# What does it mean to say the Bible is trustworthy? Document: study/scripture God's written Word is our final authority for faith and life. Topic: bible Keywords: inspiration, inerrancy, authority, foundation ## Starting answer Scripture is breathed out by God and therefore truthful in all it affirms. Its authority comes from God, not from a church's permission or our ability to prove every detail. We receive it as the final authority, interpreting each passage in context and in the light of the whole Bible. Basis: 2 Timothy 3:16-17; John 17:17; [John Calvin · Beveridge translation, CCEL — I.7.1–5](https://ccel.org/ccel/calvin/institutes/institutes.iii.viii.html) ## Reasoning 1 The biblical writers speak as people carried along by the Holy Spirit. Basis: 2 Peter 1:20-21 ## Reasoning 2 God's truthfulness grounds our confidence in the Word he gives. Basis: Titus 1:2; John 17:17; [R. C. Sproul · Ligonier Ministries — Inspiration and God's truthfulness](https://learn.ligonier.org/articles/bible-errors) ## Reasoning 3 The Spirit enables us to receive that Word; evidence is useful but is not a higher authority over God. Basis: 1 Corinthians 2:12-14; [John Calvin · Beveridge translation, CCEL — I.7.4–5](https://ccel.org/ccel/calvin/institutes/institutes.iii.viii.html) ## Conclusion Careful inquiry and confidence in Scripture belong together. Our interpretations must answer to God's Word. Basis: Acts 17:11; [Westminster Assembly · OPC text — 1.9–10](https://opc.org/wcf.html) ## Name the question Inspiration concerns God's giving Scripture. Copying, translating and interpreting concern how we encounter its words. A copyist's correction or a translator's choice does not, by itself, establish an error in the inspired text. Basis: [Westminster Assembly · OPC text — 1.8](https://opc.org/wcf.html); [Codex Sinaiticus Project — The manuscript and its corrections](https://codexsinaiticus.org/en/codex/); [R. C. Sproul · Ligonier Ministries — Divine inspiration and human fallibility](https://learn.ligonier.org/articles/bible-errors) ## Read with accountable confidence Read the surrounding paragraph and compare clearer passages on the same subject. Bring difficult questions into the open. Our inability to resolve a difficulty immediately does not entitle us to invent a solution or to make our uncertainty the measure of God's truthfulness. Basis: 2 Peter 3:15-16; [Westminster Assembly · OPC text — 1.7–9](https://opc.org/wcf.html) ## Objection Isn't an appeal to Scripture just circular? ## Reply Every ultimate authority raises a question about its own grounds. The Reformed answer is that God's Word carries divine authority and the Spirit bears witness to it. We can also discuss historical evidence, but human judgment does not create the authority it examines. Basis: [John Calvin · Beveridge translation, CCEL — I.7.1–5](https://ccel.org/ccel/calvin/institutes/institutes.iii.viii.html) ## Scope and limits Inerrancy does not make every translation or every Christian interpretation infallible. We should be ready to correct our reading in submission to the text. Basis: [R. C. Sproul · Ligonier Ministries — God's speech and human fallibility](https://learn.ligonier.org/articles/bible-errors); Acts 17:11 ## Conversation starter · editorial application Is your question about what this passage teaches, how its wording reached us, or why we receive it as God's Word? Basis: Acts 17:11 ## Read in Scripture - 2 Timothy 3:14-17: Scripture is God-breathed - 2 Peter 1:20-21: The Spirit and the writers - Acts 17:10-12: Examining the Scriptures Related studies: manuscripts, canon, contradictions ## Sources and their limits ### Institutes I.7: Scripture and the Spirit [calvin-scripture] John Calvin · Beveridge translation, CCEL · Reformed exposition [Read source](https://ccel.org/ccel/calvin/institutes/institutes.iii.viii.html) Sections 1–5 locate Scripture's authority in God and assurance in the Spirit's witness. The church receives God's Word; it does not confer authority on it. ### Codex Sinaiticus: the manuscript [sinaiticus] Codex Sinaiticus Project · Primary record · not a teaching authority [Read source](https://codexsinaiticus.org/en/codex/) The project's introduction dates the Greek manuscript to the middle of the fourth century and describes its corrections. Follow its manuscript viewer to inspect the witness itself. ### Does the Bible Have Errors? [sproul-inerrancy] R. C. Sproul · Ligonier Ministries · Reformed exposition [Read source](https://learn.ligonier.org/articles/bible-errors) For the truthfulness of Scripture because its divine author is truthful. This is distinct from claiming that every copy, translation or proposed interpretation is error-free. ### Westminster Confession of Faith [wcf] Westminster Assembly · OPC text · Reformed confession [Read source](https://opc.org/wcf.html) Our subordinate doctrinal standard for these guides. Citations specify chapter and paragraph. Scripture judges the confession itself (1.10); the confession does not replace Scripture. ## Connected documents - [editorial/library](editorial-library.md) - [source/calvin-scripture](source-calvin-scripture.md) - [source/sinaiticus](source-sinaiticus.md) - [source/sproul-inerrancy](source-sproul-inerrancy.md) - [source/wcf](source-wcf.md) - [study/canon](study-canon.md) - [study/contradictions](study-contradictions.md) - [study/manuscripts](study-manuscripts.md) - [topic/bible](topic-bible.md)