Question:

I’m doing my senior project in high school on this topic of whether Jesus
was actually the Son of God, and thus everything he said was actually
true. I have a few more questions: Is it possible that the Bible lasted
for so many years just because no one questioned it? For example,
Aristotle’s theories lasted until they were questioned in the
Enlightenment period. Since those four
main gospels of the New Testament were written way before the scientific
method was created, isn’t it possible that people just didn’t question
things? And then by the time it reached the enlightenment, all that
evidence about how there were so many copies of the Bible and they were
all similar could be used to justify the Bible.

By the way, I’m reading “History of God” by Karen Armstrong, “Case for
Christ” by Lee Strobel and “Holy Blood, Holy Grail” by Michael
Baigent, Richard Leigh and Henry Lincoln. Would you say those are
good/bad books? What books would you recommend?
Answer:

I am proud of you for being willing to defend Jesus in your school. Many
believers would shy away from this.

The Bible was intensely questioned in the 2nd-4th centuries AD, and again
since around 1650 AD. There was a period of almost a thousand years
during which very few people questioned the truth of the Bible. This was
a time when the Roman and the Orthodox Catholic churches controlled the
intellectual thought in most of Christendom. That being said, for the
past 350 years, many people have tried to attack the accuracy and the
truth of the Bible. I believe that the Bible has stood up very well to
these attacks!!

They situation with Aristotle has a little bit in common, as you mention.
The philosophy and teachings of Aristotle went relatively untested for
almost two thousand years. There is a big difference between Aristotle
and the Bible, however. When people such as Roger Bacon, Copernicus,
Galileo, and Robert Boyle began to test Aristotle’s theories, especially
on nature, Aristotle was repeatedly proven wrong. His theory of elements,
his theory of geocentrism, his laws of motion were all shown to be false.
The difference is that with the Bible, many have tried to prove it is
inaccurate history, that its prophecies are not real, that it has
scientific errors, that the text is unreliable, that Christianity is
philosophically bogus, etc.. All have failed. Even today, many try to
disparage the Bible, but these arguments fail to disprove the inspiration
of the Bible.

I am glad you are reading those books. If I can say it humbly, I believe
the best general apologetics book I have read is the one I wrote. This is
not because I am such a great writer, but that my book covers all the
topics, which none of the others I have seen do. My book is “Reasons for
Belief: A Handbook of Christian Evidence.” It is available at
www.ipibooks.com