Why Inerrancy Matters

Several notable theologians (not least N. T. Wright) claim that that biblical inerrancy is a peculiarly American doctrine. Some believe that a focus on inerrancy, as opposed to biblical infallibility (which I’ve addressed here), attracts skeptics and religious naysayers to search for ways to undermine the accuracy of the Bible. Perhaps there’s some truth to this last claim. It does make sense after all. The claim that one, and only one, collection of religious writings reflect the personal disclosure of a speaking God (and, moreover, that this collection of documents is error-free) is bound to tick off not a few champions of “tolerance.” But surely we shouldn’t shrug our shoulders at every doctrine non-Christians find unacceptable.

But why do American evangelicals spend so much time affirming inerrancy? Why would any Christian affirm inerrancy? And does biblical authority reduce to inerrancy? For some the answer is yes, but I think that’s reductionistic. Biblical authority flows the quality of Scripture as God-breathed. Since it is the Word of God written it therefore demands a response to its speech acts. This means Scripture demands a response to everything it says in all the ways it says it.  Biblical authority entails we answer Scripture’s questions, laugh at its jokes, tremble at its threats, rejoice in its promises, and do as it commands. Authority cannot be reduced to an affirmation of inerrancy. Inerrancy is related to one aspect of biblical activity, stating propositions and making assertions. A robust doctrine of biblical authority teaches us to believe the Bible’s claims just as it teaches us to trust God’s promises.

Now if this is correct, and biblical authority is a larger and more robust concept than simple inerrancy, why make such a big deal over it? Ask yourself that question. Why place such a heavy emphasis on the Bible’s propositions rather than the its promises, threats, songs, or commands? The answer is straightforward:

If the propositions affirmed as true in the Bible are in fact false, all other biblical speech acts have no extra-textual importance.  

Extra-textual importance, a fancy phrase for a crucial concept. Elsewhere I’ve defined the doctrine of inerrancy like this: When all the relevant facts are known, and when properly interpreted, Scripture never contradicts itself, not does it misrepresent the facts. Now theoretically, the Bible could be internally consistent (no book or statement contradicts another book or statement) and yet not be inerrant. Why? Because the narrative of the Bible (while internally harmonious, and literarily masterful) may not in fact make true statements of the extra-textual world, the world outside the text. Consider the amazing precision and harmony of Tolkien’s Middle Earth. The Bible would make for great literature, but a poor foundation for Spirit-empowered obedience and development.

If the propositions of Scripture aren’t true there’s no comfort found in it’s promises. If the propositions of Scripture aren’t true there’s no reason to fear the Bible’s threats. If the propositions of Scripture aren’t true there’s no urgency to answers its demands.

Without affirming the truth of Scripture, all is lost, and their is little difference between our love and admiration for the Bible and that of Rowling’s Harry Potter series. Biblical authority incorporates more than inerrancy, but not less.

Here’s a fuller discussion on the topic from D. A. Carson:

Other resources:

• Why is Our View of the Bible So Important?
• Why Inerrancy Still Matters

Inerrancy and Problem Passages

John Frame, in Doctrine of the Word of God, explains how one should maintain a belief in the inerrancy of Scripture in light of the difficulty of ‘problem passages’:

Now, when many readers look at Scripture, it appears to them to contain errors. So many writers have urged that we should not derive our doctrine of Scripture merely from its teachings about itself, but that we should take into account the phenomena. And if we take the phenomena seriously, they tell us, we will not be able to conclude that Scripture is inerrant. This approach is sometimes called and inductive approach…

I believe the inductive method, so describe, is a faulty method for determining this character of Scripture. Of course, Scripture contains “difficulties,” problems, apparent errors. But what role should these play in our formulation of the doctrine of Scripture? It is important to remember that all doctrines of the Christian faith are beset by problems. The doctrine of God’s sovereignty seems in the view of many readers to conflict with the responsibility of human beings, and the apparent contradiction has led to many theological battles. The doctrine of the Trinity says that God is both three and one, and the relation between his threeness and his oneness is not easy to put into words. When speaking of Christ, we face the problem that he is both God and man, both eternal and temporal, both of omniscient and limited in his knowledge. Would anyone argue that because of these problems we should not confess that God is sovereign, that man is responsible, that God is three and one, that Jesus is divine and human?

