Is the Bible from God?

For thousands of years people have sought to discredit the Bible as the word of God. In the past, skeptics, rationalists, and philosophers levied many charges against the Bible to make it illegitimate in the eyes of the public. Today, it is common in the comments section of videos, blogs, and social media posts about the Bible for someone to inevitably claim, “The Bible was written by men, not God. It is time we stop believing in fairytales and move on.” These sentiments are expressed in many ways, but the point is the same: the Bible is not from God and is therefore unworthy of consideration. Is there any merit to these thoughts?
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            We should first express that it is not inappropriate to ask questions related to the legitimacy of the Bible as the word of God. In fact, the Bible teaches us that God favors those who sincerely seek truth (Isaiah 1:18-20; Acts 17:10-12). The more we consider whether the Bible is a divine document, the more we will discover that its claims are repeatedly proven throughout both Old and New Testament. Some in their zeal for the Bible make it seem that asking questions is itself a problem, but that is inaccurate. The real problem is when, rather than asking sincere questions and seeking truth, someone chooses to assume he knows the Bible is not from God. He cares little for evidence and relies on how he feels. That is not the right attitude. We should instead be willing to examine the facts of the case and determine whether they prove the Bible’s divine origin.

            The first fact we should consider concerns those who wrote the Bible. It is true that human beings wrote the books of the Bible, but we must consider who these people were and where they got their information. Consider David. He wrote many of the psalms and has almost two entire books, 1 and 2 Samuel, dedicated to his life and reign. He admitted at the end of his life that, “The Spirit of the Lord spoke by me, and His word was on my tongue” (2 Samuel 23:2). This poetic declaration establishes that David wrote as the Lord directed. What underscores this fact is that this man wrote prophecies that would not be fulfilled until Jesus’ arrival. 1,000 years before Jesus, and several hundred years before crucifixion was practiced, David stated that wicked men had pierced him, mocked him, and cast lots for his clothing (Psalm 22:16-18). We have no record of these events literally happening in David’s life, but they did happen in Jesus’ life (Matthew 27:35). How could David have known this information apart from divine revelation? The answer should be clear based upon these texts.

            The second fact we should examine concerns what the Bible says about itself and its relationship to God. If the Bible is purely a human document, then we would anticipate that its relationship to deity would be easily discredited. There would be passages that clearly show us errors and fallacies introduced by human writers. Yet the opposite is true: the words of the Bible are directly connected to God. Many of the psalms exalt God in what they communicate. In one example, the psalmist wrote that the Lord’s words were pure and proven (Psalm 12:6). Another place states that all of God’s word is truth (Psalm 119:160). These texts, along with many others, establish that these psalmists viewed what they wrote as divine. The apostle Paul goes so far as to state that the Scriptures are themselves “breathed out” by God (2 Timothy 3:16-17). It is for that reason, Paul states, that we can use the Bible for teaching, for reproving, for correcting, and for instructing. These texts and many others demonstrate that the Bible is directly connected to God, and credit is given to Him, not man, for its authorship.

            The third fact we should give thought to is how Jesus perceived the Bible. If anyone had the ability and authority to call the Scriptures into question, it was Jesus. He could have told us that the word was corrupted and unworthy of our consideration. We do not find this, though. What we find is Jesus’ trust in the Scriptures. In one text, Jesus stated that the Scripture “could not be broken” (John 10:35). Later, He stated that God’s word is truth (John 17:17). Passage after passage shows us Jesus taught and trusted in the word of God. Not one time did Jesus question or contradict what God had revealed. Instead, He taught and lived according to the reality that man lives not just by bread but by every word of God (Matthew 4:4). If Jesus viewed the Bible in these terms, then why should we try and discredit it? There is no reason to try unless we wish to discredit Jesus in the process, which simply cannot stand.

            What we have presented is a mere fraction of the evidence available to us concerning the Bible’s origin, but even with this brief discussion we can clearly see that the Bible is from God. Human hands may have physically written the words on papyrus, but God’s Spirit was directing their work. To this day God’s Spirit has ensured the preservation of the Bible so that we can continue to learn from its teachings and understand the Lord’s will for our lives. The question returns to us, then: will we heed this evidence and obey what the Bible teaches, or will we ignore the facts of the case and persist in rebellion? The choice is yours.