Bible back on the front foot

CAN WE TRUST THE GOSPELS?
By Peter Williams
Crossway Books. 160 pages. £10.99
ISBN 978 1 433 552 953

Sometimes, in God’s kindness, books come along at just the right time.

For me, this little book was particularly timely. It was not that I wasn’t ‘trusting the Gospels’ at the occasion of reading, rather it was a season in which I had felt evangelistically fatigued. For, after making a more concerted effort to spend time with unbelieving friends, I had become weary of playing a straight bat to the googlies of the day – ‘Why would a holy God allow suffering? Why is a loving God against homosexuality? Why would a wise God hate modern science?’, etc.

Clear corroboration

Such questions clearly cannot be left alone, but they often put us on the back foot. Conversations about Jesus’ life, death and resurrection consequently never arise, and we spend most of our time defending the moral rationality of our faith.

Enter Dr Peter Williams’ Can We Trust the Gospels? – a marvellous book – which does not answer any of the aforementioned questions. Nevertheless, a book that does demonstrate that Jesus’ life, death and resurrection is so clearly corroborated by historical evidence puts us back on the evangelistic front foot.

Indeed, in his insightful opening Williams, of Tyndale House, Cambridge, reminds the reader that the word ‘faith’ is closely associated with ‘trust’, which is evidence-based. Hence Christianity rises and falls not on whether it is judicious to the modern ear, but simply on whether it is true.

Geography and the weather

From here, Williams underscores that the veracity of the Gospels is established by: their historicity (compared to other trusted firstcentury writings); their geographical accuracy; other ancient non-Christian sources; and countless other proofs. Some of these attestations I had heard before, but many others were new. For example, one of the most fascinating indications that the Gospel writers were not making up a story is their in-depth knowledge of the geo-political landscape. Everything in the Gospels (from Antipas’ local tax system in Capernaum to Zacchaeus’ sycamore in Jericho tree) corresponds with all the historical and geographical data we now have. Williams even demonstrates that John’s Gospel is meteorologically accurate!

So encouraging

Towards the end of the book there is also a particularly helpful section, entitled ‘Has the Text Changed?’ Here Williams traces how we have arrived at the Bible today and underscores that scholarly confidence in the Gospels has never been higher.

There are so many encouraging gems in this little book. Whatever evangelistic season you may be going through, I thoroughly recommend it.