Is The Bible Trustworthy?
Is the content of the manuscripts reliable?
"The stories were all invented by the writers as a deliberate attempt to inspire followers and to exonerate the disciples' decision to follow this man Jesus."
There are a number of ways of answering this question:
1) Why would the disciples portray themselves in a bad light (e.g Peter's denial; their slowness to understand Jesus' teaching; their lack of faith)?
2) Why is there so much in the New Testament about the cost of Christianity? Surely they would have given it up after all the suffering, if it was a deception.
3) Why would they be willing to be killed for their teachings? For example, Peter was crucified upside down, and Thomas was torn in half.
4) As John Stott says:
'If anything is clear from the Gospels and the Acts it is that the apostles were sincere. They may have been deceived, if you like, but they were not deceivers. Hypocrites and martyrs are not made of the same stuff.'
From Why Trust The Bible?