“How Historical Evidence Is Used to Verify the Bible”

All Christian truth-claims ultimately rest with the reliability of the Bible. What we know about the nature of God, deity of Christ, work of the Holy Spirit, means to salvation, answered prayer, and all other Christian truths rests squarely on the authenticity of Scripture. If we cannot demonstrate the Bible’s authority and reliability to unbelievers, they will likely consider Christianity no different than any other world religion. Its truth-claims would only rest on the subjective religious experiences or the personal opinions of people—which, we saw in earlier blog articles, cannot be tested independently for truth. It is the demonstrated reliability of the Bible that sets Christianity apart from all other religions.

The Bible is an historical document that Christians claim is the revelation of God. Its authors are dead and much of its contents are not only fantastic, but impossible to prove with mathematical certainty (e.g. miracles, deity of Christ, and Heaven). How does historical evidence prove the reliability and authenticity of the Bible? It does so in the following two primary ways.

First, it reveals positive evidence. The same methods of historical investigation used to determine the authenticity of any ancient document can be applied to the Bible. The results of this investigation demonstrate beyond doubt that the Bible is completely accurate and trustworthy with regard to its textual composition, it’s historical, scientific, and prophetic claims, and its geographical and cultural descriptions. Here are a few examples.

Archaeology has verified almost all of the historical events, peoples, nations, cities, trade routes, and customs portrayed in Scriptures. Many of these facts were once rejected by skeptics because, for centuries, their existence was mentioned only in the Bible. Likewise, hundreds of Old Testament prophecies have been borne out by history. Most noteworthy are the dozens of prophecies that predict the coming, life, ministry, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. Altogether, these and other historical evidences are powerful and compelling proof of the historicity of the Bible.

What conclusion can we draw? In every area in which it can be checked out, the Bible is proven to be totally reliable. If its verifiable contents are proven to be accurate and reliable, it is logical to assume that its subjective truth-claims (i.e., its spiritual contents) are equally trustworthy. There is no logical reason to reject this. The key here is that Bible’s spiritual truths do not stand alone. They rest squarely and firmly on a foundation of verifiable facts.

Second, historical investigation provides negative evidence. When the same techniques of historical investigation used to verify the Bible are applied to other religious documents, the non-Christian documents are found to be spurious. Much of their historical, scientific, and prophetic claims are false. Indeed, all non-Christian religions are conspicuous by the absence of historical evidence. Ultimately, non-Christian religions fall back on personal experiences and the unverified so-called “revelations” of their religious leaders. If religious truth exists at all, the evidence and logic demand that it’s Christianity. There are no other contenders.

In short, no other religious book in the world passes the test of objective historical investigation that the Bible does. As such, Christianity attains the highest level of certainty available in the area of historical proof. ©