Inerrancy: An Ever-Relevant Doctrine, Part 2

By Kenn Chipchase. Read Part 1.

Surrendering Inerrancy Surrenders Inspiration and Authority

It is of great confusion that some who deny inerrancy would still seek to maintain the doctrines of inspiration and authority.¹⁰ How can an errant text be rightly said to be inspired or authoritative? It is fallacious to believe it to be so. A document that certainly contains errors is also certainly uninspired. Assuming the traditional theological understanding of inspiration (that Scripture is breathed out by God and is thus His very Word (2Ti 3:16)), saying that it also contains errors is an affront to God’s character (a point expanded upon below). The doctrine of the inspiration of Scripture by a good and truthful God necessarily demands inerrancy, and therefore a denial of inerrancy necessarily demands a denial of inspiration.

Furthermore, to deny inerrancy is also to deny the authority of the Bible. Why would anyone be obligated to submit to a fallible document of merely human origin? It is logically incongruous to argue that the Bible has authority on the one hand but also affirm that it contains errors on the other. One cannot, or rather should not, be held accountable to a document that is in error.

The present author is convinced that for many individuals, this is the whole point of denying inerrancy. It is common to engage with individuals who have “deconstructed” their faith and hear that a denial of inerrancy was one of the first steps toward a wholesale rejection of biblical truth. If the Bible is fallible, then it has no authority when it speaks to matters they find troublesome. Rejecting inerrancy, therefore, gives them freedom in their mind to pursue whatever sinful lifestyle they choose without feeling guilty that they are violating God’s Word.

This is not to say that everyone’s denial of inerrancy is motivated by such obviously sinful intentions. Yet it must be admitted that once steps are taken toward such a denial there is no reason not to keep moving. The framers of the Chicago Statement were keenly aware of what was at stake as they wrote,

The result of taking this step is that the Bible…loses its authority, and what has authority instead is a Bible reduced in content according to the demands of one’s critical reasonings and in principle reducible still further once one has started. This means at bottom independent reason now has authority, as opposed to Scriptural teaching. If this is not seen and if for the time being basic evangelical doctrines are still held, persons denying the full truth of Scripture… have moved away from the evangelical principle of knowledge to an unstable subjectivism, and will find it hard not to move further.¹¹

While some seek to affirm infallibility, inspiration, and the authority of the Bible while denying inerrancy, their denial undermines their otherwise orthodox affirmations. This position is logically untenable and will eventually collapse in on itself. To surrender inerrancy necessarily surrenders inspiration and authority as well.

A Denial of Inerrancy Is a Denial of God’s Nature and Character

As noted above, if someone desires to affirm the doctrines of inspiration and authority of the Bible and yet denies its inerrancy, that is less of a statement about the nature of the text and more about the nature and character of the God who inspired it.

A denial of inerrancy is either a statement about a lack in God’s power (He was not able to keep the human authors from making mistakes as they wrote), God’s knowledge or competency (He Himself erred as He inspired the text), or God’s goodness (He is not truthful or honest). In any case, this is perilous ground.

Scripture is most fundamentally God’s self-revelation to mankind, and in His Word, He declares that He is absolute perfection (Ps 18:30; Mt 5:48) and truth (Nu 23:19; 1Sa 15:29; Jn 14:6; Tit 1:2; Heb 6:18). If inerrancy is false, then all those Scripture texts (and more) are false and God is not to be trusted, followed, or worshiped. Indeed, one could say that He is not even God! This logically leads to a wholesale rejection of all of Scripture; why care about any of it if its Author is not to be trusted?

It is unmistakably clear one’s view of Scripture is not just about Scripture, but it reveals an entire worldview. In an essay found in The Foundation of Biblical Authority, J.I. Packer wrote,

…when you encounter a present-day view of Holy Scripture, you encounter more than a view of Scripture. What you meet is a total view of God and the world, that is, a total theology, which is both an ontology, declaring what there is, and an epistemology, stating how we know what there is. This is necessarily so, for a theology is a seamless robe, a circle within which everything links up with everything else through its common grounding in God. Every view of Scripture, in particular, proves on analysis to be bound up with an overall view of God and man.¹²

As Packer observes, one’s view of Scripture does not and cannot exist in a vacuum. One’s understanding of God, mankind, and the entire world around them is bound up in how they understand the Bible. To deny or affirm inerrancy reflects upon the nature of God because it must necessarily do so. It is His book. What one believes about it, they believe about God. If one cares about the nature of God, they will care about how they understand His revelation and how that is communicated to others.

Conclusion

From the very beginning, the enemy’s primary tactic has been the same: “Did God actually say…” (Ge 3:1)? If he can get humanity to doubt or reject God’s Word, the rest unravels from there.

So, is it worth worrying about inerrancy today? That all depends. Is it worth it to pursue a faithful proclamation of God’s truth? Is it worth it to care about the nature of the Scriptures as inspired and authoritative? Is it worth it to care about God’s nature and character? If the answer is yes to any of those questions, there is no other option than to care about inerrancy. The enemy has not stopped his ploys, and as long as he roams about to steal, kill, and destroy, God’s people must be on guard against attacks on the truthfulness and trustworthiness of the entirety of God’s Word.

“We affirm that what Scripture says, God says. May He be glorified. Amen and Amen.”¹³