Can We Trust the Gospels, Historically Speaking
The four Gospels that start the New Testament of the Christian Bible have not always been under attack. It is easy for us to believe that modern findings in both the scientific and religious idea world can somehow relegate the four Gospels to being nothing more than stories of good intentions. How do we know that they are true?
Peter J. Williams has created a book entitled Can We Trust the Gospels? and it is short and easy to read. It sets out to prove that we can indeed trust the Gospels as they were written. It is written in a style that is accessible to nearly every church-goer and is one that I would recommend adding to any shelf in your home.
Can We Trust the Gospels, Some Specifics
As I mentioned before, the Gospels have not always been under attack and sought to be proven as a lie. Instead, “these four books were treated together as the best source for information about Jesus long before any central city, group, or individual in Christianity possessed enough power to impose the collection on other people.” These books were seen as a complete account for decades of their own merit and were not forced down the throat of any church as the truth that must be taught. If one were going to argue against the Gospels, they would need to find a better argument.
Throughout the Gospel accounts, you can read of Jesus and his disciples’ movements with descriptions of up and down among numerous others. Williams argues that while we see these from a different vantage point, the writers knew the topography of the land and spoke in specifics. He writes, “My argument is not that knowledge of these geographical details demonstrates that Gospels to be true, but rather that the idea that they got the story wrong for lack of high-quality information on the location of events is false. Either the Gospel writers themselves or people they interacted with at length were able to describe the locations of Jesus’s activities in detail.” We should not think of these authors as primitive people without scientific tools and developed thinking, but instead, be inspired by the depths that they understood their world.
Can We Trust the Gospels, A Thorough Account
We can be certain that the Gospels are a thorough account of the life of Jesus. It is easy to see from the examples above and others provided by Williams in this work that it takes more faith to doubt the facts in Scripture than it does to simply believe in them. Why do we always make things more difficult than they are?
I am grateful that Williams would take the time to put together this work so that it can get into the hands of many people. I loved everything about it and could not recommend it enough even though I received it for free in exchange for an unbiased review.
This would be the one book that I have read in the past year that I would recommend you add to your collection at home. It is simply that good.
Is there evidence to believe the Gospels?
The Gospels–Matthew, Mark, Luke, John–are four accounts of Jesus’s life and teachings while on earth. But should we accept them as historically accurate? What evidence is there that the recorded events actually happened?
Presenting a case for the historical reliability of the Gospels, New Testament scholar Peter Williams examines evidence from non-Christian sources, assesses how accurately the four biblical accounts reflect the cultural context of their day, compares different accounts of the same events, and looks at how these texts were handed down throughout the centuries. Everyone from the skeptic to the scholar will find powerful arguments in favor of trusting the Gospels as trustworthy accounts of Jesus’s earthly life.
Learn More About Can We Trust the Gospels?:
- Can We Trust the Gospels? (Crossway)
- Can We Trust the Gospels (ChristianBook.com)
- A Review: Can We Trust the Gospels?
- A Review: Can We Trust the Gospels?
Cover image provided by MockUpShots.com.
