Condensed Theology

A Primer in Systematic Theology

Bibliology: The Doctrine of Scripture

What does the Bible teach about itself?

Where Were Going

Six lessons on the Bible Addressing the following subjects:
Revelation & Inspiration Authority Sufficiency Unity Necessity Power Truthfulness Inerrancy Infallibility Clarity Illumination Hermeneutics Grammatico-historical exegesis Canonical interpretation Redemptive-historical interpretation Canonicity

The Truthfulness of Scripture

Understanding Inerrancy

Defining Inerrancy
Coming to terms

Defining Inerrancy
Inerrancy and infallibility Brief history of the terminological shift Working definition: When we say that the Bible is inerrant, we are saying that in the autographs, it is absolutely true in all it affirms and utterly incapable of conveying falsehood or error.

Biblical Evidence for Inerrancy

Inerrancy Cannot Be Proved

We cannot prove that the Bible is true in any sense, much less in the absolute sense How do we prove that it is true that Jesus is in heaven interceding for the saints? How do we prove that it is true that Jesus is coming again? This does not mean, however, that inerrancy cannot be demonstrated from the Bible

Inferences for Inerrancy

From inspiration From the character of God

Inference from Inspiration

2 Tim 3:16: All Scripture is inspired by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness; so that the man of God may be adequate, equipped for every good work. 2 Pet 1:20-21: But know this first of all, that no prophecy of Scripture is a matter of one's own interpretation, for no prophecy was ever made by an act of human will, but men moved by the Holy Spirit spoke from God. If the Scripture is God-breathed, then it must be absolutely true

Inference from the Character of God

Num 23:19: God is not a man, that He should lie, Nor a son of man, that He should repent; Has He said, and will He not do it? Or has He spoken, and will He not make it good? 2 Sam 7:28: Now, O Lord GOD, You are God, and Your words are truth, and You have promised this good thing to Your servant.

Inference from the Character of God

Titus 1:2: in the hope of eternal life, which God, who cannot lie, promised long ages ago. Heb 6:18: so that by two unchangeable things in which it is impossible for God to lie, we who have taken refuge would have strong encouragement to take hold of the hope set before us.

Inference from the Character of God

The inference from the character of God is inextricably linked with the inference from inspiration We may summarize this with the following syllogism: God is always truthful in all that he does God is the author and source of Scripture Therefore Scripture is always truthful

Explicit Biblical Teaching Concerning Inerrancy: OT

Ps 19:7-9: The law of the LORD is perfect, restoring the soul; The testimony of the LORD is sure, making wise the simple. The precepts of the LORD are right, rejoicing the heart; The commandment of the LORD is pure, enlightening the eyes. The fear of the LORD is clean, enduring forever; The judgments of the LORD are true; they are righteous altogether.

Explicit Biblical Teaching Concerning Inerrancy: OT

Ps 119:86: All Your commandments are faithful; They have persecuted me with a lie; help me! Ps 119:138: You have commanded Your testimonies in righteousness And exceeding faithfulness. Ps 119:142: Your righteousness is an everlasting righteousness, And Your law is truth.

Explicit Biblical Teaching Concerning Inerrancy: OT

Ps 119:144: Your testimonies are righteous forever; Give me understanding that I may live. Ps 119:151: You are near, O LORD, And all Your commandments are truth. Ps 119:160: The sum of Your word is truth, And every one of Your righteous ordinances is everlasting.

Explicit Biblical Teaching Concerning Inerrancy: NT

John 10:35: If he called them gods, to whom the word of God came (and the Scripture cannot be broken) John 17:17: Sanctify them in the truth; Your word is truth. Matt 5:18: For truly I say to you, until heaven and earth pass away, not the smallest letter or stroke shall pass from the Law until all is accomplished.

