God’s Holy Spirit guides believers into an understanding of the truth.
It is something of a colossal understatement to say that we live in a world today that doesn’t respond to authority very well. If you doubt it, ask the police. Ask teachers, coaches, and congressmen. Ask employers, the Supreme Court, and the president.
Deep in the soul of every person is a streak of rugged individualism that begins in the womb and starts to show itself in the cradle. We all want to be our own god. We want to be captains of our soul and masters of our fate.
Is it any wonder then that people question the authority of the Bible? As a minister I can say, “The Bible is the absolute authority for everyone. It is infallible, inerrant, effective, and absolutely authoritative. It is the final word on how we should all live.”
The typical response—which can come from Christians as well as non-Christians—is: “How do I know that? I’m not going to accept what you say unless you show me.”
In other words, they want proof. When it comes to the authority of the Scriptures, a lot of people seem to be from Missouri—they have a “show me” attitude. What can you say when someone wants you to prove the Bible is true?
Four Ways to Prove the Bible
If I want to play the “prove-the-Bible-is-true” game I start by speaking from my personal experience. I believe the Bible is true because it gives me the experience that it claims it will give me. For example, the Bible says that God will forgive my sins. I believe that. I accepted God’s forgiveness, and it happened. How do I know? I have a sense of freedom from guilt.
The Bible also says that if I come to Christ I will be a “new creation.” Old things will pass away, and all things will become new. I believed in Christ one day, and it happened just as the Bible said it would. Old things did pass away, and all things did become new. I know, because I experienced it in my own life.
Yes, the Bible really changes lives. Millions of people—from great heads of state to brilliant educators and scientists, from philosophers and writers to generals and historians—could all testify about how the Bible has changed their lives. Millions of people are living proof that the Bible can put lives together and keep them that way.
A stronger argument comes from science. Although the Bible is not a science book, the descriptions referring to scientific processes are accurate.
Take, for example, the hydrological cycle. Rain or snow falls to the ground and runs off into streams, which run into rivers, which run into the sea. Water evaporates from the surface of the ocean and returns to the clouds, where it becomes rain and snow and falls to the ground again. The hydrological cycle is a discovery of modern times, but the Bible speaks of it in Isaiah 55:10: “As the rain comes down, and the snow from heaven, and do not return there, but water the earth” (for similar references, see Job 36:27 and Ps. 135:7).
For another illustration, we can go to the science of geology. Geologists speak of a state called isostasy, which can be used to describe the balance of the earth as it orbits through space. Basically the idea behind isostasy is that equal weights are necessary to support equal weights. Land mass must be balanced equally by water mass. In order for the earth to remain stable as it spins in orbit, it must be in perfect balance. But again, the scientists haven’t discovered anything that is significantly new or beyond the Bible. The prophet Isaiah also wrote that God “measured the waters in the hollow of His hand” and that He “weighed the mountains in scales and the hills in a balance” (Is. 40:12).
You can find many other examples of how the Bible matches up with discoveries of modern science. Of course the precise technological language is not there, and for good reason. God wrote the Bible for men of all ages, and while His Word never contradicts science, it also never gets trapped into describing some precise scientific theory that becomes outdated in a few years, decades, or centuries. Long before modern science was born, Augustine gave excellent advice to Christians when he said in effect, “We should not rush headlong to one opinion or the other, because there is always the possibility that a hastily adopted viewpoint can turn out to be false, and if our faith is dependent on that view it can appear false, too. And we will be arguing for our own opinions rather than the real doctrines of Scripture.”
A third significant area that has continued to prove the Bible’s accuracy is archaeology. William F. Albright, who was recognized throughout the world as a leading Palestinian archaeologist, attests that there is little doubt that archaeology has confirmed the substantial historical accuracy of Old Testament tradition.
We have received, not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, that we might know the things that have been freely given to us by God.—1 Corinthians 2:12—
For example, higher critics of Scripture doubted the Bible’s description of King Solomon’s wealth. But archaeologist Henry Breasted, between 1925 and 1934, unearthed the remains of one of Solomon’s “chariot cities” at Megiddo in northern Palestine. Breasted found stables capable of holding more than four hundred horses and the remains of barracks for Solomon’s chariot battalions which were stationed to guard a strategic trail that ran through Megiddo. Nelson Glueck, another archaeologist, found the remains of a huge refining factory for copper and iron, two metals Solomon used when bartering for gold, silver, and ivory (see 1 Kin. 9:28; 10:22).
