How can we trust the Bible if it was written by human authors?

If we’re going to hang our hope for eternity on what the Bible says, we want to know that it’s reliable. Many so-called holy books—including the Muslim Qur’an, the Hindu Vedas, and the Book of Mormon—are out there. What makes the Holy Bible different? Much literature from biblical times never made it into the Bible. Why did God’s people in ancient times accept Esther and Ezekiel as part of the Bible but leave out the Book of Enoch? Why did the church in the time of the apostles accept the gospel of Matthew but leave out the gospel of Thomas?

Throughout the centuries, God’s people have taken these questions very seriously: What is God’s Word, what is not, and why?

Inspired by the Holy Spirit

Scripture itself tells us where it came from: “No prophecy of Scripture comes about from someone’s own interpretation. In fact, no prophecy ever came by the will of man, but men spoke from God as they were being carried along by the Holy Spirit” (2 Peter 1:20-21). “All Scripture is God breathed and is useful for teaching, for rebuking, for correcting, and for training in righteousness, so that the man of God may be complete, well equipped for every good work” (2 Timothy 3:16-17). “This is what we speak, not in words taught us by human wisdom but in words taught by the Spirit, explaining spiritual realities with Spirit-taught words” (1 Corinthians 2:13 NIV). The Holy Spirit gave the writers of Scripture the words he wanted them to write. God breathed into them (“inspired”) the exact words he wanted them to put onto papyrus or parchment. We call this verbal inspiration.

But using Scripture to validate Scripture is a circular argument: The Bible is God’s Word because the Bible says it’s God’s Word. Where’s the outside proof?

Confirmed by God’s people of old

In some cases, God’s people of old knew by their own experience that the message they heard was the Word of God. The Israelites who camped at the foot of Mount Sinai saw the glory of the Lord descend upon the mountain. They heard God speak from the mountain. They saw Moses climb the mountain and meet with God. The law and the testimony that Moses brought to the people clearly came from God. The people saw God’s covenant confirmed with miraculous signs and wonders—manna to feed them, water from the rock to quench their thirst, pillars of cloud and fire to lead them. When the Israelites saw the fire from the Tent of Meeting that consumed the impious and watched the earth open to devour the rebellious, they knew that the Lord is God, Moses was God’s servant, and the message delivered through Moses was and still is God’s Word.

God spoke through the Old Testament prophets, and the people could see that the word of the prophets was true. It wasn’t always popular or well-received, but men like Isaiah and Jeremiah preached a message that was consistently accurate. They prophesied destruction and restoration, judgment and forgiveness. The things they said would happen, happened. The men were easily recognizable as true prophets whose words came from God.

New Testament authors were eyewitnesses of Jesus’ ministry. They were known for their connection to Christ and the reliability of their testimony. The apostles were deeply committed to passing along the truth of Christ with complete accuracy. When Peter spoke to the believers about finding a replacement for Judas, he said, “It is necessary that one of the men who accompanied us during the entire time that the Lord Jesus went in and out among us, beginning from his baptism by John until the day Jesus was taken up from us, become a witness with us of his resurrection” (Acts 1:21-22). No secondhand storytellers. Only eyewitnesses.

Distinguished from other writings

We can point to things like the reliability of Scripture. It is historically and geographically accurate. It was written over a period of almost 1,600 years by dozens of different authors, yet it is internally consistent. It foretells things that later came true. It accurately describes human beings as naturally wicked and in need of redemption. These things are all easily validated.

Contrast the books that make up the Holy Bible with other literature that didn’t make the cut. Ezekiel’s prophecies came true, and Esther records factual history, but the Book of Enoch contains wild stories fueled by Jewish myths and was written by an unknown author (not Enoch) during the time between the Old and New Testaments. The gospel of Matthew is a legitimate history of Jesus’ ministry written by Matthew (also called Levi), who walked with Jesus. In contrast, the gospel of Thomas wasn’t really written by the disciple Thomas (it’s known as a pseudepigraph, a word that means it has a “fake title”), and it contradicts what known apostles tell us about Jesus.

Believers during the time of both the Old and New Testaments distinguished between fact and fiction, and they were committed to passing along only the truth.

Used by the spirit

Finally, only Christian faith grasps the truth that Holy Scripture is not man’s word but God’s Word. Do you need convincing that the Bible is true? Read it! When you read Scripture, a beautiful miracle happens. The Holy Spirit uses the Word you read to create faith in that very Word. We trust God’s promises because God’s promises have caused us to trust him. The Spirit of God speaks to us through the Word and replaces doubt with trust, uncertainty with conviction, and skepticism with confident hope. Because of the Spirit’s testimony, we can confidently say that even though the Bible was penned by human writers, it is inerrant (it has no errors), it is infallible (it cannot err), and it is inspired (it is given by God himself). The Bible does not contain the Word of God. It is the Word of God.

The Spirit of God speaks to us through the Word and replaces doubt with trust, uncertainty with conviction, and skepticism with confident hope.

Jesus himself trusted the reliability of Holy Scripture. He said, “The Scripture cannot be broken” (John 10:35). Jesus taught that Moses wrote the Torah (the first five books of the Old Testament), David wrote in the Psalms, and the prophets spoke from God. Jesus of Nazareth preached and taught and confirmed that his teaching was God’s Word with the miracles he performed. “Believe me when I say that I am in the Father and the Father is in me; or at least believe on the evidence of the works themselves” (John 14:11 NIV).

This is the same Jesus who said he would physically rise from the dead on the third day and then did just that to prove that he is the Son of God, our Savior from sin, and the one who has all power to give us immortality. As John wrote in his gospel, “These are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name” (John 20:31).

These are not the words of humans. This is the voice of God, who loves us and gave himself for us. He gives us his Word so that we can know him and know what he has done to save us. He reveals himself to us in Scripture to make us his own people forever.

The Scripture verses in this article are from the Evangelical Heritage Version, unless noted.

Author: Jon Buchholz
Volume 113, Number 02
Issue: February 2026