4 Great Resources to Boost Your Confidence in the Bible

11/11/2014

Last Sunday as part of Brookside Church's "Prepared" series, co-lead pastor Jeff Dart responded to the question, "Can I Have Confidence in the Bible?" His short answer was "yes." We can have confidence in the Bible because it is reliable, unified, unique, and relevant. (To access the full sermon, click here and find the sermon preached on November 9, 2014).

This topic of "reliability of the Bible" is important because of what's at stake: we won't believe the Bible's message (culminating in Christ and His work) if the source is inconsistent or incoherent. And because so many critique the reliability of the Bible, it's important for Christians to be equipped to believe and explain the credibility of the Bible as God's Word.

If you're looking for some resources that will help you have confidence in the Bible and its message, here are 4 that I'd encourage you to dig into:

Jonathan Morrow, Questioning the Bible: 11 Major Challenges to the Bible's Authority. Moody, 2014.

An excellent resource that covers the range of hotly contested topics concerning the Bible (e.g. "What Can We Really Know About Jesus?", "Has the Biblical Text Been Corrupted?", "Are the Gospels Full of Contradictions?") in a readable way, from a solidly evangelical viewpoint. I anticipate that this will be my go-to introductory recommendation for people who want to learn more about the reliability of the Bible.

Craig L. Blomberg, Can We Still Believe the Bible? An Evangelical Engagement with Contemporary Questions. Brazos, 2014.

Blomberg is a top-notch evangelical scholar, and his work deals thoroughly with pressing questions facing the Bible. More academic and "dense" than Morrow's Questioning the Bible, Blomberg's work nevertheless handles questions about the Bible well, and in a gracious way that reinforces the breadth of what can be believed within the evangelical tent. Definitely more in the intermediate or advanced category. (But don't let that discourage you from digging in.)

Kevin DeYoung, Taking God at His Word: Why the Bible is Knowable, Necessary, and Enough, and What That Means for You and Me. Crossway, 2013.

This book isn't necessarily an apologetic defending the Bible, but instead seeks to let the Bible speak for itself and thereby helps us appreciate what the Bible should be doing in our lives. As we consider the Bible's ongoing relevance for our lives, this book shouldn't be missed. For a fuller review I wrote on this book, click here.

http://michaeljkruger.com

This is the website of Michael J. Kruger, President and Samuel C. Patterson Professor of New Testament and Early Christianity at Reformed Theological Seminary, Charlotte, NC. I've not read all of Kruger's books nor have I spent hours trolling his site (there's my disclaimer), but I've been introduced enough to believe he's a guy worth listening to as we seek to explain and appreciate the reliability of the Bible. A couple of blog series he's done that I've recommended to others are "10 Misconceptions about the NT Canon" and "10 Basic Facts about the NT Canon that Every Christian Should Memorize." Check 'em out.

12 Comments

Angela link

11/11/2014 05:33:44 am

The reliability and applicability (is that a word?) of the Bible in today's day and age comes up quite a bit. So many say the Bible is outdated yet God never changes.Thanks for these book suggestions!

Tim Wiebe

11/11/2014 06:04:25 am

Happy to pass 'em along, Angela! Thanks for commenting!

Angela

11/13/2014 09:42:14 am

You bet! I love comments and I think discussions are awesome!! I enjoy participating!

Bruce

11/12/2014 12:22:37 am

I liked Jeff's sermon and appreciated his enthusiasm. I have
to say he's getting quite good. Not that every Christian
is like this but I'm leery of those folks who almost tend
to lift the Bible up and worship it with Jesus himself. I think
they do this to protect their beliefs which for some are fragile
and easily shaken. Dan Wallace once said that as Christians we
need to have a core set of beliefs that will always be there
and can withstand anything. For us it could be Jesus and his
resurrection and to always love God and others. Of course Dan also made the comment one time that some of the red letter highlighting of what Jesus said should instead be pink. Because some could just be the gist of what he said and not the actual words. I think he got in trouble for that comment though.

Angela....I'm curious...when you hear that the Bible is reliable
what does that mean to you ?

11/13/2014 09:33:46 am

The Bible has stood the test of time. Our Creator is the same yesterday, today, and forever. He never changes and He loves us. So when I hear that the Bible is reliable I am rejoicing because there are more people out there who are believers like me. It makes me happy and it’s very encouraging to know that I’m not alone.

