IS THE BIBLE A WORK OF FICTION? by Dan Warne for Core Christianity
Maybe you’ve heard the saying that you don’t need to defend the Bible any more than you need to defend a lion—just let it out of the cage![1] While it’s true that the Bible is God’s word and that it can stand its ground independently of our arguments in its defense, intellectual honesty demands that we take claims made against the Bible seriously.
One common claim made against the Bible is that it’s a work of fiction. Someone has even made the (doubly) bold assertion that God is “the most unpleasant character in all fiction.”[2] This claim sets high stakes. If the Bible is nothing more than another work of fiction, then the most it can offer is inspiring food for thought. But far worse, if the Bible claims to be historical yet proves itself inaccurate, then it misrepresents itself and is not to be trusted!
So it’s important to answer such a claim and not to dismiss it outright—is the Bible a work of fiction? Here are three ways to respond to this claim:
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Response #1: The Bible Positions Itself as Historical
The first words of the Bible position it as a grand historical narrative: “In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth (Gen 1:1).” Historical narrative makes up a large swath of the Old Testament—books such as 1–2 Kings and 1–2 Chronicles present “concise annals of the two Hebrew Kingdoms, Israel and Judah,” often in painstaking historical detail![3]
In the New Testament, the physician Luke penned the two-part historical account Luke-Acts. In the Gospel of Luke he penned the work of Christ on earth and, in Acts, Christ’s ongoing work through the Holy Spirit. In the opening of Luke, author Luke says he’s offering an orderly account of Christ’s earthly ministry based on eyewitness testimony (Luke 1:1-4). His account of Jesus’ life and ministry is historical in nature from the very beginning: “In those days a decree went out from Caesar Augustus that all the world should be registered. This was the first registration when Quirinius was governor of Syria” (Luke 2:1–2).
The New Testament epistles—correspondence between the apostles and the early churches—are filled with localities, known individuals, past encounters, and future plans for visitation and ministry. One can hardly read these letters and conclude they are self-consciously works of fiction.
