1. Can we know what truth is?

How can we determine what is true? Have we an infallible guide by which we can unerringly distinguish between gold and gilded dross, or must we forever remain in tormenting doubt, uncertain of the value of our intellectual and spiritual coinage? Many voices answer, each claiming authority to guide us, but we eventually become aware that one of them is more effectual than the rest. It is the witness of the Bible.

This book is unique. Though written by something like forty different men, many of them widely separated by time, it claims to be the Word of the eternal, omnipotent, all-wise Creator of the universe.

Can this claim be substantiated? If it cannot, the Bible is the greatest and at the same time the cruellest hoax of which mankind has ever been the deluded victim.

If it can, then we are in possession of the greatest treasure, infinitely more valuable than all the combined wealth and wisdom of the whole world. If the Bible is indeed the Word of God, we have within its pages the key to all knowledge and wisdom, the solution to our problems, and the answers to our most pressing and perplexing questions. We can know the meaning and purpose of our existence, and what is to be the final outcome of the struggle between right and wrong.

Best of all, we can cooperate with God Himself in reaching the individual goal He has set for us and in helping others to fulfil His plan for them. Let us then examine this claim for ourselves and not rest until we have found the answer.

Paul (writing of the Old Testament) says,

Peter’s words corroborate this.

Had the entire Bible been written by one man or by two or more in collaboration, one might reasonably doubt the validity of the claim to divine authorship: but these men are not here claiming divine authority for their own writings, but for those of men whom they had never seen, men who lived and died centuries before.

Even more striking than this is the complete harmony of doctrine revealed in the Bible. The men who wrote it were not only separated by time. They varied greatly in their education, in their occupations, and in their experience and social position. They wrote in at least three different languages and in many varied styles, yet their writings all combine to form one united book and bear the stamp of one mastermind.