Lorain County Free-Net Chapel

Ask a Minister

~ A place to find answers to gnawing spiritual questions ~


Question: "We know the Bible is the inspired word of God because it says so in the Bible." Can you explain this circular reasoning without citing self-referential scripture?

Answer: Your question is a good one. Can the fundamental Christian defend his belief in the inspiration of Scripture without referring to Scripture? The answer is both yes and no in my humble opinion.

The reason I add no, is because there is the element of faith. God expects man to believe Him when He states something to be a fact about Himself or His word- the Bible. A Christian can provide a myriad of evidences and proofs to back up their beliefs in the Christian faith, and still yet, if one is convinced in their mind that there is no God, or that there is no inspiration of Scripture, all these facts won't help.

Many didn't believe Christ when He made statements about Himself and His Father; neither did they believe Him when He backed up His statements with physical signs such as miracles.

I said all this to say that the Christian faith is a 'reasonable' one. One must 'believe' God when He states that He has given us His word to lead humanity into spiritual truth (Psalms 119: 105).

A great reference about Christian Apologetics (a defense of the Christian faith), is a book by Josh McDowell entitled A Ready Defense. I highly recommend it to you.

Josh does have a chapter in this book that will answer your question. A brief outline of the chapter entitled "The Uniqueness of the Bible" will hopefully help answer your question for now. By the way, studying these facts about the uniqueness of the Bible in comparison to all other books should convince anyone seeking the truth to believe that the Bible is truly inspired of God!

The Bible is Unique in its:

1.) Continuity: Written over 1500 years, by over 40 different authors who came from far ranging occupations, and yet there is not one viable discrepancy in the Bible.

2.) Circulation: It's the world's best seller of all time. (though by itself, doesn't prove inspiration- but it certainly doesn't take away from it's possibility).

3.) Translation: Amazingly, like it's circulation, this book has been translated into more languages than any other book in history.

4.) Survival: It has survived time, critics, and persecution; but yet it is still here, and the masses still believe in it.

5.) Teaching: It's teaching on prophecy (predictions and their fulfillments), prove beyond the shadow of a doubt that this book is inspired of God. Predictions about Christ's first advent alone should convince the most diehard critic to believe that the Bible is supernatural. It's historical accuracy likewise prove that this is God's book. Historians NOW refer to the Bible for information about certain world historical events.

6.) Life Changing Ability : (This is my own point.) The Bible has caused more corrupt, and sinful behaving humans to change their way of living for the better than any other book. Truly, "The law of the Lord is perfect, converting the soul" (Psalm 19:7) Please allow it to change your life if it hasn't as of yet.


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