The Bible Is True Because the Bible Says It's True?

The Bible as Self-Affirming Scripture

How can we know that the Bible really is God's Word and that what it says is true? Well, first of all, because the Bible says so. Whoa! Hold the phone! The Bible is true because the Bible says it's true?

That's a circular argument! Listen, it's perfectly reasonable. If we said the Bible was something the Bible didn't say, that would be a problem, wouldn't it? But even on its own, the reasoning isn't circular.

The Bible is self-affirming. We use history to examine history, right? Well, like the Bereans in Acts 17 .11, we can use Scripture to affirm Scripture. The Bible is a compilation of 66 books written in a span of over 1500 years by 40 different writers from different walks of life on 3 different continents in 3 different languages.

And yet it consistently tells the same story, with God as its author. Its writers were not aspiring to write canon, they wrote what God told them to. The Bible reveals the fallenness of man and our need for redemption and the holiness of God and His plan of redemption.

Why the Bible Bears the Marks of Divine Authorship

That's exactly the kind of book you'd expect God to write. We know that the Bible is true because the Bible says it is. Because Jesus says it is. Because history affirms it. Because its prophecies have come true.

Because it's logically consistent. Because what it says we will experience, we experience. And because it has stood the test of time. The Apostle John said that the Spirit of God bears witness to the truth and it is greater than any witness of man.

Why the Bible Can Be Trusted in Practice

There are things that may affirm the Bible outside the text, but the Bible affirms itself just fine when we understand the text. Amen.