The Inerrancy and Infallibility of God's Word—The Bible

Over time Bible scholars have come up with many theories on exactly what involvement God had in the authorship of the Bible. If God expressed complete control over it, it would be completely inerrant, without flaw or contradiction in any way. Certainly, all scholars should agree that the Bible is at least infallible, meaning that God expressed enough control over it’s authorship so as to maintain theological consistency. Analysis of two stories which are described in multiple books of the Bible, as well as through other scripture, will provide a more coherent understanding of God’s involvement in His holy word.

Matthew 14, Mark 6, Luke 9 and John 6 all record “The Feeding of the 5000”. Where there are inconsistencies in the story, there are no contradictions. For example, Mark does not record that Jesus was healing the sick. Matthew, on the other hand, fails to recognize that Jesus was even teaching. John includes several details which are neglected entirely by the other gospel writers. John says that the five loaves and two fish belonged to a boy and also recognizes that the loaves are made of barley. These are inconsistencies as far as the details go, but they are not contradictory, nor are they detrimental to the message of the story—Jesus’ ability to provide for His sheep. So, this story can be classified as both inerrant and infallible by the previously stated definitions.

Some of these same types of inconsistencies show up in “The Healing of a Demon-possessed Man” and “The Healing of Two Demon-possessed Men” which are actually the same account. The glaring contradiction is that Matthew records two men, where Mark and Luke only record one man. Matthew also does not record the name of the demon(s), which is Legion, however the rest of the details in the stories are virtually identical. This contradiction removes the possibility of the inerrancy of scripture as defined since either Matthew or Mark and Luke recorded this account incorrectly. Since this contradiction is not detrimental to the message of the story—Jesus is God, having authority even over demons (angels)—we can retain the claim of infallibility of scripture.

Paul tells us that “All Scripture is inspired by God” (2 Timothy 3.16, NASB). But, what exactly does it mean to be inspired? In 1^st Corinthians 7.10, Paul gives a command and says, “I give instructions, not I, but the Lord.” The Lord’s words are obviously inspired by God and Paul is simply quoting them here. Most prophesy was recorded in the same way. Two verses later, Paul writes, “to the rest I say, not the Lord…” (v. 12). Paul was not recording scripture based on his own human understanding, otherwise it would not be God’s word. He was relating scripture according to the message that the Holy Spirit had inspired in him; the Holy Spirit acting as the guide for the message.

If we are going to believe that God’s word is infallible, as it should be, we must understand the meaning of inspired. The accounts of “The Feeding of the 5000” all show different details, all of which are assumed to be truthful, in order to dictate a specific message. Similarly, the accounts of “The Healing of a Demon-possessed Man” and “The Healing of Two Demon-possessed Men” where not completely true in every detail, retain exactly the message in any form which the Holy Spirit inspired in the writers to record. In reality, the amazing consistencies of the Bible combined with the perfect, consistent message in the recorded scripture, show God’s sovereignty over His word, the Bible.

Image Credits: benny75, sxc.hu

Inerrancy and the Spiritual Formation of Younger Evangelicals

By Carlos Bovell / Wipf & Stock

In Inerrancy and the Spiritual Formation of Younger Evangelicals, readers are urged to pastorally consider their own spiritual responsibilities toward students by taking more seriously six representative critical discoveries that students tend to make during the course of their higher education.