Bible - Necessity, Inerrancy

THEOLOGY FOR EVERYONE

God, the Bible, and Man       Wk 3 - Characteristics of Scripture

• Characteristics of Scripture

  • Necessity

  • Inerrancy

  • Authority

  • Clarity

  • Sufficiency

• Definition of Necessity of Scripture

  • “The necessity of Scripture means that the Bible is necessary for knowing the gospel, for maintaining spiritual life, and for knowing God’s will” - special revelation (Romans 10:13-17)

  • “But it is not necessary for knowing that God exists or for knowing something about God’s character and moral laws.” - general revelation

• General Revelation

  • General Revelation is the revelation of God through the created natural world and through our consciences which God has placed in us. It is always available to all humanity

  • Through creation we know God exists, He is powerful, He is greater than us, and we are responsible to Him (Rom. 1:18-20; Ps. 19:1-2)

  • Through our conscience we know God’s moral demands on us and our failure to keep them (Rom. 2:14-15; 1:32)

  • General Revelation is not sufficient for salvation only for condemnation

• Special Revelation

  • The Bible is necessary for knowledge of the gospel

    • The gospel is that eternal salvation comes only through faith in Jesus Christ (Acts 4:12)

    • How were believers in the Old Testament saved?

      • They had a forward-looking faith based on God’s promise that a redeemer would come (Heb. 11:13; John 8:56; Gal. 3:8)

    • Can other people be saved who do not have access to this special revelation of God?

  • The Bible is necessary for maintaining and growing in spiritual life. (Matt. 4:4; 1 Pet. 2:2)

  • The Bible is necessary for certain knowledge of God’s will.

    • Because of sin, all of man’s reasoning about God’s will is unreliable (Jer. 17:9)

    • Therefore the Bible is necessary so that we can have clear and definite statements about God’s will. (Deut. 29:29; John 14:21, 1 Thess. 4:1-8)

• Definition of Inerrancy of Scripture

  • The inerrancy or Scripture means that Scripture in the original manuscripts does not affirm anything that is contrary to fact.

  • If the Bible is the Word of God and if God speaks wholly truthfully, then the Bible speaks wholly truthfully (Prov. 30:5; Num. 23:19)

• Clarifications about Inerrancy

  • The Bible can be inerrant and still speak in the ordinary language of everyday speech such as figures of speech, round numbers, describing things as they appear, etc. Inerrancy has to do with truthfulness not with the degree of precision. (2 Sam. 8:4; 1 Cor. 10:4)

  • The Bible can be inerrant and still include loose or free quotations (Matt. 26:26 and Luke 22:19)

• Some Current Challenges to Inerrancy

  • The Bible is only authoritative for “faith and practice.”

  • We have no inerrant manuscripts; therefore, talk about an inerrant Bible is misleading. (1 Sam. 13:1; 2 Samuel 21:19 and 1 Chronicles 20:5)

• Problems with denying Inerrancy

  • If we deny inerrancy, a serious moral problem confronts us: May we imitate God and intentionally lie in small matters also?

  • If inerrancy is denied, we begin to wonder if we can really trust God in anything he says.

  • If we deny inerrancy, we essentially make our own human minds a higher standard of truth than God’s word itself.

  • If we deny inerrancy, then we must also say that the Bible is wrong not only in minor details but in some of its doctrines as well.