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Reliable Truth
"I wanted to write a very scholarly book where a high school student or average man or woman would find it to be a compelling read," Simmons said. "What I had found in my research was that most books written on validity of the Bible were very scholarly, but there was nothing out there for average people." - Richard E. Simmons III
- GenresChristianity
192 pages, Kindle Edition
First published December 1, 2012
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February 3, 2024
It seems that I’m being inundated with book recommendations of late. This one comes from a dear friend who is fully enmeshed in fundamentalism, and with whom I often engage in religious discussions. These exchanges are generally always polite, but sometimes very divisive because I’m certainly not a fundamentalist. And yet, my friend is among the few people with whom religious discussions of this nature can occur openly without deteriorating into chaotic debate.
Perhaps the most divisive exchange occurred most recently, when my friend declared that I wasn’t a Christian. This seemed like such an absurd statement for me to hear given the lengthy explanations I’ve provided her about my relationship with Christ. However, this book has allowed me to see why my friend said what she did. This book reveals the perspective of those who root their beliefs in static doctrine and established theology to such an extent that the inner quality of their religious experience becomes stunted. For me, religion must well up from within. For the fundamentalist, religion is something more external, as found in religious writings and established orthodoxy. I’m very glad my friend sent this book because it has really helped me to better clarify our differences.
Seek Internally, Not Externally
Before even finishing chapter one, we can see the glaring error in the thinking of this author, who insists upon basing his faith in tangible and verifiable facts. And it is an error that affects untold numbers of fundamentalists who are brainwashed by orthodoxy. The tragedy in this sort of religious confinement is that it ossifies their thinking within a narrow range of literalism to which they cling desperately, as to a life raft, because they have no authentic foundation beyond it. They cannot seem to contemplate God outside the confines of their literalism. My advice to them is not to abandon their devotion to the Bible but to make it secondary to prayer and meditation, within which they should ask for personal confirmation within themselves.
Like atheists, some religious people seem to balk at the person who contends they can feel, hear, or talk to God. But gaining these sensory perceptions is essential to advance spiritually beyond literalism. Finding this level of contemplation begins with the question of: What is God? What are the characteristics of God? How does God manifest in the world? Deep contemplation of God and inner seeking brings revelations more vivid and authentic than merely reading or memorizing scripture, performing rituals, or the sort of cultic murmuring that occurs in responsive reading sessions.
It confounds me how anyone can witness the myriad wireless communication technologies of today and not recognize that God speaks with us via the conscience. Individual prayer and purposeful meditation are the most powerful cornerstones of faith, and through them everything in the world, including the Bible, comes to life in a much more vivid, surreal, and life-altering way.
Seek Not Physical Proof, But Rather Spiritual Proof
My friend, and this author, have a fetish to prove the literal accuracy of the Bible. In fact, this author admits that his entire faith rests upon proof that the Bible is accurate. To me, such a statement is almost idolatry, because it involves putting one’s faith into something physical, like the ink and paper of the Biblical document.
Truly, God is beyond the sort of physical and tangible proof this author seeks, and the poignant thing about it is that authentic belief remans distant until one can find God within. If we must follow scripture, then we should remember that it tells us: the Word is written within our hearts and minds. The Word resides in our hearts and minds because it is ineffable.
This author wants you to believe that New Testament books written by people decades after the events are indisputable. Modern humans can’t even recount a news event that happened yesterday without a dispute. The Word is always subject to corruption through the penmanship of mankind.
The New And Radical Message of Jesus
Certainly Jesus impacted history dramatically, bringing the Message that we exist spiritually after death, that we must love one another, that our lives should be devoted to love, that we are sons and daughters of God to whom we should pray so as to be renewed in the glorious knowledge that we need not fear, that we must forego all violence, and that we must resist the greediness of pathological accumulation.
In its time, the Message of Jesus was something new and radical. The author reminds us that, Jesus said the Old Testament prophecy was “fulfilled” by His Message, meaning it was over, done with, no longer valid in light of the New Testament. And the Good News of this new message is that God has forgiven our sins and that we will continue in spiritual existence after death. The Good News is to “fear not”, because we have this forgiveness and afterlife, which Jesus extended to everybody, even those persecuting him during the crucifixion. In spite of the disparate hoops theologians jump through to prove otherwise, the ultimate messages from the Old and New Testaments are clearly contradictory.