Inerrancy and Humility

In his article, “One reason I believe the Scriptures are inerrant” author Kevin D. Kennedy shares a story that helped him in his commitment to the truthfulness of Scripture. The article is short and I would encourage you to read it.  Here are what I thought were the best 2 paragraphs of the piece:

…In order for me to claim that the Scriptures contain errors, I must first claim inerrancy for my own interpretation. The other alternative is to conclude that I might be mistaken in my interpretation of the text and it is therefore impossible for me to conclude that this text has an error until I have inerrant knowledge of the biblical languages, the historical background, other events not recorded by this particular narrator, any unique idioms that might have been employed by this biblical writer, as well as inerrant knowledge of the political, social, legal, cultural, familial, geographical, topological, and ethnic setting of the text — just to name a few.

Given these two alternatives, it is clear that the decision of the interpreter is ultimately a spiritual decision. Either I claim omniscience for my own interpretation or I humbly admit that my own knowledge is limited and trust that God will never mislead me in His Word.

J.I. Packer on Inerrancy

The following post is from the blog of Kevin DeYoung:

Fifteen years ago, in Truth and Power: The Place of Scripture in the Christian Life J.I. Packer recognized that some Christians who will speak of Scripture’s authority or inspiration, are nevertheless scared by the word inerrancy. The word conjures up images of flat-earth enthusiasts and other embarrassments. Packer explains:

They are frightened of certain mental attitudes and stances with which they feel the word inerrancy is now inseparably linked and which in their view tend to obscure the Bible’s main message and bar the way to the best in biblical scholarship. Specifically, they hear the inerrancy-claim as challenging all comers to find mistakes in Scripture if they can–which, so they think, is an improper diverting of interest from the great issues of the gospel to the minutiae of Bible harmony, and from believing proclamation to rationalistic apologetics. (50)

Packer sympathizes with this mindset, but only to a point.

Once I too avoided the word inerrancy as much as I could, partly because I had no wish myself to endorse the tendencies mentioned, and partly because the word has a negative form and I like to sound positive. But I find that nowadays I need the word. Verbal currency, as we known, can be devalued. Any word may have some of its meaning rubbed off, and this has happened to all my preferred terms for stating my belief about the Bible. I hear folk declare Scripture inspired and in the next breath say that it misleads from time to time. I hear them call in infallible and authoritative, and find they mean only that its impact on us and the commitment to which it leads us will keep us in God’s grace, not that it is all true.

That is not enough for me. I want to safeguard the historic evangelical meaning of these three words and to make clear my intention, as a disciple of Jesus Christ, to receive as from the Father and the Son all that the Scripture, when properly interpreted–that is, understood from within, in terms of its own frame of reference–proves to be affirming. (50-51)

The doctrine of inerrancy, Packer goes on to say, should not bear directly on the task of exegesis. That is, we must not determine ahead of time what the text must or must not say based on our doctrine of Scripture. But on the other hand, inerrancy should bear on our theological method.

What it says is that in formulating my theology I shall not consciously deny, disregard, or arbitrarily relativize anything that I find Bible writers teaching, nor cut the knot of any problem of Bible harmony, factual or theological, by assuming that the writers were not consistent with themselves or with each other. Instead, I shall labor to harmonize and integrate all that is taught (without remainder), to take is as from God (however little I may like it), and to seek actively to live by it (whatever change of my present beliefs and behavior-patterns it may require). This is what acceptance of the Bible as wholly God-given and totally true requires of us. (52)

Inerrancy safeguards the Christian freedom that comes only by surrendering our independence and submitting to God unreservedly. There is no true freedom accept as a servant to Christ. And we are not faithful servants of God unless we accept all that he says to us in his word. Packer’s summary is spot on:

Any degree of skepticism about the portrait of Christ, the promises of God, the principles of godliness, and the power of the Holy Spirit, as biblically presented, has the effect of enslaving us to our own alternative ideas about these things, and thus we miss something of the freedom, joy, and vitality that the real Christ bestows. God is very patient and merciful, and I do not suggest that those who fall short here thereby forfeit all knowledge of Christ, though I recognize that when one sits loose to Scripture this may indeed happen. But I do maintain most emphatically that one cannot doubt the Bible without far-reaching loss, both of fullness of truth and of fullness of life. If therefor we have at heart spiritual renewal for society, for churches and for our own lives, we shall make much of the entire trustworthiness–that is, the inerrancy–of Holy Scripture as the inspired and liberating Word of God. (55)

The inerrancy debate is about more than just about getting our doctrine of Scripture right. It’s about the honor of God, the vitality of his people, and the fullness of truth and life we must offer to a dying and unsure world.

