Is the Bible True?
There are many reasons we can be confident the Bible is true. First, it contains prophecies that came to pass with amazing accuracy. Second, the Bible has gone through centuries of intense scrutiny by its critics and has shown itself reliable. Third, the writers/apostles endured torture and martyrdom rather than recanting their testimonies. Fourth, the Bible’s internal consistency points to divine authorship. And fifth, the Bible’s message changes lives like no other book ever has.
Let’s look at each of these reasons in more detail
Fulfilled prophecy
One reason we can be confident the Bible is true is that it contains many prophecies that have come to pass with amazing accuracy. Some scholars estimate that more than 300 prophecies about Jesus, alone, have been fulfilled.[1] This includes everything from his birthplace (Micah 5:2) to his being rejected by his own people (Isa. 53:3; Ps. 118:22) to his ministry (Isa. 9:1-2, 35:5-6) to his betrayal for thirty pieces of silver (Zech. 11:12-13) to his crucifixion (Ps. 22:16) to his death (Dan. 9:26) to his resurrection (Ps. 118:17-18), just to name a few.
The odds are astronomical that so many prophecies could have been fulfilled by mere chance. Consider the odds against just eight prophecies about Jesus being fulfilled by coincidence. Scientist Peter Stoner did the math and estimated that “the probability of just eight prophecies being fulfilled is one chance in one hundred million billion. That number is millions of times greater than the total number of people who’ve ever walked the planet!
“[Stoner] calculated that if you took this number of silver dollars, they would cover the state of Texas to a depth of two feet. If you marked one silver dollar among them and then had a blindfolded person wander the whole state and bend down to pick up one coin, what would be the odds he’d choose the one that had been marked? The same odds that anybody in history could have fulfilled just eight of the prophecies.
“[Stoner also] estimated that the probability of fulfilling 48 prophecies was one chance in a trillion, trillion, trillion, trillion, trillion, trillion, trillion, trillion, trillion, trillion, trillion, trillion, trillion, trillion [2].
And Jesus not only fulfilled prophecies about himself; he also made numerous prophecies himself, which came to pass exactly as stated. For example, he prophesied about wars, the destruction of Jerusalem and the Jewish temple, and the end of the Old Covenant age. And Jesus said “all these things” would happen within a generation (Matt. 24:1-34; Luke 21:20), which equates to about forty years[3]. Since Jesus uttered these prophecies around the year AD 30, they had to be fulfilled by around AD 70.
Keep in mind that at the time Jesus made these prophecies, the Roman Empire was in the midst of a hundred-year (or so) period of peace. Historians even have a name for this extended period of peace: the Pax Romana. Furthermore, the Old Covenant had been in place for over 1500 years—ever since the time of Moses! And the temple had been standing for over 500 years, ever since Zerubbabel built it around 515 BC. In fact, in Jesus’ day, this temple had just recently been refurbished by Herod the Great. Moreover, the city of Jerusalem was surrounded by what was thought to be “impenetrable” walls.
So we can imagine the utter shock and disbelief among the Jews of that day when an obscure carpenter from Nazareth predicted that the entire Old Covenant system—covenant, temple, city, etc.—would go crashing down. Plus, Jesus not only said it would happen someday, by and by; he said it would happen within his generation (Matt. 24:2-34). The Lord wanted to make sure that the people responsible for crucifying Jesus and persecuting his apostles would still be alive to see Jesus coming in judgment and glory and vindication.
And it all came to pass by AD 70, exactly as Jesus predicted. According to the first-century historian Josephus, Jerusalem was sacked, the temple was destroyed, 1.1 million Jews were killed, and another 97,000 Jews were taken into slavery. Moreover, the Old Covenant effectively ended. Without a temple, only 77 positive and 126 negative commandments can be observed—out of 613. In essence: no temple, no Old Covenant.
Jesus’s prophecies came to pass, exactly as promised.
The Bible has endured centuries of scrutiny
Another reason to be confident that the Bible is true is that it has withstood centuries of intense scrutiny from critics—and it is still the best-selling book of all time! Critics have dissected every chapter, line, and word…all in the hopes of finding a chink in its armor. Yet, whether referring to people, places, or events, the Bible has consistently shown itself to be accurate and trustworthy. In fact, many skeptics who had set out to disprove the Bible ended up becoming Christians! Oxford University professor C.S. Lewis is a great example of this.
