Can You Answer The Most Common Objection To Bible Authority?

You’ve probably noticed a common objection when discussing the Bible’s validity: you can’t use the Bible to prove the Bible, because that’s circular reasoning (using the book to prove itself).

Raise your hand if you’ve heard that before.

What do you do? How should you answer? When discussing the Bible’s validity, someone claiming the circular reasoning argument walks into several traps, and probably don’t know it.

You can use that to your advantage, if you know how.

Many so-called arguments against the Bible contain no substance — their supporters barf them back and assume their truth by fiat, without thinking.

The person likely never thought how pathetic the argument is, and sadly, many Christians — in spite of knowing the answer — fail to use it. How should we answer the circular reasoning argument?

Ask them how they know the Bible is one book.

Because it’s not.

Give them a few seconds to overcome their shock. You’ll probably get little response other than stuttering, because they’ve assumed something to be true, without ever considering if it is true.

The Bible is 66 independent books written by 40 guys over thousands of years.

Moses wrote the first five. Job wrote his. David wrote many Psalms. Daniel related his life.

Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John all wrote different accounts of Jesus’ life. Paul wrote much of the New Testament.

Those different authors wrote over thousands of years, so when Matthew quotes Jeremiah or Jesus quotes Moses, those are different, and quite independent, verifications, and most specifically, not circular reasoning.

The Bible exists as a collection of separate and distinct writing by many authors. It’s not one book, even though it might be bound as one volume.

The skeptic simply can’t accept it, even though he’ll admit many authors wrote the Bible. Even under liberal theology, several guys wrote the first five books (not Moses), and somebody quite different wrote Daniel, and somebody else wrote the Gospels.

Even under heretical liberalism, the Bible isn’t one book.

For the final twist, the skeptic may continue to argue the “one book” idea, but that from his own lips provides evidence of the divine nature of the Bible.

What other collection over thousands of years speaks with a single voice — a voice so singular many people believe it’s all one book?

Checkmate. Use your new-found power wisely.

Filed Under: Bible Study

Recommended Citation:
Yeager, Darrin "Can You Answer The Most Common Objection To Bible Authority?" (2023-11-23 14:46),
https://www.dyeager.org/post/can-you-answer-the-most-common-objection-to-bible-authority.html
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