Why The Reliability of the Bible is Crucial

[1:1] Inasmuch as many have undertaken to compile a narrative of the things that have been accomplished among us, [2] just as those who from the beginning were eyewitnesses and ministers of the word have delivered them to us, [3] it seemed good to me also, having followed all things closely for some time past, to write an orderly account for you, most excellent Theophilus, [4] that you may have certainty concerning the things you have been taught. 

(Luke 1:1-4 ESV)

What was true for Luke was doubtless true of the others who compiled what we now hold in our hands in the New Testament. Indeed, Richard Bauckham has argued with enormous scholarly research and conviction that the impact of contem- porary eyewitness testimony on the documents of the New Testament is far greater than many imagine. Certainly he explodes the popular caricature that all the stories about the life and sayings of Jesus were embroidered by years of free-flowing oral imaginings before they were ever written down.

All our witness to the Lord Jesus Christ and the saving power of the gospel is dependent on the trustworthiness of the Bible. The Scriptures point to him. Indeed Jesus himself used the language of witness to speak of the Scriptures that we now call the Old Testament: “You study the Scriptures diligently because you think that in them you possess eternal life. These are the very Scriptures that testify about me” (John 5:39). The Old Testament bore its witness to the one who came to fulfill God’s promise. The New Testament bears witness to him through those who were, as Peter put it, “witnesses whom God had already chosen – by us who ate and drank with him after he rose from the dead” (Acts 10:41).

The mission of God’s people, then, is a witnessing mission–bearing witness to the Lord Jesus Christ. But all our witnessing is authenticated by the witness of those who were God’s own chosen eyewitnesses. And their testimony is in our hands – God’s Word through their words – our Bible.

- Christopher Wright, The Mission of God's People: A Biblical Theology of the Church's Mission (Biblical Theology for Life), p. 175