Can We Really Trust the Bible?
I hope you love the products and resources I recommend here at Foundational. It is possible that I get a commission and collect income from the links on this page. Click here for more info.
We live in a time when people question almost everything, including the very idea that absolute truth exists, so if I am going to build my life around the Word of God, I believe I need to know why I can trust the Bible in the first place.
I’ve spent many years studying, preaching, teaching, and living by the Scriptures, and I have never found a reason to abandon my confidence in God’s Word; instead, the longer I study it and the more I see its promises fulfilled, the more convinced I become that the Holy Bible is exactly what it claims to be: the infallible Word of God.
The Psalmist wrote, “Forever, O Lord, Your word is settled in heaven.”
That statement gives us a foundation that doesn’t move with culture, political opinion, or changing human philosophy.
God’s Word Is the Absolute Source of Truth
Psalm 138 tells us that God has magnified His Word above His name, while Psalm 119:89 declares that His Word remains settled forever, and Jesus Himself said that those who abide in His Word will know the truth and that the truth will make them free.
I believe those statements matter because we live in a culture that increasingly treats truth as something that each individual can define for himself.
But truth doesn’t work that way.
If something is true, it remains true regardless of who believes it, what culture says about it, or how many people reject it.
That’s why I don’t build my understanding of right and wrong upon whatever happens to be popular at the moment, and I don’t want to build my life upon secular humanistic reasoning or the constantly changing philosophies of men.
I want to know what God has said.
And when God has spoken, I have a foundation upon which I can stand.
The Bible Recorded History Before It Happened
One of the reasons I trust the Bible comes from the remarkable way Scripture records events before they actually occurred.
Consider Cyrus.
Isaiah wrote around 700 BC and specifically named Cyrus as the man God would use, describing what Cyrus would accomplish as a ruler. The remarkable thing is that Cyrus hadn’t even been born when Isaiah wrote those words.
God was speaking about a specific man, calling him by name, and describing events that would take place in his future.
That isn’t something I can dismiss as vague religious language.
Scripture repeatedly gives us examples of God revealing things before they happen, and Daniel provides another remarkable example.
Daniel and the History God Revealed in Advance
In Daniel chapter 2, King Nebuchadnezzar received a dream about a great statue with a head of gold, chest and arms of silver, a middle section of bronze, legs of iron, and feet made of iron mixed with clay.
Daniel gave the interpretation, identifying successive kingdoms represented by the different sections of the statue.
Babylon stood as the head of gold, followed by the Medo-Persian Empire, Greece, and Rome, with the later portion pointing toward a future kingdom.
Think about the span of history involved here.
Daniel received this revelation while Babylon stood as a dominant world power, yet Scripture described kingdoms that would rise after Babylon and continue to shape history for centuries.
The Medo-Persian Empire eventually conquered Babylon, Greece conquered the Persian Empire around 330 BC, and Rome eventually conquered Greece around 146 BC.
God was revealing history before it happened.
And that’s one reason I believe the Bible isn’t simply the product of human imagination.
God knows the beginning from the end.
Jesus Christ Fulfilled the Prophecies
The strongest example of fulfilled prophecy centers around Jesus Christ.
The Old Testament contains numerous prophecies concerning the coming Messiah, including details concerning His birth, His ministry, His betrayal, His death, and His resurrection.
The Scriptures foretold that He would be born in Bethlehem, that a virgin would conceive, that He would spend time in Egypt and later live in Nazareth, that He would perform signs and wonders, that He would be betrayed for thirty pieces of silver, that He would be crucified, that none of His bones would be broken, and that He would rise from the dead.
When I look at the life of Jesus Christ in light of those prophecies, I don’t see a collection of random coincidences.
I see the unfolding of what God had already declared.
I’ve heard the mathematical illustration concerning the probability of one person fulfilling just eight specific prophecies, and the number given was one chance in 10 to the 17th power, or one in 100 quadrillion.
The illustration used to explain that number involved covering the entire state of Texas with quarters two feet deep, marking one quarter, blindfolding a person, and asking him to find that specific quarter on his first attempt.
Even that only addresses eight prophecies.
