Quote Source – A Responder on Medium.com
A Biblical Christian worldview perspective – Once the chain that limits mankind from expressing our personal views on morality is unbound from its connection with God’s Word, we have the freedom to create our own version of Biblical systematic theology. This is why some speculate there are “45,000 different Christian denominations worldwide” (details here).
This reader (his quote is the title of this post) continued expressing his views on what inerrancy represents by saying….
“But there is the idea that it’s perfectly intended to hold inconsistencies as a means of opening one’s mind and building faith through trust and meditation…. It comes down to how we define “error”. But I’d offer that we would be robbed of the opportunity to share ideas and grow in our spiritual understanding if the Bible were a simple straightforward black and white formula.”
Points of Agreement and Disagreement
One of the strategies of debate is to chose how words are defined. For example in the first century, the word “Christian” (Acts 11:26) had a much more concise meaning than it does today (which is why we use the phrase ‘Biblical Christian’).
More to the point here, if one can define “inerrancy” as flexible in its interpretation, it opens the door to suggesting God’s Biblical inerrancy is less than dogmatic or absolute. This is why many of our posts and responses to readers begin with a Webster definition….
According to Webster…. Inerrancy is “exemption from error: infallibility”
Webster has only one definition for the word. No nuances, no flexibility.
There is no question that there are parts of the Bible that are confusing and appear to be contradictory. However, what is critical is to settle on the origin of the problem, which is not Biblical errors. Instead, there are three sources, in my view….
- We hold a sacred book that is 99% of the original autographs which are without error as to faith and conduct. The one percent that may be due to scribal errors has no impact on core Biblical Christian theology.
- There are many Bible translations from the original Greek and Hebrew that run along a continuum between word-for-word and idea-for-idea. Translations rely on translators who can inject their own bias, particularly at the idea-for-idea end of the spectrum. And, at the word-for-word end, much can be lost based on our lack of understanding of the idioms of those who originally penned what God inspired.
- God is omniscient, or all-knowing. We can barely remember what we had for dinner last night. There are concepts, such as the Trinity, human suffering, and eternal payment for human sin, to name just a few, that need to be taken on faith, due, not to an error by God, but due to our limited capability to fully understand the Creator of the universe (Isaiah 55:8-9).
Conclusion
Our human sin nature and resulting ego demand that we have the capability to understand God. And, when Christians find areas in the Bible we can’t reconcile, those who lack faith in His inerrant Word jump to the conclusion that the Bible is in error and/or God is not who He says He is.
So, the reader quoted above is correct that as Biblical Christians, we do need to have the freedom to think deeply in an attempt to better understand God and His Word. It is part of the sanctification process. However, questioning those areas that seem in tension or outright contradiction should not be an excuse to ‘throw the Biblical baby out with the bathwater.’ We need to hold fast to those principles in Scripture that are clear (Core Theology), while prayerfully exploring those areas that are less clear. We need to keep an open mind for God to teach us His truths, not the false truths our sin nature is attracted to.
Finally, as Biblical Christians, we all need to realize that in the areas of non-Core issues, no one has a perfect set of systematic theology. We all have errors or a lack of full understanding in some areas of our Biblical Christian worldview. Be firm in your Core beliefs, and humble in those that are non-core to your worldview.
Salvation – Eternal Life in Less Than 150 Words
Please Read/Respond to Comments – on Medium
