How can we know that the Bible is the Word of God? Having accepted it as the Word, how may we know that we have the whole of it?
This is a question that has vexed very many persons, and one with which the enemies of the Bible have delighted to perplex those whose faith was not well established in it; yet it really offers us no difficulty whatever, and may be answered by a little child. Indeed, there is nothing else in the world so plain, and so easy to be known, as that the Bible is the inspired Word of the living God.
The Testimony of the Child
If you should ask a little child who, like Timothy of old, has been instructed in the Holy Scriptures, how he knows that the Bible is the true Word of God, he would not be able to give you a categorical answer. Childlike, he might say, "Because it is," and no better answer could be given. To one who, like Timothy, has from his childhood known the Holy Scriptures, it never occurs that there can be any question as to their authenticity. They are their own evidence.
To one who knows them, they are self-evidently the Word of God, and it is as impossible to demonstrate the fact to another as it is to demonstrate an axiom in mathematics. There can be no demonstration, except the sight of the eyes, that the whole of a thing is greater than any of its parts; and even so there can be no demonstration of the fact that the Bible is the Word of God, except that of experience. Faith is simply the recognition of things that are. Truth is "that which is," and all we have to do is to get our eyes open to see it.
Faith Comes by Hearing
But someone will say, with one writer, that this evidence leaves "no Bible for the impenitent," that is, that if experience gives the knowledge, than those who have not yielded themselves to the Lord have no means by which they may know that what they read is His Word.
Do not think so for a moment. God has not left himself without witness, and although it is he that wills to do the will of God, who knows of the teaching, (John 7:17) it is also true that God works in every man to will as well as to do. (Philippians 2:13) "Faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God." (Romans 10:17)
The power of the Word is such that the very first sound of it that is heard carries with it the conviction of its truthfulness. "The entrance of your Word gives light; it gives understanding to the simple." (Psalm 119:130)
Personal Experience
May I take advantage of our private talk to give you a little personal experience? It is not necessary to go into the details of how I, having been in my earliest childhood a reader of the Bible, came, through "the deceitfulness of sin," (Hebrews 3:13) to doubt everything. "So foolish was I, and ignorant; I was as a beast before the Lord." (Psalm 73:22)
Having been led captive by Satan, I of course had no "mind of my own" (for nobody can have a mind of his own unless he has "the mind of the Lord" (1 Corinthians 2:16): "A man can receive nothing, except it be given him from heaven." (John 3:27)
And therefore I like a simpleton echoed the stale doubts that have been repeated by skeptics for centuries, and fancied that they were original with me. So I went so far in my stupid unbelief as to say that the inspiration of the Bible was the same as that of Shakespeare or any other writer who has had power to hold the attention of the people.
Well, how did I become convinced of the reality of Divine things, and that the Bible is indeed the Word of God, given by His Spirit? Easily enough, and it took not more than a minute. The perfect knowledge which has left no room for a shade of doubt from that day to this was conveyed to me in far less time than it has taken you to read these lines.
The method was simple: God himself spoke to me by His Spirit. He did not enter into any argument to prove to me that He was speaking, or that His Word is true; He simply told me that I was a sinner, and pointed out some of the sins to which I was specially addicted. He showed me myself and all the deformity of my character; and, although if any person had told me the same things five minutes before, I should have contradicted him, and should have entered into an argument to prove that he was altogether mistaken, and that I was no such man as he said, it never occurred to me to make the slightest objection to the Voice that then spoke to me.
The very first utterance brought into my soul the conviction that this was the word of the Spirit, whose working I had denied, and that I was a guilty, lost sinner. I knew it as well as though I had always known it. It did not seem as though I had ever doubted it, or that there could ever have been any chance for doubt. It was not fancy, it was not what people ordinarily call belief; it was positive knowledge, so complete that nothing could have made it more sure, and that no amount of argument could have shaken.
In order to tell the difference between light and darkness, one has only to have eyes, and to have them open; then there is no possible ground for argument; sight carries its own evidence. Well, my eyes were that moment opened, and I saw. A library of books, and years of reading, could never have done for me what the Lord himself did for me in an instant of time.
One Voice Throughout
But the Lord did not leave me with the simple knowledge that I was a sinner. That would have been to sink me into the depths of despair. The Spirit first convicts of sin, and then of righteousness. So He revealed to me the fact that God loved me, and that Christ died for me; for me, of all people in the world.
I needed no assurance that this voice was from heaven; the positive, absolute knowledge came with it. From the time that God spoke to me until this minute I have known that the Bible is the Word of God, for it agrees from first to last with what God at that time spoke to my heart. I find the same voice everywhere in it. I know the voice, and have no fear of being led astray.
I know that the Bible is the Word of God in just the same way, although a good deal more surely, that you know your father, and that a letter which he writes you is from him. Nobody ever introduced you to your father, or ever told you his name, yet you know him; and in just the same way, only as I have said, a great deal more certainly, may we know the voice of God speaking to us in the Bible.
Even though we have wandered in the dark paths of sin, and have lost the simple faith of childhood, the Voice that never ceases speaking will produce the same conviction as though we had never doubted. It is possible for the oldest and most hardened sinner to become as a little child, and to have the simple faith of a child, which leaves no room for doubt or questioning.
