How do you know that the Bible is the word of God?

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If you looked at comparisons with the Bible:
There is the Koran, the Book of Mormon, and Hindu and Buddhist wisdom literature.

For the first one, the Koran came after the Bible and references Old and New Testaments as being the Word of God - so there is confirmation there.
I believe even the Book of Mormon references the Bible that way, although even if not, analysis of the BoM indicates many problems. Hindu and Buddhist works do not really claim to be the Word of God as such.

That leaves the Bible - which is validated by the Jewish community which still somewhat exists today, and the Catholic community (the Church) which exists in continuity with the New Testament. Those communities gave us the Bible and they gave testimony to the truth of the Bible through martyrdom and a preservation of the Church under many pressures and costs – and also showing remarkable lives of holiness by believers in the Bible.
 
fisherman_carl said:
I think, Because ultimately, like so many miracles, it has the testimony of so many faithful witnesses throughout it’s history. The Bible is just a collection of books. But if it can help lead you to something greater, a relationship with a person, Jesus Christ, then it testifies to itself. There is no way that I know of to prove the Scripures are inspired. However, if you are open and you read them you just might come to that conclusion on your own as you may find God speaking to you through them. Once you find God speaking to you through them then they become like a treasure trove, a pearl of great value. Jesus said if you follow his teaching then you will know the truth which will set you free.
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Yes! Very thoughtful post…
👍
 
I tried to add this as an edit to my post but ran out of time…

When you first read it, the Bible, you may think Wow what beautiful or scary or wild out of this world stories. But then you begin to internalize it. And it speaks to you on a deeper level. For example Jesus being born of a virgin in a stable. In any sensible world the KING of the UNIVERSE would have a much grander beginning when making his entrance to save us from our sins. Just that fact alone…the simplicity used by God to reach out to men…changed my outlook on the bible… I know I’m not saying it correctly to make you understand how it affects me. Read the 22 psalm. Written thousands of years before Jesus was born and yet it speaks to his suffering in great detail. How does that happen? Down to counting all my bones and rolling dice for his clothes…

In the old testament, Read about Moses and the burning bush… Things happen that just cannot be explained. And when you connect the beginnings of Moses left to die in the bulrushes and adopted by Pharaoh’s daughter… killing an Egyptian, running away for YEARS and coming back to lead his people through so many signs and wonders… if it doesn’t speak to you as coming from God then you probably believe that all of the marvels of the earth, human existence, etc is just one big coincidence, an accident. When you begin to see intervention into ordinary daily lives you begin to believe in something or someone bigger than yourself.
 
DaddyGirl said:
But God tells other people of other religions that their bible is the word of God, too.
And their bible is different than yours.
Are all the bibles the word of God, then? Because God says so each time?

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God only has one “Bible”. No other holy text is from God. He doesn’t tell other religions that they’re right.
 
ANV said:
What leads you to KNOW that the Bible is the word of God.
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Reading the bible made me aware of certain spiritual truths that i otherwise would not have understood or comprehended. This leads me to think that the bible, through the power of the holy spirit, is the inspired word of God.

*"105 God is the author of Sacred Scripture. "The divinely revealed realities, which are contained and presented in the text of Sacred Scripture, have been written down under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit.“69”
*
 
Della said:
Whatever is true, is true, no matter who teaches it or how it comes to be believed. Catholic theologians have supported the idea that pagans can be inspired by God, since all men are created in God’s image and God desires to save all men. For example:

Hebrews 11:6 And without faith it is impossible to please him. For whoever would draw near to God must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him.

Well, they have faith, even if what they believe in isn’t the whole truth. But if they seek God, he will reward that seeking with the truth.

Acts 10 a man named Cornelius, a Roman who did what he could do to follow the Law of Moses impressed St. Peter:

34 Then Peter began to speak: “I now realize how true it is that God does not show favoritism 35 but accepts from every nation the one who fears him and does what is right.

From the Catechism:

Possible salvation of non-Christians: #s 846-848.

