Biblical Inerrancy

---

  It’s been said that a table must have at least three legs in order to stand. Take away any one of the three legs and it will surely topple. In much the same way, the Christian view of the Bible stands on three legs. These legs are inspiration, infallibility, and inerrancy of Scripture. Take away one, and like the table, the divine authority of the Christian faith will surely topple. These three "in" prefixes complement each other, yet each expresses a slightly different distinctive in our understanding of Scripture. Let's take a brief look at each one.

Inspiration. The first is inspiration, and this deals with the origin of the Bible. Evangelicals believe that “God breathed out” the words of the Bible using human writers as the instrument. Paul writes, “All Scripture is given by inspiration of God (literally “is  God-breathed”), and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, thoroughly equipped for every good work.” (2 Tim. 3:16-17)

Infallibility. The next is infallibility, which 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, “the word of the Lord endures forever” (1 Pet. 1:23-25) and therefore its authority cannot be broken.  When addressing a difficult passage, Jesus said, “the Scripture cannot be broken” (Jn. 10:34-35). In fact, He said, “one jot or one tittle will by no means pass away from the law till all is fulfilled” (Mat. 5:18). These speak to the Bible’s infallibility, which appears to be a stronger word than "inerrancy", since inerrancy speaks to the end result of the inspired word, whereas infallibility claims that the Bible doesn't even have the potential to fail!

Inerrancy. The last is inerrancy, which simply means that the Bible is without error in everything it teaches or implies, including when it refers to spiritual things, morality, science, history, geography or anything else. It’s a belief in the “total truthfulness and reliability of God’s words” (Grudem, Systematic Theology, Inter-Varsity, 2004, 90). Jesus said, “Your word is truth” (John 17:17). It is not only accurate in matters related to faith and practice, but it is accurate and without error regarding any statement..... period (Jn. 3:12). Inerrancy is the result of the following logic:

God cannot err or lie.

The Bible is the Word of God.

Therefore, the Bible cannot err or lie.

Though belief in inerrancy is not necessary for someone to be saved, it is the "essential of essentials" since all our knowledge of God and his redemptive plan comes from the Bible, including the death and resurrection of Christ, the heart of the gospel message. As goes the Bible, so goes its authority (and our certainty) to convey the doctrines that flow from it (see Jn. 3:12).

Is it really Important?

Yes, inerrancy is extremely important because: (1) it is directly attached to the nature of God; (2) it is taught in the Scriptures; (3) it is the historic position of the Christian Church, and (4) it is foundational to all other essential doctrines.

1. It’s Based on the Character of God

Inerrancy is based on the character of God who cannot lie (Heb. 6:18; Titus 1:2). God cannot err intentionally (lie) because He is an absolute moral law-giver without any darkness at all in Him.  He cannot err unintentionally because He is omniscient. And if the Bible is the written Word of God (and it is), then it is without error. 

2. It was Taught by Christ and the Apostles

Inerrancy was taught by Christ and the apostles in the New Testament.  This should be our primary basis for believing it. B.B. Warfield said, “We believe this doctrine of the plenary inspiration of the Scriptures primarily because it is the doctrine which Christ and his apostles believed, and which they have taught us” (Limited Inspiration, 1962 cited by Albert Mohler). To quote Jesus himself, “the Scripture cannot be broken” (Jn. 10:35) and that God's Word is truth (Jn. 17:17) and “until heaven and earth pass away not an iota, not a dot, will pass away from the Law until all is accomplished” (Matt 5:18).

3. It’s the Historic Position of the Church

Inerrancy is the historic position of the Christian Church. The International Council of Biblical Inerrancy (ICBI) produced a book demonstrating this point (see John D. Hannah, Inerrancy  and the Church (1984). No one has refuted this excellent book to this very date.  Even many errantists have agreed that inerrancy has been the standard view of the Christian Church down through the centuries. This point is largely undisputed.

4. It’s Fundamental to All Other Doctrines

Inerrancy is foundational to all other essential Christian doctrines. It is granted that some other doctrines (like the atoning death and bodily resurrection of Christ) are more essential to salvation. However, all soteriological (salvation-related) doctrines derive their divine authority from the divinely authoritative Word of God. So, epistemologically (in a knowledge-related sense), the doctrine of the divine authority and inerrancy of Scripture is the fundamental of all the fundamentals. And if the fundamental of fundamentals is not fundamental, then what is fundamental? Fundamentally nothing! Thus, 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 (in an knowledge-related sense) to the Christian Faith.  Thus, 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 “watershed” importance to a consistent and healthy Christian church. Inerrancy simply cannot be rejected without grave consequences, both to the individual and to the Church.

Surprisingly, inerrancy is under attack… RIGHT NOW!

The International Council on Biblical Inerrancy (ICBI) was founded in 1977 specifically over 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” (see full text here). 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” (Dallas Theological Seminary, “Records of the International Council On Biblical Inerrancy”).

Despite this modern safeguard, some scholars attempt to redefine what inerrancy means and/or appeal to extra-biblical literature to justify why certain passages are legendary and non-historical. These are the professors of some of the finest evangelical schools in the nation, who are responsible for training the pastors of today and future generations. This is an outright departure from the historic definition of inerrancy.

Do you stand for Biblical inerrancy? Sign the petition!

 This is why Dr. Joseph Holden, Norman Geisler, and a growing number of Christian leaders, support the Defending Inerrancy initiative, and are editors of www.defendinginerrancy.com.   We’ve already lost a growing list of evangelical scholars over the issue of inerrancy. Now we are trying to reach this generation of Christian leaders and lay-persons before it is too late. 

Join nearly 70,000 others and sign the pe tition for biblical inerrancy here:                         http://defendinginerrancy.com