Systematic Navigation: Inerrancy
“So Jesus said to the Jews who had believed in him, “If you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples, and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.” John 8:31-32 (ESV)
So you’re in your favorite armchair, reading your Bible, sitting back comfortably, when an unlikely question just happens to cross your mind, “Are there any errors in my Bible?” Now don’t feel bad if it has, its ok, I’m sure we’ve all had our Thomas moments whether they have been early in our walk or they have come later on. And just like isn’t usual for the subject of inerrancy to be covered during the authoritative part of the systematic theological discussion. But as you flip through your evangelical television watching you may just have had that, “Huh, wha-di-he say?” moment. It is in that moment, Brother that you need to be flipping through God’s Word to see “What He said!” Yeah, that’s right.
Anyway…I went looking into your basic dictionary to see what inerrancy means in our everyday use of the word and could not find it in the two dictionaries that I had looked in. I am going to guess that this word “inerrancy” can only be found and used in certain circles. It is used in the realm of God’s authoritative Word and even though error may characterize man’s speech, it is the characteristic of God’s speech that doesn’t contain or affirm any errors. Now there may be some unusual or uncommon sentence structures but let’s keep in mind that the Hebrew and the Greek are cultures apart. That may mean there will be a use of free/loose quotations in the verbatim of the speaker being mentioned but it doesn’t compromise the substance of the statements being made. In any case, God’s Word remains inerrant and can still be spoken in our ordinary everyday language.
Now back in 1611 the following passage from Romans 1:16 sounded like this, “For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ: for it is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth; to the Jew first, and also to the Greek.” Now here is how it sound’s today, “For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek.” Does the meaning of what Paul says change? Well without his exact “autograph” the point here is mute isn’t it? So if someone approaches this and says that there are clear error’s here, that someone should be the apostle, Paul, himself.
It is also important to mention that God’s word speaks to the history of His people as it does to their faith and practice of His instruction. Peter and Paul had no problem using the historical details of the Old Testament in order to emphasize the need for faith in the Good News of Jesus and the daily practice of His message to us all. Taking a look at the Book of Hebrews is like taking a look through the Cliff Notes of both the Old and New Testament’s. So if one were to think that the term “Inerrancy” is a bad term because it can’t be found in the Bible may want to read the “Chicago Statement on Biblical Inerrancy”. Sometimes we have to be content in not knowing the absolute, scientific, literal meaning of the letter A.
As I keep paging through Wayne Grudem’s “Systematic Theology” book, I can’t help to sense a need for a Holy Spirit guided digging through of God’s Word as well. It is good at times to understand why the author used the letter A instead of the letter…Q, but it is more important to draw on the Spirit of the word whether spoken or written. I hope that as some of you who are navigating your life Biblically you are allowing the Holy Spirit to take the wheel. Sometimes it is good to be a passenger, in the back seat, perhaps with a good book…THE Book!! – Chris Hughes is a regular contributor to Freedom Fighter and a graduate of the Colony of Mercy
Compass Pointers: “The man of God must live by the Word of God, and the Holy Spirit never will pass by or lightly esteem the Word that He has given. There are two extremes. The Word without the Spirit is dry and dead, but the Spirit without the Word is incomplete. Let us honor the Holy Scriptures; let us study them; let us habitually use them, search them, feed upon them as the weapon of our warfare against Satan, and for the souls of men.” The Holy Spirit A.B. Simpson
Navigation Rules to Memorize: Level 1: Proverbs 7:1-2; Level 2: Proverbs 7:1-6
Anchored to the Rock: If I fail to spend two hours in prayer each morning, the devil gets the victory through the day. Martin Luther
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