In Defense of the Bible's Inspiration and Inerrancy
Written by James P. Chaisson
2 Timothy 3:16–17 All
Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for
correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be
complete, equipped for every good work. (ESV)
Introduction
It is no surprise to us when we read
or hear atheists and agnostics attacking the word of God, but when the attack
comes from those who claim to be Christians, it can take us by surprise. There
has been an increasing amount of attacks upon the Bible as God's infallible and
inerrant word over the past few decades. Many in Christendom are falling prey
to a very liberal reading of Scripture, and some are even attacking its
inerrancy, using the very same arguments that the unbelieving use.
Supposed Contradictions and Errors
It is very common when reading books
by people like Bart Ehrman and
Dan Barker
to come across statements like "The bible is full of errors and
contradictions". In fact, this is extremely
common to hear from those who have never even read the Bible.
Some, in an attempt to prove the
Bible contains contradictions, will point to the number of horse stalls that
Solomon is said to have in 2 Chronicles 9:25 (4,000) and 1 Kings 4:26 (40,000).
They claim that this is a clear contradiction and proof that the Bible contains
errors. Is this really a contradiction? For those wishing to disprove the Bible
it is but this may simply be an issue of copyist error. [3] The Scriptures, along with all ancient documents, were copied by
hand until the printing press was invented and there were times when copyists
would make mistakes. But this may not be a copyist error either. It may be that
the 4,000 mentioned in 2 Chronicles is speaking of horse stables while the
40,000 mentioned in 1 Kings is speaking of individual stalls. If each stable housed
10 stalls (there is archeological evidence for this) then that would account for
the supposed contradiction.
Other supposed contradictions are
put forward as questions. Sometimes people will ask, "Were there two men
or two angels at the tomb of Jesus (Luke 24:4; John 20:12)?" A lot of
these supposed contradictions disappear when we allow for harmonization. Harmonization
looks at two texts and asks if they
might be complementary. This method is considered valid by many scholars. C. L. Blomberg in
his article on "The Unity and
Diversity of Scripture" says, "Harmonizing
apparently discrepant texts is a legitimate technique which most historians,
ancient and modern, utilize." [5]
It is important to recognize that one
text may simply state what someone saw and another may explain the event. It is
not a contradiction for one author to speak of two men and another to identify
those men as angels (Luke 24:4; John 20:12). In Genesis 18:22 we are told that "two
men" went down towards Sodom after speaking with Abraham. In the very next
chapter we are told that those two men were angels (Genesis 19:1). This is not
a contradiction or an error; angels often appear in human form throughout the
Bible. So one text tells us that there were two men and the other explains that
those two men were really angels.
Attacks from within
We can understand when atheists and
agnostics use these kinds of arguments, but when a man stands up on Sunday
morning and preaches from the pulpit that the Bible contains errors, it can
leave people scratching their heads. Even more than that it can cause some to
have a crisis of faith.
If the Bible contains errors and
contradictions then it simply cannot be trusted. If, as some are saying from
within Christendom, that the Bible is unreliable in some areas, then what
assurance do we have that there are not other errors that they simply have not
discovered yet. And if there are a few errors, then might there be a lot? If
there are a lot, then how can we trust the Bible? The ultimate authority on
these matters becomes the person making the claim that the Bible has errors.
They will tell us what passages they believe are in error, but where do we draw
the line? Where do you draw the line and say, "This scripture here is in
error, but this other one is not"?
A door is being unlocked that
ultimately can lead to the complete abandonment of the scriptures. Once the
scriptures are abandoned, you can ultimately do as you like; appoint women
elders because after all Paul was wrong when he said that an overseer "must
be the husband of one wife (1 Timothy 3:2)", or maybe that was just his
own personal opinion. Once a person believes that the Bible contains errors,
then why not allow homosexual marriage, after all, the Bible has been wrong in
other areas why not this one? One biblical scholar said, "Almost every
single collapse involving denominations and churches in regard to historic
Christian beliefs can be traced back to a degradation in that group’s view of
the Bible as the inspired and inerrant revelation of God’s truth. Once this
foundation is lost, the house that was built upon it cannot long stand." [6]
The claims of the Bible
What can we say about the
inspiration and reliability of the Bible? The first thing to note is that the Bible
itself claims to be the inspired word of God. In the King James version of the
Bible the phrase "thus saith the Lord" is found 415 times. King David
and other Old Testament figures claimed to be speaking and writing the words of
God (Exodus 34:27; 2 Samuel 23:2; Jeremiah 30:2).
