Can I Trust the Bible? (The Evidence Might Surprise You)
There’s one question that shapes just about everything about your faith: Can you really trust the Bible?
I mean think about it. This book was written thousands of years ago, in different languages, by over 40 different authors across multiple continents. And yet today, it sits on our shelves and in our apps, claiming to be the very Word of God.
If that’s true, if the Bible is really what it says it is, then it changes everything. It means God has spoken, and we can know Him. But if it’s not true, if it’s just an old book filled with myths and mistakes, then why build your life on it at all?
Most of us haven’t slowed down to really wrestle with that. We’ve inherited assumptions.
Maybe you believe the Bible is true because your parents told you so. Or maybe you don’t believe because a college professor or TikTok video convinced you it’s full of contradictions.
But here’s the thing: the stakes couldn’t be higher. Because if the Bible isn’t trustworthy, then the foundation of Christianity crumbles. But if it is, if we can know that the words we’re holding are reliable and true, then this book isn’t just another voice in the conversation. It changes everything.
So in this video, we’re going to look at how we can know the Bible is true. Not with shallow answers or blind faith. But with real evidence, historical context, and a better understanding of what this book actually is.
Can We Trust the Text? (Has the Bible Been Changed?)
And that brings us to the first question we’ve got to answer, maybe the one that matters most. Can we actually trust the Bible? Can we trust that the words we are reading were the ones originally written?
After all, the Bible was written thousands of years ago. We don’t have the original scrolls that Paul wrote on or the parchment Moses used. All we have are copies. And critics love to point that out: “It’s just a giant game of telephone, changed, edited, rewritten until who knows what it actually said.”
But that’s not what happened.
When you look at the evidence, the Bible is actually the most well-documented collection of writings in the ancient world. The New Testament alone has over 5,000 Greek manuscripts, with fragments dating within decades of the originals. And if you include manuscripts in other languages, that number jumps to more than 20,000.
To put that in perspective, let’s compare it to other works from the ancient world:
- Plato – we have fewer than 10 manuscripts of his works, and the earliest copy is about 1,200 years after he lived.
- Aristotle – about 5 manuscripts, copied roughly 1,400 years after the originals.
- Caesar’s Gallic Wars – only about 10 manuscripts, the earliest written nearly 1,000 years later.
- Tacitus, the Roman historian – about 30 manuscripts, copied several centuries after his time.
- Homer’s Iliad – the best-attested work outside the Bible, with around 1,800 manuscripts.
Now, line that up next to the New Testament: 5,000+ Greek manuscripts, 20,000+ total, with fragments within 30–50 years of the originals.
Think about it, historians accept Plato and Caesar without blinking, even with fewer than a dozen copies written a thousand years later. Yet the New Testament has thousands of manuscripts, some within a generation of the originals. No other ancient book even comes close.
And it’s not just the New Testament. The Old Testament has remarkable confirmation too. In the 1940s, the Dead Sea Scrolls were discovered in caves near Qumran. One of them was a full copy of the book of Isaiah dated about 125 years before Jesus. When scholars compared it to the manuscripts we had a thousand years later, they found it was nearly identical, word for word. That means God’s Word wasn’t being distorted over time the way some people claim.
And here’s what’s even more fascinating: the Bible wasn’t copied in secret by one group trying to control the narrative. It was spread across different communities, copied in different places, and preserved by both Jews and Christians.
Yes, there are small differences, like spelling variations or word order, but none of them change the core message. And because we have so many manuscripts, we can actually see where those differences happened and reconstruct the original with incredible accuracy.
So, can we trust the text? The evidence says yes. The Bible hasn’t been lost in translation. We aren’t playing telephone. What we hold today is a faithful reflection of what was written back then.
Can We Trust the Story? (Historical Evidence for Jesus)
Okay, so let’s say we can trust the text, that what we’re reading today really does reflect what the original authors wrote. That still leaves the most important question: Is the story itself true?
And this is where Christianity is so different. At the center of the Bible is a historical claim: that Jesus lived, died, and rose from the dead. Paul said in 1 Corinthians 15, if Christ has not been raised, then our faith is useless. Everything stands or falls on whether the story of Jesus is true.
So what evidence do we have?
First, the eyewitness accounts. The Gospels aren’t written like legends made up centuries later. They’re rooted in real memories. Luke opens his Gospel by saying he carefully investigated everything and interviewed eyewitnesses (Luke 1:1–4). John says, “The one who saw this has testified” (John 19:35). These writers weren’t passing down rumors, they were documenting testimony.
And it wasn’t just one or two voices. Paul records in 1 Corinthians 15 that Jesus appeared to Peter, then to the Twelve, then to more than 500 people at the same time, most of whom were still alive when Paul was writing. Paul is saying, “Go ask them yourself.”
Now think about this like a journalist. If you had multiple independent eyewitnesses, spread across different places, all telling the same core story and they were willing to put their lives on the line for it, you’d consider that solid reporting.
That’s exactly what we see with the disciples. They went from hiding in fear to boldly proclaiming that Jesus rose again, in the very city where He was killed. Most of them were beaten, imprisoned, or executed for that message.
