How We Know the Scriptures are Reliable

This devotion is written by a special guest author, Christian Jones.

Have you ever had someone ask for evidence of the Bible’s reliability? The Bible proves itself with internal evidence. Prophecies in the Old Testament have come true. The likeliness that even a few prophecies could be fulfilled by one person is impossible. Even though the Bible was written over 1,500 years by dozens of people, it is one story that does not contradict itself. For these reasons, the Bible gives hope to people and has proven reliable in peoples lives. 

The Gospel tells about Jesus, the Messiah. Throughout the Gospels, Jesus fulfills prophecies that were foretold hundreds of years before. Even on the cross, Jesus cried out “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” In doing this, He was referring the people to Psalm 22. It says “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” and later in verse 16 it says “they pierce my hands and my feet. All my bones are on display; people stare and gloat over me. They divide my clothes among them and cast lots for my garment.” This literally describes what Jesus endured when he was flogged, hung on a cross, and the guards cast lots to divide his garments among them. George Crabb, in his video titled Unveiling Psalm 22 explains that the prophecy of David, which was written 1000 years before Christ, was fulfilled in Jesus’ death.  

Jesus fulfilled more then 324 prophecies. Even prophecies that he did not have control over, like where he was born, that his family would flee to Egypt, and that He would be called a Nazarene were all fulfilled. In How Many Messianic Prophecies Did Jesus Fulfill in Scripture, Jonathan Bernis shares that a Mathematician named Peter Stoner did calculations to figure out the probability of one person fulfilling just 48 prophecies. “’Just’ 48 of the prophecies found in the Tanakh (Old Testament) would be one in (10 followed by 157 zeros)!” It is unfathomable then that Jesus was not the Messiah prophesied about a thousand years earlier. 

The Bible was written by dozens of authors over 1,500 years, but it never contradicts itself. In a video called Miraculous Connections in the Bible, Dale McCamish describes a photo that shows cross references in the Bible. “The Bible cross references itself so much...They found 66,779 cross references in the Bible.” Jordan Peterson says “The Bible is the very first hyperlinked text. It cross references itself so many times.” There was no way that dozens of authors spanning over a thousand years could communicate with one another to reference back to one another. Clearly this shows that there is just one Author speaking through many authors to write His great story. 

The Bible proves to be reliable internally. Prophecies coming true, the unlikeliness mathematically of prophecies being fulfilled, and the cross references of dozens of authors over 1,500 years is overwhelming evidence of it’s reliability. If someone were to ask me about the reliability of the Bible, I would share these simple facts that prove a divine Author of the Bible.