we do not see” (Hebrews 11:1).
The next devotion will cover the books of the Old Testament.
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