“Outside the Church there is no salvation”
846 How are we to understand this affirmation, often repeated by the Church Fathers?335 Re-formulated positively, it means that all salvation comes from Christ the Head through the Church which is his Body:
Basing itself on Scripture and Tradition, the Council teaches that the Church, a pilgrim now on earth, is necessary for salvation: the one Christ is the mediator and the way of salvation; he is present to us in his body which is the Church. He himself explicitly asserted the necessity of faith and Baptism, and thereby affirmed at the same time the necessity of the Church which men enter through Baptism as through a door. Hence they could not be saved who, knowing that the Catholic Church was founded as necessary by God through Christ, would refuse either to enter it or to remain in it.336

847 This affirmation is not aimed at those who, through no fault of their own, do not know Christ and his Church:
Those who, through no fault of their own, do not know the Gospel of Christ or his Church, but who nevertheless seek God with a sincere heart, and, moved by grace, try in their actions to do his will as they know it through the dictates of their conscience - those too may achieve eternal salvation.337
848 "Although in ways known to himself God can lead those who, through no fault of their own, are ignorant of the Gospel, to that faith without which it is impossible to please him, the Church still has the obligation and also the sacred right to evangelize all men."338

So we see that those who follow their own belief systems believing that they are seeking God will be rewarded for that seeking. It isn’t that our Bible is the only truth, but that it has all the truth needed for our salvation, since Christ came though the Hebrew people as promised by God through their prophets.
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👍 You have refuted the false dilemma, hopefully for once and for all. 🙂
 
Della said:
Indeed. A little information helps–instead of relying on hearsay or misinformation. 🙂
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In the context of the OP we know the Bible is the word of God because, as Jesus said:
“By their fruits you shall know them”. It is no accident that the universal belief in the principles of liberty, equality and fraternity is based on Christ’s teaching that we are all children of the same Father. Otherwise we would be related solely by an accident of birth without any moral obligations to one another…
 
STT said:
And where the church takes its credibility from? Word of God, Bible. This is circular.
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Actually no, and these armchair Catholic “apologists” should really know better.

Too bad people are spouting out “pious” rather than sensible answers.

The Church does not take its credibility from the Bible as the Word of God. The Bible can be used to defend the Church in discussions with those who already accept the Bible as an authority, so it’s common ground. For those who do NOT accept the Bible as an authority, appealing to the Bible to establish the Church is not the right method of argument.

I’ll just state it in brief. The Church actually takes its credibility from history. The Bible does form part of that history, and we approach the Bible just as that: an historical resource, not as a God-inspired text. The Bible forms one part of this history, and can and should be checked, balanced and verified against the other sciences, such as textual criticism, archaeology, secular history, ancient literature. Alongside these, the Bible is fair game, and just one source of many. We do not dismiss the Bible just because it has religious content, because, like it or not, it IS a critical text, and as such can be accepted or dismissed on its own literary merits. But it is a fallacy to simply reject the Bible outright just because it’s the Bible. It deserves consideration as a historic resource as we would the Rosetta Stone, the Code of Hammurabi, and the Mesha Stele.

Based on the Biblical, historical, and other texts, the Church claims its credibility. I, for example, based on the Biblical narratives (not assuming that it’s the Word of God), historical testimony, patristic writings, and the deaths of those who claimed to be eyewitnesses (the apostles and their immediate disciples, such as Ignatius and Polycarp; martyrs who came later do not carry as much weight), I am convinced by reason alone that (1) God exists; (2) miracles happen; and that (3) the man Jesus existed and indeed rose from the dead by some miracle.

Since one of the things this Jesus said was to establish an authoritative Church, a guy who rose from the dead probably has something going for what he said. And I can’t persuade myself, as inconvenient as it might be to my hedonistic tendencies, that the Church is false. History does not support such a notion.

By reason alone, I must accept that the Church has the authority Jesus said it would have.

The Church says, these books are divinely inspired. It’s on that basis that we accept that the Bible is the Word of God.

