The Bible Skeptic: Biblical Inerrancy

Biblical Inerrancy

A great number of people throughout history have believed the stories of the Bible were literally true. Over the centuries that number has grown in some instances and dwindled in others. Some see the Bible as containing large amounts of allegory and metaphor. Some so-called historical claims in the text appear to these readers as merely vehicles by which certain "universal truths" (e.g. "patience as a virtue") are told. It matters very little to them whether or not these certain historical claims in the Old Testament bear physical confirmation in the material remains of an ancient Israelite community uncovered by modern archaeologists. However, there still remains a large segment of believers, particularly in America, who take these stories literally and their historical claims very seriously. These readers take a fundamental approach to the scriptures of their faith and declare that the texts were inspired [1] by an omniscient (all-knowing) and omnipotent (all-powerful) supernatural being. They believe that the historical claims made in the Old and New Testaments of the Bible are in essence eyewitness accounts of actual events. Even more so, these eyewitness accounts are not simply believed to be the subjective recollections of random people who just happened to be "in the right place at the right time" and who decided to record these events. The historical claims made in the Bible were written not merely by men with a story to tell but were written by men under direct inspiration by this omniscient, omnipotent deity. In effect, the stories we read in the Bible were written by this deity who used mortal men simply to move the pen through which the deity's words were dictated. As an omniscient deity, this being is in the best possible position to know if an event was a historical fact or if it was a pious fiction. Therefore, believers in the literal truth of the Bible, who believe that the very words of the stories included in their holy book, also believe that any historical claim made in the Bible must be historically accurate.[2] This belief is known as "Biblical Inerrancy". It is the firm belief that the Bible contains no errors (inerrant) of fact: historical fact, scientific fact, or theological fact.

But how prevalent is this belief? In my next article, "Do People Actually Believe This Way?", I will examine if such a literal belief in the historical claims of the Bible is an aberration of Christian belief or more expressive of how many hold their faith.

NOTES

1. Many believers in the literal interpretation of the Bible rely upon 2 Timothy 3:16 to support this view. This verse reads, All scripture is inspired by God and is useful for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness. The Greek word for "inspired" from the original language in which this passage was written is theopneustos and means, literally, "God-breathed." Theos, "God," pneo, "to breathe." In this way, the words of Scripture literally were chosen by God to express exactly what the deity intended. As expressed by Richard W. DeHann in the booklet "How To Recognize A Good Church" from the evangelical Christian television program "Day of Discovery" and found on the website, Gospelcom.Net,

Yes, we believe that 'all Scripture is given by inspiration of God.' In fact, we hold to verbal plenary inspiration...When we speak of verbal inspiration, we mean that the Holy Spirit led the authors of Scripture so meticulously that even the words they used were controlled by Him. He so guided them that they never made a wrong choice. This assures us that the Bible is true in every minute detail. When we say we believe in the plenary inspiration of the Scriptures, we mean that all 66 Bible books are equally inspired...When we affirm our belief in plenary inspiration, we are declaring that the Bible from Genesis to Revelation is inspired of God. Return to text

2. If one begins with the belief that the entire Bible was written by men inspired by an omniscient, omnipotent deity, the logical conclusion one should reach is that the Bible should not contain any factual errors. For an excellent article dealing with the logical consequences of the verbal inspiration of the Hebrew and Christian texts, see Farrell Till's article, "Traditional Biblical Inerrancy." Return to text