The Scriptures Affirm Its Own Inerrancy (Doctrinal Bible Church in Huntsville, Alabama)
Doctrinal Bible Church
Pastor-Teacher Bill Wenstrom
Wednesday March 29, 2023
Inerrancy: The Scriptures Affirm Their Own Inerrancy
Lesson # 3
The doctrine of inerrancy originates with the Scripture itself because it claims to be inspired by God (2 Timothy 3:16; 2 Peter 1:20-21).
2 Timothy 3:16 All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, 17 so that the servant of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work. (NIV)
The writers of the Old Testament also testify to the doctrine of inerrancy and they do so explicitly by claiming they were speaking the Word of God.
The Old Testament claims 3,808 times to be communicating the very words of God (see Deuteronomy 4:2; Psalm 19:7; 2 Samuel 23:2; Isaiah 1:2; Jeremiah 1:7-9; Ezra 2:7; 3:4).
Dan Story writes “When we turn to examine the Old Testament, we find inerrancy supported throughout. Texts such as Exodus 4:10–15, Deuteronomy 18:18, 2 Samuel 23:2, and Jeremiah 1:9 tell us that God selected certain individuals, called “prophets,” to speak His Word. Some were selected even before they were born (see Jer. 1:5; Luke 1:11–15, John the Baptist is considered the last of the Old Testament prophets). These men were God’s mouthpieces. What they spoke was what God wanted communicated. The prophets themselves recognized that they conveyed God’s words, not their own (e.g., Jer. 30:2). As God’s mouthpieces, they must have spoken inerrantly because God would not have allowed them to speak error in His name. Not only did God select His spokespersons, but, to ensure that His words were passed on to future generations accurately, He commanded His prophets to record them (Exod. 34:27–28; Isa. 8:1; Jer. 30:2). Now why would God select His own mouthpieces and command them to write His words, then allow them to record error? God instructed these same prophets to preserve the recorded Word and pass it on as an everlasting testimony (Exod. 17:14; 40:20; Deut. 10:5; 31:24–26; Isa. 30:8; Hab. 2:2). In Romans 15:4, the apostle Paul states that ‘whatever was written in earlier times was written for our instruction, that through perseverance and the encouragement of the Scriptures we might have hope’ (NASV). If God insisted that the Old Testament be recorded and preserved for future instruction, we can be certain that God would have prevented the contamination of error. Or consider Psalms 105 and 106. In these and other passages, the human authors recall historical events from Israel’s past. These texts are examples of the Old Testament validating its own historicity. The Old Testament was written over a thousand-year time span. When newer books in the Old Testament acknowledge historical events in older books, it shows that the later authors believed in the historical inerrancy of the older books. The Psalms noted above were written hundreds of years after the events they acknowledge occurred. The psalmists praise God for the plagues on Egypt that resulted in their people’s release from bondage and for parting the Red Sea during their exodus. Obviously, the Israelites alive at the time Psalms 105 and 106 were written did not consider these events as myths or legends. If the Old Testament writers did not believe in the inerrancy of the Old Testament (their Bible), it would be meaningless for them to recount historical data as factual. It’s beyond doubt, then, that the Old Testament claims to be inerrant, and the Israelites accepted it as so. It was written by individuals personally selected by God and instructed in what to write, how to record it, and how to preserve it. It contains not only spiritual truths (matters of faith) and moral truths (matters of practice) but also trustworthy historical facts.”
The New Testament writers also bear witness to the fact that in the Old Testament God was speaking (see Matthew 1:22; Luke 1:70; Mark 12:36; Romans 7:12; Hebrews 4:12; James 1:22-25; 4:5; Revelation 22:18-19).
Passages such as 2 Timothy 3:15, 2 Peter 1:21, and 1 Thessalonians 2:13 echo what the Old Testament teaches: all of Scripture is inspired by God, the Holy Spirit superintended the writing of Scripture, and the Bible contains the words of God, not of men.
