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Scripture claims to be true and invites examination rather than avoiding it. It says God's word is truth and that it stands when everything else fades, and the New Testament writers appeal to eyewitnesses, named places and public events rather than to private experience. Trust in Scripture is finally trust in the God who speaks in it, and the clearest reason a Christian gives for that trust is that Jesus treated these writings as God's own word.
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God's answer first
Read what Scripture claims for itself before reading anyone's argument about it. The claim is unusually direct.
The passage that answers this
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Peter denies inventing stories and appeals to what he saw and heard, then points to the written prophetic word as even more sure. Testimony and Scripture are offered together, in public, to readers free to weigh them.
Read these with it
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Jesus prays this about his disciples. He does not say God's word contains truth but that it is truth, and he asks that it do work in them.
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The claim includes durability. Scripture expects to outlast the empires, arguments and fashions that come and go around it.
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Why we ask this
The Bible is ancient, and we are used to checking sources. Asking whether it can be trusted is the same instinct we apply to news and to history, and Scripture does not ask to be exempted from it.
Many people were handed the Bible with an implied threat, that doubting it means losing everything. That pressure makes honest questions feel dangerous, when in fact Acts 17:11 commends examination.
There are also real difficulties in the text: parallel accounts that differ in detail, hard commands in the Old Testament, numbers that vary between and Chronicles. A trustworthy answer names these rather than pretending they are not there.
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Historical context
- Written by
- Peter, writing late in life to Christians scattered across Asia Minor
- Written to
- Believers under social pressure, being told by teachers that the promise of Christ's return had failed
- Written because
- 2 Peter is written to steady readers against false teaching, and its argument runs on two grounds: what the apostles saw, and what the prophets wrote
Peter writes as an old man who expects to die soon, 1:14, and says he is leaving a reminder behind. The letter is therefore concerned with what will hold when the eyewitnesses are gone, which is exactly the concern behind this question.
The he refers to is the transfiguration, Matthew 17:1-8, where a voice from heaven spoke about the Son. Peter appeals to a specific event with named witnesses rather than to an inner conviction.
Notice the order of his argument. He begins with eyewitness testimony and then says the written prophetic word is more sure. Experience mattered, and the text mattered more, because a text can be checked by people who were not present.
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Verse by verse
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Peter names the accusation directly, that the message was a clever invention, and answers it with sight. The New Testament repeatedly makes this kind of falsifiable claim rather than retreating into private experience.
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The written word is called more sure and compared to a lamp in the dark. That is a modest and useful image. A lamp does not show everything, it shows enough of the path to walk.
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Jesus asks that his followers be set apart by the truth, and identifies that truth as God's word. Trustworthiness here is not only accuracy about facts but reliability for living.
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Jesus speaks of the smallest written marks. Whatever else he thought about the Scriptures of Israel, he did not regard them as a rough approximation.
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The psalmist speaks of God's words as a whole, not verse by verse. This is the settled confidence of a person who has lived with Scripture long enough to have tested it.
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Paul adds a second kind of evidence: the word works in those who . That is not proof to an outsider, but it is a real observation, and the Thessalonians could check it against their own changed lives.
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What Scripture says
Scripture claims to be true, and invites checking
The Bereans examined the Scriptures daily to see whether Paul's message was so, and Luke praises them. Scripture consistently behaves like something meant to be tested. Deuteronomy 18:21-22 even gives Israel a test for whether a prophet's word came from God.
The central claim is a public event, not a private feeling
Paul lists appearances of the Christ, including one to more than five hundred people, most of whom he says are still alive. Then in verse 14 he grants that if Christ was not raised the faith is worthless. That is a remarkably exposed way to argue, and it shows the New Testament does not treat truth as untouchable by evidence.
God's word is described as lasting
People are grass; God's word stands forever. Peter quotes this in 1 Peter 1:24-25 and applies it to the gospel preached to his readers. The claim is not that no manuscript will ever be damaged, but that what God has said will not fail.
Jesus treated the Scriptures as reliable
He told the Sadducees they erred because they knew neither the Scriptures nor God's power, then settled a question about from the tense of a phrase in Exodus. He appealed to Jonah, Matthew 12:40, and to Isaiah, Mark 7:6. For a Christian this is the strongest single reason to trust Scripture.
Scripture is honest about uncomfortable material
The Bible records David's adultery and arranged killing in detail, Peter's denial, the disciples' cowardice, and Israel's repeated failures. A text designed to flatter its own community would not read like this. The candour is itself worth weighing.
