Historicity in Action

I wish I had had this resource when I was growing up. Focus on the Family has come out with a great way to teach people why the Bible can be believed and trusted. “Is the Bible Reliable? Building the historical case” goes far beyond the basics that used to be all the justification that we needed - the Bible is God's Word. Maybe you’ve heard someone say “the Bible says it, I believe it, that’s good enough for me”.
The problem is that in the multi-cultural context in which we live, many people don’t believe that they can use the bible’s claims to be divinely inspired as proof that it is. In this two DVD set, Dr Stephen Meyer takes us through a series of lessons, starting with Abraham and the Patriarchs, passing through the Davidic monarchy, and ending with the trial of Jesus. in each session he shows us what the bible says, and then uses extra-biblical material that corroborates the scripture: historical records about people and places mentioned in the bible, archeological finds, even styles of writing in use during different periods.
Meyer talks about different world views, and how they do or don’t fit the historical evidence. In this country, the mind set for many years was predominantly Christian, most of us were willing to accept the idea that if the gospel writers said that Jesus quoted something from the Psalms or one of the books of the Torah, that was evidence of the reliability of the bible. It corroborated itself. People who didn’t grow up with that mindset need a little more evidence and this series lays it out.
Meyer also gives some great advice as he tells the students that they are liable to meet people who will challenge their belief in God, Jesus, and the Bible, and they should try to understand where those people are coming from, and now they have information which will help them defend their faith.
This DVD-study guide set is advertised as being for college students, and some of the non-lecture materials are geared toward that age group, but my son, a junior high school student, watched with me and was able to grasp the concepts and interact with the ideas presented. I think that it would also work for an adult Sunday school or small group.
5 of 5 stars, and I want to look at other materials from TRUE-U
Tyndale House Publishers provided me with a complimentary copy of this material for review purposes.