The New Testament is under attack today, from scholars who claim it’s riddled with errors to seekers who say there are other equally inspired writings. Can Christians be confident in the reliability and authority of the Gospels and other New Testament documents?
Absolutely, said Jeremy Howard, managing acquisitions editor of Bibles, reference books and commentaries for B&H Publishing Group and author of such books as "The Holman QuickSource Guide to Understanding Jesus."
During a recent "Inside LifeWay" podcast, Howard said it isn’t blind faith but convincing evidence that gives him confidence in the New Testament’s trustworthiness (Click here to listen).
For example, one common objection is that the New Testament can’t be trusted because the originals no longer exist.
"We have plenty of evidence to suggest that the New Testament documents are reliable copies of the originals," said Howard. "The recipients of the biblical writings believed those books to be sacred.... They wanted to preserve these documents for future generations…. The scribes and copyists were good at their jobs," and the accuracy with which the thousands of existing copies compare leads one to conclude that "the same Christianity depicted in one manuscript is the same Christianity depicted in all the manuscripts."
Howard also addressed questions about alleged "errors" and "contradictions" in the New Testament, as well as issues related to the Gnostic gospels and their exclusion from the New Testament canon.
To listen to this and other "Inside LifeWay podcasts, visit LifeWay.com/insidelifeway.