Greater Witness Than That of Man
Volumes have been written by learned divines to prove the genuineness and authenticity of the Bible. They may have done good, but not one of them ever converted or ever can convert a single soul. Not one ever produced or ever can produce the certainty in anybody that the Bible is the Word of God. Christ, who is the Word, and from whom the written Word comes, said: "I receive not testimony from man." (John 5:34)
John the Baptist bore faithful witness to Him, but He said: "I have greater witness than that of John; for the works which the Father has given me to finish, the same works that I do, bear witness of me, that the Father has sent me." (John 5:36) "If we receive the witness of men, the witness of God is greater." (1 John 5:9)
And this witness is given to every soul on earth, and whoever accepts it has the witness in himself.
The Councils and the Canon
People will gravely, and with an air of great learning, tell you that it was the Council of Nice that fixed the Sacred Canon as accepted at present, and that we have our Bible only on the authority of the bishops there assembled. It is all the gravest sort of nonsense, and no one needs any surer proof of the falsity of the statement than the records of the early Councils, all of which are accessible to anyone who can read, which contain no evidence whatever that there was any doubt as to what constituted the Bible, or that there was any thought of deciding the matter.
Many times since then people have been moved to make a public profession of their faith; many times they have even thought it necessary to pass resolutions declaring their belief; but that settled nothing, and originated nothing. The Scriptures, just as we have them now, were known and accepted by all believers as the Word of God long before the Council of Nice.
More than this, unbelievers themselves bore witness to this fact, by attempting to overthrow them, and by bringing against them the very same objections that have been put forth by unbelievers ever since. Since the first century after Christ, when the last of the books of the Bible was written, no new objection to the Bible has ever been invented.
All the Sacred Writings Not Preserved
To the question how we may know that we have the whole of the Word of God, the answer is just as simple. If you mean to ask if we have everything that has been written by inspiration of God, the answer is, No. We have the testimony of the Bible itself that many things which have been spoken by the prophets have not come down to us. John tells us that if everything that Jesus did were written: "I suppose that even the world itself could not contain the books that should be written." (John 21:25)
We have frequent reference to "the book of Jasher," and there is no doubt that Paul wrote three epistles to the Corinthians. But all this does not concern us. We have nothing to do with anything that has not been given to us.
The fact that there have been books written which we have never seen does not affect those which we have. If God had thought it necessary that we should have those lost books, He would have preserved them for us. That He could have done so if He had wished to, is evident from the fact that He has preserved those which we have, although the rage of devils working through men, even through the professed church of God, has been directed against the Bible, endeavoring to stamp it out of existence. But it remains to this day, a monument to the power and Divinity of God.
Moreover: "His Divine power has given unto us all things that pertain unto life and godliness." (2 Peter 1:3)
So that, although there may have been many books written, which we have not, those which we have are fully sufficient to make us "wise unto salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus; ... That the man of God may be perfect, thoroughly furnished unto all good works." (2 Timothy 3:15,17)
God's Word is one; all the various words that the Bible contains are but revelations of the one Word. Full salvation is in everyone of them. The fullness of the life of the whole is in each part. Therefore: "Continue in the things which you have learned and have been assured of, knowing of whom you have learned them." (2 Timothy 3:14)
The Evidence of Prophecy
There is another internal evidence of the truthfulness of the Bible--a test which the Bible itself gives us. It is the testimony of prophecy. We read these statements of the Lord: "The prophet which prophesies of peace, when the word of the prophet shall come to pass, then shall the prophet be known, that the Lord has truly sent him." (Jeremiah 28:9) "And if you say in your heart, How shall we know the word which the Lord has not spoken? When a prophet speaks in the name of the Lord, if the thing follow not, nor come to pass, that is the thing which the Lord has not spoken, but the prophet has spoken it presumptuously; you shall not be afraid of him." (Deuteronomy 18:21-22)
The Bible is full of predictions of events to take place, and nearly all of them are of things that are now in the past, so that we may see how exactly every prediction has been fulfilled. This is exactly in line with what I have before said, that the Bible is its own witness.
Each Believer a Witness
"He that believes on the Son of God has the witness in himself." (1 John 5:10)
And thenceforth he himself becomes a witness to the truthfulness of the Word of God. It is upon evidence of this nature that the Lord rests His case. In the controversy as to who is God, He says: "Bring forth the blind people that have eyes, and the deaf peoplethat have ears. Let all the nations be gathered together, and let the people be assembled: who among them can declare this, and show us former things? let them bring forth their witnesses, that they may be justified; or let them hear, and say, It is truth. You are my witnesses, says the Lord; and my Servant whom I have chosen; that you may know and believe me, and understand that I am He; before me there was no God formed, neither shall there be any after me. I, even I, am the Lord; and beside me there is no Saviour. I have declared, and have saved, and I have showed, when there was no strange god among you; therefore you are my witnesses, says the Lord, that I am God." (Isaiah 43:8-12)
This is the sum of the matter. Skeptics may attempt to unsettle the faith of believers, and may bring learned arguments, and may refer to many books which the believer has never even heard of; but it would be easier to batter down Gibraltar with a pea-shooter than for any of their talk to shake the faith of anyone who has the faith of a child.
You may feel very ignorant in the face of all the learned references that infidels will flourish in your face; but such ignorance is truly bliss; and secure in the positiveness of the knowledge which the world calls foolishness you may joyfully sing:
I know not how the Spirit moves,
Convincing men of sin;
Revealing Jesus through the Word,
Creating faith in Him;
But I know whom I have believed,
And am persuaded that He is able
To keep that which I've committed
Unto Him against that day.
--D. W. Whittle, Hymn: I Know Not Why God's Wondrous Grace, 1883.
--Present Truth, November 1, 1900.