What is Inerrancy?

 

Biblical Inerrancy simply means that the Bible is without errors. In fact, the word inerrant comes from the Latin words “in” meaning not and “errant” meaning erring. In other words, whatever the Bible affirms is true is actually true and whatever the Bible affirms as false, is false. What we mean by “Bible” is the original manuscripts written by the prophets and apostles, meaning that we aren’t referring to a Bible translation as being inerrant. 

 

The Inerrancy Debate

 

The topic of Inerrancy has been debated heavily in the last few centuries. This is not to say it hasn’t always been debated as even going back to the first few centuries of the Church, but that it wasn’t as debated as today. The debate over inerrancy in America started with the Warfield/Briggs debate. Charles A. Briggs, a professor at Union seminary in New York, denied inerrancy. This caused B. B. Warfield and A. A. Hodge to respond with books and articles on inerrancy. This sparked a new controversy that has been a hot topic ever since. 

 

Why is Inerrancy Important?

 

There are many reasons that could be given as to why the doctrine of Inerrancy is important, however, I’d like to limit it to three main reasons:

 

1. Scriptural Reliability Gives Confidence to the Gospel

 

Christians cannot have assurance in the truth of the gospel. Christians can never be absolutely sure of the gospel truth if there are errors in the scriptures. Not only can the gospel itself be wrong but the history that helps us understand the gospel. The gospel is understood because of the Incarnation, the original flaw of sin, and the reconciliation of God and Man. However, without an errorless Bible we cannot be fully confident in this. 

 

2. The Trustworthy Character of God

 

Scripture is God’s revelation to the human race, however, if it contains error then this implies God had mishandled inspiration of the scriptures.

 

3. The Bibles Opposition to Evolutionary Science

 

If the Bible contains errors, then scientific theories that seemingly disprove the Bible will be accepted easily. In other words, if the Bible isn’t inerrancy then people will allow the conclusions of science to dictate the accuracy of God’s word. In doing so then passages of the Bible that may not have a historical backing yet will be taken as allegorical and poetry. Even when the narrative being written describes history. 

  

Argument for Inerrancy

 

The main argument I will set forth is a syllogism argument. A syllogism is a logical argument that applies deductive reasoning to arrive at a conclusion based on two propositions that are asserted or assumed to be true. A common example of a syllogism argument is the following:

 

1. All men are mortal
2. Socrates is a man.
3. Therefore, Socrates is mortal. 

 

Norman Geisler made a syllogism argument for Inerrancy in 2014 at the National Apologetics Conference. His argument is the following:

 

1. God cannot err.
2. The Bible is the Word of God.

3 Therefore, the Bible cannot err. 

 

If premise 1 is true, that God cannot err, and premise 2 is true, that the Bible is the Word of God, then premise 3 must be true. Therefore, I must prove both points. 

 

1. God Cannot Err.

 

This fact is born out of scripture:

 

“God is not a man, that he should lie; Neither the son of man, that he should repent: Hath he said, and shall he not do it? Or hath he spoken, and shall he not make it good?”

‭‭Numbers‬ ‭23:19‬ ‭KJV‬‬

 

“God forbid: yea, let God be true, but every man a liar; as it is written, That thou mightest be justified in thy sayings, And mightest overcome when thou art judged.”

‭‭Romans‬ ‭3:4‬ ‭KJV‬‬

 

“that by two immutable things, in which it was impossible for God to lie, we might have a strong consolation, who have fled for refuge to lay hold upon the hope set before us:”

‭‭Hebrews‬ ‭6:18‬ ‭KJV‬‬

 

Not only does scripture prove the perfection of God without error but also philosophical thought. The question must be asked, if God can err, is He really God? John Owens connects perfection with self-sufficiency:

 

“God is absolutely perfect; whatever is of perfection is to be ascribed to him; otherwise he could neither be absolutely self-sufficient, all-sufficient, nor eternally blessed in himself. He is absolutely perfect, inasmuch as no perfection is wanting to him, and comparatively above all that we can conceive or apprehend of perfection”

 (Works, vol. XVI, 95). 

 

Even thiests who deny the doctrine of Inerrancy tend to agree with point 1. Therefore, providing even more evidence is unnecessary. 

