The witness of the Holy Spirit
Dove of the Holy Spirit (ca. 1660, alabaster, Throne of St. Peter, St. Peter's Basilica, Vatican) (Photo credit: Wikipedia ) The Bible is the Holy Spirit ’s book. He is involved not only in the inspiration of Scripture , but is also a witness to Scripture’s truthfulness. This is what we call the “internal testimony” of the Holy Spirit. In other words, the Holy Spirit provides a testimony that takes place inside of us—He bears witness to our spirits that the Bible is the Word of God . Just as the Spirit bears witness with our spirits that we are children of God ( Rom. 8:16 ), He assures us of the sacred truth of His Word. The internal testimony of the Spirit is subject to misunderstanding. One of these misunderstandings relates to how we defend the truthfulness of the Bible. Do we need to provide an apologetic—a defense—for sacred Scripture that relies on evidence from archaeology and history, on demonstrating the Bible’s internal consistency, and on logical argumentation? S