What gives us reason to trust the Bible enough to let it correct us?
Many of us have found comfort in its pages. We have heard its promises beside a hospital bed or returned to a familiar passage when we did not know what to do. Others among us are still considering whether the Bible deserves that kind of confidence. Wherever we begin, receiving a book as God's Word is a serious decision. It reaches into our choices, our relationships, and our hope beyond death.
Over these four posts, we will consider the reasons for that trust. We begin with the Bible's claim to speak for God and the place of Jesus in understanding that claim. Then we will examine evidence from the ancient world, the copying of biblical writings, and how those writings came to us as the Bible we open today.
Our starting conviction is that Scripture is inspired, inerrant, and providentially preserved. Those words need explaining, and the reasons for believing them deserve careful attention. We can hold that conviction while welcoming someone who has not yet reached it.
What Scripture Claims
Inspiration concerns where Scripture comes from. When we describe a song as inspired, we may mean that it moves us deeply. The biblical claim goes further. Paul writes, “All Scripture is breathed out by God” (2 Timothy 3:16 ESV).
The claim is that God speaks through these writings. Their authority rests in Him.
The surrounding passage also tells us why that matters. Paul reminds Timothy of the sacred writings he had known since childhood, writings that direct him toward salvation through faith in Jesus. These would have been the Scriptures we call the Old Testament. Paul then connects Scripture with teaching, correction, and the formation of a life that does good. God's Word addresses both what we believe and how we live (2 Timothy 3:14–17).
Inerrancy means that the original biblical writings speak truthfully in everything they affirm. As theologian Matthew Barrett explains, that conviction connects the truthfulness of Scripture with the character of the God who speaks. It concerns what God gave through the authors. It does not claim that every later copy, translation, or interpretation is free from mistakes.
We also need to understand what kind of writing we are reading. Poetry communicates through imagery. A parable teaches through a story. A historical account makes claims about events. Receiving Scripture truthfully includes attending to its literary form and context, rather than demanding that every passage communicate in the same way.
Providential preservation means that God has cared for His Word through its history. How the surviving manuscripts bear witness to that history is a question we will examine in Part 3. For now, we should distinguish the conviction that God gave truthful Scripture from the separate work of studying how its words were copied and translated.
God Speaks Through Human Authors
The human authors are part of this account of inspiration. In a passage recalling the sight of Jesus' glory on the mountain and explaining the source of biblical prophecy, Peter writes that “men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit.” (2 Peter 1:21 ESV).
People really spoke. They used language, addressed particular hearers, and wrote in recognizable circumstances. The Holy Spirit's work gave their message its divine source. Peter presents testimony about Jesus and God's prophetic word together, directing his readers to attend to them (2 Peter 1:16–21).
Luke's introduction gives us a concrete example of how purposeful human work belongs in that picture. He tells Theophilus, the person he addresses, that earlier accounts existed and that testimony had been handed down by people who witnessed the events. He then explains his own careful attention to the material and his decision to write an “orderly account” (Luke 1:3 ESV).
Notice the distinction. Luke places himself among those receiving the eyewitness testimony. His introduction does not say that he personally watched every event in Jesus' life. He writes so that his reader can have confidence in what he has been taught (Luke 1:1–4).
That introduction allows us to ask useful questions. How did the writer obtain his information? What was he trying to communicate? How does his account compare with other evidence? His stated care is relevant to those questions, although a claim to careful inquiry must still be tested against the resulting account.
For those of us who worry that asking questions betrays faith, Luke's opening is reassuring. Within Scripture itself, we encounter someone connecting confidence with attention to testimony. Careful inquiry has a place in learning to trust.
Examining the Claim
Still, a fair objection remains. Have we simply used the Bible to prove the Bible?
If our whole argument were that the Bible must be God's Word because a verse says so, we would be asking someone to accept the conclusion before examining the reasons. Quoting a claim establishes what the writer claims. We must then consider why we should believe it.
We can begin by examining the biblical writings as historical documents, before asking a questioning reader to accept their inspiration. A letter can provide evidence about what its author knew and believed. An account can preserve information received from earlier witnesses. Being collected into the Bible does not remove those writings from historical examination.