The fundamentalist has based much of his belief system upon anachronistic things he finds in ancient writings that are now obsolete. The faith of the fundamentalist requires a document, a specific plan, an outline of what is to come, mysterious prophecy, and a generic mold to fit himself into. Much of Christianity believes in this way, but it is a shallow belief, founded in doctrine instead of love, shaped by an apocalyptic future instead of the guiding hand of the love residing within. It is an external belief system which unfortunately misdirects the religious pilgrim from the internal revelations of God.
The fundamentalist wants to be directed by external sources on how to live instead of accessing the internal mechanisms God has provided to us in love. The fundamentalist wants a playbook of tasks: go to church, read the Bible, serve here, do this, do that, etc. The mystical experience of God is very different. God speaks, God directs, God exists factually within, living within us, manifesting in the world through our lives and actions. We do not have to prove the Bible to be factual. The proof is in the Message and its power to transform.
Fact or Fiction? Does It Matter?
My friend, and this author, have yet to distinguish the pure “Message” of Christ from the expanse of religious writings and doctrines that men have promulgated over the last two thousand years. From my perspective, I can only ask why? Why would anyone be resistant to the Message of Jesus, whether it be fact or fiction? A story does not need to be literally true in order to convey an important moral truth. How can anyone believe in Jesus and not believe that you should turn the other cheek, love your enemies, remain nonviolent, and pray to God? The truth of Jesus is confirmed in the validity of the Message, as opposed to the archaeological record.
This author quotes C.S. Lewis a lot but actually seems uninformed about how C. S. Lewis was converted through discussions with J. R. R. Tolkien. Both Lewis and Tolkien were fantasy writers. In an article entitled How C. S. Lewis Accepted Christianity, Joseph Loconte explains as follows:
This author totally refuses to address the sort of mythology or metaphor we must recognize in the Old Testament like the calls for genocide, speaking snakes, bloody sacrifices, God as a cloud of fire, God as a burning bush, talking donkeys, expulsion of menstruating women, or other mysterious ritualistic endeavors of ancient Levitical priests. The truth this author chooses not to emphasize is that “people”, not God, wrote the Bible, and the books included in the Bible were purposefully selected by “people” to emphasize particular theological positions. Many other ancient writings exist, and many were purposefully omitted from the Bible, as the Dead Sea Scrolls have revealed. And there are many other sacred texts circulating about in the world that vast populations revere as sacred. Perhaps the most telling characteristic of pathological fundamentalism is its tendency to discount and invalidate other religions.
Blind Faith (Literalism) or Spiritual Truth (The Message)
The author uses the Madoff scheme to emphasize that we should not put excessive truth in what other people tell us or participate in blind religious acceptance, but that is exactly what the author does in his acceptance of orthodoxy, which is the particular theology chosen by the early church fathers and tweaked by the Romans to integrate with their paganism.
This book totally omits the facts about how the early church used the crusades, inquisitions, torture, and burnings at the stake to squash other religions and to brainwash illiterate humanity into the particular scheme of orthodoxy that fundamentalists, like this author, continue to swallow today hook, line, and sinker. Authentic spirituality comes only with validation within oneself by synthesizing the Message out of all the man-driven commentary, and expressing the Message experientially, as Christ did. On the contrary, this author seeks faith in worldly physicality, such as archaeological evidence.
Finding God within yourself is not blind faith; it is the most authentic and confirmed faith that one can have. Christians who only find faith in Biblical orthodoxy have yet to have a true salvation experience. Such ones should ask themselves about goodness, love, compassion, mercy, brotherhood, and all the characteristics of God that can well forth in your heart in such great abundance that they change the very fibers of your being. In fact, the most horrible of this author’s misconceptions occurs when the author quotes Miles Stanford, as follows:
Perhaps no portion of the book better explains why my friend would declare me not a Christian than the quote above, which allows me to immediately recognize the sort of indoctrination that has taken over her mindset. Such fundamentalists just haven’t met the inner Christ and have not recognized the validity of the Message itself. Instead, they are following a script that they see outlined in the Bible, and they follow this script assuming that all other scripts throughout the world are invalid, incorrect, and lies of the devil.
