Throughout time, one of the most commonly challenged topics has been that of Biblical authority. Individuals doubt the Bible’s inerrancy from a human perspective, clouded by sin; how can one trust that the Scriptures are constant in a world that is filled with change and error? Nonetheless, acquiring the answers to questions such as these provide individuals with an unshakable foundation for understanding Biblical theology. According to Elwell’s Evangelical Dictionary of Theology, Authority refers to, “spoken or written words whose accuracy has been established and can be fully trusted” (Elwell). For one to accept that the Gospel holds all authority is an extremely powerful step to a proper understanding of Biblical theology. To fulfill …show more content…
This idea refers to a Divine Will that communicates with its other parts in order to give the influence of the Holy Spirit upon chosen individuals (Elwell). These individuals then proceed to copy the words given through the Holy Spirit as a trustworthy and authoritative revelation from God. Answers in Genesis theologian, Jason Lisle noted that, in order to believe the Bible’s divine inspiration, there would have to be consistency throughout the entire text. He also stated that, “This internal consistency is what we would expect if the Bible really is what it claims to be—God’s revelation” (Answers in Genesis). There is much evidence in support of this belief, displayed countless times in the Scriptures through prophetic events. 2 Peter 1:21 states that, "for no prophecy was ever made by an act of human will, but men moved by the Holy Spirit spoke from …show more content…
Biblical inerrancy is the belief that the Scriptures are true and flawless because they were given by a perfect God (John 17:17). One of the strongest arguments for inerrancy is this very concept; if God is perfect, then everything He says must also be perfect (Proverbs 30:5). Additionally, through all of church history, the church has believed in the Bible’s inerrancy. Calvin, a great reformer, noted that, “The Spirit of God…appears purposely to have regulated their (Biblical author’s) style in such a manner; that they all wrote one and the same history, with the most perfect agreement, but in different ways” (Elwell). Thirdly, the idea of Epistemology plays an interesting role in this argument; this theory states that if one rejects the Bible’s infallibility, he will also lose the basis for wisdom and knowledge. Thus, with this belief, a single error in the Bible renders the entire Scriptures susceptible to falsehood. The final argument is the slippery slope, which states that if one denies inerrancy, he will also succumb to surrendering his foundation of Christian
Even though humans wrote the text, translating it and passing it down from generations to generations, God’s truth is unchanging. Debates of the inerrancy of the bible cannot usurp God as the King of grace. Instead of focusing on the inerrancy of the Bible, individuals who wish to seek a life of faith should focus on the inspiration God is showing them in his word. These revelations should move them into applicable, daily life changing implications from what they have learned. God shows revelations of himself through the Bible, and his character is revealed time and time again throughout scripture. Any faulty facts or discrepancies in grammar or data, should not take away from the value that scripture holds. When we read scripture we bring new meaning of interpretations of the truths God shows us, since new eras and environmental factors will be influential on how we process information. The bible is not just a fact book, telling humans stories of the past, but instead the bible is inspired instructions for how we can deal with spiritual and ethical encounters we
“The necessity of Scripture means that the Bible is necessary for knowledge of the gospel, for maintaining spiritual life, and for certain knowledge of God’s will” (Grudem 54). Grudem claims that the Bible is necessary for salvation, and that one must hear the gospel or read it, in order to come to Christ. Matthew 4:4, states that man cannot live on bread alone, but on the word of God. This verse affirms the statement that Scripture is necessary for maintaining a spiritual life. (Grudem 54-5). The issues of the necessity of scripture is so important, because I feel it defines and unites our faith. Without a need for scripture, faith would ultimately be
For centuries now Christians have claimed to possess the special revelation of an omnipotent, loving Deity who is sovereign over all of His creation. This special revelation is in written form and is what has come to be known as The Bible which consists of two books. The first book is the Hebrew Scriptures, written by prophets in a time that was before Christ, and the second book is the New Testament, which was written by Apostles and disciples of the risen Lord after His ascension. It is well documented that Christians in the context of the early first century were used to viewing a set of writings as being not only authoritative, but divinely inspired. The fact that there were certain books out in the public that were written by followers of Jesus and recognized as being just as authoritative as the Hebrew Scriptures was never under debate. The disagreement between some groups of Christians and Gnostics centered on which exact group of books were divinely inspired and which were not. The debate also took place over the way we can know for sure what God would have us include in a book of divinely inspired writings. This ultimately led to the formation of the Biblical canon in the next centuries. Some may ask, “Isn’t Jesus really the only thing that we can and should call God’s Word?” and “Isn’t the Bible just a man made collection of writings all centered on the same thing, Jesus Christ?” This paper summarizes some of the evidences for the Old and New Testament canon’s accuracy in choosing God breathed, authoritative writings and then reflects on the wide ranging
Inspiration Theory Contained within the Bible is a consortium of books that are as various as they are numerous. Their genres range anywhere from histories, to letters, to narratives, to poems, and even beyond that. Something that binds all of these books together, however, is the means by which they were inspired. The muse that breathed these books into life is consistent from Genesis 1:1 to Revelation 22:21; that muse is the Holy Spirit. Many authors penned books that have been believed by many to belong in the Bible, but what separates those Apocryphal documents from the pure, holy scriptures of the Bible is the Holy Spirit; the one that inspired them.
