I felt myself slipping a couple years ago. I wasn’t close to denying inerrancy or the sufficiency of Scripture—at least not with my lips. But there was a subtle shift that had been taking place in my heart. I started wondering if things like inerrancy and sufficiency and stuff was such a big deal. I think my John Newton like love for peace was drowning out the prophetic Spurgeon-like voice inside me.
God graciously redirected and rejuvenated my heart on this in 2014. Here are five books that he has used to help strengthen my confidence in the Scriptures.
1. Truth Matters by Kostenberger and Bock. This little book was used by God to help me see that it is not foolish for me to have a confident faith.
2. Taking God At His Word by Kevin DeYoung. DeYoung is one of my favorite writers, and though there wasn’t really any new information for me in this book it served as a helpful reminder that confidence in Christ cannot be separated from confidence in God’s Word.
3. Tactics by Greg Koukl. This book helped me reason with the my own doubts and battles with skepticism. Koukl poked holes through some silly thinking that was lingering around in my mind.
4. The Greatest Fight in the World by Charles Spurgeon. This is a short little book made up of talks by Spurgeon during the Downgrade controversy. God used this to help me see that confidence in God’s Word is not only not stupid it is something that I must have as a minister of the gospel.
5. The Bible. Nothing strengthens your faith more than actually engaging with God’s Word. Reading what God wrote on God’s terms considering genre and everything else continues to give me confidence that this is God’s Word. It is, as DeYoung said, Christ’s unbreakable Bible.
