Is the Holy Bible inerrant?
Most Evangelical Christians will hold to a statement of faith
that says something like
the Bible is inerrant
in all that it affirms
or all that it teaches.
To which I say, amen!
But what do we mean by that?
When I was a young Baptist pastor I really appreciated
the value for scripture that was being instilled in me
at the same time, as I read scripture
I was beginning to have questions that
that lead me in the direction of a different group, the Anabaptists.
A 500 year old group of Christians who have
often stood separate from both Catholics and Protestants
and eventually I was asked to come and speak
with the denomination of a church
that were looking for a pastor
the denomination was the Brethren In Christ
Now called Be In Christ Canada
and the church was what has now become The Meeting House
where I'm still the pastor.
As I began to investigate them
I mean starting from ground zero, steep learning curve
wanting to know more about these Anabaptists
I was reading their statement of faith
as I had been trained to do looking at the Bible
portion and I noticed that
when they talked about what they believed about scripture
they didn't use the word inerrant or inerrancy
and that pinged for me
with my evangelical radar
I met with the denominational leaders
and said why is the word inerrant not used here?
Does it mean that you believe the Bible is errant?
And you are liberals trying to
erode our trust in scripture?
To which they simply responded
no, we're Anabaptists and we don't tent to use that word.
End of story, no big deal.
You see, the rallying around the doctrine of inerrancy
as very central to modern day Evangelicalism
is something that had an important beginning.
It was a push back against creeping liberalism
and it came to a point in the 1970s
when a large number of Evangelical leaders
gathered together in Chicago and
worked on what became known in 1978 as
the Chicago Statement of Biblical Inerrancy
and that for many has become the rallying point
of what Evangelicals believe, but here's the thing
Anabaptists were never invited to that table.
We were not a part of that discussion.
We were off doing our own thing, having our own conversations
and so language was formed that just didn't include or way of thinking.
So Anabaptists don't tend to say that the Bible is inerrant
but we're not trying to say that it is errant either.
Looking at the Chicago Statement of Inerrancy
it says specifically
scripture is without error or fault
in all its teaching. Agreed.
A local Evangelical seminary where I teach sometimes
says the Bible is the authoritative, written word of God
inspired by the Holy Spirit
inerrant in all that it teaches.
Agreed.
But why don't we use the word inerrant?
Because Anabaptists, not having been invited to that table
not being involved in the those theological discussions
just simply turned to scripture
to say what does scripture say about itself
and we tend to use scriptural wording
to describe what we believe about scripture.
For instance
2 Timothy 3
classic passage about the Bible
in the Bible, says
all scripture is God breathed
and is useful
for teaching, rebuking, correcting, and training in righteousness
so that the servant of God may be
thoroughly equipped for every good work.
All of scripture is God breathed or inspired.
We say yes. This is God's gift to us.
It's God breathed and it's useful.
We should use it.
It's useful for helping us grow so that we will be
thoroughly equipped for every good work.
How we live our lives is what's most important
to an Anabaptist understanding of scripture.
It's given by God, it's God breathed
and we should always read it to say how can we be more like Jesus.
How can whatever we read in scripture change how we live?
And as I learned this from the denomination I eventually became a pastor in
I said that's good enough for me
that is a good course corrective
even for me who has a tendency to want to get involved in
the minutiae of theological argument
it was a good corrective to say
actually keep your eyes fixed on Jesus
read the Bible with a practical emphasis
for how you can become more Christlike.
This means that when Anabaptists
and Evangelicals look at different passages of scripture
we may believe similar things
but we will word our understanding differently.
For instance, what do we do with
Paul in 1 Corinthians 1 where he forgets
how many people he baptized
and originally says
he baptized no one and then says
oh, I baptized two people and then
says oh no, I remember I baptized an entire household
and then after that confesses
I actually don't remember, maybe I baptized more.
Do we say that this is errant?
That scripture isn't perfect or
do we say that scripture is perfectly teaching us
that only Jesus is perfect
and that God's spirit has worked through
imperfect people whose memories sometimes fail.
How about when Mark where in Mark chapter 1
says, let me quote the prophet Isaiah
and then he goes on to quote the prophet Malachi.
(Gasp)
Do we say, oh no, scripture is not inerrant?
Or do we say, once again
scripture teaches what it means to teach
which is that God uses imperfect people
with imperfect memories
to point us to the perfect Jesus
and that's what the Bible
means to show us and that's how God has inspired it
and in both cases the authors, Mark and Paul
go on to correct their mistake.
In all this discussion, one interesting thing worth pointing out
is the doctrine of inerrancy only
applies to the original autographs, or the original copies
which we don't have anymore
but we do have a number of early copies
enough to get us pretty close to what the originals would have said
but it raises the question
if God didn't preserve the originals
did his inspiring
preserving work of the Holy Spirit
apply to the copying process over hundreds and hundreds of years?
But that's another question.
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