Why Have the Bible?

2021-10-07

Why do we have the Bible? Why doesn’t God just speak directly to us?

God can reveal Himself directly to people. He has done this in the past. In these last days, He has spoken to us by His Son (Hebrews 1:2). Jesus is now at the right hand of the Father and will return when the Gospel message has reached the uttermost parts of the earth (Matthew 24:14). But what about in the meantime? How can we know anything about God or what He wants?

If we had to rely on special messages from God, they would be very subjective in nature. Multiple people, either well-intentioned or otherwise, would recount what the Lord had allegedly told them. There would be contradictory accounts. The Bible is an objective way to know what the will of God is.

The New Testament was written by the apostles, who saw the risen Lord, or their close associates. The Old Testament is affirmed by the New Testament. We see God’s preservation of His Word in many ways. The Old Testament was copied letter by letter meticulously by the Masoretes. The proliferation of New Testament manuscripts dwarfs any number of copies of other ancient works. Archaeological evidence with the discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls and New Testament manuscripts affirms the preservation of texts over many centuries.

The Bible was written by over 40 human authors over diverse geographic locations and in three languages, yet the message of the Scriptures is a single message concerning God’s redemption of humankind. Numerous prophecies were fulfilled by the first coming of Jesus Christ.

God can speak through our experiences and our churches. With something as authoritative as the Scriptures, we can know for sure whether something is truly from the Lord or not. We cannot trust in subjective experiences without an objective measuring stick to measure them by.

This is a short answer; the veracity of the Scriptures is deep subject.

The words of the LORD are pure words: as silver tried in a furnace of earth, purified seven times. Thou shalt keep them, O LORD, thou shalt preserve them from this generation for ever. (Psalms 12:6-7)