How do we know the Bible is the Word of God? First, we can examine what the Bible claims about itself.
Thus says the LORD
God tells us that He has given His words to the prophets who wrote them down in Scripture.
Deuteronomy 18:18-20: I will raise up for them a prophet like you from among their brothers. And I will put my words in his mouth, and he shall speak to them all that I command him. And whoever will not listen to my words that he shall speak in my name, I myself will require it of him. But the prophet who presumes to speak a word in my name that I have not commanded him to speak, or who speaks in the name of other gods, that same prophet shall die.’
Jeremiah 1:9: Then the Lord put out his hand and touched my mouth. And the Lord said to me, “Behold, I have put my words in your mouth.
Jeremiah 29:31-32: “Send to all the exiles, saying, ‘Thus says the Lord concerning Shemaiah of Nehelam: Because Shemaiah had prophesied to you when I did not send him, and has made you trust in a lie, therefore thus say s the Lord: Behold, I will punish Shemaiah of Nehelam and his descendants. He shall not have any one living among this people, and he shall not see the good that I will do to my people, declares the Lord, for he has spoken rebellion against the Lord.’ ”
Ezekiel 2:7: And you shall speak my words to them, whether they hear or refuse to hear, for they are a rebellious house.
God speaks through the prophets
The prophets were named as individuals selected to receive the words of God.
1Kings 14:18: And all Israel buried him and mourned for him, according to the word of the Lord, which he spoke by his servant Ahijah the prophet.
2Kings 9:36: When they came back and told him, he said, “This is the word of the Lord, which he spoke by his servant Elijah the Tishbite, ‘In the territory of Jezreel the dogs shall eat the flesh of Jezebel,
Haggai 1:12: Then Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel, and Joshua the son of Jehozadak, the high priest, with all the remnant of the people, obeyed the voice of the Lord their God, and the words of Haggai the prophet, as the Lord their God had sent him. And the people feared the Lord.
Deuteronomy 18:19: And whoever will not listen to my words that he shall speak in my name, I my self will require it of him.
The New Testament says
Jesus and the apostles cite the Old Testament as the word of God. Like the prophets, Jesus and the Apostles claim to be speaking for God.
2Timothy 3:16: All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness,
2Peter 1:21: For no prophecy was ever produced by the will of man, but men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit.
Matt 1:22: All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had spoken by the prophet:
Matt 19:4-5: He answered, “Have you not read that he who created them from the beginning made them male and female, and said, ‘Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and they shall become one flesh’?”
Mark 7:9-13: And he said to them, “You have a fine way of rejecting the commandment of God in order to establish your tradition! For Moses said, ‘Honor your father and your mother’; and, ‘Whoever reviles father or mother must surely die.’ But you say , ‘If a man tells his father or his mother, Whatever you would have gained from me is Corban’ (that is, given to God)— then you no longer permit him to do anything for his father or mother, thus making void the word of God by y our tradition that you have handed down. And many such things you do.”
Acts 1:16: “Brothers, the Scripture had to be fulfilled, which the Holy Spirit spoke beforehand by the mouth of David concerning Judas, who became a guide to those who arrested Jesus.
2Peter 3:16: as [Paul] does in all his letters when he speaks in them of these matters. There are some things in them that are hard to understand, which the ignorant and unstable twist to their own destruction, as they do the other Scriptures.
1Timothy 5:18: For the Scripture says, “You shall not muzzle an ox when it treads out the grain (Dt 25:4),” and, “The laborer deserves his wages (Luke 10:7).”
1Corinthians 14:37: If any one thinks that he is a prophet, or spiritual, he should acknowledge that the things I am writing to you are a command of the Lord.
Heb 1:1: Long ago, at many times and in many ways, God spoke to our fathers by the prophets,
Luke 1:1-3: Inasmuch as many have undertaken to compile a narrative of the things that have been accomplished among us, just as those who from the beginning were eyewitnesses and ministers of the word have delivered them to us, it seemed good to me also, having followed all things closely for some time past, to write an orderly account for you, most excellent Theophilus,
John 14:26: [Jesus speaking to the 12]: But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, he will teach you all things and bring to your remembrance all that I have said to you.
Old Testament Canon: Why these books?
New Testament Canon: Why these books?
Biblical Inerrancy by John Gerstner
Photo by Paolo Nicolello on Unsplash