1 Thessalonians 2

You may have heard someone say something like, "The Bible was written by men so it must be full of errors. Men are fallible, and men wrote the Bible, therefore the Bible is fallible," or so the argument goes.

Well let's just start by looking at what the Bible claims about itself. "When you received the word of God, which you heard from us, you accepted it not as the word of men but as what it really is, the word of God" (2:13). Certainly this does not "prove" that the Bible is the word of God, but at least we can see that the Bible itself says, that what was written in it by man is in fact the word of God.

So how are we to accept, as the Thessalonians did, that what we know to be written by men (Paul, Silvanus, and Timothy) is actually the word of God? There is so much that can be said in answer to that question, but here let me just say this. Although we have much evidence for the Bible as the word of God, it is ultimately only the work of the Spirit who can give this kind of understanding. Notice the last part of verse 13: "which is at work in you believers." The Holy Spirit was at work in their hearts, working by and with the Scriptures.

This is how he makes himself known to us and also how we can know that the Bible is what it says it is. You cannot close your Bible, get on your knees, and say, "Oh God, tell me is it so?!" It doesn't work that way. It is only through his word that God can make himself known to you. So, are you giving him the chance to make himself known to you?