2 Timothy 3:16 Each and every portion of Scripture does possess, as an eternal spiritual truth the characteristic of being God-breathed. Consequently, it does possess, as an eternal spiritual truth the characteristic of being useful for teaching, for conviction, for correction, for training which is related to righteousness. 17 The purpose of which is that the person belonging to God (the Father) would possess the characteristic of being competent, specifically, by equipping for every kind of action which is divine good in quality and character. (Pastor’s translation)
1 Thessalonians 2:13 Now, because of this, each one of us always makes it our habit of giving thanks to the one and only God, namely that, when each one of you received a message originating from this God which was obediently heard from each one of us, each one of you for your own benefit never received it as a message originating from human beings. On the contrary, for your own benefit, you accepted it as truly being a message originating from God, which for His own benefit, is also working in each one of you who are believers. (Pastor’s translation)
These texts also lay a foundation for other New Testament passages that teach biblical inerrancy.
The apostles acknowledged that the Old Testament authors wrote under the authority of the Holy Spirit (Acts 1:16; 4:24–25).
The New Testament writers also acknowledged that what they wrote originated with God, not with them (1 Cor. 14:37; 2 Pet. 1:21).
2 Peter 1:20 Above all, you must understand that no prophecy of Scripture came about by the prophet’s own interpretation of things. 21 For prophecy never had its origin in the human will, but prophets, though human, spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit. (NIV)
Jesus Christ Himself bore witness to the Scripture and specifically confirmed the whole of the Old Testament.
He did not find one error or inconsistency in it.
He continually based His teaching and arguments and exhortations on it (Matthew 5:18; John 10:35; Luke 24:44).
He referred to many Old Testament persons and events, and thus bore testimony to the historicity, authenticity and authority of the Old Testament.
Interestingly, Jesus testified to the historicity on some of the events and miracles of the Old Testament which have always been under greatest question by the critics.
He approved the account of the following:
(1) Creation and marriage (Matthew 19:5)
(2) The Deluge and Noah’s ark (Luke 17:26-27)
(3) The destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah (Luke 17:28-29)
(4) The destruction of Tyre and Sidon (Matthew 11:21-22)
(5) Circumcision (John 7:22)
(6) The Passover (Matthew 26:2)
(7) The Law (John 7:19)
(8) The Commandments (Matthew 19:7–9)
(9) The Jewish law of divorce (Matthew 19:7–9)
(10) The fact of the burning bush (Mark 12:26)
(11) The type of Jonah and the great fish (Matthew 12:40)
(12) The repentance of Ninevah (Matthew 12:41)
(13) The glory of Solomon (Matthew 6:29)
(14) The wisdom of Solomon (Matthew 12:42)
(15) The Feast of Tabernacles (John 7)
(16) David eating the shewbread (Matthew 12:3)
(17) The priests profaning the Sabbath (Matthew 12:5)
(18) The heavens shut up in Elijah’s day (Luke 4:25)
(19) The story of Naaman the leper (Luke 4:27)
(20) The record of the brazen serpent (John 3:14-15)
(21) The murder of Abel and Zacharias (Matthew 23:35)
(22) The mission of Messiah (Luke 4:16-21)
(23) The mission of John the Baptist (Matthew 17:10-13)
(24) The mission of Elias-Matthew 17:10-13)
(25) Daniel and his great prophecy (Matthew 24:15-16).
Story again writes “The most compelling evidence supporting the inerrancy of the Bible is the testimony of Jesus Christ. To all Christians, Jesus is God and the final and supreme authority in all things. If this is true, then His opinion on the inerrancy of Scripture must be accepted as truth. Jesus believed and taught that the Hebrew Bible was inerrant, not only in matters of faith and practice, but in its prophetic, historical, geographical, and scientific data. Jesus also predicted the writing of the New Testament under the power of the Holy Spirit, therefore putting a stamp of approval on its inerrancy.”