The name of my website is Bible apologetics. Just what does the word apologetics mean? Basically, it is that field of study that attempts to defend the Christian faith and the Bible. Back in 1990 when I wrote my book, The Challenge, pictured above, I attempted to defend the Bible and lay out the case for why I believe the Bible is the most unique, influential, and intellectually compelling book ever written. In addition, I attempted to show why the Bible is a book of absolute truth and life transformational.
Over the years since then, I have realized more and more that the Bible does not really need anyone to defend itself because for over 2,000 years it has withstood the test of time and today still stands head and shoulders above any other book as the absolute standard of morality, comfort, and wisdom. I love what the great nineteenth century British preacher, Charles Spurgeon, once said in reference to the Bible: “The Word of God is like a lion. You don’t have to defend a lion. All you have to do is let the lion loose, and the lion will defend itself.”1
As you have probably seen if you have been reading my devotionals for a while the Bible has withstood any and all attacks down through the centuries as to its veracity in a host of areas. Whether it be in the area of the Bible’s historical accuracy, its reliable scientific statements, its amazingly accurate prophecies, and its honest claims about the sinfulness of humanity, the Bible is in a class by itself. In today’s devotion let’s discuss one area to show you what I mean: The Bible’s historical accuracy.
Up until the middle of the 1800’s people used to laugh when told that the Bible is historically accurate in all it says. Back then detractors of this claim said that why should we believe that the Bible is historically accurate when many of the claims it makes have no external evidence outside of the Bible’s affirmations to support its historical truth. While this may have been true back then thanks to numerous archaeological digs over the past 150 years this is no longer the case. Archaeologists during this period have been able, through diligent scientific research and methods, to validate countless biblical narratives as irrefutable and historically accurate. When someone now tells me that the Bible is not a book of history, I just challenge them to examine the evidence!
I really appreciate what German journalist Werner Keller shared in his 1955 ten million copy bestselling book, on the Bible and archaeology, The Bible as History. In the closing words of his introduction Mr. Keller stated: “In view of the overwhelming mass of authentic and well-attested evidence now available, as I thought of the skeptical criticism which from the eighteenth century onward would fain have demolished the Bible altogether, there kept hammering in my brain this one sentence: The Bible is right after all.”2
If archaeology has proven that the Bible is spot on in so many of its historical references I for one feel confident to extrapolate back to the beginning of time and believe such events as the creation of the universe, a literal Adam and Eve, a global flood, and many others, where archaeology can’t establish the truthfulness of these events!
1 Quote by Charles Spurgeon: “The Word of God is like a lion. You don’t have …”
2 Werner Keller, The Bible as History (New York: Bantam Books, Inc., 1980), Introduction, p. xxv.
Why We Still Defend the Bible (Even Though It’s Doing Just Fine Without Us)…By The Auditor (Mr Neveu)
First – shout out to a great book. I’ve read it. I recommend it.
Period.
OK…Curt Blattman is right about something essential. The Bible does not need a defense attorney. It has outlived every empire that tried to burn it, every critic who tried to debunk it, and every theologian who tried to “improve” it. Curt quotes Spurgeon, “The Word of God is like a lion… let the lion loose, and the lion will defend itself.”
Oye Lo. But lions still roar. If I roared like a lion, I’d appreciate someone clearing the stage so my roar can be heard. That’s apologetics in the raw…not propping up a fragile book, but removing the intellectual clutter that keeps people from hearing the truth.
So let’s audit the evidence with a sharper pencil. Roll the wheel, here come the numbas. ________________________________________
1. The Bible’s Historical Claims Aren’t Vague Spiritual Sentiments. They’re Verifiable Events.
Mr. Blattman notes that archaeology has spent the last century and a half quietly humiliating skeptics. He writes, “Archaeologists… have been able… to validate countless biblical narratives as irrefutable and historically accurate.”
He’s right. But I’m gonna double-down.
Do alittle reading. No serious historian doubts the existence of Jesus Christ, and that early writers—Jewish, Roman, and Christian—recorded His life and death as public fact.