Christ Is Above The Bible
How can anyone really believe that God would abandon the great majority of the world except for the narrow-minded band of fundamentalists that are brainwashed with this kind of nonsense? Contrary to this authors statement, the Bible’s validity is not the very foundation of the Christian faith: Christ is. That is the reason the religion is called Christianity: because it is based upon Christ. This author would seem to want to change the name of the religion to Biblianity because he focuses his worship upon the Bible. One sees this as the author actually attributes anthropomorphic properties to the Bible, quoting Emile Cailliet in “longing for a book that would understand me”. Books don’t understand people, people understand books.
The author seems to use the Bible like a talisman to invoke a Jesus that he seems to experience only secondarily to his perception of the finite instructions he derives from the Bible. But Christ left no writings because Christ is the writing, the Word, the example, the impact upon history that remains potent all around the world. Christ instructed us to find God in prayer. Christ quoted scripture in his efforts to make his point that the pathological law-followers of the time were misguided. Christ never waved a Bible about in the air like the raving fundamentalists we see out in the streets scattering their pamphlets about in misguided efforts that actually repel people from Christ, as opposed to attracting them.
I feel so sorry for fundamentalists like this author who think the whole foundation of their faith is rooted in the archaeological record, and who seem to discount the validity of the inner voice within. When accessed, our conscience, consciousness, and heart, are inner workings that let us know what is inherently true beyond the need for physical confirmation from the mechanisms of the tangible world. Fundamentalists believe in a script, a story, a procedure, as opposed to the God within. How do we break through this rigid devotion to scriptural doctrine and get the fundamentalist to see the truth internally?
Seeing Beyond The Bias of Orthodoxy
Perhaps no better example exists for the errors of orthodoxy than the misguided actions of the early Roman church, which refuted a heliocentric solar system, believed indulgences in sin could be purchased or earned, murdered heretics, and conducted horrendous acts of war upon other religions.
The extreme one-sided bias of this author is revealed most poignantly in the section of Chapter 4 entitled “Dead Sea Scrolls” wherein the author omits all references to the many other texts discovered there, choosing to focus solely on the ones in the current Bible. The author refers the reader to his appendix for explanation, but the appendix offers only that the books included in the Bible were the ones the church “felt” were the most “apostolic “ and the excluded narratives are not discussed, such as the Gospel of Thomas or the Gospel of Mary.
Despite the shortcomings of human nature, the author somehow believes that certain early church fathers were capable of deciding which works of the Bible to retain and which to discard, a fact that he skirts around. Nor does he mention the horrible persecutions, intimidations, book bans, and superstitious threats of hellfire the early church used to consolidate orthodoxy. Nor does he explain how orthodoxy itself formed out of the refutations the early church fathers made against other interpretations, such as Gnosticism. For more about the excluded texts found among the Dead Sea Scrolls, I would refer readers to Meggan Watterson’s book
Mary Magdalene Revealed , Elaine Pagels work The Secret Gospel of Thomas , and Bart Ehrman’s The Apocryphal Gospels .
It is my sincere hope that fundamentalists who read this review will not be offended, but rather motivated to explore the more mystical dimensions of Christianity.
-End-
Perhaps the most divisive exchange occurred most recently, when my friend declared that I wasn’t a Christian. This seemed like such an absurd statement for me to hear given the lengthy explanations I’ve provided her about my relationship with Christ. However, this book has allowed me to see why my friend said what she did. This book reveals the perspective of those who root their beliefs in static doctrine and established theology to such an extent that the inner quality of their religious experience becomes stunted. For me, religion must well up from within. For the fundamentalist, religion is something more external, as found in religious writings and established orthodoxy. I’m very glad my friend sent this book because it has really helped me to better clarify our differences.
Seek Internally, Not Externally
Before even finishing chapter one, we can see the glaring error in the thinking of this author, who insists upon basing his faith in tangible and verifiable facts. And it is an error that affects untold numbers of fundamentalists who are brainwashed by orthodoxy. The tragedy in this sort of religious confinement is that it ossifies their thinking within a narrow range of literalism to which they cling desperately, as to a life raft, because they have no authentic foundation beyond it. They cannot seem to contemplate God outside the confines of their literalism. My advice to them is not to abandon their devotion to the Bible but to make it secondary to prayer and meditation, within which they should ask for personal confirmation within themselves.
Like atheists, some religious people seem to balk at the person who contends they can feel, hear, or talk to God. But gaining these sensory perceptions is essential to advance spiritually beyond literalism. Finding this level of contemplation begins with the question of: What is God? What are the characteristics of God? How does God manifest in the world? Deep contemplation of God and inner seeking brings revelations more vivid and authentic than merely reading or memorizing scripture, performing rituals, or the sort of cultic murmuring that occurs in responsive reading sessions.
