"But how can we be sure?"

How Can We Be Sure That What the Bible Says is True?

How can we be sure? It's a great question! And it's actually a really important one, we could do with knowing the answer.

A lot of people I know say things like, "I can't believe the Bible/God/Christianity unless I have proof that it's true." Which sounds very reasonable. But I think perhaps that's setting the bar rather higher with that statement than we do with other things. Take for example Julius Ceaser, Genghis Khan, Abraham Lincoln and other historical figures. We believe in them, even though we've never seen them, even though many of us have never even seen the historical documents testifying to them, or have any idea what they say!

We are right, however, to set the bar higher for Jesus and the Bible than for Genghis Khan or Hannibal Barca. Whether or not Genghis Khan existed may have a massive effect on history, but it has very little effect on you or me today, things have still turned out the way they are, one way or another. But if Jesus exists and the Bible is true then everything, the entire way we perceive and try to live life, changes. It's not something we can allow ourselves to be tricked into.

So how high are we going to set the bar of evidence needed to accept this stuff? Well, that's up to you. But why not see what evidence there is, regardless of whether you think you'll believe it?

The Bible contains lots of eye-witness accounts, reasoned arguments, genealogies and historically verifiable accounts. The books John and Luke are probably the best to start with, as they're all about Jesus and put a big emphasis on the need for eyewitnesses. Might be a good place to start thinking about whether or not any of it can be true.