Q&A: How to use the Bible as evidence with non-believers who don't accept it as God's word — the prophecy approach

Mike clarifies he does not ask non-believers to pre-accept the Bible's authority before examining it. Instead he uses the Bible as a historical document and applies a prophecy test: show from the Dead Sea Scrolls that Isaiah 53 was written before Jesus; show that the text intricately describes what Jesus did; demonstrate from other historical sources that Jesus at minimum died under Pontius Pilate and that his followers believed he rose. This is an external-evidence approach to the Bible rather than a circular one.