Most historians agree that the early disciples believed that Jesus had risen from the dead. Although at Jesus' death they were dejected and fearful, they were soon dramatically different: They risked their lives repeatedly to preach about Jesus. Of course, people sometimes give their lives for erroneous ideas — but only if they believe they are true. Then, we can consider how dozens of disciples could come to such a conviction. Perhaps the first possibility we could consider is that Jesus didn't really die...  See Evidence for the resurrection

A century ago, many Bible critics claimed that stories of the patriarchs were nothing more than religious fiction. The "silence of history" concerning the patriarchs, upon which these critics based their claims, was dramatically shattered with the discovery of ancient tablets at Mari (in southeast Syria) and Nuzi (in modern-day Iraq). See Was Abraham a real person?, part of our series on the books of Moses.

It is only fair that the historical reliability of the Bible should be tested by the same criteria that are used to test all historical documents. In his definitive work, Introduction to Research in English Literary History, Professor Charles Sanders explains three basic principles involved in evaluating the reliability of historical documents (p.143 ff.). Let's look at how well the Bible stands up to the bibliographic test (have the original manuscripts been handed down faithfully?) See Can we trust the Gospels?

People sometimes object to the Christian belief that salvation is available only through Jesus Christ. In our pluralistic society, tolerance is expected, even demanded, and the concept of freedom of religion (which permits all religions) is sometimes misinterpreted to mean that all religions are somehow equally true. See Is Jesus the only way of salvation?

About 30 years after the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, a wealthy man named Theophilus became interested in Christ and Christianity. Theophilus believed in Jesus, but some of the stories he heard about him seemed too strange to be true. So he asked an investigator to get the facts about what Jesus had really done and taught. This special investigator learned as much as he could about Jesus' life, work and teachings. He then wrote an organized documentary about Jesus Christ. We still have it today. It is the Gospel of Luke. Let's look at how it is written: Luke's story: what you have heard is true!