Explicit Biblical Teaching Concerning Inerrancy: NT

Rom 3:4: May it never be! Rather, let God be found true, though every man be found a liar, as it is written, That you may be justified in your words, and prevail when you are judged. Notice the connection between the truthfulness of God and the Scripture

Defining Inerrancy in Terms of the Phenomena of Scripture

Appealing to the Phenomena of Scripture

A biblical doctrine of inerrancy must take into account the phenomena of Scripture itself The Bible that we do have is inerrant, thus we must define the limits and extent of that inerrancy by the Bible itself The Bible that we have is the Bible that God inspired. As a result, it is this Bible (with all its qualities) that is wholly truthful (inerrant).

Appealing to the Phenomena of Scripture

Put negatively, we must not evaluate inerrancy on the basis of standards that fail to recognize this phenomena such as a lack of modern technical precision, perceived irregularities of grammar or spelling, observational descriptions of nature, the use of hyperbole and round numbers, the topical arrangement of material, variant selections of material in parallel accounts and the use of free citations.[1]
[1] Robert L Reymond, A New Systematic Theology of the Christian Faith (Nashville: Thomas Nelson Publishers, 1998), 71.

Appealing to the Phenomena of Scripture

Precision and inerrancy Science and inerrancy History and inerrancy Grammar and inerrancy

Precision and Inerrancy

Precision and Inerrancy

God has given us his word in the words of men (remember concursive inspiration) 2 Pet 1:21: for no prophecy was ever made by an act of human will, but men moved by the Holy Spirit spoke from God.

Precision and Inerrancy

The limits of truthfulness depend on the degree of precision implied by the speaker and expected by his or her original audience. Consider three statements:
Pastor Bobs house is around the corner from the church building. Pastor Bobs house is 4 miles from the church building. Pastor Bobs house is 4.21 miles from the church building.

Are any of these statements false? If my house were 10 miles from the church building, then at least the last two would be false. But given that the information is correct, then we may say that none of them are necessarily untrue. It all depends upon what is the intention of each sentence and how it is used.

Precision and Inerrancy

Our three statements: Pastor Bobs house is around the corner from the church building. Pastor Bobs house is 4 miles from the church building. Pastor Bobs house is 4.21 miles from the church building.
Language can be vague or imprecise without being untrue. To say that I live a little four miles from the ministries building is vague and imprecise, but it is also inerrant; there is nothing false about it. Since questions like, How far from the church do you live? are asked with an expectation of approximation, the vague and imprecise answers of the first two statements are inerrant.

Precision and Inerrancy

Our three statements: Pastor Bobs house is around the corner from the church building. Pastor Bobs house is 4 miles from the church building. Pastor Bobs house is 4.21 miles from the church building.
If, however, I am (hypothetically) required to figure mileage for tax purposes to the hundredth place, and I were to submit the second sentence to the IRS, then I would not be truthful (and Id be cheating myself out of my own money!). But if a guest asked me how far from the church my home was, and I said, Four miles, and then he or she calculated the mileage to be 4.21 mi., they would not feel misled. For the underlying subtext of our conversation was one of approximation, not precision.

Precision and Inerrancy

Lets say your wife asks, What happened during your day today? Furthermore, you answer by moving from one event to the next out of chronological, would your response function to distort the truthfulness of the events? No, exactly the opposite. With the constraints before you, it is how you must converse. If you were to do otherwise it might actually give the wrong impression. Limitations of time and human language cause us to judge what is false and true in the framework of what may be expected an individual.

Precision and Inerrancy

Is an impressionistic painting supposed to represent accurately a person or place? No. Although the artist is depicting what he really sees, he manipulates what he sees to bring out more of what is really therethe actual character of the subject. Impressionistic paintings are not meant to be precise representations, but are meant to interpret what is actually there to manifest things that may not be so obvious.

Precision and Inerrancy

Language can be vague or imprecise without being untrue The limits of truthfulness depend on the degree of precision implied by the speaker and expected by his or her original audience

Science and Inerrancy

Science and Inerrancy

If you listened to the radio this morning and the weatherman said, The sun rose today at 6:23 am. You wouldnt write to the radio station saying that the weatherman is lying because he referred to the rotation of the earth as the sun rising! We use conventional modes of speech. We know what it means. And we say he is telling the truth because we know what he is getting at. Our language is full of conventional speech. Whether we consider it truth or falsehood depends on the context in which it is set.

