The “inerrantist” position should be rejected on many grounds, the first being that it levels the Bible into incoherence. If every verse of the Bible is “perfect,” and since there can be no gradations of “perfection”—there is no such thing as one perfect thing being “more perfect” than another perfect thing—then all the verses of the Bible are equally “perfect.”
If every verse is perfect, then Leviticus 3: 16 would be equal in perfection to John 3: 16. I’m sorry, but Leviticus 3: 16 (“…all fat is the Lord’s…”) does not rank with God so loving the world that he gave his only Son.
Secondly, the Bible itself does not support “inerrancy.” There is no passage which says so. Yes, 2 Timothy 3: 16 does indeed say that “all scripture is God-breathed” or “inspired by God.” The problem is that “inspired” or “God-breathed,” while indeed a “high” view, is not the same thing as “inerrant.”
Most every Christian tradition believes the Bible to be “inspired,” which means, as 2 Timothy 3: 16 says, that scripture is “God-breathed,” that it has its origin in God, that God’s life-infusing, breath-infusing Spirit comes to us through its message. (The second Timothy passage goes on to say that scripture is “useful” for certain things, i.e. “teaching, reproof, correction, and training in righteousness,” but not necessarily as a textbook of history or science.)
Third, if the Bible is fact upon fact, all of which are crystal clear, why is it, then, that fundamentalists don’t agree with each other? You have Calvinistic fundamentalists, and Arminian fundamentalists, even the occasional Catholic fundamentalist, each one with a certain view of the so-called dispensation, or the so-called rapture, or this or that.
If the Bible is crystal clear fact upon crystal clear fact, then why don’t all fundamentalists agree on these matters? Why don’t even some of them agree? (There are some 26,000 “Bible-believing” denominations in North America alone.)
Fourth, the language of “inerrantists” is laden with words like “evidence” and “proof.” Which is curious—curious because great emphasis is placed on extra-biblical evidence to support the biblical account. Archaeology, history, and other disciplines are often cited to show that the biblical event could have actually happened exactly as written. Since it could have happened that way, it must have happened that way.
That's one jump, and then there's another: All this is said to support—indeed, prove—the “truth” of the Bible. Faced with this “proof,” the person can do nothing other than submit to it, or reject it. (A popular book in evangelical circles is titled Evidence Which Demands a Verdict.)
This would equate “faith” with losing an argument, which is not how faith works in my experience. Faith is not so much an intellectual assent to certain propositions, nor is it the evaluation of evidence. The meaning of pisteuein (faith) is not “beliefs about Christ” but rather “trusting in Christ,” which is a very different thing, most notably a response of the entire person, not merely the person’s mind or intellect. Faith comes by revelation and witness, not reason and “proof.”
Fifth, “inerrantists” confuse the message with the messenger. Put another way, if Sports Illustrated has a cover story on San Francisco Giants pitcher, Tim Lincecum, that doesn’t mean that Sports Illustrated is Tim Lincecum. It means that Sports Illustrated wants to convey Tim Lincecum to its readers.
Similarly, Luther called the Bible the Word of God because it conveyed the Word of God, with the understanding, of course, that Christ is the Word of God. The Bible brings the Word of God (Christ). It is not the Word itself. As Luther put it, Christ is the Word of God, and the Bible is the manger that lifts him up. The manger, however, should not be confused with the child.
Sixth, an “inerrant” Bible is untraditional. The word didn’t even exist prior to the 19th century. There is nothing about an inerrant Bible in the classical statements of the Christian faith, the Apostles’ and Nicene Creeds, and no church body had an inerrant Bible as part of its statement of faith until the 19th century, in reaction to Darwin's theory of evolution.
Yes, one can find many quotations from the early and medieval church that affirm the truth of the Bible. The authors of these quotations, however, would likely not support the entire package of beliefs represented by modern fundamentalism. Many early and medieval theologians considered the deepest Biblical truths to be allegorical, a view that certainly would not (or should not) pass muster with modern-day inerrantists.