Fulfilled promise is offered as evidence
God points to declaring the end from the beginning as a mark of who he is. Christians point especially to the pattern of Old Testament expectation converging on Christ, Luke 24:44-47. Weighing that evidence takes reading rather than a slogan, which is why Audela's studies work through passages rather than listing prooftexts.
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Cross references
The word of God endures
The word of our God stands forever.
Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will not.
through the living and abiding word.
Examine, test, weigh
A test given to Israel for whether a word is from God.
Daily examination of the Scriptures commended.
Test all things, hold firmly what is good.
Do not every spirit, but test them.
Eyewitness testimony
Eyewitnesses and careful investigation behind a written account.
He who has seen has testified, and his testimony is true.
What we have heard, seen with our eyes and touched with our hands.
A list of named appearances offered publicly.
Scripture doing its work
Living and active, discerning the heart.
Reviving the soul, making wise the simple.
Trust shows itself in doing rather than only hearing.
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Common misunderstandings
You just have to have faith and stop asking
Scripture does not talk this way. It commends the Bereans for examining, records Thomas being given evidence, and has Paul say plainly that if Christ was not raised the faith is empty. Suppressing questions produces fragile belief, not strong faith.
The Bible is trustworthy because it says it is
Quoted alone this is circular, and a thoughtful friend will notice. The fuller Christian argument runs through the and through Christ's own treatment of Scripture, and it includes ordinary historical considerations such as early manuscripts, named places and unflattering material.
Archaeology has proved the Bible
Overstated. Archaeology has confirmed many specific people, places and customs, and the Tel Dan inscription and the Pilate inscription are real examples. It has also left many questions open and raised some hard ones. Claiming proof invites a fall when the next dispute appears; naming evidence tier by tier does not.
Differences between the Gospels show they cannot be trusted
Independent witnesses to one event normally differ in detail and order while agreeing on substance; identical accounts would suggest copying. Some differences are genuinely difficult and should be named as such. What the four Gospels agree on is the core: who Jesus was, that he was under Pilate, and that the tomb was empty.
The Bible has been translated so many times the meaning is lost
This assumes translations were made from translations. Modern English Bibles are translated from Hebrew, Aramaic and Greek manuscripts, and their footnotes show where the text or the rendering is disputed. Comparing two careful translations is a good exercise; it usually shows agreement rather than drift.
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Things most readers miss
Peter calls the written word more sure than his own experience
A man who saw the transfiguration still points readers to the text, 2 Peter 1:19. Scripture consistently ranks the durable written witness above private experience, including apostolic experience.
The Bible preserves material that embarrasses its own heroes
Moses' anger, David's adultery, Peter's denial and Paul's dispute with Barnabas are all recorded. This is not how propaganda is written.
Trust is a matter of degrees for most people
Very few readers move from certainty to unbelief in a day. Mark 9:24 gives words for the middle, I ; help my unbelief. Scripture makes room for a person who is still deciding.
Some difficulties remain unresolved, and Scripture never promises otherwise
Deuteronomy 29:29 says the secret things belong to God. A trustworthy witness is not the same as an exhaustive one, and honest study leaves some questions open.
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Someone in Scripture faced this too
Scripture is not embarrassed by people who needed to check.
The Bereans, who checked daily
What he or she went through
They heard Paul preach and did not simply accept it. They examined the Scriptures every day to see whether these things were so.
How God responded
Luke calls them more noble than the people of Thessalonica for doing it, and many of them .
What we learn
Verification is commended, not tolerated. A faith that cannot survive checking is not the faith Scripture asks for.
Thomas, who wanted evidence
What he or she went through
He refused the other disciples' report and said he would not without seeing the wounds himself.
How God responded
Jesus came back a week later and offered him exactly what he had asked for. Thomas answered, my Lord and my God.
What we learn
Christ met an honest doubter with evidence. His words about those who without seeing are a blessing on later readers, not a rebuke of investigation.
How it points to Christ
The evidence Thomas was given was the body of the Christ. Christian confidence in Scripture is tied to that event, 1 Corinthians 15:14.
Luke's reader Theophilus
What he or she went through
He had been taught about Jesus and evidently wanted to know how much of it could be relied on.
How God responded
He was given an ordered account drawn from eyewitnesses, written so that he might know the certainty of what he had been taught.
What we learn
Wanting certainty is not weak faith. Luke's Gospel exists partly because someone asked.