The Word of God is used by theologians as a baseline narrative of revelation, and then they try to determine what is meant by God. Opponents of theology will point to certain parts of scripture that are quite obviously not scientifically accurate, and use these facts to discredit the Word. Ratzinger would retort by saying that the Bible should be considered unequivocal; it is in fact a living document much like the Constitution. He states, “It is untenable on the basis of the objective structure of the Word, on account of
If a rule of life can be likened to a trellis, then scripture will be the timber that eventually becomes the latticework. Therefore, studying and assimilating the scripture is essential to our growth and development as leaders to the sons and daughters we are called to influence and compel to greater heights in Christ. Not only did the Psalmist declare that storing up the Word in our hearts keeps us from sinning against the Lord, Paul also revealed to Timothy that “All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness: That the man of God may be perfect, thoroughly furnished unto all good works” (Psalm 119:11, 2 Timothy 3:16-17, King James Version). Therefore, if we aspire to accomplish, great works in God, and fulfill our callings, we must know, understand and adhere to the teaching expresses in God’s Word. Moreover, as much as we’d like to dismiss this notion, Scazzero (2014) exclaimed that “we live in a culture shaped by the beast” (p. 43).
The nature of Scripture and the authority of Scripture are two characteristics carefully entwined in such a way that creates an impossibility for them to not affect each other. They directly influence each other. Evangelicalism, Liberalism, and Neo-Orthodoxy all have differing views of the nature and authority of Scripture. Evangelicalism takes up the view that the Bible, Scripture, is infallible (Lane, 2006, p. 255). Scripture is God’s word and is therefore fully truth (Lane, 2006, p. 256). People under Evangelicalism equate Scripture with God’s spoken word, and they believe that though God and humans are both authors, the human author was divinely prepared by God to write out His word (Lane, 2006, p. 257). They believe that “the Bible is the supreme authority for faith and practice” (Bingham, 2002, p. 162). Liberalism takes a different view on the Scripture. In Liberalism, religion is “nothing but feeling and experience” (Lane, 2006, p. 238). This reduces the authority and value of Scripture. Scripture is not seen as God’s word or His revelation but as a written record of the experiences of humans, which takes away from its divinity and authority (Lane, 2006, p. 239). Schleiermacher, the father of Liber...
Inerrancy is trustworthy in the bible, and its teachings and declaration are respected. The word is used by traditionalist Protestants and plays a major role in the faith about the bible. Strict inerrancy states that the bible in its present form has no error, hence as God’s word, should be followed. Contrary, limited inerrancy according to Catholics, talks about the Bible having no errors in certain matters such as faith, morals and salvation. The belief system also states that the Bible contains errors in scientific observation matters as well as historical events.
However, if the Bible is inspired, then it must be completely true because God only speaks the truth. Inspiration and inerrancy are two sides to the same
Not a few people hold that the Word of God is merely one type of authority in the timeline of humanity. Whether this one type is devotional, as in nourishment for the soul, informational or nourishment for the fact-driven portions of the human mind especially the Jews whose lineage was utmost. The most common authority viewed about the Bible is the idea of a “court of appeals” where an individual may have idea and subsequently “check” to see if the idea or thought was “biblical.” Humans are constantly concerned with being “right” or having the “correct” answer regardless of whether they do or not. In Wright’s perspective using the authority of the scripture as a court of appeals is particularly dangerous due to improper interpretive methods leading to proof-texting and/or
The Bible is the infallible, inspired, inerrant Word of the living God. I grew up hearing this from pastors, teachers and evangelists. I have come to believe that the Bible is indeed the inspired Word of God because the Bible itself claims it, Jesus and the early church fathers believed it, and textual unity supports it. First, the Bible claims, “All Scripture is inspired by God and is useful to teach us what is true and to make us realize what is wrong in our lives” (2 Timothy 3:16, NLT).
Elwell explains that biblical authority has to begin with God (154). “Revelation is therefore the key to God’s authority so that the two, revelation and authority, may be regarded as two sides of the same reality” (Elwell 154).
This week our studies concluded with offering students opportunity for reflection on continuing debates over biblical inerrancy and authority of Scripture. Our objectives included understanding the continuing debate of the doctrine of inerrancy and N. T. Wright’s bibliology in relation to some of his dialogue partners. Our final reading came from Denis Farkasfalvy’s book, Inspiration and Interpretation: A Theological Introduction to Sacred Scripture. This paper’s focus is my reflections of the material presented.
Answering these questions is the purpose of this essay. I begin by arguing that the Bible cannot be adequately understood independent of its historical context. I concede later that historical context alone however is insufficient, for the Bible is a living-breathing document as relevant to us today as it was the day it was scribed. I conclude we need both testimonies of God at work to fully appreciate how the Bible speaks to us.
Metzger defines Biblical inspiration as the doctrine in Christian theology that the authors and editors of the Bible were led or influenced by God with the result that their writings may be designated in some sense the word of God. Migliore writes in Faith Seeking Understanding that the Bible is identified without qualification with God’s words. It is authoritative by virtue of its supernatural origin and the direct identity of its words with the word of God. With the Bible being inspired by God, Migliore writes that its scripture is without error and true in all matters of history and science for which it speaks. (Migliore: Pg. 50) He also states that scripture is the unique and irreplaceable witness to the liberating and reconciling activity of God in the history of Israel and supremely in Jesus Christ. Paul writes in 2 Timothy 3:16-17 that “All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, thoroughly equipped for every good work. (2 Timothy 3:16-17)