The Inerrancy of Scripture

The Inerrancy of Scripture teaches that the Bible in itself speaks only Truth in what it says. 2 Timothy 3:16 states in itself, “All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness.” What does this say about the author of Scripture? It tells the reader clearly that all of it is inspired by God. Further, this means that a Bible-believing Christian can rely on Scripture as Absolute Truth, and as the driving factor and foundation of their life.

These statements are actually very presumptuous. It is easy to say that Scripture is inerrant, but when we look closely to the doctrine there are several issues that appear that question the Bible’s infallibility. Before looking closely at some of these issues, why must this topic be important to the everyday contemporary church? Simply said, if we are to see inaccuracy in Scripture, it not only puts into question that particular passage, but it also places a question of validity on the Bible as the inspired Word of God. If in fact, there is an issue with Scripture as being the Special Revelation in how God has shown Himself to mankind, that makes the contemporary Christian today, have the ability to question, “is the Bible actually True?”.

There are various views in which we can see that all of Scripture is inerrant. Absolute inerrancy would claim that every word of Scripture is entirely true. In viewing Scripture this way, in must mean that all historical and scientific details are completely true. The issue that some argue with Absolute inerrancy is that we actually see fault in several accounts. For example, many numbers do not align in 1 and 2 Samuel to those described in the Chronicles. Or in Matthew 27:5 it tells the reader that Judas committed suicide by hanging himself but Acts 1:18 explains that he fell head long and his body burst open. Yes, I know, very graphic! Still, it is important to take into account these Scriptures because it shows fault in how some Scriptures tell different facts that do not align with one another. There are several other instances in which this occurs in Scripture.

Because of these inaccuracies, theologians have expressed that it instead can be described as Full Inerrancy. This means that the Bible covers historic and scientific information as seen by the human eye. In other words, what was written during that time was true but maybe not exactly correct as they are assumptions made by the human eye. Therefore, human generalization and explanation is included. I tend to see this as a clear explanation but will return to the idea of assumptions later in this discussion.

To cover the basis, I will also describe what other theologians have come to believe about the inspiration of the Bible. Another conception is that the Bible has Limited Inerrancy. What this means in plain terms is that there certainly are factual issues, yet the Salvation message has always been proven to be correct. Therefore, the factual issues do not take away from God’s revelation to mankind. Although, this describes a great point, it leaves lots of the interpretation of Scripture up to the eye of mankind. Also leaving it not all as fully inspired.

The last conception that I will briefly cover is the Bible as full human authorship. This view expresses that the writers of Scripture understood that God had a message for them, however, they could not step away from their human experiences. For example, we see in Paul’s writings how he struggles to separate away from His Judaic upbringing. As a result, much of His teaching seems “out of place”. Therefore, the Bible then would be not inerrant or from God, but instead simply is something that readers can use to maybe understand more about God. They are able to pick and choose what is their Truth. For someone to believe this conception, I believe takes away every opportunity for them to believe that Jesus was in fact our Messiah.

As I have studied these views my response is still that God’s word is entirely God-breathed, inspired by Him entirely. Additionally, in studying the context of Scripture we can actually see how there are explanations for several of what we see as errors in Scripture. For example, when studying details of historical accounts, we must ask ourselves, what was the purpose of this writing? Most of the time, in the Old Testament, numbers that are inaccurate are described so that the reader may understand a better visual. In response, to accounts where exact numbers or dimensions do not directly align then we can assume approximations. When there are great numbers in Scripture then we can presume that its purpose is to describe a visual of the size of a group or object. Therefore, the approximation can still be assumed as fully true.

Another area to be expressed is how certain words as studied further through translations and historical/cultural context can bring full explanation. One example is through the misunderstanding of Judas’ death. As Judas has been described to have died in two separate ways in Scripture, we have come to find out that the Greek words used to describe his death do not show differences but instead clarification. For example, in Acts 1:18, another definition for “falling headlong” is “swelling up”. This would indicate that Judas, after he hung himself was not found for several days and as a result his abdomen had swelled from the pressure and His body burst open. Therefore, it would make logical sense for both accounts of his death to be adequate. For the reader of Scripture, this affirms the need to understand and further study the context of the writings of Scripture. Rather than assuming the Bible has many inaccuracies it would make more sense that statements in the Bible actually affirm one another especially when its framework is rightly interpreted.[1]

John 10:35 tells us that nothing from Scripture can be emptied of its force or shown as erroneous. Therefore, because I believe this to be true, I still see Scripture as the infallible Word of God. Just as we believe that Jesus is the Living Word who had human parents, the Holy Spirit, and was still entirely perfect, so too, we should assume that the Written Word, which has human authors, the inspiration of the Spirit, is absolutely and entirely the perfect Word of God.

The Bible in itself is not a mere glimpse of who God is. No, the Bible is the Special Revelation in which God has shown Himself and the way in which He works to mankind. Therefore, the reader of Scripture is not to interpret the Bible for what is accurate to them. Tozer states it best, “We can hold a correct view of truth, only by daring to believe everything that God has said about Himself…[We cannot seek to] edit out of God’s self-revelation…[that which we in our] ignorance deems objectionable.”[2] Overall, the Bible believing Christian today is not to view the inspired Word of God as subjective. Instead, the Bible has proven itself over and over again to be the inspired Word of God and is to be handled as Absolute Truth in every way.

[1] Millard J. Erickson, Christian Theology (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker, 1984), 199. [2] A. W. Tozer, The Attributes of God: Based on The Knowledge of the Holy by A.W. Tozer (Harrisonburg, VA: Christian Light Publications, 1990).