One of my fundamentalist friends recently found a quote from Luther—“scripture cannot err”—which he all but waved in my face. I don’t doubt that Luther believed just that, but he certainly did not mean it in the sense that modern fundamentalists mean it. Luther could be quite free in his interpretation of texts, and thought that two whole books—James and Revelation—shouldn’t even be in the Bible. No fundamentalist could ever advocate removing two “perfect” books.
Seventh, fundamentalists start with a highly ideological point of view, and tend to interpret the Bible so that it meshes with their ideology, which is the supposed “historical perfection” of the Bible. Take the book of Genesis, for example. It assumes a view of the universe with the earth in the center. Moreover, it assumes a worldwide flood which covered the entire earth. Adam and Eve really were the first human beings, according to inerrantist interpretation, and they really lived in a garden where they chatted with God, “in the cool of evening,” on a regular basis. It assumes that the earth is young, and that snakes could talk.
The scientific evidence is, of course, incontrovertibly overwhelming that the earth is really billions of years old. Implicitly granting that science has a point, many conservative and evangelical dogmaticians now call themselves “old earth creationist,” meaning that they believe that, yes, the world is old, and that the “days” referred to in Genesis 1 are not really 24 hours days, but really mean eras or epochs. (Hodge and Warfield, the founders of modern American fundamentalism, adopted this position.)
Genesis 1 is “inerrant,” in other words, until we get into a position where something has to give, which is when we switch to symbol and metaphor. Fundamentalists can be quite comfortable with moving back and forth between a literal and non-literal reading so long as it makes the Bible come out “right”—meaning, supportive of the fundamentalist ideological position.
Eighth, it is patently obvious that belief in “inerrancy” is not necessary to be a Christian. The foremost Christian apologist of the 20th century, C.S. Lewis, did not believe in scriptural inerrancy, nor did one of that century's most famous martyrs, Dietrich Bonhoeffer.
Also, for the first 1500 years of Christian history, hardly anyone could read anything, let alone the Bible. Even if the scriptures are “inerrant,” how much difference would that make to anybody if they couldn’t read them in the first place?
Ninth, consider the question: How does one receive revelation from God? Inerrantists say that God speaks in truthful propositions. God speaks certain truth statements to humanity which certain appointed intermediaries wrote down and passed on to us. Since these words come from God--al beit rather indirectly--they are nonetheless perfect and are to be obeyed.
If every verse of the Bible is perfect, then it would make some sense to use the Bible as a “rule book” or an “instruction book,” straight from God, which tells you what to do, or more likely, what not to do. You look in a Concordance for every reference to, say, “smoking,” and then look up what the Bible says—the rule, in other words—regarding smoking. There you have it!
To me, that is not how we receive revelation. God is not revealed so much through “truth propositions” uttered to intermediaries long ago. God is, rather, constantly revealing himself everywhere, every second of every day, through God’s actions in our lives and in our world. God “upholds the universe with his word of power,” says Hebrews 1.
The entire universe is here, this second, because God is, this second, creating it. The entire universe is God’s theater of action. God is not limited to words. Most of the time, we miss what God is doing in the world, but sometimes we don’t. Sometimes, God breaks through into our awareness, sometimes through the scriptures, sometimes through other means, but, in any case, the experience seems to be more expansive than limiting, more Spirit than letter.
Tenth, one of the biggest problems with inerrancy is that it gives too much support to hierarchical authority. The Bible is a complex book. Sometimes it seems contradictory. Sometimes it seems abstruse and esoteric. Sometimes it seems conflicted. Fundamentalist interpreters claim to understand it all, which gives the interpreters themselves an aura of inerrancy. This can be a very dangerous situation, especially in the church, and is to be avoided.
I can agree that it is not inerrant, but it is still authoritative in matters of faith and life. Would you agree?
Posted by: Tony | January 12, 2014 at 07:04 AM
Very good post John. If I may, I would suggest that even further unpacking og 2 Tim. 3:16 is in order and strengthens your case even more: http://nailtothedoor.com/some-of-what-i-believe-today-%e2%80%93-biblical-interpretation/
Posted by: Dan Martin | January 13, 2014 at 06:26 AM
Tony: Yes, "authoritative" is a good word.
Dan: Excellent article. Thanks for sharing.
Posted by: John Petty | January 14, 2014 at 04:18 PM