Hello everyone and welcome back to Deeper Waters where we are diving into the ocean of truth. We’ve lately been looking at the teaching of Inerrancy and for that, we have been looking at the ICBI statement. As per the title of our blog, tonight we will turn attention to article 6.
We affirm that the whole of Scripture and all its parts, down to the very words of the original, were given by divine inspiration.
We deny that the inspiration of Scripture can rightly be affirmed of the whole without the parts, or of some parts but not the whole.
It is ironic that this post is being written after a visit my wife and I had with the Mormons today. In the introduction to the Book of Mormon, we are told it can be compared to the Bible and that Joseph Smith said that the Book of Mormon was the most correct of any book on Earth. That led to my asking the question to the Mormons of if that is the case, then what in the Bible is incorrect.
Unfortunately, nothing was stated explicitly other than that the Bible has been translated many times, an objection that was dealt with by a brief history of textual criticism. It is a very serious charge to say that the Bible is incorrect in what it teaches.
Note that this is something important about Inerrancy. It is not making a statement on what the content of the Bible is explicitly. It is saying that whatever it is that the Bible is teaching, then it is that that is true.
Lately I have been doing reading on eschatology and I notice that no matter which side I read in this debate, both sides point their case to the Inerrant Word of God. One cannot say “The Bible is Inerrant, therefore this side is wrong.” Each side in the debate holds that the Bible is Inerrant. It doesn’t help us to claim that the other side doesn’t believe what the Bible teaches. In a sense, of course, if someone is wrong, they do not believe what the Bible teaches, but they do not do so intentionally. That person really believes wrongly that the Bible teaches X and because they believe the Bible teaches that, they themselves believe that.
Let us be clear then that when we are in exchanges with fellow believers, we ought not be painting our critics as people who do not believe the Bible. We need to try to show that they are in error in their understanding of what the Bible teaches. They can just as much hold to Inerrancy. Now it could be that they do not hold to Inerrancy and for that different techniques will need to be applied, but if someone says that they do believe in Inerrancy, then let it be left at that.
Thus, in our conclusion, I do not really have a problem with article VI. I do affirm that all of the Bible is of God and that goes to the original documents alone. (Inerrancy does not apply to translations.)
We shall continue next time.
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