Test of BIND Configuration

[Jonathan S. Abrams]

I have created a configuration for BIND v9.2.2 on OS X Server v10.4.4.  
I would like to test the configuration, to the extent that one can, 
before making it the master of our zone.  I believe that I can do this 
if I start the named process and use the server in question as the DNS 
server for a query (say, to google.com) from another workstation.  If it 
can successfully resolve the query, then it would be working in one 
direction (outbound).  Is this test methodology correct?  Would 
attempting to resolve to an A record hosted by this DNS server from the 
Internet be a valid way of testing if it is working inbound (I know I 
would have to specify the IP of the DNS server to do this)?

Thanks for reading.

-Jonathan