What is Biblical Inerrancy? (part 5)

Why should we maintain the doctrine of inerrancy even in the light of problems? Let’s be clear, biblical difficulties remain, even for the Christian who affirms inerrancy . There are still passages in the Bible which we don’t quite know how to perfectly reconcile with other passages. This much must be admitted, and admitted up front.

I find that some who are put off by inerrancy usually either

a) don’t have a proper understanding of the doctrine,

and/or

b) have come across too many who affirm inerrancy but have a rather mechanical and oversimplified understanding of it.

Not caring enough to understand what inerrantists believe is an error (no pun intended). But pretending like Scripture has no rough patches or difficulties is equally an error. Ignoring or denying biblical difficulties doesn’t honor God, even when done with the otherwise godly motivation to uphold the authority of Scripture.

Christians who believe in the biblical inerrancy don’t adhere to the doctrine because they’ve solved all difficulties. We should affirm inerrancy because it is a natural implication of the Bible’s inspiration and truthfulness (see previous posts). That is to say, we affirm inerrancy because we’re convinced that it’s taught in Scripture, not because it’s been independently verified. It’s a theological doctrine, not an empirical doctrine. We believe in the deity of Jesus the Christ, not because we’ve solved the mystery of the hypostatic union, but rather because it’s affirmed by John, Paul, Isaiah, and others.

If we abandoned every tenet of the Christian faith that raises ‘problems’, we’d have very little left to defend, proclaim, and believe .

What is Biblical Inerrancy? (part 4)

Now let’s define 2 crucial terms for this discussion: error and contradiction. Clarifying these terms is absolutely essential for understanding inerrancy. Those who deny inerrancy believe either the Bible claims things that aren’t true, or that some passages of the Bible contradict other passages of the Bible. If it turns out that  1)”problem passages” do not affirm things that aren’t untrue, and 2) many who deny inerrancy are working with an inaccurate definition of ‘contradiction’, anti-inerrancy arguments lose much of their bite.

An error is a failure to relate accurate information due either to confusion, ignorance, or deceit. A contradiction occurs whenever we affirm two logically inreconciliable concepts at the same time and in the same sense (A and not-A). Many of the objections to inspiration (by unbelievers) and inerrancy (by both unbelievers and limited inerrantist Christians) based on supposed errors misunderstand what an error is. Remember this important principle:

Differences of perspective do not necessarily imply contradiction.

Theological Foundations for Inerrancy. So there are several possible causes for errors: confusion, deceit, or ignorance. That is to say, writers of the Bible may have gotten their facts mixed up, they could have intentionally desired to manipulate their readers, or perhaps they lacked vital information regarding an important point they wanted to make. But once we recognize that God is the ultimate author of the Bible (2 Peter 1:21), we realize that these causes of error do not plague God. God is neither confused (He not only knows but determines all facts), deceitful (Titus, 1:2, 1 John 2:21), nor ignorant (knowing all things). God is a God of truth (1 Jn. 1:5). The human authors claimed not to be deceiving their readers (Gal. 1:20, 2 Pet. 1:16), and to have checked all their facts carefully (Lk. 1:1-4).

The inerrancy syllogism. A syllogism is a form of deductive reasoning consisting of a major premise, a minor premise, and a conclusion. In deductive logic, if the major and minor premises are true the conclusion cannot fail to be true, it is logically certain.

• Major premise: The Bible is God’s word (2 Tim. 3:16-17)
• Minor premise: God cannot lie, deceive, or make errors (Titus 1:2)
• Conclusion: Therefore the Bible cannot lie, deceieve or make errors (2 Sam. 7:28, Prov. 30:5; cf. Ps. 12:6; 119:42; John 17:17).

Here is the syllogism, taken from explicit passages of Scripture, which if correct assures that inerrancy is a valid inference of biblical teaching.