People will die for what they believe is true. But nobody willingly dies for what they know is a lie. If the resurrection were a hoax, the disciples would have cracked under pressure. Instead, they held to their testimony to the very end.
And here’s what makes it even stronger: it wasn’t just Christians who remembered Jesus. Josephus, a Jewish historian, wrote about Him being crucified under Pilate. Tacitus, a Roman historian, confirmed the same. Even hostile sources admitted Jesus lived, was executed, and that His followers claimed He rose and worshiped Him as God.
And archeology keeps backing this up. No discovery has ever disproved the Bible. Dig after dig keeps confirming it. For years, skeptics mocked John’s mention of the Pool of Bethesda with “five covered walkways”… until the pool was excavated in Jerusalem with exactly five. For centuries, scholars thought the Hittites were a myth, until their entire civilization was uncovered in modern-day Turkey. Over and over, names, places, and events the Bible describes keep being validated. Every time a spade goes into the ground, the Bible comes out looking more reliable.
So can we trust the story? If you weigh the evidence like a historian, the answer is yes. The resurrection wasn’t a late myth, it was a public claim, rooted in eyewitness testimony (many of whom went to their death never recanting), confirmed by hostile sources, and proven by archaeological discoveries…
The earliest Christians weren’t asking people to believe in vague ideas. They were pointing to an event. Something that happened in history. And that event changes everything.
Can We Trust the Canon? (How We Got the Books of the Bible)
Now there’s another question people often raise: Even if the Bible’s story is true, how do we know we have the right books?
Because if you search YouTube or scroll TikTok, you’ll hear people say, “Well, the church just picked their favorite books and left others out.” Or, “The canon was invented centuries later for political reasons.”
But here’s the reality: the Bible we have today wasn’t created by the church; it was recognized by the church.
From the very beginning, Christians treated certain writings as authoritative. Paul’s letters, for example, were circulating in the first century and were already being read as Scripture (2 Peter 3:15–16 actually refers to Paul’s letters as “Scripture”). The four Gospels were being copied, shared, and trusted as eyewitness accounts of Jesus’ life.
By the late 2nd century, we already see lists of books Christians everywhere were using, like the Muratorian Fragment. And by 367 AD, Athanasius, the bishop of Alexandria, gave the first official list of the 27 books of the New Testament, the same ones you have in your Bible today.
Now, were there debates? Of course. Different churches wrestled with a few books, like Revelation, James, or Hebrews. But what’s striking is how much unity there was, especially when you consider these churches were spread out across the Roman Empire, often facing persecution, and couldn’t just hop on Zoom to compare notes.
The bottom line is this: the church didn’t invent the canon. They simply recognized the writings that already carried the stamp of apostolic authority and were consistent with the teaching of Jesus.
So when you hold a Bible today, you’re not holding a collection that some council in the Middle Ages made up. You’re holding the same writings that Christians were reading, memorizing, and dying for in the first centuries after Jesus.
Can We Trust What the Bible Does? (How We Got the Books of the Bible)
So far, we’ve looked at the text itself, the story it tells, and the books that make up the Bible. But there’s one more test we can’t ignore: What does the Bible actually do?
Because the Bible was never meant to sit under glass in a museum. It was written to be lived. Hebrews 4:12 says God’s Word is “living and active… discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart.” In other words, this book doesn’t just give information; it brings transformation.
And history backs that up. For thousands of years, people across every culture and background have encountered God through these pages and been changed. Communities have been formed, enemies reconciled, slaves set free, and the broken given hope.
But it’s not just big sweeping movements… its wisdom that makes a difference in everyday life.
Forgiveness heals fractured relationships. Generosity creates stronger communities. Honesty builds trust. Humility and service transform marriages and families. Even modern psychology affirms many of these same practices, but the Bible called us to them long before they were trendy. Live by its wisdom, and your life gets better—not easier, but fuller, healthier, and more whole.
Think about it: this collection of ancient writings has outlasted empires, kings, persecution, and criticism. And yet it continues to do what no other book can do… transform lives, not just spiritually, but practically.
I’ve seen it in my own life. There are times I’ve come to Scripture tired, angry, or confused, and somehow, God’s Word met me right where I was. Not because it magically fixed everything, but because it pointed me back to the One who is bigger than my problems and showed me a better way to live in the middle of them.
That’s the real test. Yes, the Bible is historically reliable. Yes, it’s textually trustworthy. But more than that, it’s powerful. And when you let it read you, not just you reading it, you’ll find it does exactly what it claims: it changes you.
So, how do we really know the Bible is true?
We can trust the text… the manuscripts show us we’re holding what was originally written.
We can trust the story… the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus stand on historical ground.
We can trust the canon… the books we have weren’t invented by the church, they were recognized by it.
And we can trust what the Bible does… it’s been transforming lives for thousands of years, and it can transform yours too.
This isn’t just about winning arguments or stacking up evidence. It’s about seeing that God has spoken, and His Word is worth building your life on.
So here’s my challenge: don’t just believe the Bible is true. Live like it’s true. Start reading it. Start applying it. Let it shape the way you think, the way you love, the way you live.
The Bible isn’t just something to study, it’s something to stand on. The question is: will you?
