Why Believe the Bible?

The Bible is not without its critics. There are too many people who grew up hearing stories and teaching from the Bible only to have their confidence in the Christian faith crushed as they began to hear the questions and claims against the authority and reliability of the Bible.

"The Gospels as we know them today...have been edited by Church fathers, centuries after the original words were spoken, to conform to their subsequent vision of orthodoxy." -James Cameron, producer of Titanic (1997) and The Jesus Family Tomb (2007)

The are many more accusations against the reliability and authenticity of the Bible that have been made. Here are several I have heard:

The Bible was written by a bunch of men.
The Bible has been changed by men over the years.
If we do not have the original Bible writings then the Bible we have is unreliable.
There many books that the early church left out of the Bible.
The Bible is full of contradictions.
The Bible contradicts what we know to be scientific fact.
The Bible is not relevant to the world we now live in.
The Bible condones genocide, polygamy, homophobia, bigotry, racism, etc...

In this message, we will explore the reliability and authenticity of the Bible. Is the Bible a book of myths and legends or the authoritative Word of God? Why believe the Bible?