"The grass withers, the flower fades, but the Word of God endures forever" (Isaiah 40:8).
"Verily I say to you, until heaven and earth pass away, not one jot or title with pass from the law until all is fulfilled" (Matthew 5:18).
I believe the Bible is the inerrant Word of Almighty God.
Recently, I have been discussing the issue of Biblical inerrancy among some of my classmates here at a theological seminary on the East Coast. I have become, albeit grudgingly, a spokesperson of sorts, for a conservative Evangelical view of the inspiration, infallibility, inerrancy of the Christian Scriptures. It is not my intention to be divisive on this issue but I do have my own personal convictions on the supernatural inspiration and preservation of the Bible, which I believe is alone the Word of God.
In all honestly, I would rather write clever and irenic little blog posts and listen to alternative rock music than debate the issue of modes of inspiration and inerrancy of Scripture. I did not travel over 3,000 miles to get in any theological debates here on the East Coast and do not intend to debate the issue now. However for me, it is important to delineate the meaning of God's revelation at least to my own mind.
To be honest, I have been burned badly by the Southern Baptist Convention and American Evangelicalism. Yet, while I am deeply wounded by many of the things that happened to me in these fundamentalist circles, I do not have anything less than a conservative view regarding the nature of the Bible.
If I need to go down on record, I side with the reformed scholars such as Francis Turretin, Archibald Alexander, Charles Hodge, B.B Warfield, J. Gresham Machen, Cornelius Van Till on the inspiration and authority of the Bible.
I personally believe that the Bible is the Word of God and that it was perfectly inspired and inerrant in its original autographs. I do not believe the original autographs of Scripture possessed any errors of a factual, historical, chronological and doctrinal nature. I believe God has supernaturally inspired and preserved His Word from error of any kind. I also believe that any alleged discrepancies or contradictions that are seemingly in Scripture, are alleged and not real and due to our ignorance of some sort. I believe that that all seeming discrepancies can be reconciled and harmonized and that there is no real errors in the original text of Scripture.
I operate from the place of total confidence in the reliability, inspiration and inerrancy of the Christian Scriptures and believe the omnipotent God of the universe has supernaturally guided the process of Biblical inspiration and that He has providentially left us with Scriptures that we can trust. I do operate from a presupposition of plenary or full inerrancy of the Bible. I cannot believe in a partially inspired and errant Scripture that God still holds us accountable to obey. The Bible is the inspired and inerrant Word of God. You can trust the Bible and can take that to the bank.
I find it ironic now that I am away from the fundamentalism of the Southern Baptist Convention and the Southern Baptist school I graduated from, that I find myself agreeing with these conservatives on the inerrancy of Scripture.
While I believe in Biblical inerrancy, I am glad to be studying here. It is good for me to hear a different perspective. I want to take this new information and attempt to understand a new perspective.
"All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, reproof, correction, for instruction of righteousness that the servant of God may be complete, thoroughly equipped for every good work" (2 Timothy 3:16-17).
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