Why Trust the Bible?

I live in a country where fewer than 2 percent of the population on the mainland identify as Christian. Most people here in West Malaysia are Muslim, Buddhist, Hindu, or Taoist. Free thinkers are not rare, either. So, when I worked in a health center last year, I enjoyed engaging the patients in a lecture on why I trust the Bible.

In short, I have three reasons. Two of these are objective reasons and are relevant to strangers and skeptics alike. One of them, a subjective reason, only holds water with those who have had time to get to know me.

Objective Evidence #1: The Future

First, I am completely amazed by predictive prophecy. Here are a few of the things that I have found predicted in Scripture:

1. The rise of the Babylonian, Persian, Greek, and Roman empires—in that order.
2. The complete overthrow of the Hebrew Temple, including the largely unprecedented removal of every block of granite or marble.
3. The rise of the Holy Roman Empire out of the ashes of Western Rome.
4. The rise of Islam as a scourge that eventually took down Eastern Rome.
5. The futility of trying to unite the European powers into one empire again. This futility was experienced by Charlemagne and others, and by Napoleon and Hitler later on.
6. The rise of European states into dominant world powers. Did you realize that these powers colonized North and South America, parts of Africa and the Middle East, Australia, New Zealand, Pakistan, India, Bangladesh, the Philippines, Indonesia, Malaysia, and most of the habitable islands of the world?

There are skeptical arguments against such predictions, but they don’t hold up well when closely investigated. So these predictions are incredibly informative to me. After all, it was the God of the Bible that famously challenged all contenders for the role of deity to show their power by accurately predicting the distant future or describing the ancient past. Consider Isaiah 41:23: “Show the things that are to come hereafter, that we may know that ye are gods: yea, do good, or do evil, that we may be dismayed, and behold it together.”

There are other writings that claim to have predicted the future. Some, like Nostradamus, use vague predictions that could mean almost anything. Others, like the Quran, make statements related to science that are urged by their believers as being ahead of their time. The trouble here, besides the generally unconvincing nature of the data, is that demons know science and can give insights here. However, they don’t know the future, except as they learn about it in the writings of the prophets.

To summarize, I find the Bible to be the only widely recognized source of religious instruction that makes substantial and reliable predictions.

Objective Evidence #2: Health Information

Have you ever read a translation of an ancient writing on health and healing? Such writings are entertaining, but not highly enlightening in the classic sense. One of the better-informed ancient texts was compiled or written by Esagil-kin-apli. And what you find in his writings are spells, incantations, and omens innumerable. One such omen said that if you saw a colored pig while nearing the home of the patient, then the patient had dropsy.

If a novelist were to write three hundred years ago, the incidental aspects of the story would be sufficient to date it in terms of medical knowledge. But what if the novelist was Moses and had written the book four thousand years ago? That would mean that there was no germ theory, no concept of communicable diseases, no idea of the value of burying excrement, and no idea of what diet would be most helpful. (Sometimes it even seems that fully modern writers have no idea of what diet is most helpful.)

Consequently, I get excited when I share with my audiences here in Malaysia that the Bible, through Moses, describes the diet in the Garden of Eden as being plant-based. How could anyone four millennia ago know that a plant-based diet is best for health? That certainly wasn’t the general view of the ancients!

Moses also gave instructions about what to do with human excrement, requiring all persons to take a small shovel with them, leave the camp, and bury their deposits. How could a society of slaves have known how important this practice was to the safety of their drinking water?

Another of Moses’ instructions was that those eating flesh meats were to refuse mammals unless they both chewed the cud and had cloven hooves. But how would anyone have known that such qualifications successfully separate the natural trash collectors (like pigs) from the ruminants (like sheep, deer, and cows)? And among the fish, Moses declared only those with fins and scales to be edible—eliminating catfish, eels, and lobsters, all of which are terrible collectors of heavy metals and toxins.

Moreover, Moses left instructions for managing infectious diseases that included quarantine for stated periods of time. He wrote down rules for cleaning vessels that had been defiled: clay was to be broken, stone heated, etc. These instructions, consistent with germ theory, were incredibly ahead of their time.

Lastly, Moses instructed that when flesh meats were eaten, the blood and the fat were to be removed from the carcass and discarded as inedible. Cooks know that the blood and the fat are the very elements of flesh meats that make them tasty. Nutritionists, on the other hand, know that they are the very elements of flesh meats that lead to clogged arteries and heart disease.

So, this second set of objective data impresses me a great deal. From fungi-infested houses to people with leprosy, these instructions, remarkably, say nothing for which believers today need to blush. And that brings me to the third type of evidence—my personal experiences.

Subjective Evidence

I have seen answers to prayer. I have watched lives changed miraculously. I have had incredible meetings that could only have been arranged by a Deity. I have been warned, encouraged, and treated much like a son. I have been loved. And God’s patience with me has moved me to tears.

These experiences are legitimate reasons for me to believe, but they may not be reasons for you. Nevertheless, what if you even want this third type of evidence? What if you think this subjective evidence, if real, is the best kind? The Bible has a thought for you: “O taste and see that the Lord is good: blessed is the man that trusteth in Him.” Psa. 34:8.  

You, friend, can ask for your own subjective experiences. You can learn the science of prayer. You can submit to be guided by God. I recommend it. But I also recommend that you familiarize yourself with the objective reasons to believe. These may hold you on the road to discovery long enough to find the needed truth for yourself.

In summary, there are good reasons to believe the Bible. Its uncanny predictions, its stellar medical advice, and its unfailing promises all speak to its divine authorship. And if you will give the book a chance, it will speak to you convincingly, as well.