Can the bible defend itself?

So we’ve got 2 questions, which I’ve summed up as “Can the bible defend itself?”

1.) Since no evidence is needed to prove something in the Holy Bible, is the reason for this is because all of the evidence is there in the Bible?

I’m going to start at the beginning. We believe that God created everything. There is no real alternative to that. If you don’t believe it, you have to believe that there was nothing there, and with no cause or input, we had a bang and somehow out of it came all matter, energy, rules and order. This just doesn’t stack up. So we have to believe there is a God. We also believe that He created us for a reason. He didn’t just randomly create us for no reason. In order for us to fulfil our purpose, we need Him to show us why we are here and to do this He has to tell us. He does this through revealing Himself in His word.

So what evidence do we have to back up the bible and show us that this is the word of God? Why not believe the Koran? Why not the Veda? Well I’ll call on 3, just because of time.

One the bible was penned by multiple authors over thousands of years, yet the message contained within it is consistent all the way through. Now if this was just based on man and his thoughts, there would be no consistency over time. When I was a kid we were told you needed to eat 5 fruit and veg a day, now it’s 10. When I was a baby, I started eating food at 3 months, now babies start at 6 months. That is just the space of 30 odd years. Yet from genesis, to job, to revelation, the message and teachings are the same.

Second, history backs up the bible. The bible contains literal events that happened, from the slavery of the Israelites in Egypt, to the exodus, to slavery in babylon, to The Lord Jesus Christ HImself. There is historical evidence to back it up. You can find a lot of the evidence down the road in the british museum, and there is a book in the bookshop that can guide you. The bible isn’t just a bunch of unverifiable myths.

Third, prophecy backs up the bible. There were many prophecies in the bible which were penned long before they happened. The old testament for example was complete around 300 years before Christ came to this earth. And throughout it there are prophecies of Christ that clearly point to Him and what he came to do. Check Psalm 22 for yourself as an example. See how many prophecies are in that Psalm alone which told us what was going to happen to Christ on the Cross. There is no way to get the level of accuracy the prophecies have unless you know the future. There is only one who knows the future, that is God, no man can know the future, and those who profess to do so just put a vague message out there. The bible's prophecies are clear and detailed.

The history contained in the bible, the prophecies contained in it, and it's consistency all the way through means the bible defends itself to us. It proves within itself that it is from God.

So what does it then call us to do?

Well, simply to obey God.

One more point on this. Don’t just believe what someone tells you the bible says. You need to search the scriptures yourself to see whether what someone is saying is true and from the bible.

Acts 17.11 talks about a group of believers called the Bereans.

“These were more noble than those in Thessalonica, in that they received the word with all readiness of mind, and searched the scriptures daily, whether those things were so.”

They didn’t just accept what the apostle Paul told them, but they received it with readiness, and searched the bible to see if it was true. They received it, so weren’t trying to be contentious or argumentative. But they also searched the bible to make sure this was God's word that was coming from Paul. We should do this with everyone. There is no preacher in this world, however good or sound that is going to be more sound than Paul. If it was noble to check what he was saying against scripture, then it’s still noble today. Don’t be led by tradition or error, only God's word.

2.) If you are trying to prove or show evidence in the Bible, is it insulting to God in a way? Trying to say that the Bible is incomplete, even though it IS already complete?

It isn’t wrong to show that the bible is true. We have an area of teaching called apologetics. These are using reasoning and arguments that God has given us to show that His word is true. Exactly what I’m doing now. It’s a useful thing to do, but it is limited because it only appeals to one part of us, our mind. Intellectual arguments can help us and give us knowledge that helps us to see that the bible is God's word. But this isn’t ultimately the problem that we have.

For most of us our problem lies in our heart and will. Many of us know that eating healthily and exercising is the best thing for our body. But if knowledge alone was enough, then we would all be eating our 10 a day and exercising regularly. We ultimately don’t want to exercise or eat healthily, and we choose not to do it.

Finding the Lord is a heart and soul issue. It touches our heart, the things we love, our mind, the things we know and our will, the things we choose to do. We don’t want to obey God or His word. We would be happy to have heaven, and maybe submit to Him in a few areas, but not totally submit to Him throughout our lives. But because God demands our heart and soul, and we still love our sin, we won’t turn to Him. We want to carry on in our sin and not give it up. Apologetics can’t get to our heart and soul. It can touch the mind, but we have to come to God's word to get to hearts and souls.

God’s word tells us that we are sinners who have broken God's law. We are facing punishment because of this. It tells us that God came in the person of Jesus Christ to live and die and take the punishment for our sins if we turn to Him. It tells us that we need to leave our sins behind and completely turn from them to obey God and His word. It tells us to trust in Christ and His work to save us. He will never fail us if we do. This gets to our hearts and souls and we’re transformed from the inside out and made a completely new creature.

This is the final evidence that I want to give that the bible defends itself. It is truly powerful to transform lives. It changes us from the inside out, and goes through our whole being. Some can try to clean themselves up on the outside. But genuine belief in God that comes from His word changes us completely. It is something that believers know and no one can challenge, because they see the difference in who they were before knowing Christ compared to who they are when they know Him and obey Him.

So don’t just stop and know that the bible is God's word. Come to it and submit to it and obey it and do it. It will bless you both in this life and in eternity.