Science and Inerrancy

This is why, on the other hand, if your physics professor told you that the sun actually rises, that it revolves around the earth, etc., you would (rightly) conclude that his statements were erroneous. It is therefore not untrue to the natural phenomena in view when the Bible speaks such phenomena from our human perspective

History and Inerrancy

History and Inerrancy

Modern history writing follows certain conventions including, strict chronological sequence, balanced selection of material, verbatim quotations, etc. When these conventions are not followed the historians work is considered suspect Using this criteria for the Bibles history, Old and New Testaments, we would of necessity conclude the same of the Scripture

History and Inerrancy

We must keep in mind that the ancient authors of Scripture followed no such conventions Take the gospels, for example:
In a very real sense the gospel writers are preachers! They select events from Jesus life not on the basis of comprehensiveness, but on the basis of their expressed purpose. For what is recorded in the gospels is not representative of everything Jesus said and did cf. 20:30; 21:25; Acts 20:35. They arrange material not on the basis of strict chronology, but with the desire to impress upon the readers certain truthswith a view to their conversion!

Our source of inerrant authority is not the bare facts of history, but the writers divinely inspired presentation of those facts, which are what the gospels are.

Grammar and Inerrancy

Grammar and Inerrancy

Some may question the Bibles inerrancy on the basis of the sometimes poor grammar of its various works. You might think that if the Bible contains a grammatical error, it cant possibly be inerrant Again, the criteria for inerrancy must be the Bible itself. All biblical inerrancy means is that the Scriptures are utterly truthful in all they intend to communicate The following are examples inerrant statements using poor grammar:
Pastor Don aint here! I am going to boldly go where no man has gone before. This is the nicest place to go to.

Grammar and Inerrancy

Some may question the Bibles inerrancy, on the basis of what appear to be its loose and free quotations.
Mark 10:17: As [Jesus] was setting out on a journey, a man ran up to Him and knelt before Him, and asked Him, Good Teacher, what shall I do to inherit eternal life? Matt 19:16 And someone came to [Jesus] and said, Teacher, what good thing shall I do that I may obtain eternal life?

Written Greek at the time of the NT did not have quotation marks. To quote a person, one needed only to correctly represent the content of their words (like our indirect quotations)it was not expected to cite the words exactly.

Grammar and Inerrancy

NT Greek methods for quotations are much like indirect quotations in English. If I say, Don said he would be coming right away, but what he actually said was, Bob, Ill be to church in two minutes, my indirect reference to Dons words would not be considered a lie. It would be an acceptable and truthful report of his original words.

Answering the Skeptics

From the weak to the strong

Answering the Skeptics

The Bible contains errors of science, grammar, and history The belief in inerrancy leads to spiritual bondage, to a kind of bibliolatry that shifts the focus from Christ to a book The belief in inerrancy denies or obscures the human element in Scripture

Answering the Skeptics

The Bible is only true insofar as it speaks to the things of religion The Bible contains errors in minutia only, but not in the main The message of the Bible was accommodated to its audience such that they were willing to affirm something untrue for the sake of advancing the theological/religious argument they made

Answering the Skeptics

Inerrancy is a poor term because it denotes precision. To speak of inerrant autographs is misleading because we possess no such autographs

Conclusion

Conclusion
In the autographs, the Bible is absolutely true in all it affirms and utterly incapable of conveying falsehood or error Our understanding of inerrancy must be rooted in the text of Scripture Our understanding of inerrancy must be sensitive to the phenomena of Scripture

Glossary

Glossary
Inerrancy: The doctrine that teaches that the Bible teaches nothing erroneous or otherwise false Infallibility: Synonymous with inerrancy until approximately 60 years ago, it is sometimes used in distinction from inerrancy to refer to the notion that the Bible is not entirely true, but mainly true. Autographs: The original documents of Scripture; the signature originals