George Marsden in his book, “Reforming Fundamentalism”, quotes a survey of student beliefs at one of the largest evangelical seminaries in the United States. When asked about their belief in the the inerrancy of the Bible, the results were staggering. 85% of the students said they do NOT believe in the inerrancy of the scriptures. My question today is explain the meaning and significance of inerrancy. In my speech today, first I will be defining and clarifying the often misleading term of inerrancy. I will also address 5 common objections to the doctrine of inerrancy and the dangers that will arise if one chooses to deny the inerrancy of the Bible.
What does inerrancy of the Bible mean? Inerrancy means that the scripture, in its original manuscript is truthful in all that it refers to. However this does not mean that the Bible gives us every possible detail. Instead inerrancy has to do with the truthfulness of the matter and not the degree of precision with which the events are reported. It is precise to the degree understood by the author. For example I could tell you that I live 4 miles from the nearest hospital. However when I used the odometer last night I realized that I actually lived 4.3 miles from the hospital. This raises the question is the statement, I live 4 miles from the hospital true? Yes. And here is the standard. The statement should be true to the degree of accuracy implied by the speaker and understood by the hearer. When I told you I lived 4 miles from the hospital, you automatically I assumed I meant that I lived about 4 miles away from the hospital.
There 5 common objections that people often have to the doctrine of inerrancy. However before we explore them it is important to note that those who accuse the Bible of errors often have not studied the Bible in depth to try and see where the discrepancy is arriving from. Careful study of the passage and understanding the context in which the verse was written, often reveal an explanation for what may seem to be an apparent contradiction. Therefore we must approach scriptures with a sense of honest curiosity and not with a preconceived bias.
The first common objection is that the Bible is only partially inerrant. Some say that because the purpose of the Bible is to teach us things about faith and practice, that the Bible can and does make inaccurate statements about scientific areas and historical facts. However the Bible does not make any restrictions about which areas it teaches the truth in. 2 Timothy 3:16 says “ALL scripture is given by God..” Psalm 12:6 says “The word of the Lord is pure.”
A second objection to the inerrancy of the Bible is that since the word “inerrant” is not the Bible, it cannot be applied to the Bible. However neither are the words trinity, incarnation, or rapture. We often use extra biblical terms to describe and summarize Biblical teachings. This does not invalidate the idea itself.
Another objection that is made is that since inerrancy applies to the original documents and those documents are missing, this discussion is pointless. But although we may not have the original documents, through numerous copies and careful reconstruction, over 99% of the words in the Bible can be confirmed in the original document. The New Testament, which was written between 50-90 AD, has about 24,000 copies with the oldest copy dating only 30 years from the date of the last book in the New Testament. Compared to Homer's Illiad where the earliest copy is 500 years after the orginal was written, the New Testament has withstood thousands of years of transmission with remarkable accurace and clarity.
The Fourth objection common objection says that Biblical authorites incidentally included some errors in their writing while teaching some larger doctrinal concepts. They included these errors only to make a point or affirm something. However one must ask the question, why would God resort to untrue information when he has the whole language at his disposal? Scripture says in Numbers 23:19 that God cannot lie. Hebrews 6:18 says it is impossible for God to lie.
The last objection I will be addressing today says that the inerrancy of scripture overemphasizes the divine aspect of the Bible and neglects the human aspect. We agree the Bible has the divine aspect of God but we also see that he still allowed the personalities of the authors to show. You can think of it this way. God used the pen of man, yet he flowed the ink on the paper to form the words. Just because it has human authors does not mean it has to have errors.
Now that I have shown some of the common objections to the doctrine of inerrancy, I will show you the dangers if one denies inerrancy. First of all, if we deny inerrancy, we are saying that God can lie. Believing that God could have lied creates a moral dilema for us. Ephesians 5:1 instructs us to be imitators of God. If God affirms something that is false in order to make a point, then it opens the door for us to do something questionable in order to make a point. It opens the door of situational ethics wide open for us to walk through. Another point is if we can't trust God in one thing, how can we trust him for anything? If we believe the Bible is making errors in minor detail how do we know that it is not false in some doctrinal teachings too? The denial of inerrancy leads down a very slippery slope with a fatal crash at the end.
In conclusion, I urge you to keep in mind the words of John Montgomery, then a professor at the Melodyland School of Theology “I believe that the Bible is completely and verbally the word of God. I refuse to stand above and criticize it; I insist on rather standing below it and letting it criticize me.”