It confounds me how anyone can witness the myriad wireless communication technologies of today and not recognize that God speaks with us via the conscience. Individual prayer and purposeful meditation are the most powerful cornerstones of faith, and through them everything in the world, including the Bible, comes to life in a much more vivid, surreal, and life-altering way.
Seek Not Physical Proof, But Rather Spiritual Proof
My friend, and this author, have a fetish to prove the literal accuracy of the Bible. In fact, this author admits that his entire faith rests upon proof that the Bible is accurate. To me, such a statement is almost idolatry, because it involves putting one’s faith into something physical, like the ink and paper of the Biblical document.
Truly, God is beyond the sort of physical and tangible proof this author seeks, and the poignant thing about it is that authentic belief remans distant until one can find God within. If we must follow scripture, then we should remember that it tells us: the Word is written within our hearts and minds. The Word resides in our hearts and minds because it is ineffable.
This author wants you to believe that New Testament books written by people decades after the events are indisputable. Modern humans can’t even recount a news event that happened yesterday without a dispute. The Word is always subject to corruption through the penmanship of mankind.
The New And Radical Message of Jesus
Certainly Jesus impacted history dramatically, bringing the Message that we exist spiritually after death, that we must love one another, that our lives should be devoted to love, that we are sons and daughters of God to whom we should pray so as to be renewed in the glorious knowledge that we need not fear, that we must forego all violence, and that we must resist the greediness of pathological accumulation.
In its time, the Message of Jesus was something new and radical. The author reminds us that, Jesus said the Old Testament prophecy was “fulfilled” by His Message, meaning it was over, done with, no longer valid in light of the New Testament. And the Good News of this new message is that God has forgiven our sins and that we will continue in spiritual existence after death. The Good News is to “fear not”, because we have this forgiveness and afterlife, which Jesus extended to everybody, even those persecuting him during the crucifixion. In spite of the disparate hoops theologians jump through to prove otherwise, the ultimate messages from the Old and New Testaments are clearly contradictory.
The fundamentalist has based much of his belief system upon anachronistic things he finds in ancient writings that are now obsolete. The faith of the fundamentalist requires a document, a specific plan, an outline of what is to come, mysterious prophecy, and a generic mold to fit himself into. Much of Christianity believes in this way, but it is a shallow belief, founded in doctrine instead of love, shaped by an apocalyptic future instead of the guiding hand of the love residing within. It is an external belief system which unfortunately misdirects the religious pilgrim from the internal revelations of God.
The fundamentalist wants to be directed by external sources on how to live instead of accessing the internal mechanisms God has provided to us in love. The fundamentalist wants a playbook of tasks: go to church, read the Bible, serve here, do this, do that, etc. The mystical experience of God is very different. God speaks, God directs, God exists factually within, living within us, manifesting in the world through our lives and actions. We do not have to prove the Bible to be factual. The proof is in the Message and its power to transform.
Fact or Fiction? Does It Matter?
My friend, and this author, have yet to distinguish the pure “Message” of Christ from the expanse of religious writings and doctrines that men have promulgated over the last two thousand years. From my perspective, I can only ask why? Why would anyone be resistant to the Message of Jesus, whether it be fact or fiction? A story does not need to be literally true in order to convey an important moral truth. How can anyone believe in Jesus and not believe that you should turn the other cheek, love your enemies, remain nonviolent, and pray to God? The truth of Jesus is confirmed in the validity of the Message, as opposed to the archaeological record.
This author quotes C.S. Lewis a lot but actually seems uninformed about how C. S. Lewis was converted through discussions with J. R. R. Tolkien. Both Lewis and Tolkien were fantasy writers. In an article entitled How C. S. Lewis Accepted Christianity, Joseph Loconte explains as follows:
“As Lewis recounted the conversation in his autobiography, Surprised by Joy, Tolkien insisted that myths were not falsehoods but rather intimations of a concrete, spiritual reality. “Jack, when you meet a god sacrificing himself in a pagan story, you like it very much. You are mysteriously moved by it,” Tolkien said. Lewis agreed: Tales of sacrifice and heroism stirred up within him a sense of longing—but not when he encountered them in the gospels. “The pagan stories”, Tolkien insisted, “are God expressing himself through the minds of poets: They are “splintered fragments” of a much greater story. The account of Christ and his death and resurrection is a kind of myth”, he explained. “It works on our imagination in much the same way as other myths, with this difference: It really happened.” Perhaps only Tolkien, with his immense intelligence and creativity, could have persuaded Lewis that his reason and imagination might become allies in the act of faith. Lewis’s objections melted away, like ants into a furnace. “The old myth of the Dying God, without ceasing to be myth, comes down from the heaven of legend and imagination to the earth of history,” he wrote after his conversion. “We must not be ashamed of the mythical radiance resting on our theology.”
