Jeff Chavez’s Reviews > Defending Your Faith: An Introduction to Apologetics > Status Update

Historically, the great theologians and apologists of church history have agreed that all truth is one and that all truth meets at the top. What God reveals in Scripture will not contradict what he reveals to us outside of Scripture in the realm of nature. Conversely, if God reveals some truth in nature, that truth will not contradict what is found in the Bible. (96)

The Bible has survived every assault that scholars have launched against it, and there is no reason to think that it will not continue to survive. No book ever written has been subjected to such comprehensive critical scrutiny as has the Bible.

"Once that is established, we can judge his claims of prophecy to be reliable because his character is reliable, as attested by the historically reliable biblical accounts. If, then, the accuracy of his teaching is established, we can easily accept his teaching on Scripture—that it is the very Word of God."

"To state the argument in a nutshell: first, we must show that the biblical record is historically reliable, then we must move to the biblical writers’ description of Jesus’ flawless character."

At no time in church history has the historical reliability of the Old and New Testaments been as well-documented as it is today. Indeed, it seems that every time a lump of dirt turns over in Palestine, a new detail of biblical history receives verification.

"The question of historical reliability is so important to the defense of the Bible and its truth claims that it must be taken up first. If the Scriptures are basically unreliable, then there would be no reason to attach any significance to Jesus of Nazareth. The initial burden is quite obviously to prove not divine inspiration but simply historical reliability."

"The Scriptures themselves assert that they carry an irrefutable and absolute authority; an authority whose source is omniscient, infallible, and completely incorruptible and holy, incapable of lying or erring, is devoid of defects."

God’s anger boils over when those he has created in his image intentionally stifle the clear revelation of God in nature. The apostle’s radical declaration is that every human being who has ever lived knows that God exists because God has shown himself in the created order. His wrath is kindled against those who hold that clear manifestation down.

That our knowledge of God is partial, however, does not indicate that it is either invaluable or untrue. If we were required to have a comprehensive or total understanding of the nature of God before we could be assured that we had a true knowledge of him, we would have to reject Christian theism altogether.

the mere existence of chance is enough to rip God from his cosmic throne. Chance leaves God out of a job. My basic thesis in the book was that there is no such thing as chance. The greatest myth in modern mythology is the myth of chance.