What an outstanding book dealing with the hot button topic: Is the Bible trustworthy and reliable? Dr. Bill Mounce does an outstanding job taking hard to understand verses of the Bible and making them clear to the average reader. This book is great for skeptics of religion and their holy books, those who are cynical toward religion in general and the casual believer who’s always had questions about scripture. This book will also speak to practicing Christians who need to strengthen their confidence in divine providence. This is one of the best treatments of scriptural apologetics currently available and one of my personal top three treatments on the authority and reliability of the Bible. Thanks Dr. Mounce!

https://www.amazon.com/Why-Trust-Bible-Answers-Questions/dp/0310109949/

By way of f𝐮𝐥𝐥 𝐝𝐢𝐬𝐜𝐥𝐨𝐬𝐮𝐫𝐞: 𝐈 𝐚𝐦 𝐚 volunteer 𝐦𝐞𝐦𝐛𝐞𝐫 𝐨𝐟 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐥𝐚𝐮𝐧𝐜𝐡 𝐭𝐞𝐚𝐦 𝐟𝐨𝐫, "𝐖𝐡𝐲 𝐈 𝐓𝐫𝐮𝐬𝐭 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐁𝐢𝐛𝐥𝐞" 𝐰𝐫𝐢𝐭𝐭𝐞𝐧 𝐛𝐲 𝐖𝐢𝐥𝐥𝐢𝐚𝐦 𝐃. 𝐌𝐨𝐮𝐧𝐜𝐞 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐩𝐮𝐛𝐥𝐢𝐬𝐡𝐞𝐝 𝐛𝐲 𝐙𝐨𝐧𝐝𝐞𝐫𝐯𝐚𝐧 𝐑𝐞𝐟𝐥𝐞𝐜𝐭𝐢𝐯𝐞. In return for my becoming a member of the Launch Team, I received a free pre-published electronic copy of the book to read and review. There was no monetary compensation for my review.

I trusted the Bible long before I opened the pages of this book; however, I have never taken on the challenge of transferring my faith in the holy Scriptures to pen and paper. Mr. William Mounce is uniquely qualified to do so, I am not. His experience as a pastor, mastery of the Greek language, decades of Scripture-based teachings at the university level, and membership on two different Bible translation committees has prepared him well. Now others get to reap the benefit of what he knows, packaged and presented as a thoughtful and long-awaited gift. He states that a student enrolled in a New Testament Survey class that he was teaching contributed to the inspiration and need to write this book.
As Mr. Mounce lays the foundation for why he has placed his trust in the Bible, of necessity he addresses the most common reasons why one may have doubts, and again he is uniquely qualified to do so. His wholistic approach is what is so impressive about his new book. He does not shy away or skirt around the issues, rather, he confronts the most difficult of them head on to provide a very rational but uncommonly good-sense answer. His wealth of both education and experience has prepared him to present this very complex topic in a manner that is palatable and digestible to others, both educated and uneducated alike.
He begins by establishing that Jesus of the gospels, the son of Joseph and Mary, is a real person who can be found in historical documents. He later addresses the gospels of Jesus and the apostle Paul. Here’s an excerpt:

"Jesus was the Messiah who came to bring the kingdom of God into the world through his life, death, and resurrection. Jesus taught how to enter and how to live in his kingdom. This is the message of the gospels. In contrast, Paul had to deal specifically with the Jewish misunderstanding of salvation by faith versus obedience to the law, and much of his letters deal with answers to specific questions from the churches. The contexts are different and the vocabulary they use is different, but their teachings are compatible."

This book is loaded with such succinct and well-stated articulations. Those who have studied the Greek language will also appreciate where he goes deeper and taps into his vast knowledge of the grammar to shed light on specific nuances that bring clarity to the passages under investigation. He addresses several Scriptures where slight differences between them give rise for opponents of the Bible to raise issues of contradiction and he offers a solution that shines a spotlight on contextual harmony that is supported by the church fathers and modern textual criticism.
Mounce explains what the canon is and how the thirty-nine and the twenty-seven books of our Hebrew and Greek Testaments came to contain them. I particularly like his explanation regarding Bible translations and find that this understanding has the potential of pacifying any contentions and divisions that one may hold. For those desiring a deeper study of the many topics covered in this great work, a bibliography accompanies every chapter with in-text notes.
Overall, I find this new book to be just what the doctor ordered and believe that its timeliness is of the Lord. We are living in the last times and Believers need to be equipped with the knowledge of what we believe and why we believe it. This rooting and grounding in one’s faith will greatly contribute to perseverance during seasons (present for many and coming for all) of persecution. So, I see great value in this new book by Mr. Mounce and give it my highest recommendation.