 

2. The Bible is the Word of God.

 

The best evidence for proving the Bible is the Word of God is by knowing what Jesus had to say about the Scripture. So, what did Jesus have to say?

 

“Jesus answered them, Is it not written in your law, I said, Ye are gods? If he called them gods, unto whom the word of God came, and the scripture cannot be broken;”

‭‭John‬ ‭10:34-35‬ ‭KJV‬‬

 

Not only does this confirm that the scripture is the word of God, but it also proves inerrancy. The clause here that "the Scripture cannot be broken" means that man cannot annul it, set it aside, or prove it false. Jesus' statement affirms the inerrancy of Scripture. 

 

“For Moses said, Honour thy father and thy mother; and, Whoso curseth father or mother, let him die the death… making the word of God of none effect through your tradition, which ye have delivered: and many such like things do ye.”

‭‭Mark‬ ‭7:10, 13‬ ‭KJV‬‬

 

Jesus equated what Moses said in the scriptures (v. 10) with the Word of God (v. 13). The people in this verse had not only rejected God's Word (v. 9), but they had even invalidated it, that is, robbed it of its authority (v. 12).

 

Let’s also look to what Paul said in 2 Timothy 3:16 about the Scripture:

 

“All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness:”

‭‭2 Timothy‬ ‭3:16‬ ‭KJV‬‬

 

"All Scripture," is divinely "inspired" (Gr. theopneustos, lit. "God-breathed," cf. 2 Pet. 1:21).  It does not merely contain the Word of God, or become the Word of God under certain conditions. It is God's Word and therefore, even in the smallest details, it does not err.

 

Objections to this Argument

 

Syllogism

 

Just as this is a syllogism argument, one of the main objections to this argument also is a syllogism argument. Created by Karl Barth, the argument goes like this:

 

1. The Bible is a human book.
2. Humans do err.
3. Therefore, the Bible errs. 

 

Let’s look at all three premises and hold them to scrutiny in order to determine if this is true. 

 

1. The Bible is a human book. 

 

The Bible is infact a human book as it is written in human languages, with human vocabularies, etc. Therefore, there’s no problem with premise 1.

 

2. Humans do err. 

 

Premise 2 is really the problem with this argument being made. It is completely true that humans do err, but it doesn’t justify the conclusion. Humans do err, however, humans don’t always err, nor do they necessarily err when they are writing. This is a false premise that simply can’t justify the conclusion. 

 

3. Therefore, the Bible errs.

 

As stated, humans do not always err. As stated by Norman Geisler, “almost anyone can write an errorless book, if the successive pages were: 1+1=2; 2+2=4; 3+3=6; and so on.” There are also errorless phone books that have every number correct. Furthermore, both sides of the inerrancy debate, that arent atheistic, agree that God can supernaturally intervene in the world, meaning there should be no difficulty in believing that humans, who sometimes err, didn’t err when under divine guidance to produce the Scripture. 

 

Circular Reasoning

 

There’s many who will point out what is seemingly an obvious flaw in this logic. Stating the Bible is the Word of God because the Bible says it’s the Word of God is seen by many as circular reasoning. Instead of saying that it's circular reasoning, I’d call it self authentication which is used everyday. Whenever we say “I think” or “I believe” we are making statements that nobody is able to verify. If people were reliable, witness to oneself would always be enough. 

 

In John 5:31-32 Jesus said that self-witness is normally insufficient:

 

“If I bear witness of myself, my witness is not true. There is another that beareth witness of me; and I know that the witness which he witnesseth of me is true.” John 5:31-32 KJV

Later, when Jesus claimed that He was the light of the world (John 8:12), the Pharisees tried to correct him by saying:

“Thou bearest record of thyself; thy record is not true.” John 8:13 KJV

Jesus responded that because He is the Son of God, self-witness is reliable:

 

“Though I bear record of myself, yet my record is true: for I know whence I came, and whither I go; but ye cannot tell whence I come, and whither I go.” John 8:14 KJV

 

Self-witness is reliable where sin does not interfere. Because Jesus is God and therefore guiltless, His words can be trusted. Similarly, since the Bible is the Word of God, we must listen to its own claims about itself.