Unlimited Inerrancy


By Anton Williams, Founder

BATTLE FOR THE BIBLE

Professing Christians claim to believe that the Bible is God's Word. Some academics assert that this only applies to spiritual parts of the Bible but not matters of science and history. Whats does the Bible itself say.

UNLIMITED INERRANCY is simply following Bible's claim for itself as well as corroborating external sources that it is the Word of God with no error in everything, whether spiritual matters, science or history. The Bible can be trust as being the written Word of the Living God. He has spoken.

The Bible is true because it is the Word of God. There are many verifiable claims within the text of scripture which demonstrate that God is the source of the who gave the words to His spokesmen.

We can trust all of the Bible as God's Word because of its inerrancy and infallibility

Contrary to the opinion of some Christian academics and laypersons; the Bible does make claims to have be entirely true and that it cannot error. The Bible is correctly said to have no errors in their original manuscripts. This debate among Christians between errancy and inerrancy has ebbed and flowed over the most recent centuries. The most recent engagement occurred in the 1960s-1980s. Fuller Theological Seminary professors expressed a belief that the Bible can have errors in science and history. Former Fuller professor Harold Lindsell wrote a book entitled the "Battle for the Bible" in which he named specific situations and people at the seminary who did not believe in unlimited inerrancy. Jack Rogers co-wrote a book in which he defined the view of the bible having some errors based on his idea that inerrancy was a recent concept. Trinity Evangelical Divinity School professor John Woodbridge released his critique of the Rogers-McKim thesis in which he definitely shows that the church from inception has expressed assertions that the Bible does not have any errors. Books written or edited by other Trinity Evangelical Divinity School professors such as Gleason Archer, Norman Geisler, Walter Kaiser, Wayne Grudem and others had sections which demonstrated and defended unlimited inerrancy of the Bible.

INFALLIBILITY

The Bible describes in infallibility of the text as a whole. The circumstances under which the text was written demonstrated that God was the source.

Matthew 5:17-18 "Think not that I am come to destroy the law, or the prophets:  I am not come to destroy, but to fulfill. For verily I say unto you, Till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law, till all be fulfilled."

The law, which is referred to as the law and the prophets, is a description of the Bible itself. The infallibility of the text is seen in the expression that the smallest letter or stroke of a pen won't pass until all be fulfilled. While interpreters of this passage have often focused on preservation of the scripture; its infallibility is also stated. "All" must be fulfilled. This means that the text as a whole must be fulfilled and therefore it cannot error as a whole. 

This concept is also express in the Old Testament. Psalm 19:7 "The law of the Lord is perfect; converting the soul." In this passage the law (as a whole which means all the made up the scriptures) is perfect.

UNLIMITED INERRANCY

The Bible also makes assertion that it is inerrant in everything. There are passages in the New Testament and Old Testament which make this claim. One passage which supports this is Luke 16:17.

Luke 16:17 "The Law and the Prophets were until John: since that time the kingdom of God is preached, and every man presseth into it. And it is easier for heaven and earth to pass, than for one tittle of the Law to fail."

The passage in Matthew focused on the infallibility of scripture this passage deals with inerrancy. The Bible (called the Law and Law and the Prophets in Luke 16:17) will not error even down to the smallest pen stroke within the words of scripture. 

Not failing reflects the concept of not having error in all the Bible. An error is a failure. This means there is no error in all of the Bible which would include matters of history and science in addition to spiritual things. The implications is that when the Bible describes the creation of the universe, Adam and Eve, Moses writing the Pentateuch, Daniel, Isaiah and others writing their text then this cannot error. 

The Old Testament also expresses the same concept as recorded in Proverbs 30:5-6 as an example. "Every word of God is pure: he is a shield unto them that put their trust in him. Add thou not unto his words, lest he reprove thee, and thou be found a liar." (Prov. 30:5-6) Every word of God is pure, genuine and Deuteronomy 4:2 is quoted as an example of the very word of God.

Defining Heresy

Word of God defines heresy. The text of scripture makes it clear that when teaching from the Bible no other doctrine is to be taught (1 Timothy 1:3)

Those believing and teaching that the Bible has errors use that mindset which is consistent with heresy. For example, people can claim that inerrancy is not a salvation issue. This is true. However, if not believing in inerrancy is used as a crux to deny things like authorship of the text; then although salvation isn't necessarily the issue this does not mean that heresy isn't an issue. 

For example, if the bible describes Moses, Joshua, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Daniel, Paul, Peter and John as authors of their text and then some so-called theologian comes along as says no these texts were really written by editors centuries later than the scripture claims; this is heresy. 

All of the objective and independent data regarding the authorship of the text of scripture supports the historical writers as the original authors.

Unlimited Inerrancy and its impact on Godliness and Holiness

The scripture makes it clear that Christians are not to denegrate the Bible (1 Thessalonians 5:20). Doing this can quench the work of the Spirit (1 Thessalonians 5:19)

Those who believe in an errant Bible are living in disobedience to this passage and will thus quench the Spirit's work in their lives.