Christians are often asked why they believe the Bible to be the Word of God, and how do we know that it is? Well, our best answer is that the Bible says it is the Word of God. But then we are told, “Well, that’s using the Bible to prove the Bible. You can’t do that. That’s committing a logical fallacy called ‘circular reasoning’. Would you believe what a man tells you if he is a frequently proven liar? If he told you something and you ask him for a verification, only to be told that you should believe him because he told you so, well, that’s crazy. You can’t ask a frequent, proven liar if he is telling you the truth and then have any confidence in his answer.” Well, that’s true enough. We would agree. But suppose we also had, in addition to the one of questionable integrity, thirty-nine other people who would deny or verify what the one in question told you. What do we mean… thirty-nine other people? Where did they come from?
Well, the Bible. There were forty-some different writers composing their contribution of Scripture under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit as they wrote over a span of sixteen centuries, in three languages, from three different continents, and most of these writers never knew or met their fellow penmen. Each of the forty constitutes a source independent from the other thirty-nine. Though distinct and separate one from another, yet, with an uncanny accuracy and unmistakable coherence, they are locked together in their support and verification of each other while there is no apparent effort or intent to even do so. No doubt some die-hard skeptic could pronounce it an unusual coincidence, but for those who revere the Book, it is seen as one more indication that we are dealing with a supernatural Book, the contents of which were orchestrated and engineered by a Master Planner, who knew full well what He was about. No coincidence here. Logic and the mathematical probability forbid it.
The Apostle Peter expresses it in his second letter, chapter one, when he said, “Holy men of God spake as they were moved (or borne along or sustained) by the Holy Spirit.” There is simply no other accounting for it that will satisfy the demands of even a half-open mind. Using the Bible to verify the Bible does not constitute circular reasoning. The Bible is a book such as man would not write if he could, nor could not write if he would. This we have often quoted from the pen of Dr. Lewis Sperry Chafer, founder and first president of Dallas Theological Seminary in Dallas, Texas. We whole-heartedly agree with the good doctor.
For Christianity Clarified, this is Marv Wiseman in Springfield, Ohio.
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