In their first meeting on the Bible, Brent welcomes everyone and leads them in a song from his childhood, The B-I-B-L-E, oh that’s the book for me. I stand alone on the Word of God, the B-I-B-L-E! The question is, Is the Bible infallible? If so, what does that mean?
Pastor Henry: When my dad was just a 7 year old, he lost his harmonica on the way to school, but he prayed, and later someone found it for him. He said, “Thank you God! I believe in you, and I believe every word in your book!” Many fundamentalists believe that way; it’s called the verbal (or literal) inspiration of the Bible—as if Scriptures were virtually dictated to secretaries who wrote everything down. Like Islam’s claim that Allah told Mohammad what to write in the Koran.
Sam. a BSU professor, says, Yes, that’s the way I was raised. In fact, I can turn almost anywhere in it and get inspiration and guidance.
Henry says, People who believe that way tend to take the Bible seriously. But I remember in seminary reading C. H. Dodd, a New Testament scholar, who said “The Bible reads me!” He was referring not to literal inspiration, but the awesome high quality of the truths, the teachings and even the demands of the Bible, especially as seen in the ministry, death and resurrection of Christ. Another theologian said “Only God is infallible.”
There are problems with verbal infallibility. Examples: there are two different creation accounts, in Genesis 1 and 2; there are two different accounts of the death of Saul; there are different numbers, comparing Kings and Chronicles; there are shocking, things there, too, like curses in some psalms (as well as beautiful hymns of praise, etc.); there are different infancy narratives in Matthew and Luke, and different accounts of the trial, death and resurrection of Christ. The Bible is a library of different types of books, like history, law, poetry, wisdom books, prophecy, and sermons. People have different perceptions of the same thing—five witnesses of an accident may give five different accounts of it! But the Bible’s writers are in amazing agreement about all the central ideas. “All scripture is God-breathed, and important for doctrine, reproof and instruction in righteousness,” (2 Timothy 3) meaning it is vital for our spiritual growth, our walk with the Lord.
Remember what we said last week? “God reveals himself through deeds and words. The Bible is the human response to these.” Phillip Jones adds, As we get to know people both by what they do, and even more by what they reveal about themselves, so too with God: we get to know Him by his deeds and words.
Yes, says Henry, God reveals himself first through his mighty deeds, beginning with creation, and then through his acts in history, including the exodus from Egypt, giving the Law, guiding and providing for the people in the wilderness, leading the Israelites into the promised land, sending judges and prophets, sending his Son to earth for us, raising Him to life, and establishing the church. Stories about all these self-revelations, and words that explained them, came through fallible people, and passed on by “oral traditions,” plus, of course, we have the witness of the Holy Spirit in our hearts verifying the truths and giving us guidance. The Bible is God’s love letter to us—“Thy Word is lamp unto my feet and a light upon my path.”