11/12/2014 04:53:20 am

To clarify further I guess I may be different than other folks in that I have my core set of beliefs. Those are stated above. I don't have an
issue with conflicts that appear in the bible. In fact I think those are things that need to be brought out and discussed not hidden to make the bible appear pretty. Reliability for me depends on which parts of the bible we are talking about. Some parts for me are more historically reliable and accurate than others. Samuel and kings (more reliable) vs Chronicles (not so much). What Acts says regarding Paul (maybe not that reliable) vs what Paul says about himself in Galations (more reliable). Are the gospel accounts reliable when talking about the birth narratives the resurrection accounts or the accounts of Jesus's death? The accounts
vary among themselves and in some places are not reconcilable. So you have to be somewhat cautious here. I think it's ok that things are messy and not always perfect. I don't think Jesus cared about having everything nice and tidy. His concern was more about people than about what was written somewhere or how something was interpreted.

11/13/2014 09:41:07 am

Hi, Bruce – I just discovered this blog recently so forgive me if I’m unclear on your beliefs. Do you go to Brookside? What do you believe?

11/13/2014 11:19:31 pm

Love the discussion! Bruce - I agree that some can at times try to make the Bible more "sanitized" than it is. I think we need to wrestle with all of God's Word - even the messy parts. And as I've studied the Bible a lot over the last years, further studying any (apparent) conflicts has consistently yielded fresh insights into the meaning of particular passages, the relevance of God's Word, what God is doing in the world, etc.

Also, it's been helpful for me to understand that while the Bible won't always match 21st century standards of PRECISION (e.g. sometimes numbers are rounded out, etc), I believe the message it conveys - even the details it conveys, properly interpreted - will remain ACCURATE. Not sure if those are helpful categories for anyone else as well, but they've been helpful for me.

11/14/2014 04:49:10 am

Angela,
I do go to Brookside but I'm not really evangelical. I guess you could say that I'm a recovering fundamentalist. In my younger days I was really fired up. I was using the bible to condemn anyone who didn't agree with what I thought. Which didn't sit too well with my Catholic parents. Especially when I would say that even Catholics were damned unless they actually prayed and accepted Jesus into their heart. My go to books at the time were the Bible, Dr. John Walvoord's commentary on Revelations, all of Hal Lindseys books and Walter Martin's books on cults. I'm older now and much more calmer. I don't keep God in this box I created for him any longer. He's bigger than that. I figure if Jesus was ok with breaking the Sabbath then maybe he and God are not always bound to how they are presented in scripture. Maybe folks in other religions who are God fearing will be saved because of Christs saving work on the cross. Maybe when someone dies who doesn't know Jesus or is turned off from him because of some screwy talking kid (like I used to be) they will stand in front of God and God will still welcome him with open arms. I see conflicts or inconsistencies in the bible and I am comforted by that. That means we don't have all of the answers like we sometimes think we do. That means we can't keep God in our little box. Sorry Angela I have a habit of rambling on so please excuse me for that.

11/14/2014 05:42:35 am

Hi Bruce! I don’t mind the rambling. Let’s see – my mother was raised Greek Orthodox (she’s Greek/American) and my dad was raised in the Church of Christ denomination. I was able to experience both churches growing up and was baptized as a little one in the Greek Orthodox Church. Growing up we didn’t attend church regularly as a family because of the differences. My parents were not in agreement really and well, we just didn’t go. As a teenager I connected with the First Baptist Church youth group and decided to be baptized on my own at the age of 17. It wasn’t until my late 20’s that I realized that Salvation is through the finished work of Jesus on the cross. I started coming to Brookside when I met my husband in 1998. In all the years I’ve attended I’ve never heard them preach anything contrary to the Bible. I’ve been spending a lot of time in the Bible, particularly the Gospels and the rest of the New Testament. I did recently finish reading the whole bible on a YouVersion one year reading plan. I find that the more I spend time in the Word and fellowship with other believers the more eye-opening the Bible is. I don’t think I will ever stop reading the Bible. What I like about Brookside is their willingness to teach us about church history and what times were like. One of the best classes I ever took at Brookside was on the book: Bible Doctrine – Essential Teachings of the Christian Faith by Wayne Grudem. If you have a chance to take that class I highly recommend it. God speaks to us through His Word. We are so blessed to have this book. Oh, when people ask me what I am I just tell them I’m a Bible-believing Christian.

11/15/2014 10:08:46 pm

Angela,

What do you think about the Greek Orthodox Church. Did you ever feel drawn to going back to that kind of church? I know there's been some who decide they miss the richness of a more liturgical worship. I've gone back and forth.I just don't know that I could do it all of the time.

11/16/2014 07:14:35 am

As I read your note I’m thinking of the Greek Orthodox Priest going up and down the isles with his incense-filled bells singing/chanting the bible verses in Greek. I can smell the candles burning and can remember making the sign of the cross when I was a kid. I remember the stained glass, the icons, the communion bread, my ears straining to pick up as many Greek words as possible – it’s breathtaking. I can remember being frustrated by all the sitting, standing, kneeling, and then standing only to kneel again moments. Yes, I do feel drawn to the Greek Orthodox Church but think that has more to do with my roots. I also think it’s fine to visit other churches.