Here is what the Bible teaches about how it was written:
- God gave man his words through the direction, inspiration of the Holy Spirit.
- Man then expressed these words accurately, in his own voice, under the supervision of the Holy Spirit.
- The Holy Spirit oversaw the collection of these inspired writings so that they became the Bible we have now.
This, in short form, is what the Bible teaches about how it was inspired, written, and complied. However, this makes no sense if your teenager doesn’t believe the Bible is true and is the word of God. Faith is essential to be able to trust what the Bible says about life, reality, and the way it was written. So, your teenager says, “Excuse me! You have to believe the Bible is trustworthy before you can believe what it says about itself. Come on, you have to better than that.”
Your answer can be something like this: Here is a way to check your ability to evaluate the truthfulness of Scripture. Ask your teenager to consider this question. How reliable are your own thoughts and assessments of yourself and your past actions? How are you dealing with the things that you think you have done wrong in your life? These are questions that only you can answer. This can’t be asked in a haughty or defiant way. Your appeal must be humble and genuine. You can tell your teenager that you have had to ask this question of yourself.
This is the ultimate, important issue, that the Bible addresses. Before you discard the trustworthiness of Scripture, you need a trustworthy source to evaluate yourself. The Bible is the one place that teaches you can’t make the messes of life better by your own efforts and performance. You can’t make things right simply because you want to. This is a truth that you and your teenager can identify with. Since we can’t trust our own abilities it doesn’t make sense to just dismiss the Bible out of hand.
Pray that God would give you a humble spirit to make your words attractive to your teenager. Your humble belief on the reliability of the Bible is huge. Only trusting Jesus Christ can help your teenager evaluate himself accurately. Only then, can he know if the Bible can be trusted. Once this has happened, you can return to what the Bible teaches about why it can be believed and trusted. These truths about how the Bible can be trusted must be lived out in your life. This is yet another example of how you lead by example.