The historic Christian church's faith in the infallibility of Scripture (in the original manuscripts) is established on the basis of Christ's view of Scripture. The evidence of its reliability and power further supports the belief in the Bible's infallibility, and that its origin must be divine rather than human.
   Norman Geisler (in the Halverson book listed in the resource section) lists these criteria for establishing if a book was from God: (1) It would claim to be God's Word. (2) It would be historically accurate when it speaks on historical matters. (3) The authors would be trustworthy. (4) The book would be thematically unified and without contradictions. (5) We would have received accurate copies of the original manuscripts. (6) It would make statements that would reveal knowledge about the way things work beyond the knowledge of its day. (7) It would make predictions about the future that could not be known through natural means. (8) The message would be unique. (9) The messengers would be confirmed by miracles. (10) The words would have a transforming power.
   Only the Bible meets these tests. If there is, in fact, an all-sovereign, loving God, is it not reasonable for Him to have left us a guide book as an insight to Him?
   Or consider this logic: The Bible speaks of condemnation of all people as sinners. Would individuals have written these words, thus condemning themselves?
   It is helpful to appreciate that the Bible, while truly divinely inspired, is a human book with human characteristics, human perspectives, human interests, human thought patterns and emotions. And when interpreting the Bible, "Scripture interprets Scripture." All passages on a topic should be analyzed together, along with the context of the passages. We should keep in mind that the Bible uses different literary devices, including poetry, parables, hyperbole, allegories, case studies, satire, metaphors and other figures of speech.
   Like other human communication, the Bible should be presumed innocent until proven guilty. We should not assume that the unexplained is not explainable. We should not confuse our fallible interpretation with God's infallible revelation.
   Over time, what the Bible says has been largely verified as accurate and worthy of trust. This gives us confidence that the things it says that are more difficult to verify, are also true. If someone continually makes statements to you that you can check out and verify, you will grow to have confidence that other things he says are true as well.
   Christians are confident that one's belief in the Bible as the final authority for faith and life is documented and well founded. This conclusion has never been more valid in all of history than it is today.