How do you respond when someone looks you in the eye and says, “I don’t believe the Bible is God’s word”?
For a lot of Christians, that statement lands like a hot potato. They freeze. They’re caught off guard, unsure what to say, stopped in their tracks. A conversation that felt like it was finally going somewhere suddenly feels like it hit a wall.
But it doesn’t have to be that way. In fact, that objection – “I don’t believe the Bible is God’s word” – can become one of the best on-ramps to sharing the gospel you’ll ever get. Let me show you why, and how.
You Don’t Have to Prove the Bible First
Here’s the mistake many of us make. We assume that before we can witness to someone, we first have to win the argument about the Bible – prove its inspiration, defend its reliability, answer every objection about its authority. Only then, we think, can we talk about Jesus.
The author Paul Little put his finger on why that’s backwards. The crucial issue in salvation, he pointed out, is not a person’s view of the Bible – it’s their relationship to Jesus Christ. The Bible is God’s word whether a particular person believes it or not, and you can invite someone to actually consider what Scripture says long before the question of its inspiration is ever settled in their mind. The goal of your conversation isn’t to get them to say, “I now accept the Bible.” It’s to get them to face the real question: What will you do with Jesus?
That reframes everything. The objection isn’t a wall. It’s a springboard.
Proclaim, Don’t Just Defend
Look at how the apostle Paul handled exactly this situation. In Acts 17, Paul stood at the Areopagus in Athens, surrounded by philosophers and skeptics who had no commitment whatsoever to the Hebrew Scriptures. He didn’t open with a lecture trying to convince them the Bible was authoritative. He proclaimed the truth about God – and the Spirit of God used that proclamation to bring people to faith. Some believed that day. And having met the living God, they came in time to trust His word as well.
That points to something every witness needs to hear: our primary role is proclamation, not defense.
Think about what that means. If you really believe the Bible is true – and Scripture testifies of itself again and again that it is, in places like Psalm 19, Psalm 119:160, Proverbs 30:5, and John 17:17 – then you can relax. You are not the one who has to make the word work. God does that. Listen to His own promise:
“So will My word be which goes forth from My mouth; it will not return to Me empty, without accomplishing what I desire, and without succeeding in the matter for which I sent it.” — Isaiah 55:11
There’s a beautiful detail in the Hebrew here. The word for word is dabar – and dabar doesn’t only mean “word.” It also means “thing,” “matter,” or “deed.” When God sends out His word, He isn’t just sending sounds into the air. He’s sending something that acts – that accomplishes, that gets the matter done. That’s why you can proclaim it with confidence even to someone who rejects it. The power was never in your argument. It was always in the word itself.
Now, don’t hear me wrong. Defending the reliability of the Bible has its place, and there’s real value in good apologetics. But in and of itself, winning the argument about the Bible was never the goal. The goal is Christ. A good defense can clear away obstacles – but it’s the proclaimed word that does the saving work.
Turning the Tables
So how does this play out in a real conversation? Let me give you a practical approach, especially for one kind of objector you’ll meet often.
Frequently, the person who says, “I don’t believe the Bible is God’s word,” is someone with a bit of education on the subject – maybe a college course on the Bible, biblical criticism, or world religions. In his own mind, he’s something of an expert. He may tell you, “Oh, I used to believe those Bible stories when I was a kid. But I’m an educated person now. I’ve moved past all that.”
You can take that pride and gently turn it into an open door. Try something like this:
“I completely respect your right not to believe the Bible. I’d defend your freedom to hold whatever view you want. Let me just ask you one thing. Since you’ve studied the Scriptures and know what they teach – what would you say is the Bible’s main message about how a person receives eternal life?”
Here’s what’s fascinating. Around ninety-eight percent of the time, the answer comes back something like: “Well, you live by the golden rule. You keep the Ten Commandments. You do good works.” And the moment they say that, you can respond – kindly, never as a gotcha:
“That’s exactly what I thought you might say. But here’s the thing: you’ve rejected the world’s most important book without even knowing its main message about eternal life. The Bible’s actual message is the opposite of what you just described. Wouldn’t the intellectually honest approach be to let the Bible speak for itself before deciding it isn’t worth believing?”
And just like that, the tables turn. A moment ago, this person felt he stood above the Bible, fully qualified to dismiss it. Now he’s face to face with the fact that he never really understood it in the first place. And that’s exactly where a heart becomes willing to listen – to finally hear what the Bible truly says about eternal life.
What the Bible Actually Says
Well, let’s gather it up. When someone tells you they don’t believe the Bible is God’s word, you don’t have to freeze. You don’t have to win an argument about inspiration first. Your job is to proclaim the word and trust God to do what only He can do – because His word never returns empty. And often, the very objection you were dreading becomes the doorway to the gospel.
But let me turn that key question around, because maybe you need to hear it as much as any skeptic does. Maybe you’re the one who set the Bible aside years ago, sure you’d outgrown it. So let me ask you: what would you say is the Bible’s main message about how a person receives eternal life?
If your answer is anything like “be a good person, keep the commandments, do more good than bad” – then here’s the most important thing you’ll read today. That is not the Bible’s message. In fact, it’s the very thing the Bible says cannot save you.
The actual message is staggeringly better. The Bible says eternal life is not a wage you earn. It’s a gift you receive. None of us has kept the commandments well enough; none of us has done enough good to clear the bar of a holy God. So God did for us what we could never do for ourselves. Jesus Christ lived the perfect life you and I could never live. He went to the cross and died for every sin you have ever committed – past, present, and future. He was buried, and on the third day He rose bodily from the grave. And He is alive today.
That is the Bible’s main message about eternal life: not do, but done. Not your performance, but His finished work, received as a gift.
Becoming a child of God has nothing to do with religious rigmarole – not church membership, not baptism, not good deeds. It comes down to one thing: receiving Jesus Christ as your personal Savior and Lord. The moment you turn from your sin and trust Him, eternal life is yours.
So whatever you’ve believed about the Bible until now, don’t miss its message. Come to Christ. He is ready to receive you the moment you receive Him.