This author totally refuses to address the sort of mythology or metaphor we must recognize in the Old Testament like the calls for genocide, speaking snakes, bloody sacrifices, God as a cloud of fire, God as a burning bush, talking donkeys, expulsion of menstruating women, or other mysterious ritualistic endeavors of ancient Levitical priests. The truth this author chooses not to emphasize is that “people”, not God, wrote the Bible, and the books included in the Bible were purposefully selected by “people” to emphasize particular theological positions. Many other ancient writings exist, and many were purposefully omitted from the Bible, as the Dead Sea Scrolls have revealed. And there are many other sacred texts circulating about in the world that vast populations revere as sacred. Perhaps the most telling characteristic of pathological fundamentalism is its tendency to discount and invalidate other religions.
Blind Faith (Literalism) or Spiritual Truth (The Message)
The author uses the Madoff scheme to emphasize that we should not put excessive truth in what other people tell us or participate in blind religious acceptance, but that is exactly what the author does in his acceptance of orthodoxy, which is the particular theology chosen by the early church fathers and tweaked by the Romans to integrate with their paganism.
This book totally omits the facts about how the early church used the crusades, inquisitions, torture, and burnings at the stake to squash other religions and to brainwash illiterate humanity into the particular scheme of orthodoxy that fundamentalists, like this author, continue to swallow today hook, line, and sinker. Authentic spirituality comes only with validation within oneself by synthesizing the Message out of all the man-driven commentary, and expressing the Message experientially, as Christ did. On the contrary, this author seeks faith in worldly physicality, such as archaeological evidence.
Finding God within yourself is not blind faith; it is the most authentic and confirmed faith that one can have. Christians who only find faith in Biblical orthodoxy have yet to have a true salvation experience. Such ones should ask themselves about goodness, love, compassion, mercy, brotherhood, and all the characteristics of God that can well forth in your heart in such great abundance that they change the very fibers of your being. In fact, the most horrible of this author’s misconceptions occurs when the author quotes Miles Stanford, as follows:
“Unless our faith is established on facts, it is no more than conjecture, superstition, speculation, or presumption.” Bottom line? Stanford is telling us that faith without a strong foundation is nothing more than blind faith …. and blind faith is worthless. However, he makes it clear that Christians do not have a blind faith - their trust is firmly anchored in the words of scripture. The Bible’s validity is the very foundation of Christian faith.
Perhaps no portion of the book better explains why my friend would declare me not a Christian than the quote above, which allows me to immediately recognize the sort of indoctrination that has taken over her mindset. Such fundamentalists just haven’t met the inner Christ and have not recognized the validity of the Message itself. Instead, they are following a script that they see outlined in the Bible, and they follow this script assuming that all other scripts throughout the world are invalid, incorrect, and lies of the devil.
Christ Is Above The Bible
How can anyone really believe that God would abandon the great majority of the world except for the narrow-minded band of fundamentalists that are brainwashed with this kind of nonsense? Contrary to this authors statement, the Bible’s validity is not the very foundation of the Christian faith: Christ is. That is the reason the religion is called Christianity: because it is based upon Christ. This author would seem to want to change the name of the religion to Biblianity because he focuses his worship upon the Bible. One sees this as the author actually attributes anthropomorphic properties to the Bible, quoting Emile Cailliet in “longing for a book that would understand me”. Books don’t understand people, people understand books.
The author seems to use the Bible like a talisman to invoke a Jesus that he seems to experience only secondarily to his perception of the finite instructions he derives from the Bible. But Christ left no writings because Christ is the writing, the Word, the example, the impact upon history that remains potent all around the world. Christ instructed us to find God in prayer. Christ quoted scripture in his efforts to make his point that the pathological law-followers of the time were misguided. Christ never waved a Bible about in the air like the raving fundamentalists we see out in the streets scattering their pamphlets about in misguided efforts that actually repel people from Christ, as opposed to attracting them.
