The Inerrancy of Scripture

The Bible

      The inerrancy of the Bible is a much debated topic in Christian theology today.  Much of the debate stems from the emergence of Higher Criticism in the nineteenth century.  People claim that the Bible is erroneous and contains many issues that cripple the Bible as the inerrant word of God.  Inerrancy is a very important doctrine, because a lot of Christians view the Bible as the authoritative revelation of God.  If the Scriptures are fallible, then there is no reason that the Bible should be used as the foundational revelation of God to man.

      I hold to the inerrancy of the Scriptures.  The reason why I believe in this is because I believe in the verbal plenary inspiration of the Bible.  Because the Bible is inspired by God, it contains his authority. For more on the topic of the inspiration and authority of the Scriptures, please read my article titled, SOLA SCRIPTURA: AN OVERVIEW OF THE TOPIC OF BIBLICAL AUTHORITY located in my September 2011 posts. 

      The post I just mentioned is a concept study I did on the topic of biblical authority.  In it I explain my position on the inspiration and authority of the Bible.  With this information in mind, I will lay my convictions of the inerrancy of the Bible. 

      As the authoritative word of God, the Bible--in its original manuscripts--is without error in what it says when interpreted properly.  First of all, I believe that the Bible is true in what it asserts and affirms, not necessarily in what it reports.  For instance, the Bible contains accounts where ungodly men and women report things that are not true.  In this case, the assertion of what was said is true, but the actual statement said by the ungodly person is not true.  Second, when interpreting the Bible, people need to look at the proper contexts of the passage and find the meaning which best fits within these contexts.
 
      Also, the Bible needs to be read and understood according to its purpose.  For example, there is an approximation of Pi in 1 Kings 7:23-26.  If one were to calculate Pi from this, one would find the value to be erroneous.  However, was the intent of the author to give an exact numerical analysis Pi, or was this section mainly intended to be an estimate?  Naturally, this passage is dealing with an nontechnical estimate and should be interpreted this way.  From this example I stress that the biblical text should be read through a natural interpretation which looks at the central purpose and context of the biblical passages in question. 

     Though the validity of some passages may not be scientifically resolved, it is because we do not have enough information to make conclusive statements about them.  Even though there exist some of these minor problems which would be cleared with more information, the Bible is inerrant in and of itself.  Problems that arise are usually problems of interpretation or lack of information.  These should not be used to deny the inerrancy and authority of the Scriptures. 

    

Here are some good links:

Reformed Declaration of the Inerrancy of the Bible:

http://www.reformed.org/documents/index.html?mainframe=http://www.reformed.org/documents/icbi.html

Pi in the Bible?:

http://www.uwgb.edu/dutchs/pseudosc/pibible.htm