How do you know the Bible is the Word of God?
If God were to communicate to us how would He do it? The answer is quite simple. He would do it the way in which He designed us to communicate. Concerning complex ideas, He would be limited to words in written or spoken form. For how else would we understand what He is saying if He isn't using language? Though many ideas may be inferred from His design of nature itself, to clearly communicate He would use words, just as we do. Considering He designed us and considering the complex coding He integrated into nature, He certainly has the ability to do so.
My initial thought is that there are two ways in which He could proceed at this point. Either He could communicate to everyone individually throughout history, or he could communicate with a few, and have them pass on His words using the normal channels of human communication.
In either case, the next question that comes up is even if God spoke, how would you know it was Him speaking? For perhaps the words were merely a product of one's own imagination, or perhaps from a spirit who was not of God. Therefore, there would also have to be evidence that the words were from God. What would constitute such evidence if not the miraculous? For to prove that God has spoken would require signs that are unique to His ability.
However, this presents an interesting problem if God speaks to each one individually. For then, He would have to be continually doing miracles to prove that He has spoken. In which case the miraculous would appear to be merely a common event, and therefore not miraculous. Therefore, it would seem more "reasonable" that God would choose to speak to particular individuals (let's call them "prophets"), and provide evidence in the form of miracles to affirm that the prophet is a prophet of God.
There are those who reject any writing as being historical if it contains an account of a miracle. Such is often relegated the status of myth rather than history. Upon what basis is this done? Not on a scientific basis. For science only describes what normally happens. It can only say that the miraculous is not what normally happens. But it can't say that it doesn't happen or hasn't happened in the past. For science is subject to history. History rules over science, for history is fact and science is merely description of fact. You therefore cannot just ignore historical accounts that contain miracles just because they contain miracles. For then you provide no way for God to prove Himself. Even if He were to do a miracle for you today, tomorrow it would be history. Would you then still be convinced tomorrow by the miracle He did today? So what's the difference if the miracles were many years ago?
Yet it is reasonable to question such accounts as to their accuracy. For just as one should not reject an account just because it contains miracles, neither should one "believe whatever you hear." For there are many myths and false accounts of history. But wouldn't God recognize that also? What could He have done to assure those who heard of the miracles many years later, that they did occur? In a sense, this is not an uncommon problem with trial lawyers, who try to convince a jury that the historical scenario he gives is accurate. How does he do it? That depends on what evidence he has available. If he has eyewitnesses, then he has them take the stand and they are evaluated as to whether they are reliable and give their accounts. There may also be physical evidence presented. After presenting the evidence, the jury goes away to infer what happened based on what was presented.
