How can you trust the Bible, it just isn't reliable?

The crux of the issue here is to challenge the person who responds this way to read the Bible with you. Maybe read a couple of chapters a week of a gospel and then meet up. So often people make comments like this and it is based on what their parents or friends or the media have said rather than having examined it for themselves. Before you read it with them, however, it may be worth examining the historical reliability of the documents themselves.

This is the evidence just as it relates to the gospels, let alone the rest of the Bible.

Manuscript evidence - there are more 24,000 early manuscript copies or portions of the New Testament in existence. It enables us to establish that the text we have is very close to the original. Some of these portions date back to 125 AD, the earliest almost complete New Testaments date to about 200AD. Compared to Homer's Iliad (643 copies and 500 years after event) and the works of Caesar (10 copies and 1000 years later) and other works from antiquity the New Testament is reliable.

Sir Frederic Kenyon, former director of the British Museum and a leading expert on ancient manuscripts said this about the New Testament:
"The interval then between the dates of original composition and the earliest extant evidence becomes so small as to be in fact negligible, and the last foundation for any doubt that the scriptures have come down to us substantially as they were written has now been removed."

Other sources - There is also corroborating evidence in the works of Josephus, Pliny the Younger, Tacitus and various Jewish literature of the day. Making references to Jesus, the life of Christians, their beliefs and even Jesus ability to do the miraculous.

Even without using the gospels, relying on these other sources we find out the following about Jesus:

1. He was a Jewish teacher
2. Many believed he performed healings and exorcisms.
3. Some believed he was the Messiah
4. He was rejected by the Jewish leaders.
5. He was crucified by Pilate during Tiberius reign.
6. Despite crucifixion his followers believed he was alive.
7. Belief was widespread both geographically and socially.

Here’s what Clifford Wilson, a prominent archaeologist said: “Those who know the facts now recognise that the New Testament must be accepted as a remarkably accurate source book.”

The Bible is the best place to go to learn about who Jesus is and what he says and its implications. The challenge for us is to get our friends to read it to discover him for themselves.