The Bible: More Than Just A Book

No matter what one’s religious persuasion, one has to admit that the Bible is more than just another ancient book. This is another reason why those who deny God’s hand in any part of the Christian Bible are posed with a tough dilemma. Almost every major religion has a high regard for the Bible, even if they do not view it as their own sacred text.

According to the Qur’an the Torah was revealed to Moses by God (Sura 7:144-145) and confirmed by Jesus (Sura 61:6). In case you don’t have ready access to a copy of the Qur’an, here are the quotes:

Denying Inerrancy

The final general position on inerrancy is that which denies it completely in every form. This is usually a reactionary position to the all-or-nothing mentality of some fundamentalists (the bad kind). These people view the Bible as a purely human product. It is no more inspired than the latest Dean Koontz novel or the most recent book that Oprah has endorsed. It is simply a man-made collection of ancient documents used by religious people to inspire and control them.

The problem is, it ceases to be a truly divine work. Since it is no more inspired than any other collection of ancient documents, it has no more authority than they do.

Implications of Biblical Inerrancy (Part 2)

The second general position on inerrancy within Protestantism is the middle position, the one that states that while the Bible may not be inerrant in a technical sense, it is infallible in its message. This is probably the most prominent position regarding the Bible within the world of Protestantism. Many may not claim this publicly, but in practice one can see that this is the case.

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.

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.