Not only do we find that the Old
Testament scriptures claim to be inspired by God, we also find that Jesus and
the New Testament authors believed it as well. The Old Testament was seen as
God's divinely inspired and authoritative word (Mark 12:10; John 2:22; Acts
8:32; Romans 11:2). Jesus quoted the Old Testament as the authoritative word of
God throughout his ministry. Not only did Jesus quote the Old Testament as
divinely inspired, his enemies also accepted those Scriptures as God's inspired
word. He would frequently say, "Have you not read" (Matthew 12:3,
19:4), or, "It is written" to add weight to what he was saying and
doing (Matthew 22:29–32; Mark 14:27; Luke 4:4). After surveying a few
New Testament texts where Jesus quotes from the Old Testament, authors J. Scott
Duvall and J. Daniel Hays make this statement, "Thus
it appears that Jesus treated the Old Testament as if it were accurate and
without error down to the level of verb tenses and pronouns. To us this looks
like a good model to follow." [7]
The apostle Paul, speaking about the
Old Testament, said that "All Scripture is breathed out by God and
profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in
righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good
work" (2 Timothy 3:16, ESV). The writer to the Hebrews used the Old
Testament to show that Jesus is the fulfillment of all that the law and the prophets
pointed to. If the Old Testament contained errors and contradictions, why use
it to prove anything?
So far, we have seen that the Old
Testament writings claimed to be the inspired word of God. We have also noted
that Jesus and the New Testament authors viewed the Old Testament as divinely
inspired, inerrant, and authoritative. There is not a hint anywhere in the New
Testament that anyone thought the Old testament contained errors or
contradictions.
Now let's consider the New Testament
writings. Jesus himself claimed to speak the very words of God (John 18:37).
When he was debating he said, "Which one of you convicts me of sin? If I
tell the truth, why do you not believe me? Whoever is of God hears the words of
God. The reason why you do not hear them is that you are not of God” (John
8:46–47 ESV). Jesus made a clear connection between what he was teaching and
God's word. The apostle Paul viewed his own writings as scripture saying
"If anyone thinks that he is a prophet, or spiritual, he should
acknowledge that the things I am writing to you are a command of the Lord. If
anyone does not recognize this, he is not recognized" (1 Corinthians
14:37–38 ESV). Paul believed that he was inspired by God and those who were
spiritual should recognize it. The apostle John as well thought that what he
taught was from God. He says, "We are from God. Whoever knows God listens
to us; whoever is not from God does not listen to us. By this we know the
Spirit of truth and the spirit of error" (1 John 4:6 ESV). In the book of Revelation
he makes it clear that what he was shown and told to write down were the very
words of God (Revelation 1:10-11; 19:9). The apostle Peter viewed Paul's writings
as equal to the inspired Scriptures saying, "And count the patience of our
Lord as salvation, just as our beloved brother Paul also wrote to you according
to the wisdom given him, as he does in all his letters when he speaks in them
of these matters. There are some things in them that are hard to understand,
which the ignorant and unstable twist to their own destruction, as they do the
other Scriptures" (2 Peter 3:15–16 ESV). People were twisting Paul's words
as they had done with the other Scriptures.
The fact that the Bible claims to be
the word of God doesn't necessarily make it so, but we do need to take
seriously its own claim. Eminent scholar John Warwick
Montgomery said "Historical and
literary scholarship continues to follow Aristotle’s eminently just dictum that
the benefit of doubt is to be given to the document itself, not arrogated by
the critic to himself." What
does this mean? Dr. Montgomery continues, "This means that one must listen to the claims of
the document under analysis, and not assume fraud or error unless the author
disqualifies himself by contradictions or known factual inaccuracies."
Some evidence to consider
It's one thing for the Bible to
claim to be divinely inspired (that claim needs to be seriously considered as
noted above) but quite another to prove it. Here I present only a sampling of
the evidence that could be presented to show that the Bible is reliable and divinely
inspired.