Regarding the Old Testament, the notable archaeologist William F. Albright once said: “There can be no doubt that archaeology has confirmed the substantial historicity of Old Testament tradition.”[4] But this should not surprise us. After all, Jesus and the inspired apostles gave their stamp of approval on it. In fact, the New Testament contains quotations, references, allusions and paraphrases from every one of the books of the Old Testament.[5]
Moreover, the Dead Sea Scrolls confirm that what the Old Testament scribes originally wrote has accurately come down to us. For example, when we compare today’s book of Isaiah (in the Hebrew Bible) to the book of Isaiah found with the Dead Sea Scrolls—which was written over 1000 years earlier—we find they are identical in 95% of the text. “The 5 percent of variation consisted chiefly of obvious slips of the pen and variations in spelling.”[6] The scribes who copied the ancient texts had a profound reverence for the Word of God, and they did everything possible to ensure against mistakes.“ Jewish traditions laid out every aspect of copying texts as if it were law, from the kind of materials to be used to how many columns and lines were to be on a page. Nothing was to be written from memory…A copy with just one mistake on it was destroyed.”[7] This guaranteed accurate transmission throughout the centuries.
While the Bible, itself, does not promise perfect transmission throughout history, the evidence shows that the Bible we possess today is trustworthy. But even if some errors were found some day, that still would not mean we cannot trust it. As someone once said: Even a gnarled finger can point to God.
Regarding the New Testament, we can be confident about the accurate transmission of the New Testament because there are (to date) over 5000 manuscripts (copies) available to compare. Some of these manuscripts date as early as the AD 100’s—which is just thirty years from when they were originally written.[8]
While thirty years may seem, at first, like a long time, a moment’s reflection should put our minds at ease. Those of us in our 50s (or older) can likely remember quite vividly the important events that happened thirty years ago, such as how we met our spouse, our honeymoon, the birth of our child, the death of parents, our child’s graduation, etc. If you are a teenager, just ask your parents if they remember these kinds of events in their lives. My guess is they will say “Absolutely.” How much more would the apostles have remembered the note-worthy events in their lifetimes? Keep in mind, also, that some of the events they witnessed would have been pretty hard to forget. For example, Jesus walked on water; Jesus turned water into wine; and Jesus rose from the dead. Jesus also predicted the destruction of Jerusalem and the temple within a generation (or about forty years). These kinds of events would have been pretty hard to forget. Moreover, the apostles traveled throughout the Roman Empire telling as many people as would listen about these events, over and over and over; so it’s not likely they would have forgotten the details. Add to this the Holy Spirit “bringing to remembrance” the things Jesus taught and did (John 14:26)…and we have good reason to be confident that what is described in the New Testament really happened.
Critics sometimes point out that the New Testament contains thousands of variants; however, this is not as consequential as it may initially seem. The vast majority of these variances are insignificant—such as spelling errors and word order. Moreover, “a variant is counted every time one copy is different from any other copy and is counted again in every copy where it appears. So when a single word is spelled differently in 3,000 copies, that is counted as 3,000 variants. In fact, there are only 10,000 places where variants occur and most of those are matters of spelling and word order. There are less than 40 places in the New Testament where we are really not certain which reading is original, but not one of these has any effect on a central doctrine of faith. Note: the problem is not that we don’t know what the text is, but that we are not certain which text has the right reading. We have 100 percent of the New Testament, and we are sure about 99.5 percent of it.”[9]
Even if all the manuscripts (copies) were suddenly lost or destroyed, we could reconstruct almost the entire New Testament simply from quotes from the early Church Fathers. “Only eleven verses are missing, mostly from 2 and 3 John.”[10]
As for the details contained within the New Testament, they match historical records and appear to be authentic. The authors of I Don’t Have Enough Faith to Be an Atheist surveyed three New Testament books—John, Luke, and Acts—and “found more than 140 eyewitness details that appear to be authentic, most of which have been historically confirmed and some of which are historically probable.”[11] In addition, “there are at least thirty characters [people] in the New Testament who have been confirmed as historical by archaeology or non-Christian sources.”[12] This shows that the New Testament is accurate—at least in the areas that can be tested. And if it is trustworthy in the testable details, why not give it the benefit of the doubt in the non-testable details as well? After all, the writers/apostles were tortured and martyred over their testimonies, yet they never recanted, even though it would have stopped the torment (see below).
