Is The Bible Inerrant?

[ZNPaaneah]

Originally Posted by OBW

I am a card-carrying evangelical, and that means that I believe in inerrancy of the Bible.

The problem is with the meaning of inerrancy. As long as there is unambiguous text that says simply one very straightforward thing in clear, unambiguous words, then the proof of inerrancy would be easy. We would see that everything it says is simply true.

But it is not so easy. While there are unambiguous statements, it is not all so clear. That means we have to analyze and interpret. And if we get competing interpretations (which has happened over and over) then who is right.

Thank God it is not easy! How boring would life be if everything in the Bible were unambiguous.

Originally Posted by OBW

I believe that scripture is inerrant in terms of its revelation of God. But to arrive at that revelation, there is a lot that could be said with different words or in different ways that would arrive at the same revelation.

Then you don't believe the Bible is inerrant. Part of that belief is that "all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge" are hidden in these words. To think that there are other ways to write the words that end up in the same revelation is to miss the wisdom and knowledge hidden in this way.

Originally Posted by OBW

What is fully errant is our insistence on over-analysis of the flavors of words used to say otherwise straightforward things. People come and add their overlays and read through their foggy glasses and do stupid things like read "God is spirit" and conclude that it means that God is the Holy Spirit. Or read "became a quickening (life-giving) spirit" and insist that it must mean the Holy Spirit because there is only one spirit...

You cannot have Bible commentary without the possibility that some of this commentary will be in error. Giving man a free will gives him the opportunity to make mistakes. Once mistakes are made, say with the "Ground of the Church" doctrine it requires a painstaking effort to clean up the mess these errors make. It is all part of the multifaceted grace of God to us.

Originally Posted by OBW

How does going through this help with the "inerrancy" issue? Maybe it doesn't. But I think that maybe it does. I believe that the things that matter are not mired in those problems. And while there may be a correct answer for many of the disagreements, they mostly do not matter.

If that were true then the epistles' of Paul "mostly do not matter".

Originally Posted by OBW

But the revelation of God is accurate. The primary directions to the church and to the Christian are accurate. The only problem is the mess that we have made it into...

As a teacher I originally thought that the students would just listen to me, get the clear message, and "learn". Since then I have discovered that kids don't learn that way, they learn by doing. I am much more like a band director now and the students do 90% of the work, and we get much better results. The kids think they understand, act on that understanding, learn immediately that they don't understand and then are forced to deal with that. How would we know we were in error in our understanding of the Bible if those teachings didn't result in a mess. It is the mess that makes us realize the error. Also, how can we say it doesn't matter when these errors result in a mess?

Originally Posted by OBW

Similarly, scripture is inerrant. What is full or error is our interpretation. Is our majoring on the minors. Is the insistence on the optionals. Is emphasizing and deemphasizing based on our preferences.

The end result is that while scripture is inerrant, the fact is almost irrelevant as long as we keep insisting on our erroneous interpretations. It is almost better to insist upon just reading it and letting it speak for itself. Sure. Get some background on the culture, the times, the events that lead to the writing (such as with the Psalms). But ultimately, they should mean what they say, not something else.

You have the cart before the horse. Believing that scripture is inerrant is what makes us realize our interpretations are erroneous when they make mess. Once we have a mess it is very difficult to figure out what caused it, where the error is, because we have previously assumed there was no error. However, once you discard the belief that scripture is inerrant you can dismiss the errors as a result of scripture and not your erroneous interpretation. This opens the door to dismiss scripture, as WL did when he pooh poohed the idea of righteousness in Psalms, James, and Proverbs.