Know Why You Believe Paul Little

What Know Why You Believe Actually Is

It is a short apologetics book and outreach tool by Paul E. Little, originally published in 1967 and updated several times since. The full title is Know Why You Believe. It walks through the case for Christianity in a straightforward way — starting with why we can trust the Bible, then moving into evidence for Jesus, the reality of sin, and the meaning of the gospel. It is not academic theology. It is designed for someone who has never sat in a church and needs a basic walkthrough. I ran a campus ministry for about six years and used this book constantly. Here is how it actually works in practice, not the brochure version. You do not hand it to someone and say "read this." That almost never happens. What works is sitting down with them and going through it chapter by chapter. The book is short enough that you can move through a full section in a single conversation, maybe 30 to 45 minutes. The real value is in the questions built into the text. Little includes discussion prompts after each section. Those prompts are not filler. They are where the actual work happens.

Start with Chapter 1 on the reliability of the Bible. This is where most people stall. I found that if you skip ahead to the gospel offer too quickly, the whole thing falls apart later when they come back to it. The book structures its argument deliberately — foundation first, then the house. I made the mistake early on of thinking a quick summary was enough. One guy came back two weeks later and said, "But how do I know the Bible is actually true?" We had to go back to page one. Takes five extra minutes now instead of twenty minutes later.

What It Covers

The main sections break down like this: The case for the Bible's reliability. Manuscript evidence, historical corroboration, and why the New Testament is not some late fabrication. Little handles this at an accessible level but he does not shy away from the facts. The person of Jesus. Not just that he existed, which even skeptical historians grant, but that his claims were unique and his resurrection is the best explanation for what happened afterward. This is the core argument and the section that does the most heavy lifting.

The problem of sin. Not in a shame-based way, but as a factual description of how human beings actually operate. The book defines sin clearly — missing the mark, rebellion, broken relationship with God. The solution. The cross, forgiveness, and what it actually means to place faith in Christ. This is where the evangelistic invitation sits. Little makes it clear that knowing the arguments is different from trusting Christ. The book tries to bridge that gap.

Where It Falls Short

Be honest about the limitations. This is not a response to modern philosophy of religion. If someone is coming at you with Richard Swinburne-level arguments or detailed historical-critical questions about the Gospels, Little is not going to satisfy them. The book assumes a basic familiarity with the Christian worldview and builds from there. Another issue: the updated editions vary. The original 1967 text is different from the revised versions. Some newer printings add contemporary examples but also tend to water down some of the harder edges. If you want the version most people actually use, look for the Harvest House revised edition. It is the standard one most ministries distribute. The biggest practical problem I ran into is that the book works best with a live guide. Reading it alone, you can breeze past the hard parts without really processing them. I had someone finish the entire book in one sitting and when I asked them what they believed about the resurrection, they could not tell me. They had absorbed the words but not the argument.

Getting a Copy

You can find it on Amazon, Biblebooksshop.com, and various Christian retailers. The paperback runs around ten to twelve dollars depending on the edition. Some churches keep boxes of them at the front desk. If you are using this for ministry, buying in bulk makes sense — the per-unit cost drops significantly and you avoid the situation where someone says yes and you have no physical copy to give them. Someone once told me after working through the book that they accepted the historical arguments for Jesus but still felt like Christianity was about rules and repression. The book addresses this to some degree but not deeply enough for someone with that specific objection. What I ended up doing was pairing the book with a separate conversation about the nature of grace, and I pointed them to the Sermon on the Mount as a corrective to the legalism idea. The book gets you to the door. You have to walk through it with them. Another thing worth noting: the book assumes the reader is approaching the question from a general theistic or secular background. It is not written for someone deeply embedded in another religion. If you are using it with a Muslim or Hindu interlocutor, you will need to supplement heavily on the uniqueness of Christ and the doctrine of the Trinity, which the book only touches on briefly.

For what it is, Know Why You Believe Paul Little does the job. It is not the last word in apologetics. It is a starting point, and a good one. Used correctly, with a real person sitting across from you, it opens doors that a fifty-page essay never will.