The Bible contains a message that one would imagine to be the most exciting news to someone looking for real answers to the problems of life.

It answers such basic questions as:

Why are we here?

Where are we going?

What is the purpose of life?

What happens when we die?

Why can't human beings live happily together?

How can people be changed from the inside out?

It talks about

• A God of infinite love who wants to enter our lives and share that love with us.

• How all our sins can be forgiven - and we can know it.

• How we can enjoy a daily, loving relationship with the One who created the universe.

• How to find peace of mind, and strength and encouragement for daily living.

• How to grow into what God planned we should be.

• The certainty of a glorious everlasting future.

All this is tied up with the story of how, at a certain point in history, this God entered human experience in the person of Jesus. It records how he revealed his love in works of compassion, how he died on a cross to pay for our sins, how he conquered death and how he will one day return to judge the world and restore heaven and earth to their intended glory, where he and his people will enjoy life together.

The Bible has rightly been called the greatest story ever told, about the greatest person who has ever lived, who is making to men and women the greatest offer that has ever been made. So if the message is so great, why is it that many do not accept it? One reason is simply because people do not know what that message is. Leaving aside the Bible statement that the devil "has blinded the minds of unbelievers" (2 Corinthians 4:4), maybe it is simply that they have received faulty or unbalanced information. Or maybe the character and behaviour of some who claim to be Christians has turned them off. Consequently their understanding of what it is all about is distorted.

However, the reason why some do not accept the Bible, is simply because they cannot believe it is true. After all, it is 2,000 years since Jesus came. How can we know that he really did, and said, the things that the Bible says? Having discussed the relevance of this message with hundreds of people over the years, I have found that three questions are often raised concerning the accuracy of these written records.

Q1

The first question goes something like this: Two thousand years ago people were very primitive, illiterate and superstitious. How do we know that Jesus wasn't a person with a few unusual healing gifts who, sincerely or otherwise, convinced people he was someone unique? Being as gullible as they were, they were easily deluded into believing he was some kind of a god or, more specifically, as the New Testament clearly portrays him to be, the Lord of heaven and earth.

Q2

The second question concerns the time gap that exists between the death of Jesus and the writing down of the stories about him. People imagine that there was sufficient time for all kinds of legends to develop about him and so how do we know that the picture we have been given is not very distorted?

Q3

The third question concerns what has happened to the written records since they were written down. Suppose the original writers of the New Testament did give us a reasonably accurate account of the character and ministry of Jesus. That was two thousand years ago. The writings have been copied and translated very many times since then, so how do we know that they haven't become very distorted in that process?

As regards question 2, this gap is not as great as is commonly imagined. There is also far too much eye-witness testimony embedded in the writings to make this argument credible as a reason for ignoring the unique claims of Jesus Christ. However, I have dealt with this question more fully in a separate booklet, Did the Writers of the New Testament Get Their Picture of Jesus Right?

In this booklet, I want to deal briefly with the first question concerning the ignorance of the people in those days. Then I will focus on question 3, the historical evidence for the accuracy of the Bible as it has come down to us today.

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