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Christ and this question
Trust finally rests on a person
For a Christian, the deepest reason to trust Scripture is not an argument about manuscripts but the estimate of Scripture held by the Christ. He quoted it against , settled disputes from it, said it cannot be broken, John 10:35, and said it testified of him, John 5:39.
That is why the carries so much weight. Paul says if Christ was not raised, the faith is worthless, 1 Corinthians 15:14, and if he was raised then his view of the Scriptures deserves more weight than ours.
It also changes the character of trust. Scripture is not asking to be admired as a flawless artefact but to be as the word of a person who keeps his promises. Luke 24:44-47 has Jesus opening the Scriptures and then sending witnesses out, which is the pattern still: read, be convinced, then live and tell.
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What to do with this
Read one Gospel straight through
Most doubts about the Bible are held at a distance from the text. Read Mark in a few sittings and ask whether it reads like invention, then read Luke 1:1-4 again.
Bring your hardest passage into the light
Write down the passage that troubles you most and study it in context rather than carrying it as a vague objection. Audela's chapter studies and the Bible Questions here are meant for exactly this use.
Learn to sort kinds of evidence
Practise saying which of these you are dealing with: what Scripture explicitly says, what history or archaeology supports, what is careful inference, and what is unknown. Most confusion in this area comes from mixing the four.
Test the word by obeying something in it
1 Thessalonians 2:13 says the word works in those who . Take one clear instruction, forgive a person, tell the truth about something, give to someone in need, and watch what it does.
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Study the question further
What about the contradictions people list online?
Most listed contradictions are differences of detail, order, summary or emphasis, which is what independent accounts look like. A smaller number are genuinely difficult, and saying so is better than forcing a harmonisation the text does not support.
Look first at whether one account is summarising
Matthew often compresses, Mark often keeps vivid detail. A shorter account is not a competing one.
Check whether numbers are transmitted figures
Some differences between Samuel, and Chronicles involve numerals, which are the easiest thing to vary in copying. Modern Bibles footnote these.
Be willing to leave a question open
Not every difficulty has a satisfying answer available to us. Honesty here protects a reader from a crisis later.
Deuteronomy 29:29
Secret things belong to God; what is revealed belongs to us and to our children.
How to apply this today
- Am I looking for reasons to dismiss Scripture, or working honestly through a difficulty?
God, give me patience with what I cannot yet resolve and honesty about what I can.
How can I trust a book written thousands of years ago?
Age is not a mark against a document; the questions are whether it was written by people in a position to know and whether it has been transmitted carefully. On both, the New Testament stands unusually well among ancient writings.
Luke 1:1-4
Eyewitness sources and careful ordering claimed by the writer himself.
2 Peter 1:16
A denial of invented stories, made in a letter to people who could ask other witnesses.
How to apply this today
- Do I apply the same standard to Scripture that I apply to other history, or a stricter one?
Lord, help me weigh your word fairly rather than dismissing it by habit.
What about the hard commands in the Old Testament?
These are real difficulties and deserve unhurried study rather than a slogan. Scripture itself distinguishes law given to Israel under the old from what is commanded of Christians, and it insists God is just even where his acts trouble us.
Read the covenant setting
Much Old Testament law belongs to Israel's national , and Hebrews 8:13 speaks of that as obsolete in Christ.
Do not smooth over the hardest texts
The conquest narratives and some judgment passages remain difficult. Christians hold several readings of them, and pretending otherwise is not faithful.
Hold on to what God says about himself
Genesis 18:25 asks whether the judge of all the earth will not do right, and treats the answer as certain even where a case is not explained.
How to apply this today
- Can I sit with a hard passage without either excusing it glibly or abandoning Scripture?
God, you are just. Where a passage troubles me, teach me rather than let me settle for a slogan.
Is it wrong to doubt?
Scripture distinguishes honest wrestling from settled refusal. It records many prayers of complaint and confusion without rebuke, and Jesus answered doubters with evidence.
Psalm 73:1-17
A believer almost slips, tells God so, and finds his footing in the sanctuary rather than in denial.
Mark 9:24
I believe; help my unbelief, spoken to Jesus and answered.
John 20:27
Jesus offers Thomas exactly the evidence he asked for.
How to apply this today
- Have I told God the truth about where I am, or performed a confidence I do not have?
Lord, I . Help my unbelief, and do not let me pretend with you.
Where should I start if I am not sure I believe any of it?
Start with the accounts of Jesus, since that is where the Christian claim is most exposed to checking, and read them as testimony rather than as decoration.