What is Biblical Inerrancy? (part 3)

So far, we’ve review 2 problems with the claim that the Bible is infallible but not without errors. Now we’ll discuss a little bit further what biblical inerrancy is and what it is not.

What Biblical inerrancy is not. Recall our earlier definition of inerrancy:

When all the relevant facts are known, and when properly interpreted, scripture never contradicts itself, not does it misrepresent the facts.

For many who reject inerrancy, their understanding of the doctrine is that the Bible is to be interpreted literally, at face value. Such an oversimplified understanding is a strawman, which presents the doctrine in such a light so as to make it easy to challenge. I should say something here I think is important to this discussion, and one which I don’t think I’ve made clear in the last few emails. While they are intimately linked, inerrancy should be distinguished from interpretation. The former is a statement about the truthfulness of the text, while the latter is about how we as readers of the Bible “get to” the content of that text.  So by my claim that Scripture is inerrant, I don’t thereby mean my interpretations of Scripture are inerrant. Inerrancy is about the text and not the interpreter. John Frame, in an online article, makes a similar point:

Shall we speak today of biblical “inerrancy?” The term does, to be sure, produce confusion in some circles. Some theologians have gone far astray from the dictionary meaning of “inerrant.” James Orr, for example, defined “inerrant” as “hard and fast literality in minute matters of historical, geographical, and scientific detail.” Well, if “inerrancy” requires literalism, then we should renounce inerrancy; for the Bible is not always to be interpreted literally. Certainly there are important questions of Bible interpretation that one bypasses if he accepts biblical inerrancy in this sense.

Inerrancy doesn’t necessarily dictate a method of interpretation (literal, or otherwise).

Second, those who affirm inerrancy don’t ignore the clear fact that Scripture uses figures of speech or round numbers. Nor do they believe Scripture always uses precise language. Inerrantists acknowledge the use of round numbers, imprecise description, and phenomenological language (describing things the way they appear, rather than the way we would describe them scientifically, ex: “the Sun rose in the morning”)

What inerrancy is. Inerrancy is a statement about the original form of the text (aka the autographa). As the first line of the doctrinal statement for the Evangelical Theological Society states, “The Bible alone, and the Bible in its entirety, is the Word of God written and is therefore inerrant in the autographs.“ That is to say the original manuscripts are error-less in all they affirm, but copies aren’t guaranteed freedom from scribal error. This is where textual criticism plays a valuable role in the discussion (at least for clarifying misunderstandings). There have been some scribal errors over the years, but they have been detected due to the numerous amount of manuscripts we have. So, we can essentially figure out exactly what the originals said, with the exception of one and a half to three percent of the time, and in these cases no essential doctrine or teaching is affected. All that to say an affirmation of the inerrancy of the original form  is indeed relevant for oday.

Next we’ll look at 2 crucial terms in any discussion of inerrancy: error and contradiction.

What is the Inerrancy of the Bible? (part 2)

Last time I brought up the distinction between the infallibility of the BIble and it’s inerrancy, and how some theologians and biblical commentators grew increasingly uncomfortable with the latter, and stuck to the former. I said that there were some problems with this position, and here I’ll mention two.

Problem 1: Classically, infallibility is actually a stronger term than inerrancy. Infallibility speaks of ability, while inerrancy speaks of performance. So to reject the inerrancy of Scripture while affirming it’s infallibility is akin to straining out a knat and swallowing a camel. Of course, as noted last time, the definition of infallibility by those who deny inerrancy has changed.

Matthew 5:18 and John 10:35 are both texts that reflect Jesus’ belief in the unity of Scripture. Of course, many more Scripture could be brought into the discussion. I raised these in particular because the John passage attests to Jesus’ view on the coherence of Scripture. But after reading this passage, one may still rightly ask what portions, sections, units, or aspects of Scripture cannot be broken. Cannot is a term of ability, Scripture does not have the ability to be broken. To this we have the Matthew passage, every “iota and dot” must stand. Likewise, Jesus and Paul present arguments that hinge on the interpretation of a single word (Jn. 10:34 and Gal. 3:16).

