Implications of Biblical Inerrancy (Part 1)

No matter what one’s faith tradition teaches regarding the inerrancy of Scripture, the implications of that view are huge. In fact, how a Christian understands Biblical inerrancy effects their faith immensely. Without going into too much detail, I would like to take a moment and consider some of these implications. Because I am a Protestant Evangelical, we will spend most of our time considering the implications of those perspectives. We will also be limiting our discussion to generalizations for the sake of space.

Defining Inerrancy

Defining inerrancy is a much harder issue than one might think. There really is not one consistent position on this issue all through the Christian religion. Rather, each of the major sects of Christianity has, to one degree or another, it’s own understanding of what it means for the Bible to be inerrant.

Resurrection Hope

If there is no resurrection of the dead, then not even Christ has been raised. And if Christ has not been raised, our preaching is useless and so is your faith. (1 Corinthians 15:13-14 TNIV)

The foundation of our faith is the resurrection of Jesus. This is what the first Christians dies for. They served God with this as their motivation. “The faith that the Lord has once for all entrusted to us, his people,” hinges on whether or not Jesus rose from the dead.

This is not to say that things like the divinity of Jesus, the trinitarian nature of God, the inerrancy of Scripture, or the virgin birth are unimportant. I would actually say that the resurrection, on all but maybe one of those points, proves them to be true. The one that it doesn’t prove is the inerrancy of the Scripture. But, rather, it validates the Scriptures for they prophesied or stated, directly or indirectly, all of these things.

The resurrection did more than just secure our victory over death. It gives us hope. It proves that God truly is with us, in all things, whether “trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword,” even death.

Truly, “if God is for us, who can be against us.”

A Brief History of the Bible Clarification

On another place where I posted this article, a friend of mine asked the following question in relation to the Biblical Canon not being established at Nicea:

Which other council are we referring to when we say that Constantine and the Bishops met to create the canon?

Here is my response:

Actually, there were a few…

The Catholic Bible was determined in 1546 at the Council of Trent, the Church of England came to a conclusion in the Thirty-Five Articles in 1563, Calvinists made a determination in 1647 at the adoption of the Westminster Confession of Faith, and the Eastern Orthodox Canon was doctrinally established in 1672 at the Synod of Jerusalem.

Thing is, there were accepted Canons before this, but there was very little over-arching agreement among different Christian groups. Various church leaders made statements as to what they believed the Canon was or should be, but…it doesn’t seem a true consensus was reached even then…

I think it is safe to say that the first church authorized Canon was established at the Council of Trent and that three other Canons are also authorized by 3 other major sects of world Christianity.

All of this is true unless your an Evangelical Christian, in which case you believe that John ultimately finalized the NT Canon and that Paul, Peter, and John all personally knew every NT writer. I find this view to be dishonest at best, considering the fact that there are 4 different Canons (OT + NT) in existence.

And an error on my part: Constantine would not have been at Trent.

Defining Inerrancy: A Brief History of the Bible

Before we can define inerrancy, we must consider how we got the Bible that we have today.

As I am sure we are all aware, the Bible did not fall from the sky into the hands of Adam or Abraham or Moses or anyone else. The Bible was not created on any of the days of creation and was not even a compiled book of books for a long time. The earliest people passed on the story of creation and their own fall by word-of-mouth. It became, over the years, oral tradition.

Inerrancy (For a Friend): Introduction

A friend of mine is struggling with the issue of inerrancy. No, it’s not me. I am very sure of where I stand on the matter and what I think of it. He has come to some conclusions as well, but he is having a hard time with those in light of how people are interpreting his beliefs on the issue. To quote my friend:

So I’ve found myself in a bind by stating that I don’t believe in the inerrancy scripture… people seem to misunderstand what that means…for some reason it’s viewed as an attack on the authority of scripture…

So, in an attempt to address some of the questions posed by my friend, I am writing this series.

Being the Church

God provides plenty of opportunity to be the church in the midst of doing ordinary life together with others…I’ve come to see the significance of my encounters with people is not pointing them to God as much as actually being an expression of God.
(Jim Palmer. Wide Open Spaces. Nashville, TN: Thomas Nelson. 2007. 33, 35)

“Livin’ the Dream”

I used to have this coworker named Dennis. We called him creepy Dennis…cuz he was creepy. And he had this phrase…he would be moping some dirt off the floor or be cleaning the bathroom and one of us would ask, “Hey! Dennis! How are you?” He would look up, smile, and say, “Livin’ the dream, man!” - Part of a conversation I had with a Starbuck’s Barista

Are you “Livin’ the dream?”

Wasted Time?

On the Relevant Magazine website, I came across this convicting article. What stood out to me the most was this statement:

I hate when people ask me what I am doing with my life now that I am out of college. I hate feeling that I should be doing more, that I’m not doing enough…

I think what hit me is that…this is where I am. I have a college degree, and yet I am working at a hospital as a valet for less than $8 an hour. Every day I get up at 4:15am, take a shower, go back to bed for about 45 minutes, get back up to get around and leave the house by 5:30am to make it to work by 6:00 so I can be treated with contempt by ungrateful cancer patients and have my job threatened because sometimes, when approaching a customer, I don’t say, “Hello. Welcome to Memorial Hospital. Would you like us to park your car?”