The podcast points out that Jesus fulfilled hundreds of Old Testament prophecies, and that reality gives us another powerful reason to trust the Bible.
The Dead Sea Scrolls Confirm the Preservation of Scripture
Then we have the discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls.
In 1948, young Bedouin boys discovered ancient scrolls in caves near Qumran, and archaeologists eventually uncovered hundreds of manuscripts and fragments from the area.
Among those discoveries was a complete scroll of Isaiah.
That matters because the Isaiah scroll predated the birth of Jesus Christ by more than a century and was approximately 2,100 years old when scholars examined it.
What amazed scholars was how closely that ancient Isaiah manuscript corresponded with the Hebrew text that had been preserved and transmitted through the centuries.
Apart from differences involving spelling and punctuation, the text corresponded remarkably closely with the book of Isaiah we have today.
When I think about that, I’m reminded again that God’s Word has endured.
People have questioned Scripture.
People have attacked Scripture.
People have tried to eliminate Scripture.
Yet generation after generation has continued to receive the Word of God.
God Keeps His Promises
There is another reason I trust the Bible that doesn’t simply involve historical evidence or fulfilled prophecy.
God keeps His promises.
1 John 1:9 tells us that when we confess our sins, God is faithful and just to forgive us and cleanse us from unrighteousness.
That isn’t merely a theological statement to me.
I’ve experienced the faithfulness of God in my own life, and I’ve heard countless testimonies from people who have experienced His forgiveness, His deliverance, His provision, and His healing.
The Bible makes promises concerning God’s willingness to forgive, restore, strengthen, and respond to those who seek Him, and I’ve watched those promises become reality in people’s lives over and over again.
God doesn’t make promises He cannot keep.
He is a promise-keeping God.
I’ve Experienced God’s Faithfulness Personally
I’m not telling you that I trust God’s Word simply because I’ve read about other people’s experiences.
I’ve experienced His faithfulness myself.
When I was 20 years old, doctors diagnosed me with an incurable disease, and they told me that I would eventually become an invalid and reach a point where I would no longer be able to walk.
I was a young man with a wedding coming up, and instead of accepting that diagnosis as the final word concerning my future, I cried out to God.
I was prayed for, and I was instantly healed.
I still have the medical documentation and X-rays from that time, and that happened back in 1970.
Now, decades later, I’m still walking in that healing.
I don’t tell that story because my experience somehow proves the Bible.
I tell it because I have personally experienced the faithfulness of the God who gave us the Scriptures, and my own testimony has reinforced my confidence in what His Word says.
The Bible Is More Than an Ancient Book
When I put all of this together, I don’t see the Bible as simply an ancient religious document that has survived because people happened to preserve it.
I see the Word of God as living and powerful, exactly as Hebrews 4 describes it.
It speaks to every generation.
It addresses every culture.
It reveals God’s character and His purposes.
It tells us where we came from, why we are here, how God wants us to live, what went wrong with humanity, and what God has done through Jesus Christ to bring us back into relationship with Him.
That is why Psalm 1 describes the person who delights in God’s Word and meditates upon it day and night as a tree planted by rivers of water, bringing forth fruit in its season.
God’s Word doesn’t simply give us something to believe.
It gives us something upon which to build our lives.
You Can Trust God’s Word
I’ve spent a lifetime watching people put their confidence in things that eventually changed, including political systems, philosophies, cultural ideas, human leaders, and their own understanding, but the Word of God has remained constant through all of it.
That’s why I can tell you with confidence that you can trust the Bible.
You can trust it when you’re trying to understand truth.
You can trust it when you’re making decisions.
You can trust it when you’re facing uncertainty.
You can trust its promises when you’re walking through difficulty.
You can trust it when the culture around you tells you something completely different.
Jesus said, “If you abide in My word, you are My disciples indeed, and you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.”
So don’t simply keep a Bible on your shelf and call yourself a Christian.
Open it.
Read it.
Study it.
Meditate upon it.
Believe it.
And then build your life upon it.
God’s Word is infallible, God’s Word is trustworthy, and God’s Word will endure forever.
