“Is the Bible Reliable?” Here’s Why You Can Trust It.
Let’s be honest: We live in a world that questions everything, especially the Bible.
Maybe you’ve heard things like:
“It’s been changed too many times.”
“It’s just a book written by men.”
“You can’t trust something that old.”
“It’s full of contradictions.”
And if you’ve ever wondered, “Is the Bible actually reliable?” You’re not doubting, but you’re being human. So let’s walk through this together, simply and clearly, the way you’d explain it to a friend over coffee. No seminary degree needed. Just truth, made readable.
1. The Bible Has More Manuscript Evidence Than Any Other Ancient Book
This sounds scholarly, but it’s actually very simple.
When historians judge if an ancient book is trustworthy, they look at:
How many manuscript copies we have
How close those copies are to the originals
With most ancient books, we have:
maybe 5–20 copies
written hundreds of years after the original
But the New Testament? It blows everything else out of the water.
We have:
over 5,800 Greek manuscripts
over 19,000 manuscripts in other languages
and many are within 30–150 years of the originals
No other ancient text even comes close.
For comparison:
Plato? 7 copies
Aristotle? 49 copies
Homer’s Iliad (the best after the Bible)? 1,800 copies
But nobody doubts Plato or Aristotle in history class. If we trust any ancient writing at all, the Bible sits at the top of the reliability list.
2. The Bible Wasn’t Told Like a Game of Telephone
A lot of people picture the Bible as:
“One person wrote something → someone else rewrote it → someone else changed it → and now we have a completely different book.”
But that’s not how it happened. Because we have so many manuscripts, from so many places, written over so many years, historians can compare them side by side. And what do they find?
The variations are incredibly small; punctuation, spelling differences, repeated words — nothing that changes the meaning. And the core message of Scripture has remained the same from the earliest copies to today. The Bible wasn’t carried through history by one person who could change it. It was carried through history by thousands, making it nearly impossible to alter without being caught.
3. The Bible Records Eyewitness Accounts
This is huge. The New Testament wasn’t written centuries later by people telling legends.
It was written by:
people who saw Jesus
people who walked with Him
people who touched Him
people who heard Him teach
And it was written while other eyewitnesses were still alive. Meaning: If someone wrote something untrue, there were hundreds of people around who could’ve said: “Actually, that never happened.” But they didn’t, because it did happen.
Peter said:
“We did not follow cleverly devised stories… we were eyewitnesses.”
— 2 Peter 1:16
John said:
“We saw Him with our eyes… touched Him with our hands.”
— 1 John 1:1
They weren’t writing myths. They were writing memories.
4. The Bible Is Historically Accurate
Archaeology backs the Bible again and again. For decades, critics claimed:
“King David didn’t exist.”
“Pontius Pilate wasn’t real.”
“The Hittites were a myth.”
Then archaeology found:
inscriptions mentioning King David
stones carved with Pontius Pilate’s name
entire Hittite cities buried underground
Every time the shovel goes into the dirt, history catches up to Scripture. The Bible doesn’t just tell stories, but it records history.
5. The Bible Contains Prophecy That Came True
Long before Jesus was born, the Old Testament predicted:
His birthplace
His death
His resurrection
His betrayal
His lineage
His miracles
His ministry
Over 300 prophecies. The odds of one person fulfilling even a handful of those by accident Mathematically impossible. Yet Jesus fulfilled them all.
6. The Bible Has One Message Written Over 1,500 Years
This alone is mind-blowing.
The Bible is:
66 books
written across 3 continents
in 3 languages
by over 40 authors
including kings, fishermen, prophets, shepherds, physicians
over a span of 1,500 years
And yet… It has one story, one message, one Savior.
If you gave 40 people one topic to write about today, they couldn’t write something unified — and they all have Google. Yet the Bible flows seamlessly from Genesis to Revelation. That’s not human consistency. That’s divine authorship.
7. Because the Bible Changes Lives
And maybe this is the proof that hits closest to home. You can argue history. You can debate manuscripts. But you cannot deny transformation.
The Bible has:
healed addictions
restored marriages
broken generational patterns
freed people from shame
brought hope to the hopeless
turned atheists into believers
turned enemies into brothers
turned the dead-hearted into alive-hearted
Nothing else in history does that. Not a self-help book. Not a podcast. Not an aesthetic page spread. Because the Bible isn’t just a book. It’s alive.
“The Word of God is living and active.”
— Hebrews 4:12So… Can You Trust the Bible?
Yes. Not blindly. Not because someone told you to. But because the Bible is:
historically reliable
textually supported
prophetically verified
eyewitness written
archaeologically consistent
unified across centuries
and personally transformative
It’s not just true; it’s trustworthy. It’s not just reliable; it’s alive.
Before You Go…
If you want to build a deeper confidence in God’s Word, explore Write + Worship, my Bible studies, journals, and faith-building tools designed to help you grow roots that go beyond the aesthetic and into real Scripture.
Your Bible is steady. Your faith can be, too. And God’s Word will not return empty.
