As one might imagine, South Florida has a very diverse culture, and I was just one of the millions of people born and raised there. What one might not imagine, however, is that Florida also has some ice hockey players. Well, they do, and I was one of them.

I should note that I was not one of those hockey players who retired and moved to Florida. Rather, I worked at an ice rink and started to play ice hockey while in high school. Though this is considered very late to start playing hockey, I was nevertheless determined to get really good at hockey. Since I worked at the rink, I was able to practice almost every single day. There were several Friday and Saturday nights that I would spend practicing at the rink, many times by myself. The hard work paid off, and I was able to make some high-level teams in Connecticut after high school. I played hockey there for a few years while taking an occasional college class at various community colleges.

After my time up north, I ended up back in Florida and started school full time as a student at Florida Atlantic University (FAU). I did not care much for school, nor was I sure why I was there, but they did have a hockey team. Although the team was decent, the level was different than I was used to, and we played out of a public ice rink. There was no rink on campus, nor we did not have our own locker room.

After my first full year at FAU, I had a friend tell me about a different college that he was going to which he thought was great. I was not terribly interested. He said it was a Christian college and that I might like it. I was still not interested and thought that if I wanted to learn about God, I could do it in Florida (where there were palm trees).

However, a few weeks later he told me they had a hockey team, and this caught my attention. I decided I would at least look at the school’s website, and not only did they have a hockey team, but they had a brand-new ice rink, on campus, and it held a couple thousand people. I applied the next day. I ended up making the team with a friend of mine, who was also from Florida, while the rest of the team was about 80 percent Canadian.

While on campus one day, I met the former hockey coach, and his name was Gary Habermas. I did not think much of it at the time. A short time later, during one of my classes, I found out that Habermas did more than just coach the hockey team. He was a well-known scholar. Aside from his debates with famous atheist philosopher Antony Flew, Habermas was known for being one of the leading experts on Jesus’ resurrection and developing the minimal facts approach.1 I began to study Jesus’ resurrection more deeply myself, and realized I had a lot to learn.

Growing up, I heard the Sermon on the Mount (Mt 5–7) at a young age, and it made a major impact on my life. However, these beliefs were challenged in various ways as I grew up in South Florida. Though people had different views on life’s biggest questions, I rarely encountered people who had any deep or thoughtful discussions on these issues. I would often wonder about how Jesus compared to these other views, and what evidence, if any, was available. I was often reluctant myself to speak on these things, either, since I was not quite sure of my own views.

I also remember seeing Christians being made fun of on TV because of Christian hypocrites who acted immorally. Seeing this was conflicting for me because it was true that there were people who claimed to be Christians who acted immorally (and they were wrong for doing so). So those who called them hypocrites were correct on that point, but it was not true that this also applied to the Jesus or the gospel. It seemed clear to me that we could only know that they were hypocrites because they acted against what Jesus taught (e.g., in the Sermon on the Mount). But beyond that, I was not sure what to think.

I also had questions as someone who tried to read the Bible multiple times but stopped each time. I would start at Genesis and then end up quitting after a few books because I could not understand much of what was going on. If I heard a sermon or teachings about the New Testament (NT), I did not know who the NT authors were, how the NT came together in the first place, whether it was reliable, and how we could know. Though I might superficially understand the point of various NT teachings, I often kept these questions to myself, and in some cases I did not even realize the questions I had.

As I attended classes, I saw that others were parsing these questions and issues at a deeper level, so I did too. I also had conversations with various professors and the long road trips allowed me to read more books on these topics as well as listen to various podcasts, debates, and lectures. Another simple thing I began to do was read three chapters a day of the NT. Ultimately, after I received my undergraduate degree in business, I still wanted to learn more and so obtained a master’s degree in religious studies and eventually a PhD in theology. During these years there was lots of studying, discussions, publications, and academic presentations. Along the way, I also became Habermas’s research assistant, and now we have worked together for several years.

So what? Why share all this?

I think there are a lot of people out there who are similar. Some may have an initial understanding about Jesus and the NT, but want to learn more out of a desire to grow more in their faithfulness (e.g., discipleship). Some may simply have questions about the NT itself because they have heard others criticize it. Some may have their own personal doubts about the NT and want to know if there is any evidence for the reliability of the NT and, if so, what is it. Still others may approach these issues from more skeptical points of view and are unaware of why someone may find the NT reliable.2 This book, then, is for people who want to dig deeper into the New Testament and issues regarding its reliability, whether as a disciple or as a doubter.

What I hope to accomplish in this book is to introduce thirteen different arguments that each point toward the reliability of the New Testament. I will be presenting these arguments as though it were the reader’s first time coming into contact with them. Hopefully, this will help the reader understand the different levels and angles at which the New Testament is trustworthy as well as give a new appreciation of the NT when reading it. Moreover, although there will always be debates—and some debates are better than others—I will try to give general arguments and conclusions in each chapter that are well-attested. More technical debates, nuances, and the like will be provided in the footnotes but these discussions are beyond our immediate scope. Another reason I am introducing these thirteen considerations is that some readers will find some more interesting than others (I know I do!). Accordingly, at the end of each chapter I have included reading recommendations for those who wish to dig deeper on a given topic.