Why We Know The Bible IS God’s Word
Lesson Overview
Why We Know the Bible Is God’s Word with Jared Carlson
This standalone message makes the case that the Bible is the reliable, inspired Word of God. Carlson gives five lines of evidence: the unity of Scripture, the Bible’s claim about itself, its historical and archaeological accuracy, fulfilled prophecy, and the reliability of its transmission. Use this overview to review the key points after watching the full video.
The Bible as a Compass
Carlson opens with the true story of Waldemar Semenov, a merchant seaman whose ship was sunk by a German submarine in 1942. The lifeboats that had compasses navigated to the shipping lanes and their crews were rescued within days, while the raft with no compass drifted aimlessly for three weeks. He uses this as a picture of Scripture: God gave the Bible as a compass so that people would know who He is, where they came from, and where they are going.
He argues our culture has drifted from treating the Bible as that compass to treating it as merely human writing, adopting worldviews like “all truth is relative” and “all religions lead to God.” He cites survey data showing that while most American homes own Bibles, many rarely read them and a large share believe the Bible is no different from other holy books. Quoting Karl Marx that “a people without a heritage are easily persuaded,” he argues that knowing Scripture is knowing our identity and our hope.
He distinguishes general revelation (how creation testifies that God exists, from Romans 1) from special revelation (how God makes Himself fully known through Jesus Christ and through the Bible).
Reason One: The Unity of Scripture
Carlson answers the objection that using the Bible to support the Bible is circular reasoning. The Bible, he explains, is not one book but a collection of 66 books, written by about 40 authors of widely different occupations (kings, prophets, military commanders, fishermen, a doctor, shepherds, tax collectors), over roughly 1,500 years, in three languages (Hebrew, Greek, and portions in Aramaic), on three continents, in many literary styles. Yet across all that variety it tells one unified story: God’s redemptive plan to be in right relationship with humanity.
He offers what he calls the “library test”: try going to a library and assembling even five books by two authors on one subject that carry a single cohering theme, let alone 66 books by 40 authors across continents and centuries. The unity of Scripture, he argues, points to a single divine Author behind the human ones.
Reason Two: The Bible Claims to Be God’s Word
Carlson notes that if the Bible were God’s Word, we would expect it to say so, and it does. He cites 2 Timothy 3:16, that all Scripture is God-breathed, and 2 Peter 1:20-21, that prophecy never came by human will but as men were carried along by the Holy Spirit.
He explains inspiration with an analogy to the virgin birth: just as the Holy Spirit produced a sinless Christ through the imperfect humanity of Mary, so the Spirit produced a perfect message through the human authors despite their limitations of language and culture. Both, he says, were miraculous births, one of the Son of God and one of the written Word. He adds that Jesus Himself affirmed the Scripture as God’s Word (John 10:35), while acknowledging that other books also claim divine origin, which is why the remaining evidences matter.
Reason Three: Historical and Archaeological Accuracy
Carlson argues that what sets the Bible apart from other books claiming inspiration is how its claims match history, geography, and archaeology. He contrasts it with the Book of Mormon, noting the changes it has undergone since its publication and his own repeated challenge to missionaries to produce archaeological or geographic evidence for the Nephites and Lamanites. This portion is his own apologetic argument and reflects his evangelical perspective; adherents of other faiths would respond differently.
He frames history as “His story,” pointing to God’s providential preparation for Christ’s coming: the Jewish contribution of monotheism, the Greek spread of a common language and culture under Alexander, and the Roman network of roads and communication, all converging so that in “the fullness of time” (Galatians 4:4) the gospel could spread rapidly. He argues Israel was chosen as the center of the known world, linking three continents and their trade routes.
He then lists archaeological finds he says confirm the biblical record: the discovery of the Hittite capital and its clay tablets in northern Turkey (an empire skeptics once doubted); the walls of Jericho found fallen outward; the Merneptah Stele confirming Israel as a people in the period it describes; the Tel Dan inscription referring to the “house of David”; and the Dead Sea Scrolls. He cites the archaeologist Nelson Glueck, who used the Bible as a reference in locating ancient sites, and notes that many archaeologists, believers or not, treat Scripture as a reliable guide to locations.
Reason Four: Fulfilled Prophecy
Carlson calls prophecy the most staggering evidence. He notes hundreds of Old Testament prophecies concerning the coming Messiah and walks through a chain that he says narrows the identity of the Messiah step by step: born of the seed of a woman (Genesis 3:15), of the line of Abraham (Genesis 12), of the tribe of Judah (Genesis 49:10), of the royal line of David (2 Samuel 7:12), born of a virgin (Isaiah 7:14), in Bethlehem (Micah 5:2), appearing at the time indicated in Daniel 9:25.
His most detailed example is Psalm 22, written by David, which describes in detail the manner of Jesus’ death. He stresses that crucifixion as a method of execution did not exist when the psalm was written, yet its details match a crucifixion, and that Jesus of Nazareth fulfilled these prophecies precisely.
Reason Five: The Reliability of Transmission
Finally, Carlson addresses whether the text we have today matches what was written. He cites thousands of New Testament manuscripts, many copied within a century or so of the originals, and contrasts this with a work like Homer’s Iliad, where the earliest copies come centuries after composition. The abundance and early date of the manuscripts, he argues, make the New Testament the best-attested document of the ancient world, and the closeness to eyewitnesses would have allowed false claims to be challenged.
He points again to the Dead Sea Scrolls: before their discovery, the earliest Old Testament manuscripts dated to around the eighth to eleventh centuries AD, but the scrolls pushed that back to around 200 BC, and comparing them with later copies showed the text had been transmitted with remarkable accuracy. He concludes that modern translations are over ninety-nine percent accurate, with the small remainder being matters of spelling or grammar rather than any change to doctrine.
The Purpose and the Closing Illustration
Carlson ends with the purpose of Scripture: God gave it to reveal Himself and His plan of salvation, as summarized in John 3:16. He closes with the story of a woman at a party who meets a charming author, comes home, and immediately reads the book of his she had long ignored, because she had come to love the author. The Bible, he says, is God’s love letter, and the more a person comes to love its Author, the more they will treasure His Word.
Key Terms
General revelation: the way creation testifies that God exists, available to everyone.
Special revelation: God’s specific self-disclosure through Jesus Christ and the Bible.
Unity of Scripture: the single redemptive theme running through 66 books by 40 authors.
Inspiration: the Holy Spirit guiding human authors to produce God’s perfect message (God-breathed).
Manuscript evidence: the thousands of early handwritten copies attesting the biblical text.
Messianic prophecy: Old Testament predictions fulfilled in Jesus Christ.
Verses to Know
Romans 1:20, creation leaves people without excuse. 2 Timothy 3:16, all Scripture is God-breathed. 2 Peter 1:20-21, men carried along by the Holy Spirit. Galatians 4:4, in the fullness of time God sent His Son. Psalm 22, the prophetic description of the crucifixion. Micah 5:2 and Isaiah 7:14, the birthplace and virgin birth of Messiah. John 3:16, the purpose of God’s revelation.
Takeaway
Carlson argues that the unity of Scripture, its self-claim, its confirmed accuracy in history and archaeology, its fulfilled prophecies, and the reliability of its transmission together give strong reason to trust the Bible as God’s Word, given not merely to inform us but to reveal its Author so that we would come to love Him.