John 20:30-31
John states his purpose: these are written that you may believe.
Acts 26:24-26
Paul tells a governor that these things were not done in a corner.
How to apply this today
- What would I need to see in the text itself to take it seriously?
God, if you have spoken, show me as I read. I would rather know the truth than be comfortable.
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Reflection
- What exactly is my hesitation about Scripture, stated in one sentence?
- Have I ever examined a difficulty in context, or only heard it repeated?
- How much weight does Jesus' own view of Scripture carry for me?
- What has Scripture already done in me that I cannot easily explain away?
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Prayer
God, you say your word is truth and that it stands when everything else withers. I have questions, and I bring them to you rather than around you.
Thank you that you commend those who examine, and that you met Thomas with evidence rather than with contempt.
Where I have doubted lazily, make me diligent. Where I have carelessly, make me thoughtful. Where a passage is hard, keep me at it.
me in your truth. Let your word be a lamp on the path I actually have to walk. Amen.
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Further reading
2 Peter 1:12-21
Eyewitness testimony and the written word set side by side.
Luke 1:1-4
A writer's own account of his method.
Acts 17:1-12
Preaching that expected to be examined.
1 Corinthians 15:1-20
The most exposed argument in the New Testament.
Psalm 119:137-160
The confidence of a reader who has lived with Scripture.
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Explore the passage
These are questions the text can actually answer. Take one, go back to the passage with it, and read until Scripture answers rather than until you have an explanation you like. Each question names where this study, or another passage, does the answering.
What this reveals about God
Start here, because every passage of Scripture is first about God before it is about us. Read for what He does, what He says, and what He is called.
What does these passages teach about God?
Underline every verb God is the subject of. What He does tells you who He is.
What does these passages reveal about God's character?
Look for the words the text itself uses of Him: holy, merciful, faithful, jealous, patient. Take the text's own vocabulary rather than your own.
What this reveals about us
Scripture is honest about people. Read for what it says of human need, human failure, and the kind of response it calls for.
What does these passages teach about humanity?
Watch what the people in the text want, fear, and trust. Scripture rarely flatters them.
What does these passages reveal about faith?
Faith in Scripture is always faith in someone, about something specific. Ask what exactly is being believed here, and on what word.
Where this arrives in Christ
Jesus said the Scriptures testify of Him. Follow the line the Bible itself draws rather than inventing one.
What does these passages reveal about Jesus Christ?
Look for what the New Testament does with this text. A connection Scripture makes is a connection you can stand on.
What does these passages reveal about salvation?
Ask who does the saving, who is saved, from what, and by what means. Let the text answer each part.
The world behind the words
The first readers knew things we have to learn. Recovering what they knew is study, not speculation.
How would the original audience have understood these passages?
Ask what they had already been told, what they were living through, and what this would have cost them to believe.
What historical or cultural background helps explain these passages?
Look at the work, the worship, the law and the customs the text assumes you already understand.
How this connects to the rest of Scripture
Scripture is its own best commentary. The clearest answers usually come from another passage rather than from a scholar.
Which Old and New Testament passages help explain these passages?
Prefer passages that quote or clearly echo this text. Those links are the Bible's own, not ours.
What biblical themes are developed in these passages, and where do they begin?
Trace one theme backwards to where Scripture first raises it, then forwards to where it lands.
What this asks of you
Application is the last step, never the first, and it must come out of the passage rather than out of general advice.
What does these passages teach believers to do today?
Say it as one sentence you could obey this week, and be able to point at the verse it came from.
Where faithful readers differ
Some questions here are genuinely open. Where Bible believing Christians read this differently, the readings are set out with the passages behind each one, and what Scripture states plainly is kept separate from what is interpretation.
Which parts of these passages does Scripture state plainly, and which parts are interpretation?
Write two lists. Anything you cannot put in the first list, hold loosely and say so when you teach it.
Questions Audela will not answer
Where Scripture does not answer a question, Audela says so plainly rather than filling the silence. An honest “the Bible does not tell us” is more faithful than a confident guess, and it keeps the reader’s trust in God’s Word rather than in our reasoning.
The secret things belong unto the LORD our God: but those things which are revealed belong unto us and to our children for ever.
- Ask instead: What does the passage say God did, and what does that reveal about His character?
- Ask instead: What has God told us about His purpose here, in this text or elsewhere in Scripture?
- Ask instead: What does Scripture say about how God acts, and where does it say it?
- Ask instead: What happened, and what does the rest of Scripture make of it?
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