Where did the Bible come from and how do we know we can trust it? Is it even relevant today? What’s with all this talk about Jesus being the “center” of the Bible? What does that mean anyway?
For the past few years, the Barna Group has been conducting surveys to determine how Americans are engaging with the Bible. Their 2019 State of the Bible survey recorded some noteworthy trends.
From 2018 to 2019, those who were completely disengaged from the Bible decreased from 54% to 45%. But those who regularly interacted with the Bible, and sought to align their choices with that of the Bible, also decreased from 9% to 5%.
Let’s pause for a second.
According to that study, roughly half of Americans are completely disengaged from the Bible and fewer folks are submitting to the Bible as an authority in their lives.
In your regular interactions with those outside the walls of Trinity Bible Church, you've most certainly encountered someone who is either indifferent or skeptical towards the Bible. Perhaps you've heard someone say that "the Bible is just a book written by some old dudes to control people." Or, "It's full of contradictions!"
In our bookstall here at Trinity we have a short, accessible book called "Bible – Can We Trust It?" by Andrew Mathieson. He shows us where the Bible came from, why we can trust it, how to read it, and how it's relevant today all with an eye towards Christ.
As a part of the First Steps series from 9 Marks, this brief book was written in plain language for those with no church background.
- Read this book if you want to be reminded about why we can trust the Bible
- Read this book if you want to know why we should trust the Bible
- Read this book if you want to be equipped to engage others
- Read this book with someone else who isn’t sure about the Bible
- Read this book in a one-to-one discipleship setting
Featured Quote
"There are 61 distinct Messianic prophecies in the Old Testament and Jesus of Nazareth fulfills every single one. Now you might think this is no big deal. But you’d be very wrong. This is a massive deal! Well, the odds of Jesus accidentally fulfilling just 8 of the 61 prophecies are 10,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 to 1 against."