Tacitus, the Roman historian with zero interest in helping Christians, wrote: “Christus… suffered the extreme penalty during the reign of Tiberius at the hands of… Pontius Pilatus.”
This is not devotional literature. This is a Roman bureaucrat explaining why Nero scapegoated Christians. Tacitus had no motive to fabricate anything favorable to the church.
If the crucifixion were a myth, it would have been the easiest myth in history to debunk. Christianity launched its public proclamation in Jerusalem, the very city where Jesus was executed. Thousands of eyewitnesses—supporters, enemies, Roman officials, Jewish leaders—were alive and available for cross examination.
Paul even invites it: “He appeared to more than five hundred brothers at one time, most of whom are still alive.” (1 Cor. 15:6)
Christian’s Translation: “Go ask them. We’re not afraid of verification.”
This is not how legends behave. This is how history behaves.
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2. Christianity’s Core Claims Are Too Inconvenient to Be Invented.
If you’re inventing a religion, you don’t start with a crucified Messiah. You don’t start with a God who dies a criminal’s death. You don’t start with a message that makes your life harder, your reputation worse, and your survival unlikely.
Neveu put it bluntly in a sermon meant for hard people with bleeding ears. “There was no advantage for Christians to make up a crucified Messiah… It made their life and mission much harder – so much so that they died for their truth.”
People will die for what they believe is true.
People just don’t die for what they know is false.
The early Christians didn’t gain wealth, power, or comfort. They gained prison sentences, floggings, and the occasional date with a lion. Yet they persisted. They weren’t defending a metaphor. They were reporting an event.
Peter preached the resurrection in the same city where Jesus was killed, and the crowd was, as Acts 2 says, “pierced to the heart.” That’s not how people respond to fairy tales.
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3. Other Religions Don’t Deny Jesus’ Existence—Only His Significance.
For the valued Peanut Gallery, let’s highlight a striking asymmetry: Judaism, Islam, and Christianity disagree about the meaning of Jesus’ death, but none deny that He lived. Islam even honors Him as a prophet, though it denies the crucifixion.
But this denial collapses under the weight of earlier, closer, and more numerous witnesses:
“Those who were much closer to the historical situation… reported that Jesus died by crucifixion.”
When a claim made six centuries later contradicts the testimony of eyewitnesses, Roman historians, Jewish authorities, and the entire early Christian movement, the Auditor stamps it:
INSUFFICIENT EVIDENCE — CLAIM REJECTED
The Qur’anic claim that Jesus was not crucified is not a historical argument. It’s a theological necessity. Christianity, by contrast, is grounded in public events, not private revelations.
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4. The Bible’s Transformational Power Is Not Sentimental—It’s Empirical.
Mr. Blattman emphasizes that the Bible is “life transformational.” That’s not poetic language. It’s observable reality. The early church didn’t grow because it had political power (it had none), cultural prestige (less than none), or military strength (zero).
It grew because its message changed people. As Paul writes:
“If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation.” (2 Cor. 5:17)
From a Neveu sermon: “The early church knew that crucifixion was not just the experience of her Lord. They knew it was a personal summons to sacrificial love.”
People don’t die for metaphors. They die for realities.
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5. So Why Defend the Bible? Because People Still Need the Lion Unleashed.
Blattman concludes that archaeology gives him confidence to “extrapolate back” to creation, Adam and Eve, and the flood. Fair enough. But the deeper reason we defend Scripture is not to win arguments. It’s to remove obstacles.
Some people reject the Bible because they’ve never heard the evidence.
Some because they’ve only heard caricatures.
Some because they’ve never met a Christian who could explain why we trust this book.
Apologetics is not lion wrangling. It’s cage opening.
As Romans 10 reminds us: “Faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of Christ.”
We defend the Bible so people can hear it clearly.
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Final Word from The Auditor:
The Bible doesn’t need us to defend it.
But the world needs us to explain it.
And skeptics need us to challenge their assumptions with evidence, history, Scripture, and a little holy mischief.
If the Word is a lion, apologetics is simply the act of unlocking the gate and saying:
“Step back. This is going to be good.”