Is the Bible True? When I was a boy, I would try my best to understand church, I heard the stories about how Jesus healed people and how everything was wonderful when you're a Christian. As hard as I tried to believe I still saw things that made me doubt, pain, sin, poor witnesses,

One thing I remember vividly is laying in bed when I was 10 or 11 feeling scared and wishing God would reassure me. I'd lay there and quietly say "Jesus?" And I'd wait for a few minutes. I figured if I had enough faith Jesus would answer and then I'd believe. It sounds silly but a lot of people are like that.

Jesus did speak, it took me many years to figure it out. Jesus spoke through the Bible as did God the Father and the Holy Spirit. God's word is alive and when you accept it as real, God really does speak to you through it. However, how do we know the Bible is a non-fiction book? How do we know the Bible is accurate? The earliest complete copy of the Old Testament we have was written around AD 900. This was a copy of a book, some of which was written nearly 2000 years earlier. How do we know it's accurate?

OLD TESTAMENT:
First of all, in 1947, in caves cut into cliffs west of the Dead Sea some copies of books in the Old Testament were found these were written over 1000 years earlier around BC 150. There were very few differences between the BC 150 copy and the AD 900 copy. The only changes were in spelling, and punctuation. There was absolutely no change in meaning between the copies. The differences were because of DIALECT.

Further more the historical and geographical reliability of the Old Testament is witness to its validity as a factual document. At one time many critics of the Bible would point to non-existent cities that the Bible made mention of as evidence of it's inaccuracy. However as time has passed and our means of excavation have improved. It has become more and more evident that the Bible is a reliable record of history. Archeology has identified nearly every major city mentioned in the Old Testament, also archeologist has verified many specific biblical events such as the story of David and Goliath as well as many battles. They have unearthed over 25,000 site showing some connection with events in the Old Testament. The Old Testament is a reliable historic record.

NEW TESTAMENT:
While copies of the Old Testament may not be abundant, the New Testament is another story. We have nearly 20,000 early copies of the Greek New Testament. The New Testament has the best manuscript authority of any ancient document, consider this, the historic writing with the nearest manuscript authority is the Iliad and only 643 early copies of it exist.

The oldest complete copy of the New Testament was written in AD 350 only 300 years after the original. To put this in perspective, how accurate are our copies of our Declaration of Independence? We have many pieces of copies of the New Testament, which date back to AD 100, written only 50 years after the original!

So accuracy of the New Testament is a given. Validity of the New Testament can best be seen by the many documents that verify claims made in the Bible. These documents include official letters about specific people in the New Testament, government reports verifying kingships stated in the New Testament, Even census that were taken that show the existence of some people in the New Testament. Written historical proof alone is overwhelming evidence that the New Testament is a real historical document!

So the Bible is non-fictional and accurate, is it the Word of God? There are different ways of answering this question. Probably the most convincing proof is in the prophecy given in the Bible. In Deuteronomy 18 God says something to the effect that you know he is God because he knows the future. The Bible is full of predictions on future events that came true. Prophecy in the Bible was clear and concise. Giving names and days of the rise and fall of nations and kings, the occurrences of wars and so on. In the Old Testament alone there are over 2000 prophecies. Not one Prophecy in the Bible has ever failed. Not all have been fulfilled yet, but not one has failed. I would encourage you to study this, it is by this that we know that the Bible is the word of God.

Summary:
Bible is accurate (Archeological finds)
Bible is non-fiction (By historical facts)
Bible is word of God. (By prophecy