Their authors' commitments also deserve attention. These are Christian witnesses seeking to communicate Christian truth. Their commitment may affect how they select and explain events, and it calls for careful evaluation. It does not, by itself, establish either their accuracy or their dishonesty. We ask about access, timing, purpose, and the strength of the testimony.
The Resurrection Testimony
Jesus' resurrection brings these questions into sharp focus.
Paul's first letter to the Corinthians belongs to the middle of the first century. The ESV Global Study Bible places its composition around AD 53–55. That places the letter within the first generation of the Christian movement. In chapter 15, Paul addresses a disagreement about the resurrection of the dead by reminding the Corinthians of the message he had already preached.
He recounts Jesus' death for sins, burial, resurrection on the third day, and appearances to His followers. His list includes Cephas, another name for Peter; the Twelve; a gathering of more than five hundred; James; and the apostles. Finally, Paul adds his own testimony: “he appeared also to me.” (1 Corinthians 15:8 ESV).
Three features deserve particular attention.
First, Paul identifies the central message as something he had received and then passed on. Gary Habermas, in his study of the resurrection evidence, explains why this language and the structured summary point to an earlier tradition. Here, tradition means teaching transmitted from one person to another. The basic proclamation was already in circulation before Paul wrote this letter. Its exact wording, extent, and earliest date are matters for scholarly investigation; we do not need to assign it a precise year to recognize its earlier existence.
Second, Paul's connection to the people he names was personal. In Galatians, he recounts a visit during which he stayed with Peter for fifteen days and also saw James, Jesus' brother. This is Paul's report of contact with central figures in the movement. The passage does not give us a transcript of their conversations or specify that he received the resurrection summary during that visit (Galatians 1:18–19).
Third, Paul appeals to witnesses who were still living. He reports that Jesus appeared to more than five hundred people at one time and that most were still alive when he wrote (1 Corinthians 15:6). His mention of their survival makes good sense as an invitation to seek confirmation from them. Paul was placing his credibility behind testimony that his contemporaries could still question.
The timing gives that appeal weight. The resurrection message had been circulating before this letter, giving people time to question its account of Jesus. It was also meeting resistance. In this same letter, Paul mentions adversaries to his work in Ephesus (1 Corinthians 16:8–9). Those who wanted to undermine the gospel had reason to expose a fabrication. His appeal to living witnesses belongs in that setting of proclamation and opposition.
That opportunity for inquiry does not establish that every opponent investigated the claim or that every attempted rebuttal survives. We also possess Paul's report of the gathering, rather than five hundred separately preserved accounts. Those distinctions help us describe the evidence accurately while recognizing the significance of his appeal when he wrote.
Together, these details give us reasons to take the testimony seriously. We have an early letter conveying an earlier message, Paul's personal contact with leading participants, and his appeal to witnesses still living amid opposition. Paul also adds his own encounter with the risen Jesus. He acknowledges that he had previously persecuted the church, which requires us to consider what changed his conviction (1 Corinthians 15:8–9).
Ferrell Jenkins makes a useful distinction when discussing the traditional location of Jesus' tomb: Christian confidence in the resurrection rests on the witness testimony, rather than our ability to identify a particular tourist site. The question before us is what happened to Jesus and how well the testimony supports it.
Considering Other Explanations
Could sincere people have been mistaken? That possibility deserves consideration. A person might interpret a powerful experience as an encounter with someone who has died. Sincerity alone cannot establish that the person's explanation is correct. An account of Christian origins based on such experiences must also explain why those experiences were understood as Jesus' resurrection and how the reports of appearances to groups and to Paul arose.
Could the message have developed over time? Stories and interpretations can develop quickly, so an early date does not automatically guarantee truth. However, Paul's letter means that the basic resurrection proclamation cannot be explained as an invention first appearing centuries afterward. A theory of development must account for the message already being taught before that letter was written.
New Testament scholar N. T. Wright asks us to consider the empty-tomb accounts and the reported appearances together. An empty tomb by itself could suggest that someone had moved or stolen the body. An experience of seeing someone who had died would not, by itself, establish that the person's body had risen. Wright argues that the empty tomb and encounters with Jesus together explain why His followers proclaimed a bodily resurrection. He concludes that the resurrection best explains the evidence. Scholars differ over the historical assessment of these accounts, but his argument shows why we should weigh explanations against the whole case.
