The Bible Is True Because I Believe It (Or Is It?)
June 6, 2023
Katherine Schultz
This post contains a biblical perspective on whether the Bible is true because I believe it. It attempts to answer the question “is the Bible reliable?” It is from a series of personal perspectives on the individual questions of the 3-D Worldview Survey.
If I’m honest…
If I’m honest, I was caught off guard by my own reaction. A number of years ago, I heard apologist Josh McDowell speaking to a group of teachers, and heard him tell a story about a conversation he had with a young lady about the basis of truth for the Bible. He asked her if she believed the bible was true, and she said yes. Then he asked her why, and she said, “The Bible is true because I believe it.” She was very pleased with herself, and smiled. He said he disagreed, and she wasn’t so confident. He told her, “You say it’s true because you believe it. I believe it because it’s true.”
That switch captured my imagination, and I’ve held onto it for a couple of decades to keep me on point when I think about the relationship between the Bible and truth.
The Truth Is…
You see, the truth is, that I’m not immune to the influences of the culture around me any more than the rest of humanity. I can buy the lie that my belief in something is a proof for its truth, its validity. But my belief is irrelevant to the truth of something. It can be true without even my knowledge!
And when I get confronted with something that I believed to be true, but discover is not, then to hold onto my beliefs doesn’t make them true–whether that’s the shape of the earth (OK, I never thought the earth was flat) or the basis of my salvation in being a good girl (yup, bought that one for a long time), it doesn’t matter. What matters is whether it is true. And then my belief can follow.
I also have a vivid memory of being in a freshman philosophy class at my (secular) university, and the professor asking me a question about whether I knew something, and my response, that it was “true for me.” I’m very grateful that the (non-Christian as far as I know) professor challenged that, and we talked through as a class the ancient definition of what it means to know something: to know something means it must be a “justified, true belief.” Thanks, Plato.
So, how do I know that the Bible is true?
It’s justified
The Bible has the most surviving copies of any ancient document to put its text to the test for variants, or for corruption. There are around 24,000 manuscripts from all over the ancient world, some as early as the second century. The runners up for ancient manuscripts aren’t even close: Homer’s Illiad has 643 copies, Sophocles has 193, and Aristotle has 49.
It’s true
What is truth? (thanks again, Pontius Pilate, John 18:38) A standard understanding is that truth is what corresponds to reality. So how does the Bible stack up, claims vs reality? Does it correspond to reality or not? Christians believe the answer is “yes,” meaning that the Bible is true. God really exists, Jesus is not a myth, and the resurrection really happened. But how do we know this? I can’t logically use the Bible to prove the Bible. That takes us back around to its reliability, and we are right back to whether my belief is justified. Is the Bible a reliable document? If so, we have a strong basis for claiming it is true.
Another kind of evidence relates to internal consistency and coherence. Although the Bible was written over about 15 centuries by about 35-40 different writers, the messages it contains are coherent and consistent. The Bible presents a coherent theology and worldview and presents this material consistently.
Of course, for Christians, one of the most powerful bases for believing that the Bible is true is found in Jesus. If we can show that the historic record of the life of Jesus in the Bible books of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John give an accurate record, that would support the truth of the Bible. “If the Bible has been shown to be reliable, this line of reasoning is no longer circular, but rational. In other words, what the Bible records about Jesus, including what He says about God, human nature, salvation and the Old Testament record, can then be trusted.” (Focus on the Family, How Do We Know)
I believe it
I get it that my belief may not persuade you, but for me to know it the way Plato defines knowledge requires that I believe it. So what does that mean? Well, at minimum, it means accepting the authority of the Bible in every area of my life, and seeking to have a fully mature biblical worldview based on the Bible itself. As 1 Thessalonians 2:13 says, “For this reason we also constantly thank God that when you received the word of God which you heard from us, you accepted it not as the word of men, but for what it really is, the word of God, which also performs its work in you who believe.”
What about you?
So what about you? Would you say the bible is true because you believe it? Or would you say you believe it because it is true?
- Take the 3-D Worldview for yourself
Interested in more questions you can ask to help understand a person’s worldview? Download the free pdf “10 Questions to Understand Someone’s Worldview” below.
