Q: I believe that the Bible is God’s true word, that by divine guidance the Holy Spirit inspired its writers. How can I explain this better to someone who doesn’t accept my viewpoint?

A: It gets down to the question of how God, who is a spirit, wrote His word. The way He did it is the way you explained: God inspired (breathed into) various men through the Holy Spirit to write down His message for us (2 Peter 1: 20 -21). A way to explain it to someone who’s having difficulty is to focus on the results.

First, you have this remarkable book written by 40 different authors over a period of 1600 years. By all human measurement, this book should be filled with inconsistencies, both in message and substance. But it’s totally consistent. These authors wrote as if they were in the same room together and decided to write a single book with a single theme and a consistent message. But they didn’t do that. Each author wrote his book individually. Yet the theme of Jesus Christ and the redemption of humankind by a loving God are evident throughout the Bible.

Second, every detail of history is completely accurate. The Bible is the only holy book that roots itself in history so thoroughly and without error. Not every person and event in the Bible has been verified from outside sources, but a huge number have, and none have been shown to be false.

Third, the Bible contains more than 2500 prophecies. Of these, 2000 have already been fulfilled to the letter. The chances that any one book would be correct even 10% of the time is nearly impossible. That a book would be correct 100% of the time concerning 2000 prophecies is in the realm of impossibility, at least from a human perspective.

The only explanation for the Bible’s consistent message, historical accuracy, and perfect prophetic record is a divine, transcendent source. No other possibilities exist. Of course, belief in the Bible as God’s word goes to the heart of a belief in God as the creator and sustainer of the universe. You can’t have one without the other. If God is who the Bible says He is, then God could have easily given us a personal message the way He did. If God is not who the Bible says He is, then the Bible is just another book, and we are without hope in a world without purpose.

Q: How do we know if the New Testament is true or cleverly written to make Jesus out to be the Messiah?

A: This is a very legitimate question. Someone might think that the New Testament writers studied the hundreds of Old Testament prophecies concerning the Messiah and then simply wrote down that Jesus fulfilled them all. The problem with this view is that all four of the gospel writers—along with Paul, Peter, James, Jude, and the writers of Hebrews—would have had to conspire to make this happen, not to mention the hundreds of witnesses who saw Jesus after he was resurrected.

And even if they had conspired and agreed to make Jesus out to be the Messiah, how could they have manipulated the historical facts of the birth and life of Jesus, the many events surrounding His passion, and His crucifixion and resurrection? More than just a few people were involved in the life of Christ. The Roman government with its emperors and governors, the Jewish authorities, and thousands of ordinary people encountered Jesus in one way or another. And yet Jesus the Messiah fulfilled the prophecies written about him hundreds of years earlier. That’s not just clever. It’s utterly astonishing!

More on the legitimacy of the New Testament can be found in a thorough discussion by historian John Stackhouse in the post entitled Was Jesus’ Resurrection Imaginary?

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Relevant Scripture:

 Above all, you must understand that no prophecy of Scripture came about by the prophet’s own interpretation of things. For prophecy never had its origin in the human will, but prophets, though human, spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit. (2 Peter 1: 20 -21)

Reference:

Bible Answers 101 by Bickel & Jantz