Our assumptions about miracles affect that comparison. If we begin by ruling out God's action altogether, a resurrection is excluded before we examine the testimony. Allowing that God could act does not establish that a particular miracle occurred, either. We still have to weigh the reasons. As Christians who believe in the Creator, we can consider this claim without treating it as impossible from the outset.
The early testimony, Paul's personal connections, and his appeal to living witnesses amid opposition give us reasons to take the resurrection seriously. As Christians, we conclude that God really raised Jesus. For those of us bringing honest questions, this testimony gives us something concrete to examine as we consider whether to trust Him.
Jesus and the Authority of Scripture
Why does this matter for our confidence in Scripture?
The resurrection belongs with Jesus' identity and teaching. A report that someone returned to life would not, by itself, establish everything said about that person. The Christian case concerns this Jesus, His claims about His relationship with the Father, and the testimony about His life. We understand God's raising Him as confirmation of His claims and authority. That gives us reason to trust what He teaches, including what He says about Scripture.
In John's account, Jesus answers a charge concerning His claim to be the Son of God by appealing to Psalm 82. Within that argument, He states that “Scripture cannot be broken” (John 10:35 ESV). He treats the wording of the passage as authoritative. The dispute concerns how Scripture applies to Him; His answer assumes that its testimony carries weight (John 10:34–36).
Luke's account of the risen Jesus develops the connection further. Jesus explains His suffering and glory through Moses and the Prophets. Later, He connects His death and resurrection with the scriptural message of repentance and forgiveness reaching the nations. He teaches His followers to understand Him within God's revealed purpose (Luke 24:25–27, 44–49).
If we have good reasons to trust Jesus, we also have reasons to receive His teaching about Scripture. His appeals here concern Israel's Scriptures. How the New Testament writings came to be recognized as Scripture is a question we will examine in Part 4.
A Faith That Receives Correction
That brings us back to the question with which we began. What gives us reason to let the Bible correct us?
We are considering writings that claim to come from God, communicate through real human authors, and direct us to Jesus. The historical testimony gives us substantial reasons to take His resurrection seriously. His treatment of Scripture then matters deeply for those who trust Him. Our confidence has something to rest on as we continue examining the questions ahead.
And that confidence has a purpose. Paul's teaching about inspiration leads toward a changed life. We can defend Scripture's reliability while resisting its correction of our resentment, our dishonesty, or the way we treat someone with less power. Receiving God's Word includes becoming teachable ourselves.
When a passage unsettles us, we can slow down, consider its context, and distinguish what it says from what we have assumed. When its meaning is clear, trust can become an honest apology, a corrected choice, or obedience we have delayed. Honest questions and a humble response can grow together.
In Part 2, we will examine people, places, and events in the Bible alongside archaeological discoveries and records produced outside the biblical writings. We will ask what those sources confirm, where differences matter, and what the evidence cannot establish by itself.
If you are willing, bring your honest questions to God, and give His Word room to correct one thing you already know needs to change.
Sources and further reading
Matthew Barrett, The Authority and Inerrancy of Scripture
https://www.thegospelcoalition.org/essay/authority-inerrancy-scripture/
ESV Global Study Bible, Introduction to 1 Corinthians
https://www.esv.org/resources/esv-global-study-bible/introduction-to-1-corinthians/
Gary R. Habermas, The Case for Christ's Resurrection, in To Everyone an Answer, 2004
https://www.garyhabermas.com/books/inbook_to-everyone-an-answer/habermas_case-for-xp-res.htm
Ferrell Jenkins, Improved look of the Holy Sepulchre edicule, July 9, 2017
https://ferrelljenkins.blog/2017/07/09/improved-look-of-the-holy-sepulchre-edicule/
N. T. Wright, Jesus' Resurrection and Christian Origins, Gregorianum 83, 2002
https://ntwrightpage.com/2016/07/12/jesus-resurrection-and-christian-origins/