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BY MICHAEL HORNERCANITRUSTTHEBIBLE?The Bible, in particular the New Testament, isthe primary information source about Jesus. Buthow do we know these records are true? Is theBible reliable? Can you trust it? The answer is aresounding “yes!” Here’s why.Beginning with the NewTestament documents, there arereally two separate issues involvedin determining their trustworthiness,accuracy to the original andreliability of the original.Accuracy to the Original“Has the New Testament changeddrastically over the years?” It isimportant to understand that thereis widespread scholarly agreementin this area called textual criticism,that in our modern New Testamentwe have substantially what was originallywritten down.Sir Frederick Kenyon, keeper ofancient manuscripts and director ofthe British Museum, after a lifetimeof study of ancient documents cameto this conclusion,“No other ancient book has anythinglike such early and plentifultestimony to its text and so unbiasedscholar would deny that the textthat has come down to us is substantiallysound.”So the text has not been altered,but we can trust what was originallywritten down is reliable history.Legend?Couldn’t the writings be legendary,the result of the overdevelopedimagination of the earlychurch? There are strong argumentsagainst this hypothesis.First, there just wasn’t enoughtime for any legendary development13