I feel so sorry for fundamentalists like this author who think the whole foundation of their faith is rooted in the archaeological record, and who seem to discount the validity of the inner voice within. When accessed, our conscience, consciousness, and heart, are inner workings that let us know what is inherently true beyond the need for physical confirmation from the mechanisms of the tangible world. Fundamentalists believe in a script, a story, a procedure, as opposed to the God within. How do we break through this rigid devotion to scriptural doctrine and get the fundamentalist to see the truth internally?
Seeing Beyond The Bias of Orthodoxy
Perhaps no better example exists for the errors of orthodoxy than the misguided actions of the early Roman church, which refuted a heliocentric solar system, believed indulgences in sin could be purchased or earned, murdered heretics, and conducted horrendous acts of war upon other religions.
The extreme one-sided bias of this author is revealed most poignantly in the section of Chapter 4 entitled “Dead Sea Scrolls” wherein the author omits all references to the many other texts discovered there, choosing to focus solely on the ones in the current Bible. The author refers the reader to his appendix for explanation, but the appendix offers only that the books included in the Bible were the ones the church “felt” were the most “apostolic “ and the excluded narratives are not discussed, such as the Gospel of Thomas or the Gospel of Mary.
Despite the shortcomings of human nature, the author somehow believes that certain early church fathers were capable of deciding which works of the Bible to retain and which to discard, a fact that he skirts around. Nor does he mention the horrible persecutions, intimidations, book bans, and superstitious threats of hellfire the early church used to consolidate orthodoxy. Nor does he explain how orthodoxy itself formed out of the refutations the early church fathers made against other interpretations, such as Gnosticism. For more about the excluded texts found among the Dead Sea Scrolls, I would refer readers to Meggan Watterson’s book
Mary Magdalene Revealed , Elaine Pagels work The Secret Gospel of Thomas , and Bart Ehrman’s The Apocryphal Gospels .
It is my sincere hope that fundamentalists who read this review will not be offended, but rather motivated to explore the more mystical dimensions of Christianity.
-End-
September 1, 2025
I haven't posted any book recommendations recently - I gotta get back to that - but this one is a must-read. Please friends if you are having doubts about the Bible, Christianity, and are a truth-seeker - read this one! And don't go to the internet only for your truth seeking. Please listen to scholars and look at research and more than anything - go to God directly and ask for help. In this book - the author takes such weighty topics and communicates from great research and sources --- the truth and reason in a clear, concise, accessible (to us average people hehehe) way. It will equip your mind, encourage your heart, and give clarity.
June 17, 2019
A splendid, well-rounded support for the Bible's historical--and thus, factual--authenticity. Simmons does a great job of making his points without adding unnecessary filler; this book is no longer than it needs to be. One star deducted because of the shocking (for a published book) number of grammatical and spelling errors present. While a tad distracting, though, these do not detract from the overall convincing power of Simmons' treatise. Recommended for anyone interested in a grounded, logical approach to the Bible.
May 22, 2019
Good, but even though it is not necessarily his style, it would have benefited from a little more of his own original content as he was connecting the thoughts of other writers, instead of just quoting the writers. Overall, good primer, definitely worth your time.
January 5, 2022
Another fantastic read from RES 3!
Easy and engaging read for those asking the same questions or perhaps being sparked by new and deeper questions. Thanks you RES3. 🙏
Easy and engaging read for those asking the same questions or perhaps being sparked by new and deeper questions. Thanks you RES3. 🙏
August 23, 2023
Very straightforward, well researched. If you want the facts behind Christianity, this is a good one.
September 11, 2024
Solid exploratory in the relevant historically recorded facts and events associated with the storyline of the Bible as we know it today. Tedious at times, but worth the investment.
December 9, 2013
What do science, history, and logic have to say about the reliability of the Bible?
This book presents in a profound way how the Bible reflects the true nature of reality. Reliable Truth is about seeing the world as it is while debunking the myths, legends, and false beliefs about the Bible.