As mentioned above, the Bible includes many names of real people and places; and this is extremely important. Why? Because fictional writers do not usually use the names of real people for the main characters in their fictional stories.[13] They certainly would not do so if the people they were writing about were still alive, which was the case with the New Testament books. If they did, the real people would quickly refute the statements and destroy the credibility of the authors. How much more would this be the case if the people being written about were members of powerful governments, such as the Roman Empire…or powerful religious officials, such as the Jewish leaders in the first century? The government/religious officials would have refuted the stories, which would have quickly destroyed the credibility of the authors—and the books would have bombed. Yet the exact opposite happened with the New Testament books; they flourished!
It’s also interesting how many embarrassing details the biblical writers included. Why is this significant? Because “embarrassing details” are one of the ways historians test whether or not an author is telling the truth.[14] Liars usually make themselves look good. They portray themselves as beyond reproach. But the New Testament writers mentioned one embarrassing detail after another.
For example, the disciples were portrayed as dim-wits who failed to understand things (Mark 9:32; Luke 18:34; John 12:16). They were portrayed as uninterested in prayer because they could not stay awake to pray, (Mark 14:32-41). They were portrayed as cowards who ran away after Jesus’s arrest (Matt. 26:33-35). They were portrayed as doubters who refused to believe that Jesus was resurrected until actually putting a hand in Jesus’s wound (John 2:22). Peter was even called Satan by Jesus himself because his off-the-cuff plan opposed God’s plan (Mark 8:33)!
In fact, even the leader of the Christian movement, Jesus, was accused of many embarrassing things by the opposition. Jesus was called “out of his mind” (Mark 3:21, 31), a drunkard (Matt. 11:19), demon-possessed (Mark 3:22), a madman (John 10:20), and a deceiver (John 7:21). Jesus was also portrayed as hanging out with prostitutes instead of royalty (Luke 7:36-39). Jesus’s own followers even temporarily deserted him (John 6:66). And Jesus repulsed the Jews so much that they wanted to stone him (John 8:59). Moreover, Jesus was crucified, despite the fact that the Old Testament says, “Anyone who is hung on a tree is cursed by God” (Deut. 21:22-23; Gal. 3:13)
A person making up a story would not include these kinds of embarrassing details. Think about it. If you were making up a religion, would you include these kinds of things? Of course not. You would portray the movement’s leader and disciples in the best possible light.
While this does not by itself prove the Bible is true, it does show the writers were not trying to embellish their accounts. It shows they were giving real accounts. And if they were being honest about these embarrassing kinds of things, they were likely also being honest about the other things they wrote about.
The apostles chose martyrdom rather than recanting their testimonies
Another reason to trust the New Testament is because the writers/apostles endured intense persecution, torture, and even martyrdom because of their testimonies. They could have avoided all this by simply recanting. Why would they have held to their testimonies if they were false? It’s one thing to die for religious beliefs you think are true, even though they are false. Devotees of other religions do that all the time. However, what the apostles did was completely different. They said they witnessed the things they wrote about, and they knew whether or not the events were true. And eleven out of twelve of them chose to be martyred because of their testimonies, rather than recant. John was the only apostle not martyred[15] (although tradition says he was dipped in boiling oil but did not die). So either these apostles endured torture and martyrdom to promote things they knew were false—why would they have done that?—or they died upholding things they knew were true…things that were important enough to be martyred over. Personally, I think the latter option makes much more sense!
Supernatural “signs and wonders” changed 1500 years of deep-seated traditions
The prophets and apostles not only claimed their words were from God, but they proved it with supernatural “signs and wonders” (aka: miracles). There’s a comical example of this recorded in the Old Testament that took place back in Elijah’s day, when the Israelites were wavering between following the prophets of God…and the false prophets of Baal. The account begins with the prophet Elijah asking: “How long will you [Israel] go limping with two different opinions? If the Lord is God, follow him; but if Baal, then follow him” (1 Kings 18:21). Elijah then suggests cutting two bulls into pieces, and then putting the pieces on two different altars. He then suggests that the prophets of Baal call on the name of their god [Baal], and Elijah would call on the name of the Lord. And the God who answers by fire is the true God (24). So everyone agreed to this test.
