“The Authority and Inerrancey of the Bible.”
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Welcome Everyone:
Announcements:
-This Wednesday Night.
-Christmas Eve Service.
-Sunday Morning.
Begin with Prayer:
We have a lot to cover tonight and will not have time to discuss everything, however we will focus on the major questions that are asked.
Again as I explained over the last several weeks there are some major assumptions that we must consider as we begin to do a systemized study of theology.
God’s Word is infallible. God’s Word is without error. God’s Word is 100% true and for us as believers it is our absolute standard for truth. In fact, what we hold in our hands are God’s very own words for us. Throughout God’s Word we see many other standards to which we are to live by.
The second assumption is that the God of the very same Bible that we believer in does exist. God is the creator of all things not only here on earth but also in heaven. Now of course there are many other things that we hold to and believe in, but these two things are essential to know and believe as we begin to study doctrine and theology.
The main reason that most writers begin their systematic study with the word of God is because if you do not believe in God or that God’s Word is infallible than you will really have a difficult time with everything else that we will learn in theology. So, we must begin here first.
When we come to the study of God’s Word there are several questions that we may wrestle with. How do we know that the Bible is God’s Word? Why not the Book of Mormon or the Koran? Are there any errors in the Bible? Is the Bible enough? Do we need to add too it or take away from it? Whats the purpose of it, and is it necessary for life?
Question Number One = Defend the following statement, “All the words of Scripture are God’s Words.” (Page 21-25)
This statement is what is meant by the authority of Scripture. If we disbelieve or disobey any word or any part of Scripture this means that we are disobeying God.
The Bible claims that all its Words are God’s Words!
This is often seen throughout the Old Testament when the prophets would proclaim, “Thus says the Lord.” The prophets were claiming to be messengers from the sovereign King of Israel, namely God himself, and they are also claiming that their words are the absolute authoritative words of God. When a prophet would proclaim thus says the Lord whatever they said had to be true otherwise they would be a false prophet.
38 Balaam said to Balak, “Behold, I have come to you! Have I now any power of my own to speak anything? The word that God puts in my mouth, that must I speak.”
9 Then the Lord put out his hand and touched my mouth. And the Lord said to me,
“Behold, I have put my words in your mouth.
God is often said to speak through or by the prophet.
18 And all Israel buried him and mourned for him, according to the word of the Lord, which he spoke by his servant Ahijah the prophet.
2 But neither he nor his servants nor the people of the land listened to the words of the Lord that he spoke through Jeremiah the prophet.
In the New Testament, a number of passages tell us that all of the Old Testament writings are thought of as God’s Words.
16 All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness,
Paul here affirms to us that all the Old Testament writings are (theopneustos) which means breathed out by God. Of course the Lord used human agents to write down what He told them through and by the Holy Spirit.
21 For no prophecy was ever produced by the will of man, but men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit.
Question Number Two = What is meant by the idea that the words of Scripture are “self attesting?” Page (26-27)
The fact that you and I are convinced that the words of Scripture are the words of God as we read the Bible on our own or even as we come to church and hear them preached or taught on means that the words of Scripture are “self attesting.”
If we make it our ultimate appeal to use human logic or even scientific truth to prove that the Bible is God’s Word, then we assume the thing to which we appeal like our own logic or reasoning is a higher authority than God’s Word. Therefore the ultimate authority by which Scripture is shown as God’s Word must be Scripture itself. We compare scripture with other scripture.
*Explain the Circular Reasoning Argument!
Question Number Three = How can we know that God’s Words are truthful? (Pages 30-32)
1. God cannot lie or speak falsely. If we think that some parts of Scripture are not true, we of course will not be able to believe any part is true. The truthfulness of God’s speech.
2 in hope of eternal life, which God, who never lies, promised before the ages began
18 so that by two unchangeable things, in which it is impossible for God to lie, we who have fled for refuge might have strong encouragement to hold fast to the hope set before us.
