We live in a world where truth is hard to define. Some people believe that truth is in the heart of the beholder. They say things like “your truth” and “my truth” instead of “the truth.” And they truly believe that truth is a matter of opinion. But even if everyone in the world adopts this way of thinking, it doesn’t change the fact that truth doesn’t change.
Something that is true does not contradict reality. And two contradictory “truths” cannot both be true. But how is it that we distinguish between all of these truth claims? Every religion claims to be true, and every religion claims that their religious text is the truth. What makes Christianity unique among all of the other religions? How exactly do we know that the Bible is true?
In order to answer this question, we need to look at both internal and external evidence. First, we will analyze the circumstances under which the Bible was written. Then, we will briefly address the consistency of the Bible in comparison to other religious texts. Next, we will discuss the element of fulfilled prophecy. We will conclude with a look at the historical event that Paul says either makes or breaks the entire gospel message.
The Background of the Bible
The Bible claims to be the true Word of God (John 10:10, 2 Timothy 3:16), and it has been preserved with remarkable accuracy. It is unarguably the best-preserved work of the ancient world, and the scholarly consensus is that we have access to 95% of the original wording of the Old Testament and 99.9% of the original wording of the New Testament. The differences among the texts in question do not affect any doctrines and are largely the result of copyist error through the centuries. This level of access to the original text and its remarkable fidelity to it is a marker of its truthfulness.
The Consistency of the Bible
The Bible has 35 named authors and several other anonymous authors. These more than 40 authors wrote the Bible over a span of more than 1,500 years. They lived on three different continents, wrote in three different languages, and lived very different lives.
Some of the authors were uneducated, and some of them were highly educated. Some of them were prisoners, and some of them were kings. Yet, with all of these factors, the Bible presents a unified and coherent message that does not contradict itself.
This consistency is unique among world religions. In Mormonism, Joseph Smith revealed that he had received his message from God at the age of 12, 14, and 15 in his different accounts through the years. The Catholic Church claims to believe in the Bible, but they teach anti-biblical doctrines like salvation through works, apostolic succession, worship of the saints and Mary, and purgatory. Judaism, Islam, Hinduism, and the other major world religions have the same problems. Truth is necessarily non-contradictory.
Fulfilled Prophecy in the Bible
The Old Testament is full of hundreds of prophecies about the coming Messiah. Scholars are not in complete agreement with how many messianic prophecies there were in total, but the most conservative estimates are about 300. Some of these prophecies include the birthplace, betrayal, and crucifixion of the Savior that was to come.
One mathematician worked out the probability of a single person fulfilling just eight of these prophecies. He found that the odds were a mere 1 in 2.8×1028. A single person fulfilling all 300 prophecies has an astronomically low probability. Even if each of the 300 prophecies were fulfilled by one out of every two people, there would not be enough atoms in the universe to represent the odds of one person fulfilling all of them (1 in 2×1090).
The messianic prophecies were written from 1,500 to 400 BC. Jesus was born around 4 BC, and He fulfilled all of them. It is readily apparent that a person is a false prophet or a text is a false message if it makes an authoritative claim about the future that doesn’t end up coming true. But the Bible has made hundreds of prophecies that have already been fulfilled. This is yet another strong marker for the veracity of the Word of God.
Historical Proof for the Veracity of the Bible
In his first letter to the Corinthians, Paul writes, “And if Christ has not been raised, then our preaching is in vain and your faith is in vain” (15:14). He proposed a litmus test for the veracity of the gospel and the Word of God as a whole. If anyone could prove that the resurrection of Jesus Christ did not take place, they could disprove Christianity.
There are many people who have tried to do just this, but no one has been able to do so with success. The reality is that Jesus is a historically verified Person. No credible historian denies His existence, and we even have the testimony of a non-Christian historian of the ancient world to back it up. Moreover, we have extra-biblical accounts verifying His death by crucifixion and the empty tomb.
The most common arguments proposed against the resurrection are that 1) Jesus fainted on the cross rather than actually dying; 2) Jesus’ disciples stole His body; or 3) Jesus’ followers went to the wrong tomb. But each of these are far-fetched and weak arguments. The Roman soldiers killed for a living. They certainly knew how to tell when someone was dead. 
Moreover, Pilate had authorized the soldiers to guard and seal the previously unused tomb of Jesus, which makes it improbable that anyone could have stolen His body or gone to the wrong tomb. And perhaps most convincingly, the majority of the disciples died gruesome deaths for testifying about Jesus’ resurrection. More than 500 others saw Jesus in His post-resurrection state, and many of them also became martyrs. If the resurrection weren’t true, they wouldn’t have all been willing to give up their lives.
The Bible is true. When you choose to submit to God’s Word and follow Jesus as your Lord and Savior, you will experience life change. And the inner confirmation that you receive from the Holy Spirit will serve as even further proof of the veracity of the Bible.