Can the Bible Be Trusted?

Wondering if you can believe what you read in the Bible? Struggling to understand parts that don’t seem to make sense in today’s context? That’s completely normal.

Pastor and author Tim Keller has two talks on these questions that you can watch on YouTube: “Why is the Bible reliable?”, given at Columbia University for The Veritas Forum, and “Literalism: Isn’t the Bible Historically Unreliable and Regressive?”, a sermon he preached at Redeemer Presbyterian Church in New York City. Our summary of the sermon is below.

Three reasons you can trust the Bible

Keller preached “Literalism: Isn’t the Bible Historically Unreliable and Regressive?” on November 5, 2006, from Luke 1:1–4 and the story of two disciples on the road to Emmaus in Luke 24. Keller, Redeemer’s founding pastor, died in 2023. Here’s our summary of his three main points.

1. You can trust it historically

The Gospels aren’t legends that grew up over centuries. They were written while eyewitnesses were still alive: Luke says he carefully investigated what the eyewitnesses handed down (Luke 1:1–4), and Paul, writing even earlier, says most of the more than five hundred people who saw the risen Jesus at once were still living (1 Corinthians 15:6). The accounts also include details no one inventing a story would choose, like women as the first witnesses of the resurrection when their testimony carried little weight, and the apostles’ fear and failures. And they read like eyewitness reports, not like the myths and legends of the ancient world.

2. You can trust it culturally

Many people are less troubled by the Bible’s history than by passages that seem offensive or outdated. Keller suggests three questions for those moments. First, does this passage really teach what I think it teaches? A closer reading of Genesis showed him that its stories expose the damage done by polygamy and by favoring firstborn sons rather than endorsing them. Second, am I reading it through cultural blinders? Slavery in the first-century Roman world was very different from the race-based, lifelong slavery of the Americas, and the Bible condemns kidnapping people to sell them. Third, am I assuming my own culture gets the final word? Every culture finds different parts of the Bible hard. If the Bible really comes from God rather than from any one culture, we should expect it to challenge ours too.

3. You can trust it personally

Some people assume that a fully authoritative Bible leads to a cold, rule-based faith. Keller argues the opposite. On the road to Emmaus, the risen Jesus showed two discouraged disciples that all of Scripture points to him:

And beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, He explained to them what was written in all the Scriptures about Himself.

Luke 24:27 (BSB)

If you read the Bible as mainly about you and what you must do, it leads to exactly that cold, rule-keeping faith. Read as the story of what Jesus has done for you, it becomes good news. And every real relationship includes being disagreed with: if God never contradicts you, you may have made him up. A Bible that can challenge you is what makes a personal relationship with God possible. The story ends with the two disciples looking back on that conversation:

They asked each other, “Were not our hearts burning within us as He spoke with us on the road and opened the Scriptures to us?”

Luke 24:32 (BSB)

Keller’s closing challenge: keep going back to the Scriptures, reading them with others and on your own.

Keep exploring

Listen to the full sermon at Gospel in Life. If you have questions about the Bible, we’d love to talk them through over coffee with one of our leaders, and our Bible study tools can help you dig in on your own.