From morning to noon, the prophets of Baal cried out to their god…but no one answered. “At noon Elijah mocked them, saying, ‘Cry aloud! Surely he is a god; either he is meditating, or he has wandered away, or he is on a journey, or perhaps he is asleep and must be awakened’” (27). As midday passed, there was still no response from Baal.
Then Elijah prepared his altar to the God of the Bible. And, so that nobody could doubt that a true miracle had happened, Elijah told the spectators to pour water on the wood and sacrifice. In fact, he had them do this four times! Then, Elijah called on the Lord and “fire of the Lord fell and consumed the burnt offering, the wood, the stones, and the dust, and even licked up the water that was in the trench. When all the people saw it, they fell on their faces and said, ‘The Lord indeed is God; the Lord indeed is God’” (38-39).
This miraculous sign proved Elijah was a true prophet of God. Keep in mind, God was actually the one who made the miracle happen, not Elijah. However, Elijah knew it would happen because Elijah was truly in communication with God—unlike the prophets of Baal. This is the unique relationship between God and prophet. God communicates a message to his prophet, and then God gives supernatural “signs and wonders” to prove that the prophet is telling the truth. God never expected people to just blindly follow someone claiming to be a prophet; he gave plenty of evidence to confirm his true prophets.
This sort of thing happened in the New Testament too. For example, in the well-known account of the paralytic, Jesus not only claimed he could forgive sins, but he proved it by healing a paralytic: “Which is easier, to say to the paralytic, ‘Your sins are forgiven you,’ or to say, ‘Arise, take up your bed and walk’? But that you may know that the Son of Man has power on earth to forgive sins—He said to the paralytic, ‘I say to you, arise, take up your bed, and go to your house’” (Mark 2:5-11). And the paralytic was healed, proving that Jesus could forgive sins.
In another example, when John the Baptist was in prison, he asked his disciples to ask Jesus if he was really the long-awaited Messiah. And Jesus said to them, “Go and tell John the things you have seen and heard: that the blind see, the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, [and] the dead are raised” (Luke 7:22). These “signs and wonders” proved God was with Jesus.
These “signs and wonders” also confirmed the apostles (Heb. 2:3-4), and it is how Jesus and the apostles were able to so quickly overturn 1500 years of Jewish tradition (Old Covenant tradition) and get the faithful people of that day following the New Covenant (gospel) message before Jerusalem and the temple were destroyed a few years later in AD 70.
Internal consistency
Another reason we can be confident that the Bible is the Word of God is because of its internal consistency, unity, and harmony. The more we familiarize ourselves with the Bible, the more we begin to notice recurring themes and motifs such as the coming of the Lord, salvation, resurrection, new Jerusalem, the kingdom of God, the judgment at the time of the end, the new heaven and earth, the remarriage of Israel, the end of the Old Covenant age, the beginning of the New Covenant, the equality of Jews and Gentiles, the abomination of desolation, beasts, etc. All these themes and motifs are discussed in varying detail in both the Old and New Testaments.
In fact, when it comes to themes and motifs, there is nothing new in the New Testament. It’s just that when the New Testament was being written, the events prophesied about in the Old Testament were finally coming to pass (or about to). As someone once said, the Old Testament is prophecy, the New Testament is fulfillment.
What’s also remarkable about this is that the Bible was written by more than forty authors, from different backgrounds, over a span of approximately 1500 years. They spoke different languages, lived in different nations, and in many cases did not even have access to each other’s writings. Yet their writings are amazingly consistent, united, and harmonious—even though the topics and motifs discussed are complicated, multi-layered, and in many cases, would not take place for centuries.
Some of the Old Testament prophets outright admitted they had no idea what they were prophesying about. For example, after an angel had told Daniel what would happen at “the time of the end,” Daniel said, “Although I heard, I did not understand” (Dan. 12:8). Then the angel said, “Go your way, Daniel, for the words are closed up and sealed till the time of the end” (Dan. 12:9, italics mine). In other words, these events were not going to happen in Daniel’s lifetime, so Daniel did not need to know the details. However, God still wanted Daniel to write down the information because one day, at “the time of the end”—that is, at the time of the end of the Old Covenant age (see below)—the prophecy would be “unsealed”/revealed (Dan. 12:9)…and it would finally make sense.
