How Do You Know The Bible is True?

Apologia Studios

Subscribe

Download

Share

00

00:00

First and foremost, how do we know that the Bible is true? They started deep. So how do we know that the

00:05

Bible is even true? That's really good. So a lot of times, people will approach the issue of the truth of the

00:12

Bible in, well, a couple different ways. So you might have an epistemology, but don't let the word throw you, especially if you're young and it's true, and you're like,

00:22

I have no idea what that means. All it means is this. The epistemology is a theory of knowledge. How do you know?

00:28

That's the question. How do you know the Bible is true? How do you know anything is true?

00:35

And so it's a question of how do you know? So people in college classes on Monday are gonna have classes on epistemology.

00:43

How do we know? And a lot of times, people will say this. Well, we know things based upon reason, right?

00:48

Logic. Is it logical? Is it reasonable? So if it's consistent with logic, then that's how you know that it's true.

00:55

Some people are empiricists. They believe that you know things based upon observation.

01:01

So what would that look like? Well, you know it based upon testing it, observation. I've experienced it.

01:07

I've seen it in front of me. Scientific experimentation, right? And some people might say, well, you know things based upon personal experience and pragmatism.

01:19

Did it work? Does it feel good to you? Does it go with your experience? That's how you know.

01:25

It worked. Okay? Some people might go along with, well, we know because there's some supreme authority that tells us.

01:34

So you might have, say, a Roman Catholic view of knowledge and truth that says, well, the church ultimately is the source of how you know.

01:42

The church tells you. That's how you know. Or you can have what's called a revelational epistemology.

01:49

You know because of revelation, God has spoken. So some people might say this. Well, we know the

01:56

Bible is true because there's all these evidences that we stack up that seem to show that it's most probable that God exists and the

02:04

Bible is God's revelation. I actually take a different perspective. I say, yes, those evidences are true.

02:11

Jesus did rise from the dead. That's an historical fact that you can show. There is such a thing as irreducible complexity in life that all of life gets irreducibly complex.

02:21

In other words, when you go out to the farthest reaches of the universe all the way down to the smallest cell in the body, when you go down to DNA, you see irreducible complexity.

02:32

You see language in our DNA. Language, data, information in the human

02:38

DNA that shows that there is actually spoken word in your bottom substance.

02:45

What makes you you is language, the language of life.

02:50

God spoke you into existence. I believe all those evidences are true and valid, but here's what's important to note.

02:59

The Bible comes with God's own self -attesting authority. What I would say is this, is that we can know the

03:08

Bible is true by the impossibility of the contrary.

03:14

In other words, if you don't start with God's revelation, if you don't start with God as your reference point, then you can't know anything at all, nothing.

03:28

I'll give you an example of this. Remember I told you there is the myth of what? Say it loud, guys. You can talk to me, come on now, you can talk now.

03:35

The myth of neutrality. Nobody is neutral. Christians are not supposed to be, and the unbeliever, according to God, is not neutral, knows

03:44

God, and rebels against God. Now capture this for a moment now, watch this. The unbeliever also has a worldview, don't they?

03:51

What is it? Say the atheist, say the hostile atheist. What do they believe about our origins? Evolution, right?

03:57

That we evolved from lower species to up to where we're at now, fish to philosophers.

04:02

They have a worldview, right? You have a worldview, they have a worldview. Now they're asking questions like, is it true?

04:11

Well, if you don't start with God, whether or not something is true is meaningless. You can't get truth out of an evolutionary worldview because, let's start with the bottom.

04:21

The unbeliever that's talking to you right now, saying things like, is the Bible true, is acting like it even matters in a world that is just protoplasm bobbing around, that something is actually true.

04:36

Think for a moment about this. The unbeliever has a brain in this skull right here, right?

04:42

And they believe that in that skull is a brain that is fizzing chemicals, right?

04:48

And they believe that their thoughts right now are the results of chemicals fizzing in their brain, right?

04:54

So you've got the Christian and the unbeliever arguing over whether the Bible is true. Well, if the unbeliever believes their system, then that means they believe that their thoughts in that moment in their speech is the result of just brain gas.

05:11

So if you start from their perspective, they have no basis for logic, they have no basis for truth, they can't help saying what they're saying right now because they're just fizzing chemically.

05:23

If you don't start with God, you have no basis for logic, no basis for science, the uniformity in nature, no basis for ethics.

05:31

Let me get to the bottom right here. Someone says, how do you know this book is true? Here's what I say, because apart from it, you can't make sense of truth.

05:38

Apart from it, you can't know anything. Apart from it, you're reduced to absurdity. For example, if we don't start with God's revelation and what

05:47

God says about us in this moment as we ask these questions, then is it against the rules for me to win the argument by beating you?

06:03

As in physically? Think for a moment now, if we take the unbeliever's worldview and a

06:10

Christian, and we put a Christian and an unbeliever in a fight, they're in it now, they're in a fight, right? What's to stop me from winning the argument by putting you in a rear naked choke?

06:25

Not literally naked, you know what a rear naked choke is, right? I don't want you guys to get the wrong images here.

06:31

Rear naked choke is a martial arts move, right? There's no actual nakedness, okay? It's just called a rear naked choke because it's just a choke, okay?

06:40

But watch this, the unbeliever has no basis to complain if you say, well,

06:46

I'm gonna win the debate right now by choking you out. Are there rules?

06:53

Are there rules in seeking truth? Is there such a thing as integrity? Watch this for a moment now.

06:59

You've got a Christian arguing over truth and an unbeliever arguing over truth, right? What's the Christian belief about reality?

07:05

We're in the image of God, God is truth, we're commanded not to lie, we're commanded to love one another, you guys with me, right?

07:12

What's the unbeliever's position? They believe that all of our ancestors were just bacteria.

07:18

We've evolved in a meaningless purposeless soup to where we're at today. There are no absolute standards of ethics.

07:25

There's no ought, there's no should be, there's just what is. And the unbeliever demands that you hold to universal laws of logic and you tell the truth when you're arguing about God.

07:42

Isn't it amazing that when the unbeliever debates you, they have to secretly step off of their worldview and sneak into yours to gather things that only make sense in your worldview in order to argue against God?

07:55

Cornelius Van Til, who I think arguably is one of the greatest philosophers in the history of the Christian church, said this, the unbeliever is like a small child who smacks their father in the face.

08:10

The child is dependent upon their father to hold them in his lap in order to reach.

08:19

So when the unbeliever says, how do I know that Bible's true? What I say is, well, we can do the evidences and look at history and all those things, all those things really are amazing and glorious.

08:31

But the truth is, fundamentally, if you don't start your knowledge and your seeking truth with God's revelation, you're reduced to a fool.

08:41

You're reduced to absurdity. You can't make sense of science, logic, or truth at all.

08:48

So I'm gonna say this, when someone says, how do I know the Bible is true? I would say this, if you don't start with God, you can't know anything at all.