Section II – Bible Authority…Can It Be Proven?
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The Bible is the most popular book ever written. But is it mere superstition—the uninspired work of men? Or is it simply Hebrew and Greek literature—perhaps only useful as a history book? This book of three-quarters of a million words purports to be the Word of God. Must its authenticity be accepted on faith? Can its divine authority be demonstrated? Here is proof of the Bible!
The Bible has been called the Book of books and we saw has long held the title of world’s best seller. Most people have one—and the “family Bible” is a cherished possession in many households. The family Bible on my mother’s side dates to the mid-to-late 1700s, but, sadly, those who used it, at least in recent generations, primarily did so for the purpose of recording weddings, births, deaths and family genealogy.
Why does this book remain an almost complete mystery to so many—again, with few even professing to understand it? And why is it that most Bibles are used as a showpiece, lying unopened, gathering dust? Many actively try to discredit the Bible, while others treat it with passive indifference. Still others hold it in awe—believing “on faith” that it is divinely inspired. They seem to require no proof of this, yet lack the necessary conviction to truly believe and practice its words in times of great stress and personal trial.
But can one actually prove the Bible? This is a huge question! Just as most never seek to prove the existence of God, most never concern themselves with proving the authority of the Bible. They either have no interest in such proof or they assume there is none—that facts and evidence of its authority do not exist!
What about you? Have you taken the time to seek actual, tangible proof of the Bible’s authority? As with the existence of God, have you been taught that you must accept it “on faith”? Most people are never challenged to find real proof that the Bible is the inspired record of a Supreme Being. Circumstances rarely force people to undertake such a task. This is probably the single biggest reason that most never do. While I regularly “went to church” when growing up, I was never required, nor felt compelled, to prove either that God exists or that He authored the Bible. Nor was any proof of these ever given or offered to me! And not one person ever suggested to me that I should even be concerned with proving the answers to these two looming questions.
Stop and think for a moment! Let’s apply basic logic.
What kind of God would write an Instruction Book about how to live, command that it be followed as His Word and then offer no proof that it is? It insults whoever is God to even believe Him capable of such inconsistency—and unfairness! On what basis would He—or even could He—require obedience to such an Instruction Book, if He left no proof that it was authentic?
The apostle Paul wrote in the Bible, speaking on behalf of the One who claims to have authored it, “Prove all things; hold fast that which is good” (I Thess. 5:21). If God wrote the Bible, and He tells you to “Prove all things,” then surely He would not make proof of His authorship of the Bible an exception. It states, “ALL things.” In other words, would God require you to prove what the Bible teaches about all other points of doctrine or practice, but not expect you to prove whether an all-powerful God stands behind its authorship, requiring you to then obey it—to adhere to its teachings? What sense would that make? God would never exempt from the need for proof (thus making them towering exceptions to this command) the questions of His own existence and His authorship of the Bible!
We must take this instruction at face value. If God says to “Prove all things,” and also, “Prove Me now herewith…” (Mal. 3:10), then He means it. And if God did not make the answers to these questions provable, He is setting Himself up to be discredited. On the other hand, if the Bible is the inspired Word of a great living God, then it is the standard by which you will be judged. And dare you delay any longer the process of proving its all-important authority in your life?
Most spend their entire lives worried about what people think and say. Few concern themselves with what God thinks or says. Be honest and consider yourself. How much time have you spent trying to prove either the existence of God or that the Bible is His Word?
So then, the answer to both of these questions is that they can be proven. And you will notice, as we summarize the first great proof of the Bible, that it is also inseparable from proof that God exists. In fact, each different proof that the Bible is the Word of God is also its own proof there IS a God!