The Inerrancy of the WordDoes the Bible Contain Mistakes? Does it Matter?

The words were carved into stone over the Bible Institute building in downtown Los Angeles: “Forever, O Lord, Thy Word is settled in heaven.  Psalm 119:89.” Biola stands in a great evangelical heritage of affirming the inerrancy of Scripture and identifying itself by this doctrine.

But, today, a growing number of Christians are abandoning the doctrine of “inerrancy” in favor of the doctrine of “infallibility.” What’s the difference?

Inerrancy affirms that, because the Bible is the inspired word of God, it contains no errors. But, according to infallibility, God’s inspiration only goes so far as to carry the message of salvation. In other words, when it comes to the gospel, the Bible is without error. But it may have errors in historical facts and in teachings that don’t pertain to salvation. And these types of errors don’t really matter, according to infallibilists.

But would such errors matter? How important is the commitment to inerrancy?

I believe it’s very important. But to understand its importance, one must first understand the broader theological issue of divine revelation.

God has spoken in a diversity of ways as, for example, Hebrews 1:1 says: through prophets and angels. But when God was ready to say the biggest thing he had ever said, he spoke by sending his Son. This is an odd way of “speaking,” this decision of God to live a human life and die a borrowed death. But when “the word became flesh” in this way (John 1:14), God was being consistent with his pattern of revealing himself by action plus interpretation. Our God, whose words and deeds are inseparable, has always been about show and tell. When he reveals himself by doing something, he tells us what it means. For example, he parts the Red Sea and explains this means he owns Israel. And he raises up Cyrus the Persian and tells us this shows his unique sovereignty over world affairs.

Fortunately, God didn’t leave us to figure out the meanings of his works. Instead, he interpreted them for us by inspiring prophets and apostles to speak his mind (II Peter 1:21).

But when their inspired accounts were committed to print, how much control did God exert over their form and content?

Infallibilists think the only control God exerted in the process was to ensure that the message of salvation was accurately conveyed. But inerrantists claim God was responsible for choosing the very words themselves. This view, known as “verbal inspiration,” is the historic evangelical commitment. (Despite a common misunderstanding, this view does not require that God dictated the words to the human authors. Almost no one has ever defended this claim.)

Approaching scripture as fully inspired, down to the words, has the advantage of being the attitude Jesus had toward the Old Testament. Jesus treated the scriptures of Israel as God’s words (Matt 4:4), defended each jot and tittle (Matt. 5:18), and argued on the basis of verb tenses and plurals. And, as evangelical Christians, we try to believe the same things about the Bible Jesus believed.

Much more could be said and has been. The classic elaboration of inerrancy is found in the Chicago Statement on Biblical Inerrancy, written in 1978. One of this document’s strengths is its ability to clear away misconceptions about inerrancy. For example, it is perfectly compatible with inerrancy to affirm that the New Testament may quote the Old Testament loosely, or the words of Jesus may be paraphrased, or events may be related out of chronological order if thematic arrangement is better. Inerrantists are equipped to read scripture with their eyes wide open to all that it says, fixing their gaze on its high claims about itself (II Tim. 3:16) without averting their eyes from its challenging sections.

Taken by itself, inerrancy would not be worth much. A good phone book is inerrant, but it cannot reveal God to you. Jehovah’s Witnesses are inerrantists, but this commitment doesn’t keep them from systematically misinterpreting the Bible.

That’s why the big picture is so important. Inerrancy only matters if the Bible is the book we think it is, the book of God’s self-revelation. As the word of God, the Bible is as trustworthy and reliable as the God who spoke through it.

Fred Sanders, Ph.D., is a professor of theology in the Torrey Honors Institute, Biola University.