The Sadducees say that there is no resurrection, and that there are neither angels nor spirits, but the Pharisees believe all these things. –Acts 23:8

“You are Israel’s teacher,” said Jesus, “and do you not understand these things?” –John 3:10

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If you’re a seeker and are struggling with honest skepticism about apparent Bible contradictions, then buy Norman Geisler’s When Critics Ask: A Popular Handbook on Bible Difficulties (Baker, 1992), and the bibliography in the back: “Select Books on Bible Difficulties.” Other good ones would be Gleason Archer’s New International Encyclopedia of Bible Difficulties (Zondervan, 1982) and John Haley’s Alleged Errors of the Bible (Whitaker, 1874, 1992). One of the things that atheists say is that these books rely on the “copyist error” explanation, for a lot of the difficulties in the Bible, and that this is an act of “subterfuge,” or deceit in order to achieve one’s goal. But I think it’s unfair to assume that Bible-believers are just being deceitful to defend the Bible. If this is the sort of position one is going to take, then first, it must mean the atheist was abused by a Bible-believer and has simply made the decision that all Bible-believers are abusive and thus deceitful; and two, that Bible-believers are incapable of giving intellectual replies to the abundance of alleged Bible contradictions raised by unbelievers. So, the atheist has already made his mind up, that all Bible-believers are deceitful and incompetent, and on these grounds alone, are not qualified to receive a hearing when trying to address any of the Bible difficulties that people bring up.

I personally believe that Ken Ham’s view of “young earth creationism” is what the Bible plainly says about creation and origins. If you’re honestly seeking answers about this, then buy Four Views on Creation, Evolution, and Intelligent Design edited by Stanley Gundry. There’s also tons of free, intellectually rigorous creationist material available on creation.com.

Books against mainline liberalism would be J. Gresham Machen’s Christianity and Liberalism and Roger Olson’s Against Liberal Theology.

Books against easy believism would be John MacArthur’s The Gospel According to Jesus, my book The Gospel of Jesus Christ, Mark Jones’ Antinomianism, John Fletcher’s Checks to Antinomianism, abridged by Peter Wiseman (Beacon Hill Press, 1948), and Four Views on Law and Gospel edited by Stanley Gundry (everything but the dispensationalist view is worth a look).

Books that encourage Christian paranormalism would be Augustin Poulain’s The Graces of Interior Prayer, Arthur Devine’s Manual of Mystical Theology, Joan Carroll Cruz’s Mysteries Marvels Miracles, Thomas Boys’ The Suppressed Evidence, Daniel Jennings’ The Supernatural Occurrences of John Wesley, and my ebook How to Experience God.