Why Believe the Bible? External Evidence
The Bible tells of God’s dealings with His human family, beginning in Genesis with the time of Adam, about six thousand years ago. It tells about people who actually lived. Many events/people/places in the Bible are mentioned by secular historians. For example, Jesus is mentioned by Josephus, Pliny, Thallus and others.
Scientific Evidence
The Bible is not a science textbook, but it includes facts not discovered by science until centuries later. For example, when Columbus sailed for America, people feared he would sail off the edge because most believed the earth was flat. But more than two millenniums before, the Bible had recorded that the earth is a sphere (God sits above “the circle of the earth” -Isa. 40:22).
Modern medical science recognizes the value of quarantine to prevent the spread of communicable diseases. But more than two millenniums earlier, the laws God gave to Israel included laws about quarantine to prevent the spread of diseases such as leprosy (see Lev. 13).
Modern laws of hygiene recognize the value of washing in running water for optimum cleansing of the body and to prevent the spread of germs. Again, the Bible included this stipulation in the law of Moses (Lev. 15:13).