The Bible is the Word of God. Ok, but how do you know that?

Why do you believe your Bible is the Word of God?

  • I don't really know, I always accepted it for granted.

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Strong in Him

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The Bible itself admonishes us to "always be ready to give a reason for the hope that is in you" (1 Peter 3:15). Can you give a good reason why you believe the Bible is the Word of God?

The Bible contains words from God.
The whole world was created by His word, Genesis 1. In the OT the prophets spoke words from God, "thus saith the Lord" and also told of how God spoke to them in dreams and visions. These words, although often having an immediate application for the situation people were in, also looked ahead and pointed to THE Word of God; Jesus.
Jesus taught people about God, and said that his teaching came from God, John 7:16, and spoke God's words, John 14:10. Jesus' words were shown to be true by the miracles that he performed, Acts of the Apostles 2:22. His words and teachings were recorded by 4 Gospel writers, and before that, would have been repeated and taught orally. The disciples were taught by Jesus for 3 years, and after the resurrection, Jesus also explained how all the OT Scriptures spoke of him, Luke 24:27, Luke 24:44. The Holy Spirit was given to live in Jesus' followers, to bear witness to him and remind us of the words that Jesus spoke. It is he who inspired men to write down all these words from God, and he interprets, and applies, it to us as we read.
One day, God will speak the word, Jesus will return and the world will end. We have been told about this too. God has been revealed to us through his word - the written word and the Word made flesh.

Although I have very often used the phrase "the Bible is the word of God", that is not the whole story. And the problem with saying it is that there are people who will then say "ah, so every word in the Bible must be literally true and is to be applied by us today." Others say, "it is the word of God, but there must be only ONE version that is truly correct and has all God's words down to the last syllable." There then follows a long argument because "their" Bible says this in Zechariah 15v2 but another Bible has "at" instead of "on", or whatever, and scholarship has proved that "on" is correct - therefore that other Bible can't be the word of God. (BTW there is no Zechariah 15v2, I was giving a fictional reference to explain a point.)

So, long answer short; the Bible contains words from God. In the OT, these pointed to the Word, who came, John 1:14, and taught us about God by his words and example. His words and teachings were confirmed by his miracles, and he himself was conformed as the Son of God, and eternal Word, when he was raised from the dead, Romans 1:4.
 
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Kenny'sID

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Because it makes perfect sense to me.

I'm convinced we didn't spring from nothing, the only alternative to God, and since God makes perfect sense, it makes perfect sense he would give us an accounting of how we got here and what is expected of us. The Bible, a Users Manual for our life, so to speak.

That simple.
 
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thecolorsblend

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Because it makes perfect sense to me.

I'm convinced we didn't spring from nothing, the only alternative to God, and since God makes perfect sense, it makes perfect sense he would give us an accounting of how we got here and what is expected of us. The Bible, a Users Manual for our life, so to speak.

That simple.
True. But how do you know that what Christians consider Sacred Scripture is truly from God while the Koran is not from God?

(Above is dialectical; not a sincere question)
 
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Kenny'sID

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True. But how do you know that what Christians consider Sacred Scripture is truly from God while the Koran is not from God?

(Above is dialectical; not a sincere question)

Glad it wasn't intended as sincere. :)
 
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BryanJohnMaloney

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All Christians believe that the book they hold in their hands and that has the word 'Bible' printed on it is the Word of God, inspired and infallibly true.

I am a Christian, I do NOT believe that the Bible is the Word of God. ONLY CHRIST is the Word of God, the Divine Logos. The Bible is words FROM God and words ABOUT God, but it is not the Word of God, because the Word of God IS GOD. It is that simple. It cannot be the Word of God. To say that it is the Word of God is to indulge in a strange form of idolatry--Bibliolatry.
 
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BryanJohnMaloney

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What are you talking about?

As you would see, some other silly person said a very silly thing, to wit: "The Bible was written before the invention of fake news.". Therefore, using his standard, everything else written at those times must be equally true as the Bible.
 
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Strong in Him

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It cannot be the Word of God. To say that it is the Word of God is to indulge in a strange form of idolatry--Bibliolatry.

I'm not sure that's entirely true, actually.
Maybe it's about how you define the word, but, to me, Bibliolatry is worshipping the book/translation itself and putting IT on a level with God.
So sometimes people value a translation of the Bible for the "beautiful, poetic language", or because it has been passed down through the generations, or because it has a leather cover, gilt edges that is never allowed to get dirty or creased. They don't actually read it, but the book itself is special, cannot be touched and they would never, ever throw it away for fear of "bad luck" or being cursed by God for such an act.

I agree 100% that Jesus is the Word of God, and also that the Bible contains the words of God. But I would, and often do, still refer to it as the word of God.
 
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BryanJohnMaloney

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I'm not sure that's entirely true, actually.
Maybe it's about how you define the word, but, to me, Bibliolatry is worshipping the book/translation itself and putting IT on a level with God.
So sometimes people value a translation of the Bible for the "beautiful, poetic language", or because it has been passed down through the generations, or because it has a leather cover, gilt edges that is never allowed to get dirty or creased. They don't actually read it, but the book itself is special, cannot be touched and they would never, ever throw it away for fear of "bad luck" or being cursed by God for such an act.

I agree 100% that Jesus is the Word of God, and also that the Bible contains the words of God. But I would, and often do, still refer to it as the word of God.


The Divine Logos is Christ, not a mere book, regardless of the language. The Bible is words about God and words from God, but not the "Word of God". The Word of God IS GOD.
 
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Strong in Him

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The Divine Logos is Christ, not a mere book, regardless of the language. The Bible is words about God and words from God, but not the "Word of God". The Word of God IS GOD.

