The Speciality, Generality, and Practicality of the Church Life

[OBW]

Look, if all anyone wants to do is try to read into my statements about the Bible something that I did not actually say, then I have to wonder whether you read the rest, or just want a straw man to beat up. I did not say the Bible is useless or that it was just made up by man. But lots of Christians over the ages have also understood it to be the writings of men of God who in their writings gave evidence of God and his intent toward Israel and toward mankind in general. They did not all believe that God wrote the words using their hands, or that they heard audible voices dictating the words. "Word-by-word" is not supported in anything that you can find in scripture. The opinions of a lot of theologians do not make it so.

But I still believe virtually everything that you do concerning what comes out of the Bible (well, unless you believe in Christ becoming the Holy Spirit or something else like that). So while I have a problem with the unsupported claims of verbal perfection and inerrancy, I get out of it what you do. So what is the problem? That I don't hold the Bible — a book, not God himself — in high enough esteem? The Word that became flesh was not the Bible. It is Christ. The written word is letters that kill.

Well . . . I guess if it is going to kill me then it should at least be inerrant.