Reading God’s Word may produce more questions than you feel Help! My Bible Is Alive! can answer. Take heart, friend! Those questions mean you are on the right track. It would be foolish of us to think we can master everything there is to know about this ancient document, sixty-six books written over 1,600 years. It would take more than a lifetime to plumb the depths of the Bible, so part of the joy comes in the journey of discovery. You may find along the way that you have questions you have to hold on to and return to later, or you may find that you want to stop whatever study you are in and look for the answers that will help you settle your sense of doubt or insecurity about this God of the Bible and his interest in your life!
For some of us, a big hurdle is understanding how the Bible was put together and how we can trust its accuracy for us today. If that’s a question for you, I’ve put together some resources to help guide you along the way. Take a journey into the depths of the internet or even consider purchasing one of these resources to help you on your quest. Believe me, it’ll be worth it! Here’s a taste of what academics have discovered about the New Testament:
The NT [New Testament] surpasses all other ancient documents in sheer number of manuscripts and the nearness of the date between the [originals] and extant manuscripts. . . . Even Homer’s Iliad . . . is still dwarfed by the NT, which has more than three times the Greek manuscripts as the Iliad. When one adds the fifteen thousand manuscripts in other languages, and then considers that almost the entire NT could be reproduced by the quotations of the early church fathers, one must maintain that . . . the NT remains in a class by itself: it is by far the most attested ancient work.1