Critics of Scripture also doubted the existence of the Hittites, a people the Bible refers to some forty times. Archaeologist Hugh Winckler excavated the Hittite capital of BoghazKoi and recovered thousands of Hittite texts, as well as the famous Hittite code.
Other examples of how archaeology confirms the authority of the Bible could fill this book and several dozen others. Archaeology helps us see clearly that our Christian faith rests on facts (actual events), not myths or stories.
Perhaps the strongest objective argument for the validity of Scripture comes from fulfilled Bible prophecy. Peter W. Stoner, a scientist and mathematician, utilized what he called “the principle of probability.” This principle holds that if the chance of one thing happening is one in M and the chance of another thing happening is one in N, the chance that they both shall happen is one in M X N. This equation is used in fixing insurance rates. Stoner asked 600 of his students to apply the principle of probability to the biblical prophecy of the destruction of Tyre (see Ezek. 26:3–16), which claims seven definite events: (1) Nebuchadnezzar would take the city; (2) other nations would help fulfill the prophecy; (3) Tyre would be flattened like the top of a rock; (4) the city would become a place where fishermen spread their nets; (5) Tyre’s stones and timbers would be laid in the sea; (6) citizens of other cities would become afraid because of Tyre’s fall; and (7) the old city of Tyre would never be rebuilt. Using the principle of probability in a conservative manner, the students estimated the chances of all seven events occurring as described at one in 400 million, yet all seven did occur.
Stoner’s students did a similar study on the prophecy that predicted the fall of Babylon (see Is. 13:19). They estimated the chances of the Babylon prophecies occurring at one in 100 billion, but everything stated did come to pass.
Biblical prophecy declares the events of the future with accuracy, which is beyond the capability of human wisdom or anticipation. Despite astronomical odds, hundreds of biblical prophecies have come true, and they make the most objective argument for the Bible’s authority.
Beyond Arguments and Proofs
While there are many solid arguments for the authority of Scripture, none of them is of much use if someone doesn’t want to be convinced. Ultimately this question of the authority of the Scriptures is a matter of faith and not of argument. You may convince a man intellectually of what you’re saying, but still he may not necessarily believe in and accept the authority of the Scripture.
Actually there is only one argument that can prove to us that the Bible is true and authoritative for our lives: the work of the Holy Spirit in our hearts and minds. Perhaps no one knew this better than the apostle Paul, and there is no clearer description of the work in the heart of the believer in Christ than 1 Corinthians 2:
And I, brethren, when I came to you, did not come with excellence of speech or of wisdom declaring to you the testimony of God. For I determined not to know anything among you except Jesus Christ and Him crucified. I was with you in weakness, in fear, and in much trembling. And my speech and my preaching were not with persuasive words of human wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power, that your faith should not be in the wisdom of men but in the power of God. (1 Cor. 2:1–5)
Paul stressed that he came to the Corinthians with nothing but the simple gospel. The gospel does not need the addition of human philosophy or wisdom. God does not need man’s reason, or man’s innovation. Everything about the gospel is really very simple. In fact, to the world it sounds so simple it seems foolish. In 1 Corinthians 1:18 Paul writes, “For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing.” And that is exactly what it was to the sophisticated Corinthians, who, like their neighbors in nearby Athens, were always seeking the newest theory and the most brilliant new philosophy.
In effect the Corinthians were saying, “Paul, you’re full of nonsense. Do you expect intellectuals like us, with all of our wisdom and education, to believe that somewhere, sometime one fellow died on a cross and that was the turning point of human history?” People say essentially the same today. “The Bible? That’s for little kids and old ladies, isn’t it? No intelligent person would believe the Bible. I just can’t buy it.” I’ve heard many people say similar things. And Paul agrees with all of them. When it comes to “human wisdom” the Bible certainly does sound like a lot of foolishness.
