Since all the information we have about God and eternity comes to us from the Bible, it is a legitimate and reasonable question to ask and we ought to expect to hear it. What answer will we give?

*We could talk about the popularity of the Bible… sales at 150 million every year. Four billion in total sales. No other book in human history comes even close!

*We could mention the power of the Word to change lives . . . many of those who have set out to disprove its accuracy have become ardent adherents.  And we have witnessed hardened criminals changed before our eyes because of its power.

*We could share the claims the Bible makes for itself:  “All Scripture is inspired by God . . .” (2 Tim. 3:16).
“Prophecy never came by the will of man, but holy men of God spoke as they were moved by the Holy Spirit . . .” (2 Pet 1:21).
The phrase “thus says the Lord” occurs over 3,600 times in the Bible. The Bible claims not human, but divine authorship.

We could say these things and support them, but the real proof of the authenticity of the Bible comes from three other points. Three proofs which are hard for anyone to deny or to dismiss: HAP:

History — in all the years of criticism by the skeptics and enemies of the church, no one has ever been able to identify even one historical mistake anywhere in the Bible. That’s truly amazing, because if man wrote it, we would surely find historical errors after all these years, but there are none. How do you explain this? This book did not come to us simply from the hand of man, but from the hand of God.

Archaeology — out of all the 25,000 archaeological finds relating to the people, places, and events in the Bible, how many do you suppose have been found that disprove a detail of the Biblical record? You’d expect that some would disprove something, right? How many have? None! In fact every discovery just continues to prove the Bible is true—great proof for the accuracy and trustworthiness of the Bible. If we can believe the historical and archaeological evidence for the Bible, we have great support to believe the spiritual accuracy of the book?

Prophecy — fulfilled prophecy is unique to the Bible alone. Out of all the religious and spiritual guidebooks of history, the Bible stands out all by itself in this area. There is no other book like it in the history of mankind! 

Here’s a good question to ask the skeptic:  “What is the only book in the world that contains hundreds of very detailed prophecies?” The correct answer of course is the Bible. The Koran for Muslims doesn’t, and the Gita for Hindus doesn’t.

If there were a book that contained prophecies that did not come true, what would you say about the book and its author? They would be false, right?  And what would be the value of such a book? Worthless—throw it in the trash. 
 
From the Old Testament alone some 2,000 specific prophecies have been fulfilled already. And of the 333 prophecies specifically predicting the Messiah, all of those concerning his first coming have been fulfilled, and those remaining have to do with His second coming.

As the Bible was written, 25 percent of it was predicting future events. Every single prophecy has been fulfilled except for the few remaining ones that deal with the future return of Jesus Christ. There is no way anyone can predict the future with 100 percent accuracy. Who is the only one who can do this? The answer is God. Fulfilled prophecy is not only proof for the veracity of the Bible, it is also proof for the existence of God.

The only reasonable explanation is that the Bible is a supernatural book written under the supernatural direction of God Himself.