2. Therefore we would say that all the Words of Scripture are completely true and without error in any part. Since the words of the Bible are God’s words, and since God cannot lie or speak falsely, it is correct to conclude that there is no untruthfulness or error in any part of the words of Scripture.
6 The words of the Lord are pure words,
like silver refined in a furnace on the ground,
purified seven times.
5 Every word of God proves true;
he is a shield to those who take refuge in him.
3. God’s Words are the ultimate standard of truth.
17 Sanctify them in the truth; your word is truth.
God’s Word is not simply true, but it is truth itself!
What then is truth? Truth is what God says, and we have what God says accurately but not exhaustively in the Bible.
*Explain Pluralism and Postmodernism definitions.
Might there ever be some new fact that contradicts the Bible? This in fact is impossible.
Question Number Four = Define the term inerrancy and discuss how this idea can be consistent with the Bible’s use of the language or ordinary, everyday speech.
The inerrancy of Scripture means that Scripture in the original manuscripts does not affirm anything which is contrary to fact. The definition in simple terms just means that the Bible always tells the truth and that it always tells the truth concerning everything it talks about.
So, the Bible can be inerrant and still speak in the ordinary language of everyday speech. The bible can speak of the sun rising and the rain falling because from the perspective of the speaker this is exactly what happens. The sun does rise and the rain does fall.
The Bible can be inerrant and still include loose or free quotations. The method by which one person quotes the words of another person is a procedure that in large part varies from culture to culture.
Question Number Five = List and respond to three objections to the concept of the inerrancy of Scripture.
1. The Bible is only authoritative for faith and practice. One of the most frequent objections to inerrancy is raised by those who say that the purpose of Scripture is to teach us in areas that concern faith and practice only. This would mean that it only covers areas directly related to our religious faith or to our ethical conduct. This position would allow for the possibility of false statements in Scripture. The example here is other areas such as in minor historical or scientific facts.
14 But this I confess to you, that according to the Way, which they call a sect, I worship the God of our fathers, believing everything laid down by the Law and written in the Prophets,
4 For whatever was written in former days was written for our instruction, that through endurance and through the encouragement of the Scriptures we might have hope.
2. The term inerrancy is a poor term. People say that the term inerrancy is too precise and that in ordinary usage it denotes a a kind of absolute scientific precision that we do not want to claim for Scripture. They would also say that the word inerrancy is not used in the bible, therefore we cannot insist that the term is appropriate.
3. We have no inerrant manuscripts; therefore, talk about an inerrant Bible is misleading. Many say that inerrancy has always been claimed for the first or original manuscripts but none of those have survived. We have only copies of what Moses or Paul or Peter wrote. In objection to this we could use the analogy from American history of the U.S. Constitution.
Question Number Six = Name four possible problems that may result from a denial of biblical inerrancy.
1. If we deny inerrancy, a serious moral problem confronts us. May we imitate God and intentionally lie in small matters also?
1 Therefore be imitators of God, as beloved children.
We are to be imitators of God, but if we deny inerrancy that means God intentionally spoke falsely to us in some of the less central affirmations of Scripture.
2. If inerrancy is denied, we begin to wonder if we can really trust God in anything he says. Once we become convinced that God has spoken falsely to us in some minor matters in Scripture, then we realize that God is capable of speaking falsely to us.
3. If we deny inerrancy, we essentially make our own human minds a higher standard of truth than God’s Word itself. We use our minds to pass judgment on some sections of God’s Word and pronounce them to be in error. But this is in effect to say that we know truth more certainly and more accurately than God’s Word does (or than God does), at least in these areas. What we do here is make our own minds to be a higher standard of truth than God’s Word, is the root of all intellectual sin.
4. If we deny inerrancy, we must also say that the Bible is wrong not only in minor details but in some of its doctrines as well. A denial of inerrancy means that we say that the Bible’s teaching about the nature of Scripture and about the truthfulness and reliability of God’s words is also false.