The Bible contains remarkable
scientific foreknowledge. There are things found in the pages of scripture that
we are only in our modern day figuring out. For example, God tells Abraham to administer
circumcision on the eighth day of a child's life (Genesis 17:12). Why on the
eighth day? Because God commanded it, of course, but is there any reason
medically that this day would be the best? We now know that this is the best
day to circumcise a child because the body produces high levels of vitamin K
and prothrombin which are blood clotting agents. Dr. Thompson mentioned in a
question and answer article on Apologetics Press's website that "On the
eighth day, the amount of prothrombin present actually is elevated above
one-hundred percent of normal—and is the only day in the male’s life in which
this will be the case under normal conditions. If surgery is to be performed,
day eight is the perfect day to do it... Moses’ information, as recorded in
Genesis 17:12, not only was scientifically accurate, but was years ahead of its
time. How did Moses have access to such information? The answer, of course, is
provided by the apostle Paul in 2 Timothy 3:16—“Every scripture is inspired of
God.”
We might also consider the fact that
the Bible contains hundreds of fulfilled prophecies. One such example is that
of the death of Jesus. 700 years before Jesus walked the earth the prophet
Isaiah mentioned what would happen to the Messiah. Isaiah 53 speaks of how the
Messiah would be hated for no valid reason, how he would be pierced, and how he
would be silent before his accusers. Psalm 22 mentions how the Messiah would be
executed by crucifixion (Psalm 22:16) which was not the common method of
execution by the Jews, stoning was. These and more than 300 other prophecies
are fulfilled by Jesus of Nazareth.
Clearly the Bible is more than a collection of human writings, they are the
divinely inspired words of Almighty God, inerrant and infallible.
Conclusion
The Bible claims to be the inspired word
of Almighty God from beginning to end. When the Bible speaks about geography
it's reliable. When it mentions rulers and empires it's reliable. History and archeology
have proven the reliability of the Bible again and again. Science has shown
there is divine foreknowledge contained within it. Prophecies found hundreds
and thousands of years before Christ find their miraculous fulfillment in him.
There is more than enough evidence to prove that the Bible is trustworthy, reliable,
and authoritative. The Bible truly is the word of God.
Let me end with what I think is a
great quote by a man named H.L. Hasting who said, “Infidels have been at work nearly eighteen hundred years, firing away at it [the Bible], and making
about as much impression on it as you would shooting
boiled peas at Gibraltar."
Further reading:
A
Ready Defense by Josh McDowell
Handbook
on Apologetics by Josh McDowell
How We Got the Bible by Neil R.
Lightfoot
In Defense
of the Bible's Inspiration by Bert Thompson
The
Canon of scripture by F.F. Bruce
Website
www.apologeticspress.org
[3]
Norman L. Geisler and Thomas A. Howe, When
Critics Ask : A Popular Handbook on Bible Difficulties (Wheaton, Ill.:
Victor Books, 1992), 180.
[5] C.
L. Blomberg, “The Unity and Diversity of Scripture,” ed. T. Desmond Alexander
and Brian S. Rosner, New Dictionary of
Biblical Theology (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 2000), 71.
[6]
James R. White, Scripture Alone
(Minneapolis, MN: Bethany House, 2004), 43.
[7] J. Scott Duvall and J. Daniel Hays, Grasping God’s Word: A Hands-on Approach to Reading, Interpreting, and
Applying the Bible (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2005), 411.
One of the main goals of the early
puritans was to purge from the church anything that might be considered a
corruption. Many were unhappy with Roman Catholic influences in the Protestant churches and desired to experience further reform.[1]
"Puritans such as Thomas Cartwright
(1535–1603), Dudley Fenner (c.
1558–87) and Walter Travers (c.
1548–1643) had, by the 1580s, given Reformed theology in England a strong
emphasis on purity of biblical worship and polity, as part of continued
reformation."[2]
The impact on modern evangelicalism
can be seen in two ways. One way we see this is with the emphasis by numerous
Christians on a personal relationship with Jesus and personal experiences. These
groups are also likely to be involved with small groups, another result of the Pietist
movement.[5] The
puritan impact can be seen in those who emphasize doctrinal purity and the
plainness of worship (i.e. no robes, statues, or other ornamentation). Of
course, both influences are seen in a wide variety of evangelical churches
today, but we can often detect either a Pietistic or Puritanical leaning
depending on which issues are emphasized.
