How we rate answers

Show the evidence, then the conclusion, and say how sure we are. A site that admits “this one is debated” earns trust for the times it says “this is settled.”

The three statuses

Every question carries a seal. The more filled the seal, the more settled the answer. Only the site’s author sets or changes a status.

Settled(green)71 questions: Settled. Multiple lines of evidence agree; the answer can be stated with confidence.
Debated(yellow)80 questions: Strong case, but debated. Good evidence, yet serious scholars (including Christians) disagree, or it rests on a miracle the evidence supports but can’t force.
Open(red)6 questions: Open. The evidence is too thin to conclude; we present it and leave it open.

Two special cases

Myths and fringe claims (group 11). The status rates the answer. A Settled “No” means the claim is debunked.
The “missing books” (group 3B). The status rates how confident we are that leaving the book out was right. Debated there means major Christian traditions still disagree.

Where the evidence comes from

Each question lists the domains its evidence draws on.

Scripture · 72 questions
History · 53 questions
Archaeology · 8 questions
Science · 24 questions
Philosophy · 21 questions
Textual Criticism · 16 questions
Context (language, genre, culture) · 23 questions
Theology · 1 questions

How answers are written

Evidence first, verdict second. Full articles separate what Scripture says, what the outside evidence says, where they meet, and what’s still open.
Steelman the other side. Objections are stated the way their best defenders would state them.
Calibrated confidence. A status is never inflated.
Plain language. Short sentences, and no jargon without a quick definition.
Everything connects. Every page links onward to related questions.

Every full article follows the same order:

Short answer
What Scripture says
What the evidence says
Where they meet
What’s still open
Bottom line
Sources

The name

Tested comes from 1 Thessalonians 5:21: “Test everything; hold fast what is good.”

Who’s behind it

Tested is written and built by Joshua Oosthuizen, a software developer. It grew out of his own index of the hard questions people ask about the Bible, kept so that each one could get a straight answer with the evidence in plain view.

Every status on the site is his call, and he would rather mark a question as debated than claim more than the evidence can carry. The same rule applies to his own conclusions: if the evidence is weaker than an answer makes it sound, the answer changes.