I normally do not write a review of a book, come to think of it I never have done it, but I think it is worth making you all aware of this book. I just finished a book with a long title called
Reinventing Jesus: How contemporary skeptics miss the real Jesus and mislead popular culture..
Reinventing Jesus is the best and most objective book I have read that address common questions concerning the preservation and accuracy of the Bible. It is also written for people like myself who know nothing of the field of study. Many people wonder what the early church believed about Jesus, did the Bible change over time (i.e. did the Church tailor the Bible to suit their needs/beliefs), and most recently, although set to be a fiction thriller, how much of Dan Brown's book,
The Da Vinci Code, addresses true issues with the Church and the Bible. Whether we see it or not, Dan Brown's book addresses A LOT of common beliefs among people. There is so much stuff that is circulating about the accuracy of the Bible and so many different and conflicting opinions that some people do not feel like they can know.
The reason I like this book so much is because it lays out a lot of verifiable facts and then uses those facts to support the claim that the Bible is the same today as it was 2000 years ago. Yes, the author's are biased towards the Bible being true, but they have that bias because of the argument they bring forth.
I would highly recommend this book to a small number of people. If people have it set in their minds that the Bible has changed/been edited/been lost, then reading this book will not persuade them. However, if someone *thinks* the Bible has changed/been edited/been lost and is willing to look into it, this book is great! I also recommend this book to Christians who have questions about the authenticity of the Bible and want to know where and how we got it. Below I am going to list just a few of the good issues covered in the book that resonated with me.
1. Did the apostles write it down correctly? After all, the Gospels are not written exactly the same so why the difference?
2. Did what the apostles write down get preserved?
3. How many manuscripts do we have of the NT? Do they all agree?
4. Did the early church remove/add books from the Bible?
5. Did the medieval church preserve the Bible and add/remove from it?
6. What about all of the gnostic gospels? (Gospel of Judas/Thomas)
This is by no means a comprehensive list, so if anyone has any further questions about the book, please ask or let me know. As I said, I do not recommend this to everyone but I would recommend it to your friends who question the Bible and are open to a good argument for it's authenticity.