Of course, Jesus and Paul weren’t the only Second-Temple interpreters that made arguments that depended on the interpretation of a single word (you find this practiced even in the Dead Sea Scrolls). The underlining assumption of people who interpret this way is that every word of Scripture is reliable (even when the resulting interpretations weren’t!). Jesus, Paul, and others held this conviction. This is where Jn. 10:35 comes in. As I understand it, when Jesus notes in passing, “Scripture cannot be broken,” he is implicitly charging them with inconsistently interpreting Psalm 82:6, i.e. in a fashion which 1) “breaks” Scripture and 2) is inconsistent with their common confession of the trustworthiness of sacred Scripture.

Problem 2: Scripture itself doesn’t limit the topics to which it speaks with divine authority. Heaven and Earth will pass away, but Jesus words will not (Matt. 24:35, Mk. 13:31, Lk. 21:33). Three gospels felt this was an important saying of Jesus to pass on). Likewise, Christ speaks in Paul (and the other Apostles, 2 Cor. 13:3). Jesus and Paul speak of Adam as a real historical figure (Mk 10:5-9, Rom. 5:14, 1 Cor. 15:22, 45, 1 Tim. 2:13). Notice how the subject of Adam touches on both history and science, subjects in which the limited inerrancy position usually allow for biblical error. But since it is the case that all Scripture is the word of God, no part of Scripture carries less authority that any other part of Scripture. Thus in the Bible we find authoritative songs, hymns, poems, commands, historical records, etc.

If the inerrancy of any parts of the Bible are denied we lose the inerrancy of the whole Bible, because “Scripture cannot be broken.” Biblical authority and inerrancy are closely linked. But I take authority as the primary attribute over inerrancy. Inerrancy is an expression of authority (or, you can say, one of the reasons why it carries authority). As a parallel, I don’t think that wrath is an attribute of God, holiness and goodness are. God’s just hatred of all that is anti-shalom is an expression of his holiness and goodness. How could we say that God was righteous if he make it clear, for example, that he never intended to right the wrongs the Fall has caused (whether through the cross or in judgment)? We couldn’t.

The attribute of authority is primary and inerrancy is a sub-division (or expression) of that primary attribute.

What is the Inerrancy of the Bible? (part 1)

In an earlier post, I noted it appears the historicity of Adam may become a point of debate among conservative evangelical Bible scholars.  I briefly summarized the view of Dr. Peter Enns on his book Inspiration and Incarnation and the difficulty it raises for the doctrine of biblical inerrancy. What I’d like to do in this series is briefly lay out a positive case for inerrancy and provide a few responses to some common questions about the doctrine. So the goal isn’t to attack anyone, but to set forth some reasons for why we can trust every word of the Bible. For resources on contemporary writers who question the doctrine, see the last post in the series.

Knowing what we’re talking about. Before we get any further, let’s define our terms. Here’s my definition of inerrancy:

When all the relevant facts are known, and when properly interpreted, Scripture never contradicts itself, nor does it misrepresent the facts.

This is the standard evangelical definition of inerrancy as reflected in the Chicago Statement of Biblical Inerrancy. So, this is the definition we’ll need to examine and explore.

A ridiculously brief history of the controversy. Theological liberals and proponents of higher critical scholarship denied the Bible was of ultimate divine origin and worth little as far as history was concerned. On the other hand, those who came to be known as fundamentalists argued that each passage of Scripture was literally true and precise. Looking to avoid this impasse, a number of Christian theologians grew tired of the liberal/fundamentalist debate, and affirmed biblical infallibility while not affirming its inerrancy. So, “inerrancy” was taken as loaded with fundamentalist baggage. So the term inerrancy (and the concept) was denied in favor of infallibility (as they define it). At this point I should note that these theologians were often 1) true and sincere Christians, and 2) defining infallibility in a different way than what I’ve provided above. Their definition would be something close to saying that the Bible generally will not deceive us or lead us into spiritual darkness. Let’s think through this further. These theologians would say the inspiration and infallibility of Scripture means that Scripture is our supreme authority for faith and practice. But more often than not, by faith they meant theology, and by practice they meant ethics. Scripture wasn’t intended to speak with authority in matters of history and science. It’s here where we run into problems.

Next, we’ll take a look at some of the problems with affirm biblical infallibility, while denying biblical inerrancy.

Does the Bible Contain Errors?

Tim Challies addresses this important question.