Are the 66 books God’s Word?

As a young believer I was given a Bible, told to read it, and pray.  That was it.  Nobody attempted to give me any kind of Bible lessons, or an introductory course to help me understand what that intimidating Book was about.  

The Holy Spirit taught me to begin, as with any other ordinary book, at the beginning of the Bible.  The first verse is, 

‘In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.’  Genesis 1:1

It forcefully struck me that everything came to exist solely by the words God spoke:  

“And God said, ‘Let there by light, and there was light.'” Genesis 1:3

I saw that, ‘And God said’ occurs 8 more times in Genesis 1:6,9,11,14,20,22,24,26. 

As I continued to read and study, I found many more details that embroidered on that miraculous beginning.  For example, Psalm 148:5 says,

‘Let them [creation] praise the name of the Lord, for He commanded and they were created.’ 

Throughout the Bible there are more details that God Created with words.  In the New Testament in a book by the apostle Peter, I read,   

‘But they deliberately forget that long ago by God’s word the heavens existed and the earth was formed out of water and by water.’  2 Peter 3:5

What I began to understand was that God, in a sense, ‘scatters’ information about a subject across the books of the Bible.  OK, so I knew I had to seek God and His plan in all 66 books.

Then my next problem arose (it seemed to me as if I was born a doubter).   Was the Bible really the Word of God?  The sentence in a book I read, ‘The Bible is the product of man, not of God,’ had a powerful impact on me.  So how could I be sure it is God who speaks through the 66 books?  It sent me to dig deeper into the Scriptures to see how God answers that one….