Confidence in the Word

Home Page

If this statement is true - and we believe it is - then it is vitally important for every Christian to read his or her Bible regularly.

Yet, as the result of research by two respected Christian organisations, confirmed by his own observations, the author of this website has become intensely aware that, apart from attendance at public worship, many sincere believers neither read the Bible nor hear it read, or if they do so, then it is only on rare occasions.

This has served to convince the author that the underlying reason for the lack of personal Bible reading in the UK is that many Christians have suffered a fundamental loss of confidence, not only in the Bible itself, but also in their God-given ability - and right - to read and understand the Scriptures for themselves. He has therefore compiled Confidence in the Word as a modest contribution towards restoring and enhancing much-needed assurance among believers that:-

1. The Bible is the unique, authentic, authoritative and completely reliable Word of God. By considering some of the things the Bible says about itself, we highlight some of its distinguishing features. We also look at how our Lord Jesus Christ spoke about and used the Scriptures. We have called this section Examining the Bible's Testimony:

   - and -

2. The Bible can be readily understood and applied to daily life by every Christian. Starting with an account of how a Bristol lady was healed of a debilitating illness by copying parts of the Bible by hand, we invite you to experience how the Scriptures can "speak" to you today. We have called this section Experiencing the Bible's Power.

In addition to these two main sections there are six introductory pages, four concluding pages offering further help and thought, and five appendices. Every page in Confidence in the Word has the single aim of helping you to regain and increase your trust in the Bible.

(Visitors from Bible Reading Research return to Main Text)

The pages to be found in the five sections of Confidence in the Word are as follows:

Please note that, when accessing a page directly via the address bar of your browser, you should use lower case only, and that you will need to enter the html file name (as shown in the source code) and not the title given above. We apologise if some visitors have been confused by this.

Navigating the Site

While you are naturally at liberty to visit the pages of Confidence in the Word in any order you choose (you may, for example, wish to explore the background to the site in the Appendices before venturing to the main pages), we nevertheless believe that you will gain the greatest benefit by working through the pages in the order shown above. To assist you with this, the Proceed to: link at the foot of each page directs you to the next page in the group, or, in the case of the last page of a group, the first page of the following group. The first Return to: link directs you back to the previous page, or, in the case of the first page of a group, the last page of the previous group. Each page also has a link returning you directly to the Site Map. Where we have provided subsidiary pages (indented in the Site Map above) the return links direct you back either to the previous subsidiary page (if there is one) and/or to the related main page.

On some pages we refer you back to an item on a earlier page, or forward to a section of a later page. These links are purely optional and are intended only as guides. At the end of the section to which you are referred, you will find a further link directing you back to the place on the page from which you have come. We refer to this as the Main Text.

We have also provided a range of links, including several Christian web directories. With only a few exceptions, these may be accessed via our page of Links to Other Websites. In order to avoid that page becoming unduly cumbersome we have not provided return links to other pages within this site. You will therefore need to click on the Back button on your browser in order to return to the Main Text. However, we have targetted all external links, so that wherever you are in the site you are visiting you can return directly to this site simply by clicking the Close button in the top right hand corner of your browser (you do no have to go back through all the pages you have visited).

All Bible references are given in the form of live links to the Bible Gateway, where you can view the Scriptures in a variety of English versions and a number of foreign languages. A selection of books from the Apocrypha may be viewed in the NETBible, which also includes the entire Old and New Testaments. Our use of these facilities is gratefully acknowledged (see Acknowledgements).

Site History

Confidence in the Word was last fully updated in March 2003. There have been numerous corrections and many minor modifications since. Updating is an ongoing activity.

Meet the Author was revised and updated in May, 2004.

Links to Other Websites were fully updated, with additions, in May, 2004.