Biblical Inerrancy
“All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be competent, equipped for every good work.” (2 Timothy 3:16-17)
Before we continue our discussion on whether Genesis should be taken literally, I’d like to briefly look at the topic of inerrancy of scripture. The modern world today and even many in the church question the ultimate authority of scripture, dangerously straying from the Biblical doctrine of Sola Scriptura (scripture alone). No longer is our foundation Scripture alone. It is now Scripture and Science. Not only this, but we’ve decided that when Scripture and science disagree, science trumps Scripture.
If this statement seems like an exaggeration, consider this. If the scientific community was not saying that only idiots believe in Biblical Creationism, and that all of the scientific evidence supports evolution, there would be no debate over the issue in the Church. It is only because the “scientific” views disagree with Scripture that the Church even thinks to question the legitimacy of God’s Holy Word in regard to Genesis.
We are starting with science and interpreting Scripture through it, rather than beginning with Scripture and interpreting science and all of life through God’s revealed Word. This is serious error.
Science is simply the exploration of creation using the physical senses and reason. Man’s senses and reason are fallen, corrupted by his sin. They are fallible at best, and subject to self-serving deceit at worst. In short, the product of man’s reason and senses will always be subject to error, and must therefore be carefully examined and viewed through the lens of Scripture.
This is not to say that science is bad or should not be pursued. Without a doubt, God has given man reason and senses and is pleased to have him search out the mysteries of creation. (See Proverbs 25:2) But science should always be viewed as subordinate to the Word of God. To elevate science above Scripture is to put man above God. And that is called Humanism.
It’s been said that a table must have at least three legs to stand. Take away any of the three legs and it will fall over. In much the same way, the Christian faith stands on three legs. These three legs are the inspiration, infallibility, and inerrancy of Scripture. Take away one, and like the table, the divine authority of the Christian faith will collapse. These three “in’s” complement each other, yet each expresses a slightly different distinction in our understanding of Scripture.
Let’s take a moment and look at these three “legs” of the Christian faith.
The first “in” is inspiration. This deals with the origin of the Bible. Evangelicals believe that “God breathed out” the words of the Bible using human writers as the vehicle. The Apostle Paul wrote, “All Scripture is inspired by God…” (2 Timothy 3:16)
The next “in” is infallibility. This speaks to the authority and enduring nature of the Bible. To be infallible means that something is incapable of failing and therefore is permanently binding and cannot be broken. Peter said, “But the word of the Lord abides forever.” (1 Peter 1:23-25) Therefore its authority cannot be broken. When addressing a difficult passage, Jesus said, “…and the Scripture cannot be broken…” (John 10:35b). In fact, He said, “…not the smallest letter or stroke shall pass away from the Law, until all is accomplished.” (Matthew 5:18) These speak to the infallibility of the Bible, God’s Word.
And the last “in” is inerrancy. This simply means that the Bible is without error. Wayne Grudem defines it as a belief in the “total truthfulness and reliability of God’s words.” 1. In John 17:17 Jesus said, “Thy word is truth.”
Inerrancy isn’t just for passages that speak about salvation, but also applies to all historical and scientific statements as well. It is not only accurate in matters related to faith and practice, but it is accurate and without error regarding any statement, period. (See John 3:12)
Inerrancy is extremely important because:
1) It is attached to the character of God
2) It is taught in the Scriptures
3) It is the historic position of the Christian Church
4) It is foundational to other essential doctrines.
The last one, number 4, is extremely important because inerrancy is foundational to all other essential Christian doctrines. I will grant you that some other doctrines (like the atoning death and bodily resurrection of Christ) are more essential to salvation. However, all salvation-related doctrines derive their divine authority from the divinely authoritative Word of God. So, the doctrine of the divine authority and inerrancy of Scripture is foundational to everything else. Therefore, while one can be saved without believing in inerrancy, the doctrine of salvation has no divine authority apart from the infallibility and inerrancy of Scripture.
Inerrancy deserves high regard among evangelicals and has rightly earned the status of being essential to the Christian Faith. So, to reduce inerrancy to the level of non-essential or even incidental to the Christian Faith, reveals ignorance of its theological and historical roots and is an offense to its importance to a consistent and healthy Christianity. Inerrancy simply cannot be rejected without grave consequences, both to the individual and to the Church.
The church and the belief in biblical inerrancy is under attack!
So in 1977, the International Council on Biblical Inerrancy (ICBI) was founded precisely because of concerns about the erosion of inerrancy. Christian leaders, theologians and pastors assembled together three times over the course of a decade to address the issue. At the first meeting, a doctrinal statement was jointly created titled “The Chicago Statement on Biblical Inerrancy.”
This document has been described as a landmark church document created, “by the then largest, broadest, group of evangelical protestant scholars that ever came together to create a common, theological document in the 20th century. It is probably the first systematically comprehensive, broadly based, scholarly, creed-like statement on the inspiration and authority of Scripture in the history of the church.” 2.
If the Bible teaches inerrancy, then to deny it is to deny what the Scripture claims is true. Further, if the Bible contains some errors, how can we be sure that its claims concerning Christ, salvation, man, etc., are true? Also, the time line, geography, and history of the Bible are often woven together like strands of a piece of cloth with important spiritual truths. And just as you cannot pull out a thread from a sweater without unraveling the garment, it’s the same with the Bible.
For instance, is the history of creation and Adam and Eve important? Absolutely! Paul developed a theological analogy between Adam and Christ which essentially breaks down if it is historically not true. 3.
The Old Testament has dozens of prophecies of the coming Messiah that detail His lineage. If the genealogy of Matthew 1 and Luke 3 are historically inaccurate, then this raises questions about whether Jesus is the one anticipated, as well as about the rest of His life.
This completes Part-2 of our discussion on whether or not we can interpret Genesis chapters 1-3 literally. Would love to hear from you. Be sure to comment below and let me know what you think about this topic.
Next week will be Part-3 and the final chapter of this discussion. Thanks for following along!
1. Grudem, Systematic Theology, Inter-Varsity, 2004, 90)
2. Dallas Theological Seminary, “Records of the International Council on Biblical Inerrancy”
3. Romans 5:14; 1 Corinthians 15:45-47
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