How to Know that the Bible is True?

How do we know that the Bible is true?

This is one of the most important question that have ever asked in the history of mankind.

Answer this question, and you will be able to answer about the creation of of the world, the existence of God, the death of Jesus, the resurrection of Jesus, the miracles of the prophets, and most relevantly: the purpose of our lives on earth.

According to RC Sproul's book (Now, That's a Good Question), if we want to test whether something is true, we are asking a technical question in epistemology.

How do we test claims of truth? There is a certain kind of truth that we test through:
- observation
- experimentation
- eyewitness
- examination
- scientific evidence

As far as the history of Jesus is concerned. as far as we know any in history, we want to check the stories of Scriptures using those means by which historical evidence can be tested - through archaeology, for example. There are certain elements of the scriptures, such as historical claims, that are to be measured by the common standards of historiography.

Out of the multitude of archaeological discoveries related to the Bible, consider a few examples to illustrate the remarkable external substantiation of biblical claims. Excavations at Nuzi (1925-41), Mari (discovered in 1933), and Alalakh (1937-39; 1946-49) provide helpful background information that fits well with the Genesis stories of the patriarchal period. The Nuzi tablets and Mari letters illustrate the patriarchal customs in great detail, and the Ras Shamra tablets discovered in ancient Ugarit in Syria shed much light on Hebrew prose and poetry and Canaanite culture. The Ebla tablets discovered recently in northern Syria also affirm the antiquity and accuracy of the Book of Genesis.

Quoted from https://bible.org/article/how-accurate-bible 

Secondly, we can test the claims of truth through the test of rationality. Is it logically consistent? It is coherent?

Note that the Bible is a compilation of 66 books, written by 40 authors, over 1500 years - but with consistent focus about Jesus! That's amazing.

It's astonishing that the Bible has literally of testable historical prophecies, cases in which events were clearly foretold, and both the foretelling and the fulfilment are a matter of historical record. The very dimension of the sheer fulfilment of of prophecy of the Old Testament Scriptures should be enough to convince anyone that we are dealing with a supernatural piece of literature.

The prophet Isaiah prophesied about the birth of Jesus, 700 years before the birth of Jesus.

David wrote about the crucifixion of Jesus about 1000 years before Jesus was crucified, and 500 years before the first crucifixion (497 BC). Isaiah talked about it as well.

Thirdly, is there any external test about the validity of the Bible? The answer is a resounding yes!
Especially about the New Testament, there are many extrabiblical references about the accuracy of the New Testament. It's very important for us to be very sure of the accuracy of the New Testament (especially about the four gospels), because it talks about Jesus that can changed our lives forever.

The historicity of Jesus Christ is well-established by early Roman, Greek, and Jewish sources, and these extrabiblical writings affirm the major details of the New Testament portrait of the Lord. The first-century Jewish historian Flavius Josephus made specific references to John the Baptist, Jesus Christ, and James in his Antiquities of the Jews. In this work, Josephus gives us many background details about the Herods, the Sadducees and Pharisees, the high priests like Annas and Caiaphas, and the Roman emperors mentioned in the gospels and Acts.

We find another early secular reference to Jesus in a letter written a little after A.D. 73 by an imprisoned Syrian named Mara Bar-Serapion. This letter to his son compares the deaths of Socrates, Pythagoras, and Christ. Other first- and second-century writers who mention Christ include the Roman historians Cornelius Tacitus (Annals) and Suetonius (Life of Claudius, Lives of the Caesars), the Roman governor Pliny the Younger (Epistles), and the Greek satirist Lucian (On the Death of Peregrine). Jesus is also mentioned a number of times in the Jewish Talmud.

Quoted from https://bible.org/article/how-accurate-bible 

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Watch below's video for some of the best explanations about the Bible:

Ravi Zacharias: How Do We Know the Bible is True

Pastor Robert Morris: How Do I Know? - The Bible Is True

John Piper: God’s Peculiar Glory: How We Can Know the Bible Is True

Note:
epistemology
- the theory of knowledge, especially with regard to its methods, validity, and scope. Epistemology is the investigation of what distinguishes justified belief from opinion.

coherent

- logical; consistent and orderly

archaeology

- the study of human history and prehistory through the excavation of sites and the analysis of artifacts and other physical remains.

Resources Link:

https://bible.org/article/how-accurate-bible

http://www.desiringgod.org/messages/gods-peculiar-glory

http://www.christiananswers.net/q-eden/edn-t003.html

https://www.gotquestions.org/is-the-Bible-true.html

https://essentialbible.org/2016/06/top-10-reasons-the-bible-is-true/

http://www.gracechapelsomd.org/books/The_New_Evidence_That_Demands_A_Verdict.pdf