Is The Bible True? (Part II)

So here we are again, over a year later, trying to answer the question of whether or not the Bible is true. I hope there aren’t too many of you out there who I left hanging. Yes, I know, this assumes people are actually reading this blog. Quite honestly, there are too many things that have happened over the past year in my life to begin to get into details - suffice it to say, I am just *now* finding the time to resume blogging, and so I felt it was only appropriate to pick up where I left off.

So, without further delay ...

We have already seen that we cannot simply ask “is the Bible true?” because doing so means considering the claims that the Bible makes (that is, after all, what we are trying to determine the truth of - the claims that the Bible makes). The problem we find is that the Bible says we must assume the Bible is true in order to know whether or not the Bible is true, but as most first-year students in logic know, that is circular reasoning; simply assuming the thing you are trying to demonstrate.

I suppose this might bother some of you who either:

a) don’t believe that the Bible says we must start with the assumption the Bible is true in order to know it is true ... or
b) believe that I am contradicting the Bible when I say we cannot rationally assume the Bible is true in order to know if it is true

All I can say is this ... bear with me!

So if we cannot start with the assumption that the Bible is true, then what is the alternative? Well, the unbelieving world would have us take a route that does not assume the truth of the Bible. After all, if we cannot start with the assumption that the Bible is true, then the only other alternative is to not start with the assumption that it is true. But is that any more rational an approach to take?

Let’s play hypotheticals here ... let’s say for the sake of argument that the Bible is true - all of it - even the part that says we must assume it is true in order to know whether it is true. Do you see the problem yet?

If the Bible is true (hypothetically), then we cannot start without the assumption of the truth of the Bible and ever know that it is true, as the Bible says we cannot do this. If the Bible says we cannot do this, and the Bible is true, then it is true that we cannot do this (and all God’s people said ‘duh!’).

So now what? Starting with the assumption that the Bible is true makes us guilty of circular reasoning. But, starting without the assumption that the Bible is true leaves us (by virtue of what the Bible says) in the position of never being able to know whether or not the Bible is true.

And so we come to the point of this exercise, to conclude that asking “is the Bible true” is entirely the wrong question to be asking! The question we should be asking, if we are going to ask it, is “what if the Bible is not true?” This is an entirely different question - it is, in fact, an entirely different way of looking at the problem. It is a perspective that is indirect in its nature. It says “imagine, for a moment, that what the Bible says is true is not true.”

Let’s return for a moment to Proverbs 1:7a

"The fear of the LORD is the beginning of knowledge."

This passage is key! Recall that God tells us we must start with a reverent fear for him (one which comes by knowing who he is through his word, implying that his word is true) or else we cannot know anything. Notice it isn’t just that we cannot know whether the Bible is true, but (according to the Bible) this well-informed-via-scripture-fear-of-God is the very foundation for knowledge of anything at all!

So here we have the key to answering this question - If the Bible is true, then if the Bible is not true then we cannot know anything at all.

Wow, was that ever confusing?

OK, let me put it a different way. If the Bible is true, then if we do not start with the assumption that the Bible is true, then we cannot know anything at all. Stated different, a belief in the truth of the Bible is necessary in order to know anything. Or put even differently, the Biblical argument for the truth of the Bible is that without it being true we can’t know anything at all.

This is HUGE! No, seriously, this is really, really HUGE!

It is also entirely appropriate, if you think about it. If God is who the Bible claims him to be, then wouldn’t we expect this very thing? If God created the universe, including not only the beings (that is, of course, us) who he intends on knowing things, as well as those things he desires us to know, then it should be no surprise that God himself plays a central role in this process of knowing! We should not be shocked to find Proverbs 1:7 in the Bible, given the rest of what the Bible has to say.

And so we have it ... we have found the way in which we can determine whether or not the Bible is true!

We cannot assume the Bible is true in order to see if the Bible is true, as that would be circular reasoning. We cannot not assume the Bible is true, as that would be assuming it is possible to know whether the Bible is true, without assuming it is true, which would be to assume that its claims to necessarily assume it is true are ... not true!

You might want to read that again ... perhaps a couple of times, in order to ensure you get what I am saying. If you still don’t get it, don’t worry. The point is this, neither simply assuming or not assuming the truth of the Bible is logically going to get us any closer to knowing whether or not it is true. What is required is an entirely different approach.

We must hypothetically assume that the claims (all of them) in the Bible are not true, and then see whether or not it is possible for us to know anything at all. Does this sound odd? Does it sound strange? Perhaps, but realize that most people never stop to think about how they know what they think they know in the first place. Most people just ... assume ... that they are able to know things, without considering whether they really do, in fact, know what they think they know.

Let me state this differently before closing this installment. If the claims of the Bible (about knowledge) are true, then a denial of any part of the Bible would ultimately lead us into an inability to know anything at all. This is so simple, and yet so amazingly difficult to grasp, which is why I am going to turn what was going to be 2 posts into many more.

Next time, we will take a brief look at how it is we know things. More appropriately, we will consider some different theories as to how knowledge is possible. The result will be (hopefully) that you will see there is not very much consensus on this subject, and (also hopefully) that the Bible has what is the only logically possible answer to this question.

--BK