Here is a great example of the beautiful harmony between the Old and New Testaments. In the Old Testament book of Daniel, the angel says the prophecy about “the time of the end” was “sealed up” or set aside until it comes to pass (Dan. 12:9). Then, approximately 700 years later, when the “time of the end” finally arrived (1 Cor. 10:11, 1 Pet. 4:7, 1 John 2:18), the angel in the book of Revelation told John: “Do not seal the words of the prophecy of this book, for the time [of the end] is at hand” (Rev. 22:10, italics mine). Same angel. Same topic. Only by this time, AD 65, the prophecy was no longer sealed up because it was about to come to pass. What was concealed (sealed up) in Daniel’s day…was being revealed (unsealed) when Revelation was written.
As stated above, the Old Testament prophets often did not understand what they were writing about, even though they wanted to. Peter said: “Of this salvation, the [Old Testament] prophets have inquired and searched carefully, who prophesied of the grace that would come to you…To them it was revealed that, not to themselves, but to us [living in the New Testament times] they were ministering the things which now have been reported to you through those who have preached the gospel to you by the Holy Spirit sent from heaven—things which angels desire to look into” (1 Pet. 1:10-12, italics mine).
Likewise, Jesus told his disciples: “Blessed are your eyes for they see, and your ears for they hear; for assuredly, I say to you that many [Old Testament] prophets and righteous men desired to see what you see, and did not see it, and to hear what you hear, and did not hear it” (Matt. 13:16-17).
While many of the Old Testament prophets (like Daniel) did not always understand what they were prophesying about, the things they said lined up perfectly with what the later prophets and apostles said! This kind of unity, consistency and harmony—which is seen throughout the entire Bible—is nothing short of supernatural!
Scripture Changes Lives
Still another reason we can be confident the Bible is the Word of God is because of its power. The Scriptures moves people to act like no other book ever has. “The word of God is living and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the division of soul and spirit, and of joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart” (Heb. 4:12).
The Bible helps people in need. It cuts like a knife the heart of the seeker…and brings unsurpassed peace, rest, and joy to the faithful, even during the worst of trials. Whether reading it for the first time or the thirtieth, the Bible is a fount of timeless wisdom. It exudes truth and authority and power. It transforms people’s lives….from the prisoner in California…to the remote tribesman in Africa…to emperors, kings and presidents alike. The Bible motivates people to start hospitals, relief organizations, orphanages, schools, and countless other institutions of good works. No other book has moved people so much.
There is a reason why the Bible is the best-selling book of all time—it is the Word of God!
“All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, thoroughly equipped for every good work” (2 Tim 3:16–17).
For more information about the topics discussed in this article, get my book The End Is Here: How the New Testament’s Prophecies Were Fulfilled.
By Alex Polyak, Director of The Bible Fulfilled, 9/11/24
[1] Got Questions, “How many prophecies did Jesus fulfill?” (viewed 9/9/24) https://www.gotquestions.org/prophecies-of-Jesus.html
[2] Christianity.com, “Did Jesus Accidentally Fulfill the Old Testament Prophecies?” (viewed 8/5/22) https://www.christianity.com/jesus/is-jesus-god/old-testament-prophecies/did-jesus-accidentally-fulfill-the-old-testament-prophecies.html
[3] Scripture shows that a biblical generation equates to around forty years (Heb. 3:8–10, Num. 14:30–34, Neh. 9:21).
[4] Josh McDowell, New Evidence That Demands a Verdict, 372
[5] The Protestant Old Testament, which contains the same content as the Hebrew Bible.
[6] Norman L. Geisler and Ronald M. Brooks, When Skeptics Ask, 159
[7] Ibid.
[8] Ibid.
[9] Ibid., 160
[10] Ibid.
[11] Norman L. Geisler and Frank Turek, I Don’t Have Enough Faith to be an Atheist, 259
[12] Ibid.
[13] Ibid., 271f
[14] Ibid., 277f
[15] Judas killed himself because of his guilt over betraying Jesus.