It’s not my intention to go into depth about 2000 years of history to prove my point, but it’s there for those who really need it.
 
ANV said:
What leads you to KNOW that the Bible is the word of God.
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In the end it’s a subjective thing. I hear His voice in Scripture because He made me- in His own image- and made me to recognize it when I hear it-if I’m willing. We’re “family” so to speak. 🙂
 
Della said:
As to the sentences I bolded–sure some arguments here have been based on piety. But, I cannot agree doing so is as useless as you seem to think. After all, there is more to life than mere logic, argument, or even evidence from history, etc. Anything that drives us to God is a good thing, so let’s not be so quick to dismiss what helps others to accept the tenets of the faith, even if it doesn’t reach cerebral heights of rhetoric and proofs. Okay?

Secondly, some of us certainly did provide arguments similar to your own. Maybe you scanned the thread a bit too quickly to notice?
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It’s more about responding appropriately according to the audience. The one asking is an atheist. This means we approach his question on grounds common to both of us and that is reason. “God says so” is therefore a useless answer for him because he doesn’t believe in God in the first place. If a fellow Christian were the one asking then maybe that answer can stand. Here however, one has to at least try to establish why one believes in God, then Christ, then the Church. We cannot appeal to our own spirituality or the Catechism or the Church because they are not accepted authorities common to both questioner and respondent.

This is part of apologetics 101: tailoring the argument for the questioner.
 
porthos11 said:
It’s more about responding appropriately according to the audience. The one asking is an atheist. This means we approach his question on grounds common to both of us and that is reason. “God says so” is therefore a useless answer for him because he doesn’t believe in God in the first place. If a fellow Christian were the one asking then maybe that answer can stand. Here however, one has to at least try to establish why one believes in God, then Christ, then the Church. We cannot appeal to our own spirituality or the Catechism or the Church because they are not accepted authorities common to both questioner and respondent.

This is part of apologetics 101: tailoring the argument for the questioner.
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I agree to tailoring one’s argument, but then, we cannot know what will stir someone’s heart, either. It’s fine for us to answer as we think will be most helpful–it’s the most sensible thing to do, certainly. Still, sometimes the sensible thing isn’t the thing a person really needs. We can only answer as best we can “for the hope that lies within us” and then leave it up to the Holy Spirit to do the rest–especially since it’s not our words that will convert anyone’s heart, but the drawing of the Holy Spirit using our words, good argument to not, to bring someone to repentance and so to God. For repentance is needed–which requires a humble heart before the One who created us. Without it, no one can see God, figuratively, or, as we hope, to face-to-face. 🙂
 
ANV said:
What leads you to KNOW that the Bible is the word of God.
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The Catholic Church tells me it is so. I figured out that it is so. No, I can’ t prove it to you it is. Even if I could, it may not affect any one’s mind other than acknowledging it as a historical oddity. What is important is not whether God autographed it, but his message to us.
 
tonyrey said:
Despite their differences all religions proclaim the same basic truth: God exists and we should respect everyone’s rights to liberty, equality and fraternity - which do not exist in a Godless universe.
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There is more violence in religious books than any other thing in the world, thousands of religions were made with thounsands of gods over history, each say different things, so they are not that common and indeed not all call for equality and liberty, apparently, specially the Abrahamic books.
The Islamic God is so different from the Christian God so different from the Hindu Gods or the greek Gods etc… even if by source the two Abrahamic religions Christianity and Islam take as source the Judeo God but in Characters, orders and rules they are two different things and not one.
 
Charlemagne_III said:
What leads you to KNOW that the Bible is not the word of God? 🤷
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It is irrational, unscientific, cruel, unethical, illogical and full of contraditions, obviously human made.
Since you asked why I don’t believe, with no offence made to those who believe, sometimes it can has nice things, like some of Jesus teachings, as a part of human nature to be good or evil, not because it is from God, but still mostly I see it as superstitions and mythologies only.
 
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