Why do you (as a Christian) believe in Bible?

1.       Why do you (as a Christian) believe in Bible?

2.       Because it is true.

3.       How do you know it is true?

4.       Let me ask you: As a police or lawyer, how do you know whether a person is telling the truth?

5.       I think first of all, I should take note on every word/sentence claims by that person whether they are conflicting with one another or they are logically sound. Then later, I can also check with other people to know more about this person whether his words can be trusted. From other people and other evidences, I need to evaluate whether they are leading me to agreeing with what that person has said. If the person mentioned something or somewhere, we also need to examine whether the object or place is what has been described.

6.       Yes reasonably we would do the things that you have said to test whether the person is telling the truth. This is also pretty much what a lawyer or historian does. In order to be more focused on the central theme/figure of the Bible, you might want to ask how do we know the accounts of Jesus in the Bible are true.

Historians’ criteria:

      a)      Independent sources: Roman and Greek writings (Examples: Thallos, Mara bar Serapion, Tacitus, Pliny the Younger, Suetonius, Lucian of Samosata, Celsus)

      b)      Independent sources: Jewish writings (Examples: Josephus, Talmud)

      c)       Accounts of Jesus’ disciples: New Testament books and letters

Luke 1:

1 Many have undertaken to draw up an account of the things that have been fulfilled among us, 2 just as they were handed down to us by those who from the first were eyewitnesses and servants of the word.

7.       You cannot use Christian sources because they were all written by religious leaders.

8.       The New Testament as a historical text

- The so-called ‘religious’ nature of Christian writings in no way diminishes their value as historical sources. Historians take the Christian agenda into account when they analyse the New Testament, just as they take the imperial bias into account when studying Tacitus or the Jewish bias when reading Josephus, but historians do not place the New Testament in special category. It is simplistic and unhistorical to say that Christian bias undermines the historical worth of the New Testament texts. In fact it is no exaggeration to say that historians universally regard the New Testament writings as the earliest, most plentiful and most reliable sources of information about Jesus of history.

The New Testament is a compilation of sources

- In historical research, the New Testament is analysed as a compilation of independent traditions with common convictions about the Jesus of Nazareth. Christians need to remember that, although our sacred documents were composed and circulated in the first century, they were not brought together into a single volume (the New Testament) until the forth century. The New Testament is a compilation of texts that were composed and circulated independently of each other in the first century. This is a historical significant.

9.       But there are many so many books which tell the truth. Why do you believe in Bible more than the other books?

10.   One important point that we have discussed above is that the truth can go through the all the tests/examinations above. And the Bible does! Now looking at the question that you have just addressed:

Christians don’t just believe the Bible is “true.” We believe it is the “Inspired” Word of God Himself. Not that it is “inspiring” – but that it is actually written by God Himself using human authors as instruments – The Word of God. This makes a huge difference with other books.

2 Timothy 3

16 All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, 17 so that the servant of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.