“You Christians! You quote the Bible to prove the Bible. That’s circular. Why don’t you just show me something in another ancient document supporting your view?”
If you’ve shared the Gospel for very long, you’ll run into this challenge from non-believers. How do you answer it? Well, here’s one response:
“The Bible isn’t one book, it’s 66 books written by about 40 different writers over a period of 1500 years or so. All these books record similar experiences with God from people from vastly different cultures and social standing. We have books written by a shepherd, a king, a Hebrew scholar, a medical doctor, and even a tax collector.
“The books are arranged in a specific order as you can see by the graphic. This arrangement is not chronological (there are chronological Bibles on the market, though). They’re organized categorically:
“The first five books were written by Moses and are considered the books of the law, after that are the historic books, Joshua through Esther. Then we have the poetic books, Job through the Song of Solomon. The Major Prophets come next, Isaiah through Daniel. These books and the Minor Prophets are only called that because of their length, not their importance. After the Major Prophets come the Minor Prophets, Hosea through Malachi. That’s the Old Testament.
“In the New Testament, we have similar categories. The first four, the Gospels, are sometimes called the “Biographies.” Then comes the historic book, Acts. After that are the Pauline letters to churches and to individuals (I’m considering the book of Hebrews to have been written by Paul, some disagree), then the “General Epistles” written by apostles other than Paul and two of the Lord’s half-brothers, James and Jude. Last but certainly not least is the prophetic book of the New Testament, Revelation.
“So, when Paul quotes Moses or Jesus quotes Isaiah, there is no circular reasoning here. They are quoting other independent authors who lived in a different time but had the same intimate knowledge of the infinite God of the universe.”
There is plenty of information outside of the Bible to support the Bible. This is just one approach. In future posts, we’ll look at the other ancient documents.
Believers Armed and Dangerous 