Is
the Bible Inerrant?
Dear Mr. Zukeran, First of all, I’m sure you’re very busy and I want you to know from the outset that I very much appreciate your time. I recently caught your article at http://www.probe.org/content/view/39/77 and I was wondering if you could answer a few questions for a long time follower of Christ who is now having trouble with the Bible. I’m not having trouble with the Bible as a whole, but what I’m having a problem with is the claim that it is inerrant. With your impressive list of merits, degrees, etc, I was wondering if you could tell me what you think about this. The name of God has been used to influence people to do some pretty awful things. How do we know that the Bible was immune from political influence during its translation? Is there a line that you drew in the sand and just said, “even though I don’t understand it, I will claim this as truth”? In all your experience and learning, what is the one thing you hold to when everything else seems to falter? Thanks again for your time. Sincerely, Frank Dear Frank, I did not grow up in a Christian home and throughout high school I attended a private Episcopal School. The priests were atheists or very liberal. Therefore, I grew up not believing in the Bible. Eventually I embraced Atheism. After hearing the gospel message at a small Baptist Church, I began to investigate the claims of Christ. From the evidence of creation, I could not deny the evidence for God's existence. Then I studied the historical accuracy of the gospels and found them to be a very accurate historical work written by first century eyewitnesses. (For more see the article "Historical Reliability of the Gospels") In the gospels, Jesus claimed to be the divine Son of God and confirmed his claims through his miraculous, sinless, life, death, and resurrection. We have good historical evidence that Christ did live a miraculous life not only in the gospels, but in several works of non-Christian literature as well. (For more information read the article "Uniqueness of Christ" and Resurrection: Fact or Fiction?") Since Christ confirmed his claims to be the divine Son of God, what He taught was true. He taught the Bible was the inerrant word of God. Inerrancy applies to the original documents, not the copies. However, we have thousands of ancient manuscripts to confirm that our Bible today is very accurate to the original texts. How do we know the Bible was immune from political influence? The Bible was written in a historical context so it deals with the culture of its time. However, it’s message remains consistent with the character of God and is often a message that is counter to the culture and politics of the time. The Old Testament prophets spoke out against the leadership of Israel both political and religious and many were killed for their message. They were preaching a message counter to the politics and culture of their day but one that was consistent with God’s character. Christ condemned the religious leaders and rulers of his day preaching a message that was rejected by the leadership. Therefore, we can see the messengers of God were men of integrity who gained very little materially for their message and many lost their lives. Finally, I agree, there have been atrocities committed in history in the name of Christ. However, we should not discount the Bible because of the misinterpretation and misapplication of men in history. To those who have misapplied the text, we can point to the Bible and show where they have deviated from the biblical teaching and the example of Christ. The reason we know they were in error is that we can point out the error in the biblical text. The truth of the Bible should not be judged on the misapplication of certain people or organizations. We do not discount the value of the medical practice because we have had bad doctors who have used their practice for evil ends. The example we should look at is Christ the founder of our faith. Thanks for your question; great to interact with someone who is really thinking through the issues. Patrick
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