Can We Trust the Gospels?

Trust – but verify.

I hear this saying quite frequently, and every time it annoys me. It’s a contradiction in terms. To say “trust but verify” is to say “trust (but not really).” How can I trust you if I don’t accept your word? The proof of trust is the risk I take by not verifying. If I’m not willing to take that risk, I don’t trust you.

But some risks are difficult to take. In the Navy, when my subordinate tells me certain things are done, I verify before I put my signature on them. Why? Because these things require extreme risk – lives depend on them. A working relationship can’t sustain that sort of risk.

Of course, at a certain point, the Navy really does have to trust. Everyone up to the president can’t verify that these things were done correctly. The buck stops eventually. Someone has to accept the signature of the person below them without verifying.

Why can we do this? Because when you reach a certain level of leadership, you’ve proven your credibility. You’ve produced sustained results; your character has been evaluated repeatedly, and it’s a known quantity. You’ve received the right training. You know what’s going on and how it fits into the larger picture. For years, your quality of work has been verified over and over. And people are now willing to risk depending on you.

Verify, then trust. That’s how it really works.

This rather long introduction is necessary because people often misunderstand what it means to trust when it comes to religion. They think it means something along the lines of emotional attachment or blind belief or cultural participation. But trust in one’s religion isn’t any different from any other kind of trust. It comes from verification. We look at the evidence and our own experience, and eventually enough of it stacks up that we’re willing to take a risk depending on it.

Of course, eternal destiny is a pretty big risk. But the choice has to be made, and to put it off is a choice in itself. So the only real question is which side seems more trustworthy. And now I finally come the book I’ve just finished: Can We Trust the Gospels, written by Dr. Peter Williams, a Cambridge professor I’ve had the pleasure of meeting.

Honestly, this book was difficult to review, because I agree with everything in it. It doesn’t stretch the evidence to make its point; it doesn’t invent history or generously interpret Scripture to adorn its argument. It doesn’t come up with elaborately-woven new theories that accidentally end up being heretical.

It just tells the truth, very approachably and straightforwardly. Bullet point by bullet point, it lays out the evidence on all fronts. There are no tricks, just facts, and at the end of the book there is little I can say except “Yes. That’s clearly right.” In my next post I’ll talk about Dr. Williams’s evidence. For now, I’ll leave you with its conclusion.

Can we trust the gospels?

Yes.