But Paul isn’t preaching human or worldly wisdom. The only people who can know the wisdom that Paul is talking about are Christians. God’s wisdom is open only to the minds of believers in Christ as Savior and Lord. Paul then goes on to make two points about true wisdom—how it is discovered and how it is revealed.
True Wisdom Not Humanly Discovered
As I talk with people I hear a lot of opinions about God: “Well, I think God is… ” “In my opinion, God is… ” While we all have a right to our own opinions, that can’t help us when it comes to knowing God. We can’t know God on our own, no matter how hard we try. We can’t escape the confines of our natural existence, leap into a supernatural dimension, and then come back and tell everyone what we know about God. We can’t leave this natural world. We are stuck here, unable to know God on our own.
Christians are always giving testimonies about how “I found the Lord.” But the Lord wasn’t lost. We were, and He found us. He had to come and find us because we aren’t able to transcend our own world. That’s why Paul says in 1 Corinthians 2:6 that the wisdom of this age is “coming to nothing.” Paul is thinking of the philosophers who keep coming and going, arguing, and changing their views. While philosophy has made contributions down through the ages, there has been a great deal of contradiction and even instability. As one philosophy professor told his class: “Philosophy bakes no bread.”
Paul speaks of an entirely different kind of wisdom. He teaches, “But we speak the wisdom of God in a mystery, the hidden wisdom which God ordained before the ages for our glory” (1 Cor. 2:7). Before time began, God had a marvelous salvation plan, and He hid it. Then in Christ and in the New Testament, all of these mysteries were revealed.
God had to reveal the mystery, of course, because the brilliant “rulers of this age” didn’t understand it. If they had they would not “have crucified the Lord of glory” (1 Cor. 2:8). The rulers of this age Paul was referring to were the Jewish and Roman leaders. They didn’t know God, and they didn’t know the truth. If they had, they never would have crucified Christ. All the brilliant Romans and all those educated, erudite Sadducees and Pharisees, those who were well schooled in the Old Testament, together they all crucified Christ.
Paul then goes on to quote Isaiah, “Eye has not seen, nor ear heard, nor have entered into the heart of man the things which God has prepared for those who love Him” (1 Cor. 2:9). With all of its quest for truth, the world can’t figure out what’s going on.
There are only two ways you can come to truth, humanly speaking. One is objective, the other is subjective. One uses the experiential empirical method, the other uses reason or logic. When Paul talks about “eye has not seen; nor ear heard,” he’s talking about the experiential empirical method. But God cannot be observed by our eyes. We can’t hear Him or see Him. He does not fit in our test tubes or under our microscopes.
The other way men draw conclusions is through their own reasoning—rationalism. And that’s why Paul goes on to say that no mind has conceived what God has prepared. Worldly wisdom can’t know God through the study of objective facts, and it can’t know Him internally through subjective thought processes. The world is in a hopeless state; but God has a great plan. The secret to knowing God is loving Him through Jesus Christ. The human mind does not discover God. God revealed Himself to the human mind in Christ.
True Wisdom Is Revealed by the Holy Spirit
When I was a student in high school I visited a girl in an iron lung. Fortunately, because polio has been controlled by the Salk vaccine, iron lungs are not in use as much as they once were. It’s terrible to see someone in an iron lung—a large casket-like affair with pumps and hoses and dials and gauges. This lovely girl had to stay in that iron lung all the time. Anything that came to her had to come from the outside. She wasn’t going anywhere.
In a way an iron lung is an apt illustration of the position of natural man. Spiritually speaking, he is in an iron lung of his own capacity. If any wisdom or truth about God is going to come to him, it will have to be brought in from the outside. In his natural state, man isn’t going anywhere.
And that is the point Paul is making here in 1 Corinthians 2. The Holy Spirit has invaded man’s iron lung with the truth. As the Holy Spirit reveals true wisdom, three elements are discernible: revelation, inspiration, and illumination.
Revelation means the disclosure of something that has been previously hidden, the unveiling of something that has been veiled. The Holy Spirit is the agent who reveals God’s wisdom to the Christian as He “searches all things, yes, the deep things of God” (1 Cor. 2:10). No one is better qualified. As Paul points out, no one knows the thoughts of a man better than “the spirit of the man which is in him.” And “no one knows the things of God except the Spirit of God” (1 Cor. 2:11).
