The Magazine

Why Trust the Bible? Answers to 10 tough questions

Amy Orr-Ewing

Inter-Varsity Press (2005) £8.99, Revelation price £7.00

Challenged by her friends and later as a student by theological staff, Amy Orr-Ewing was determined to leave no stone unturned in her eagerness to prove that the Bible was unique and reliable. This passion drove her to complete an in-depth study of the answers to ten of the most frequently raised objections she encountered: Isn’t it all a matter of interpretation? Can we know anything about history? Are the Biblical manuscripts reliable? What about the canon? What about the other holy books? Isn’t the Bible sexist? What about all the wars? Isn’t the Bible out of date with sex? How can I know?

The author sensitively yet convincingly addresses these arguments in her book, which has been reprinted five times.

The Bible Unfiltered: Approaching scripture on its own terms

Michael S Heiser

Lexham Press 2017 £12.99, Revelation price £10.99

Dr Michael Heiser, an expert in the ancient Near East and author of the best-selling The Unseen Realm explores the most unusual and interesting, and least understood parts of the Bible, offering insights that should inspire, inform and surprise the reader.

Dr Heiser helps to remind the church of the supernatural worldview of the Bible. There are three sections: interpreting the Bible responsibly; the Old Testament; and the New Testament. The author’s methods and expertise are applied to 60 different topics such as: how to (mis)interpret prophecy, salvation in Old Testament Israel and Mark’s use of Isaiah.

Speaking the Truth: Preaching in a diverse culture

Samuel Wells

Canterbury Press (2018) £17.99, Revelation price £15.00

“Truth” is a difficult subject in a pluralistic culture. Claims to “the truth” make it more challenging still.

Yet the Christian preacher’s call is to speak the truth of God in Jesus Christ. Within Speaking the Truth Sam Wells considers the truth about God, faith, the Bible, discipleship, resurrection, salvation, politics and even truth itself can be spoken faithfully. In an unpretentious yet lucid manner, the author explores the ways in which preachers can make it heard, and how words and ideas can be transformed into actions and relationships that allow the truth of Jesus Christ to be communicated to a persistently cynical and untrusting world.

Pilate: The biography of an invented man

Ann Wroe

Vintage (2000) £12.99, Revelation price £11.99

Although very little is known for certain about Pontius Pilate, the man who allowed Christ to be crucified, this has not prevented writers in every age from imagining his life. In this extraordinary book Ann Wroe recounts the lives of all our Pilates; among them the glittering medieval tyrant, devoted to gambling and avoiding the law, and the wriggling modern pragmatist, whose dilemma over Jesus has been described by Tony Blair as “a timeless parable of political life”.

This is the story of the man Pilate might have been and the man who mirrors us. The author shows how in his struggles with fate and free will, Pilate’s story has also become the story of the reader.