There is a type of Christian faith which seems to be quite common where people accept a Christian belief that is not dependent on reason or evidence. They believe that any type of historical investigation on their part is not necessary. They seem to have no desire to know about Jesus as a person of history . . . I cannot share this point of view. I am profoundly convinced that the historic revelation of God and Jesus of Nazareth must be the cornerstone of any faith that is really Christian. Any historical questions about the real Jesus who lived in Palestine [twenty] centuries ago is therefore fundamentally important to develop a strong faith.
This is a good book to read for those who like to read books on apologetics. Mr. Simmons has done a good deal of research on the subject of the Bible, and has written a great book. We are told in 2 Timothy 3:16 " All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work." Mr. Simmons has done a wonderful job in defending that the Bible is the inspired word of God.
I challenge anyone who does not believe that the Bible is the inspired word of God to read Mr. Simmons book, and I also think that all who read the Bible should read this book.
I received this book free from The B&B Media Group . I was not required to write a positive review and the opinions I have expressed are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255 : “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.”
This book presents in a profound way how the Bible reflects the true nature of reality. Reliable Truth is about seeing the world as it is while debunking the myths, legends, and false beliefs about the Bible.
There is a type of Christian faith which seems to be quite common where people accept a Christian belief that is not dependent on reason or evidence. They believe that any type of historical investigation on their part is not necessary. They seem to have no desire to know about Jesus as a person of history . . . I cannot share this point of view. I am profoundly convinced that the historic revelation of God and Jesus of Nazareth must be the cornerstone of any faith that is really Christian. Any historical questions about the real Jesus who lived in Palestine [twenty] centuries ago is therefore fundamentally important to develop a strong faith.
This is a good book to read for those who like to read books on apologetics. Mr. Simmons has done a good deal of research on the subject of the Bible, and has written a great book. We are told in 2 Timothy 3:16 " All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work." Mr. Simmons has done a wonderful job in defending that the Bible is the inspired word of God.
I challenge anyone who does not believe that the Bible is the inspired word of God to read Mr. Simmons book, and I also think that all who read the Bible should read this book.
I received this book free from The B&B Media Group . I was not required to write a positive review and the opinions I have expressed are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255 : “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.”
November 3, 2013
Reliable Truth was a good book. I found it to be well organized and nicely written. The book is divided into eight chapters, almost each chapter focuses on a different argument as to why the Bible is reliant and true and trustworthy. Chapters two through seven focus on these arguments: "The Historical Record," "The Archeological Record," "The Ancient Writings," "The Reach of Science," "The Moral Imperative," and "The Life of Jesus." Each chapter is informative and packed with research, quotes, and real-life illustrations. He'll highlight various men and women who were atheists or agnostics or nonbelievers and share their faith-story, their conversion experiences. He is very fond of quoting C.S. Lewis, I noticed! I didn't love all the examples he used. Anne Rice "announcing" her conversion (which I believe she later retracted?) does not really "help" anyone make an informed decision on the worth or validity of the Bible. Other stories were more compelling, however. For example, I liked Emile Cailliet's story. Quoting Calliet, he writes:
I literally grabbed the book [the Bible] and rushed to my study with it. I opened it and "chanced" upon the Beatitudes. I read, and read, and read--now aloud with indescribable warmth surging within.... I could not find words to express my awe and wonder. And suddenly the realization dawned upon me. This was the book that would understand me! I needed it so much, yet, unaware, I had attempted to write my own--in vain. I continued to read deeply into the night, mostly from the Gospels. And, lo and behold, as I looked through them, the One of whom they spoke, the one who spoke and acted in them, became alive in me. (23)
I literally grabbed the book [the Bible] and rushed to my study with it. I opened it and "chanced" upon the Beatitudes. I read, and read, and read--now aloud with indescribable warmth surging within.... I could not find words to express my awe and wonder. And suddenly the realization dawned upon me. This was the book that would understand me! I needed it so much, yet, unaware, I had attempted to write my own--in vain. I continued to read deeply into the night, mostly from the Gospels. And, lo and behold, as I looked through them, the One of whom they spoke, the one who spoke and acted in them, became alive in me. (23)
November 5, 2013
This is a very readable defense of the reliability of the Bible. Simmons has been investigating the Bible and why he believes what he does, for some 30 years. He looks at experts, scholars, and other recognized people who have reported their trust in the reliability, accuracy and historical nature of the Bible. This is not a scholarly work but is aimed at the layman, the neighbor who wants to understand why Christians regard the Bible so highly. It is very readable and understandable. See my full review at http://bit.ly/1ffAEF5.
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