How do I Know the Bible is True?

This months devotional comes from Bro David Kidd from Heritage Baptist Church in Palmyra, N.Y. 

A simple question that stumps many Christians is, How do you know the Bible is true?  Answers like, Because it is the Word of God, or, Because it is without error, or, Because it has endured thousands of years, are not adequate.  Such arguments are circular reasoning, or appeals to authority, both of which are logical fallacies.  Here are a few good reasons how we know the Bible is true which do not just appeal to the Bible as evidence of its own truthfulness.  

1) Archaeological evidence:  24,000 archaeological discoveries that relate to people, places or events in the Bible have been uncovered. None of them are inconsistent with what the Bible says and all corroborate the biblical record.   

2) Historical context: The Bible contains actual histories of real people and places and is even  used by unbelieving scholars as a reference to historical, geographical, political and cultural elements of the time.  Historians and archaeologists look for something like the ark of the covenant because it is part of the history of a real group of people and their past. 

3) Prophetic accuracy: Read the prophecy against Tyre (Tyrus) in Ezekiel 26 then read or watch a YouTube video on the destruction of Tyre. Written around 560 BC, Ezekiel describes how the city and its island fortress would be destroyed. Babylon destroyed the mainland city about 580 BC, and Alexander the Great conquered the island fortress in 332 BC, a feat deemed impossible at the time but done exactly the way Ezekiel predicted hundreds of years earlier.

4) Modern parallels: The crossing of the Red Sea has no exact modern parallel, but some things come very close. In September of 2004, hurricane Isabel slammed the North Carolina coast. Powerful winds blew the waters of the Pamlico sound so far back that it piled up and made it possible to walk where there had been water a few hours before. Exodus 14:21 says, “…the Lord cause the sea to go back by a strong east wind all that night, and made the sea dry land…”

5)  Internal consistency:  The Bible was written by 40 authors over a period of 1500 years on three continents, yet it is  unsurpassed in its consistency, credibility, and its historical and scientific accuracy.  

All these together offer more than just theological statements but logical and irrefutable evidence of the Bible’s truthfulness. And that is why we know the Bible is true.