God is revealed through his words, which are in the Bible.
 
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Bruce Leiter

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All Christians believe that the book they hold in their hands and that has the word 'Bible' printed on it is the Word of God, inspired and infallibly true. But not all Christians believe this for the same reason. Furthermore, not all Christians have the same Bible. Some have more books than others, some have shorter books, some even have different words added that change the meaning of what is written. Which begs the question, how do you know that your Bible is the Word of God? How would you explain this to a non-believer?

Some may try and avoid the question by answering "because the Bible says it is God's Word." Sure, but so does the Koran, or the book of Mormons. Why then do we not accept them as the Word of God as well?

Some may say "because I feel it is God's Word." That's nice, but if you think the Christian faith is reasonable, then there must be a rationale behind it.

The Bible itself admonishes us to "always be ready to give a reason for the hope that is in you" (1 Peter 3:15). Can you give a good reason why you believe the Bible is the Word of God?

First, the early church collected the writings and applied definite standards to the decision about which books to include, as far as I can remember from seminary days. They have to have evidence of authorship by the prophets and the apostles, which the Apocrypha did not. The Book of Hebrews was questionable on that criterion.

Second, that example brings up the criterion that they have to be consistent in their message of the prophets' message pointing forward to Jesus's ministry and the apostles' description of Jesus' ministry and its meaning.

Third, the Holy Spirit guided the early church to limit the Bible on those terms.

Fourth, furthermore, the Holy Spirit has changed my life to feed me spiritually with the Word of God. The result is that it never grows old now after 61 years of reading and studying it.
 
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Springbok

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God is revealed through his words, which are in the Bible.
Most of his words are not in the Bible. Also the Bible testifies that God is revealed not only through his words in the Bible, but also through his Church and through nature.
 
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Strong in Him

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That doesn't mean those words are the Divine Logos.

I never said that it did.
The Spirit inspired those words to be written - in some cases they were God's own words.
 
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LouiseChar

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There are infact 73 books in the Bible.

Luther removed the ones he didnt like as they went against his ideas.

He wanted to remove James, Hebrews, Jude, and Revelation too but in the end didnt.

But, thats for another time, another thread!
If you're talking about the Apocrypha-The early church did not accept them because they were written in the 400 years between Malachi and Matthew when there were no prophets. Even those books say they might not be completely accurate. The 66 books never doubts itself, and it tells one story from beginning to end.
 
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eternomade

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No, it doesn't. The Bible says Jesus is the Word of God, and it also says there is a written Word of God.

Read Psalm 119. You will find eight Hebrew words are used to refer to God’s Word in that Psalm.

The first word is promise or word, dabar in Hebrew, used 24 times: it means God’s spoken, revealed word.

The second word is saying, imrah in Hebrew, used 19 times: this is another way to say word, anything God has spoken, commanded or promised.

The third word is statutes, chuqqim, used 21 times: these are the rules that God gave to His people early in their history. It can be translated “laws”.

The fourth word is judgments, mishpatim, used 23 times: a later word for statutes, can be translated as judgements or rules or rulings.

The fifth word is law, torah, used 25 times: this means the first 5 books of the Bible. Later it included other books like Isaiah and Jeremiah. It is translated as “law” or “teaching” or even “revelation”.

The sixth word is commands, miswah/miswot, used 22 times: what someone with authority (God) tells you to do, orders.

The seventh word is precepts, piqqudim, used 21 times: these give us help when we want to know what to do. This word is sometimes translated as “guidelines” or “instructions” in Psalm 119.

The eighth word is testimonies, eduth, used 23 times: these are the things that God tells us to do. Related to the word “witness”, keeping His testimonies means being loyal to the covenant or promise that God has made with us.

You have posted something very interesting, particularly the word "dabar". From my studies on it, it can either be defined like you said, but also as the pre-incarnate Son, the Word. Consider Psalm 33:6 or 1 Samuel 3:21.
 
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FutureAndAHope

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All Christians believe that the book they hold in their hands and that has the word 'Bible' printed on it is the Word of God, inspired and infallibly true. But not all Christians believe this for the same reason. Furthermore, not all Christians have the same Bible. Some have more books than others, some have shorter books, some even have different words added that change the meaning of what is written. Which begs the question, how do you know that your Bible is the Word of God? How would you explain this to a non-believer?

Some may try and avoid the question by answering "because the Bible says it is God's Word." Sure, but so does the Koran, or the book of Mormons. Why then do we not accept them as the Word of God as well?

Some may say "because I feel it is God's Word." That's nice, but if you think the Christian faith is reasonable, then there must be a rationale behind it.

The Bible itself admonishes us to "always be ready to give a reason for the hope that is in you" (1 Peter 3:15). Can you give a good reason why you believe the Bible is the Word of God?

For me it is not just one thing, but many that show me the word of God is true. The history surrounding the bible, miracles in my own life, God's word being proved true.

The bible tells us:

Rom 1:21 Because that, when they knew God, they glorified him not as God, neither were thankful; but became vain in their imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened.

This tells us that God WILL make His word known to us. It is how we respond that determines what we end up believing, and living out.
 
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bbbbbbb

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For me it is not just one thing, but many that show me the word of God is true. The history surrounding the bible, miracles in my own life, God's word being proved true.

The bible tells us:

Rom 1:21 Because that, when they knew God, they glorified him not as God, neither were thankful; but became vain in their imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened.

This tells us that God WILL make His word known to us. It is how we respond that determines what we end up believing, and living out.

I am entirely with you on this. There are many reasons I am convinced that the Bible is the Word of God.
 
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