SUNDAY SCHOOL LESSON

A few weeks ago we were looking at the doctrine of scripture and considering what it means when we say that scripture is “inspired.” This means that ultimately, we understand that scripture came not from human authors, but from God himself, leading by His Holy Spirit in the creation of scripture. If we accept divine inspiration, there is at least one more doctrine that naturally must follow and that is the doctrine of inerrancy.

“Inerrancy” is a loaded word. In my own denomination it is a word that has been argued about, for and against, since before I was born. It is a word that can make even me very uncomfortable. It is, after all, a negative word, a word that is all about what it is against, error, and not what it is for, truth. Recently, in doing some reading about the doctrine of inerrancy, I found a quote from the esteemed conservative Anglican theologian, the late J.I. Packer in which he likewise states, “I am not fond of the word ‘inerrancy.’ It is negative in form, and I like to sound positive.” To have such a robust defender of the actual doctrine of inerrancy express the same sort of reservations that I have made me feel as if I was not out in left field!

But what, exactly, do we mean when we use this word “inerrancy” and if it is so controversial is there not a better word to use? At its most basic level, inerrancy means that scripture is without error, or as my confession of faith, the Baptist Faith and Message, states it, scripture is “truth without any mixture of error.”

Taking that scripture is God’s Word, then the contents of that Word must be reflective of that character of God. Numbers 23:19 is one verse that gives us a little insight into this character of God: “God is not man, that he should lie, nor a son of man, that he should change his mind.” The author of Hebrews, referencing Malachi 3:6, tells us that God is unchanging, steady, and in fact “is the same yesterday, today, and forever” (Hebrews 13:8).

We often like to say that God is capable of anything, but this is not in fact true. God is not capable of lying, deceiving, or being inconsistent. While these are all faults that we might find universally in human character, they are totally foreign to God’s character and as such it is not possible for God to do those things.

Thus, if we see that God has inspired scripture, that it must be true, reliable, and trustworthy, just as He is. Of course, scripture contains language that is intended by God to be metaphorical and figurative. A great example of this is the parables of Jesus. When Jesus tells us that a man had two sons, he is not telling us that there really was a man who had two sons. Rather he is using a certain genre, in this case parable, to teach.

The other thing that we need to be aware of in scripture is that some of the language that is used is what we might call “phenomenological” meaning it is language that is used to describe human experience of certain phenomena. One example that we all use of this kind of language is when we say, “the sun rises in the east.” Now, we all know that the sun does not in fact rise, but that is how, as humans, we experience the rotation of the earth and how we describe it. When we see this sort of language in scripture, we must understand it and not seek to take it literally.

An understanding that scripture is “truth without any mixture of error” is an inevitable conclusion when we understand that God is the author, and that scripture must be a reflection of His unerring, steady character. The question that follows then becomes one of authority of the scripture in the lives of believers.

S. Carter McNeese lives in Fairmont with his wife, sons and various pets. He is pastor at Fairmont First Baptist Church. You can reach him at [email protected] .