Inspiration is the next step in the process. Inspiration is the method by which the Spirit delivers God’s revelation. Paul goes on to say that “we [the apostles] have received, not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, that we might know the things that have been freely given to us by God” (1 Cor. 2:13).
Be sure to note that when Paul uses the word “we” he is not referring to all Christians in a general sense. He is referring to the apostles and other writers of Scripture. You and I have received spiritual truth through their writings; but here Paul is talking about his own experience, how he and other apostles received spiritual truths directly from the Spirit.
Paul’s reference to how the apostles have received words taught directly by the Spirit matches the teaching in John 14:26 where Jesus tells the disciples, “But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name, He will teach you all things, and bring to your remembrance all things that I said to you.” Jesus’ promise is not primarily for all believers for all time. It was spoken to those who would write the New Testament. It was to many of the disciples, later to be called apostles, that God gave power to remember the words of Christ and all that He did. And how did He give that power? It was through inspiration.
When Paul sat down and wrote 1 Corinthians, the Spirit of God took control of him. The Spirit of God breathed into Paul’s mind what God wanted said and then Paul used his own vocabulary and his own experience to write Scripture. The Bible is not only God’s Word, it is God’s words.
Revelation and inspiration are only two steps in the work of the Spirit as it is described here in 1 Corinthians 2. Perhaps its most important work is in the third step—illumination. Many people have a Bible, but don’t really know what’s in it. Or they believe in strange and interesting doctrines that are not taught by the Bible at all. The safeguard against misuse of the Bible is the illumination from the Holy Spirit. That is what Paul is talking about when he writes in 1 Corinthians 2:14: “But the natural man does not receive the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; nor can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned.”
No matter how religious he might be, the natural man can’t understand the real message of Scripture. He can’t get out of his iron lung. Not only that, but somebody has pulled his plug! Spiritually speaking, he is dead. In Psalm 119:18, the psalmist prays a beautiful prayer: “Open my eyes, that I may see wondrous things from Your law.” God didn’t just give us the law (the Scriptures). He also has to open the eyes of our understanding; and He does this as the Holy Spirit illuminates our minds. Truth is available, but only those who are illuminated will understand it.
The natural man may be able to read God’s inspired revelation, but without the illumination of the Holy Spirit it won’t make sense to him. Just as a blind man can’t see the sun, the natural man can’t see the Son of Righteousness. Just as the deaf man can’t hear sweet music, the natural man can’t appreciate the sweet song of salvation. As Martin Luther said, “Man is like Lot’s wife—a pillar of salt. He’s like a log or a stone. He’s like a lifeless statue that uses neither eyes nor mouth, neither senses nor heart, unless he is enlightened, converted and regenerated by the Holy Spirit.”
“He who is spiritual,” on the other hand, “judges all things, yet he himself is rightly judged by no one. For ‘who has known the mind of the Lord that he may instruct Him?’ “ (1 Cor. 2:15, 16).
This verse tells us that we have a tremendous and a heavy responsibility. The Holy Spirit is our resident teacher of truth. God’s point of reference is within us, and in a spiritual sense we can be judged by no one. The world can laugh at the Christian, mock him, call him a fool, and—in some places in this world still today—can kill him. But no one can judge the spiritual man (the Christian who has the Holy Spirit) because to do that means that person is judging the Lord Himself.
The Christian, however, should not misuse his spiritual status. He must be careful to never think he knows it all because, obviously, there are many natural areas when he does need advice, help, correction, and even judgment. But in the area of the spiritual, Paul says clearly that the Christian is judged by no man.
To Sum It Up
While the Christian can marshal good arguments from personal experience, science, archaeology, and prophecy, he cannot finally “prove” the Bible is true and authoritative. Still, he knows the Bible is true because of his resident truth-teacher—the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is the only one who can prove God’s Word is true; and He does this as He works in the heart and mind of the Christian in whom He dwells.
THINK BACK
1. What kinds of evidence are frequently used to “prove” the Bible?
2. What is the limitation of worldly wisdom?
3. Why is illumination more important than revelation or inspiration?