The Reliability of Scripture: Exploring the Inerrancy of Scripture

Can the Bible be trusted as the inerrant word of God? Join us in this episode, as we tackle this profound question head-on. 

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Transcript

Speaker 1 0:04

Welcome to Faithfully Living , the Podcast , where we learn how to live for Christ in our daily lives .

Speaker 1 0:11

I am Dwan , your host , and I would like to invite you on a journey with me to explore and learn how to be a faithful follower of Christ . Hi everyone , welcome to Faithfully Living , the podcast , where we strive to encourage you to live for Christ faithfully by offering guidance on how to study the Bible , how to understand the Bible better and how to remain faithful to historic Christianity and a contemporary society . The scriptures exhibit fully , as clear evidence of their own truth , as white and black things do of their color or sweet and bitter things do of their taste . John Calvin , I have a question for you Can we trust the Bible ? If you believe that the Bible is God's word , then the answer should be yes . In today's episode , we will be talking about the inerrancy of scripture . The Bible is the word of God in such a way that when the Bible speaks , god speaks . Bb Warfield , when we think about God , his character , one of his attributes , is that he is truth . God can't err . Therefore , the Bible can't err . So to deny the inerrancy of the Bible , one must either affirm that God can err or that the Bible is not the word of God . We know that God is completely trustworthy , so the Bible is not the word of God . We know that God is completely trustworthy , so the Bible is completely trustworthy . Hebrews 6 , 18 tells us that it is impossible for God to lie . In Titus 1 , 2 , Paul speaks of the God who does not lie . So our belief in the doctrine of Scripture should be grounded in the doctrine of God . If you believe that God is scripture's author , then we shouldn't separate the character of the divine author from the character of his divine speech . So the truthfulness of scripture is reflected in the truthfulness of its divine author . It tells us who God says he is and what will he do and what he has promised . So the word of God is inspired . He breathed out his word and the Holy Spirit guided the writers to write the Bible . The Bible has one author and then it has many , over 40 writers . Now , while God used human authors , the ultimate word of God resonates from the divine author , god .

Speaker 1 2:51

All right , so let's define inerrancy . So here is a definition of inerrancy from systematic theology and an introduction to biblicalrine by Wayne Grudem . He says the inerrancy of Scripture means that Scripture in the original manuscript does not affirm anything that is contrary to fact . This definition focuses on the question of truthfulness and falsehood in the language of Scripture . The definition in simple terms means that the Bible always tells the truth and that it always tells the truth concerning everything it talks about . This definition does not mean that the Bible tells us every fact there is to know about one subject , but it affirms that it does say . That it does say about any subject is true . Then there also is a definition by paul finberg that says when all the facts are known , the scriptures , in their original autographs and properly interpreted , will be shown to be wholly true in everything they affirm , whether it has to do with doctrine or morality or with the social , physical or life sciences .

Speaker 1 4:07

So when we look at inerrancy , it's a belief in the total truth and reliability of god's word . So when theologians and bible scholars talk about inerrancy , they're referring to the original writings of scripture . We don't have the original autographs , as we call today . We only have copies and included many copies of each of the book , and there are small differences here and there within the copies , but in reality they're amazingly similar . So when you think about inerrancy , it doesn't mean everything in the Bible is true . So if you've read through the Bible , you know that there is record of people lying , such as in Joshua 9 . Even you have the words of the devil . You know he tells a lie to Eve when he deceives her , but we can be sure that there are accurate record of the things that took place . So the doctrine of biblical inerrancy is essential because it's a matter of truth . It reflects on the character of God and is foundational for our understanding of everything that the Bible teaches . The Bible teaches If the scripture is not infallible in the supreme rule of faith and practice , they are of no authority .

Speaker 1 5:34

Charles Hodge , all right , so we know that God used men to write his holy word . We can find this in 2 Peter 1 , 20-21, . It says Above all , you must realize that no prophecy in Scripture ever came from the prophet's own understanding or from human initiative . No , these prophets were moved by the Holy Spirit . They spoke from God . So the Holy Spirit moved men to write God's holy word . He allowed them to use their own styles , culture , gifts and character , and he used them as a result of their study and research . And they wrote of their own experiences and expressed what was on their mind . Yet at the same time , the Holy spirit didn't allow error to influence their writings and they accurately recorded all god wanted them to say , exactly how he wanted to . Just to say it . So to be clear that everything in the bible is true . You know , there are records of people lying , like I say , the devil lied to eve in the garden . But we can be sure that the bible accurately recorded what took place . So it's vital for us , as christians , to believe that the bible is true .

Speaker 1 6:58

Inerrancy governs our belief in the trustworthy character of god . If scripture is unreliable , how you know , how can we offer the world a reliable gospel ? How can we , how can we be sure on any issue if we're suspicious of errors anywhere in the Bible ? The Holy Scriptures begin God's own word , by men prepared and superintended by his spirit , are infallible , true and divine authority in all matters upon which they they touch a w tozer . The truth of God can be read in the bible and all the things that scripture asserts , the holy truth , and all the things that scripture asserts are wholly true , both in the Old Testament , the scriptures of Jesus and the apostles . They had the Old Testament and then the New Testament , the writings of the apostles . So if the Bible were not true , the gospel message wouldn't be true and that would leave us without a means of salvation .

Speaker 1 8:10

When you go back and read through the New Testament , jesus treated the Old Testament scriptures which was the part of the scriptures that Jesus had the New Testament hadn't been written yet , you know always with other truth , reverence and never with suspicion towards his reliability . So even Jesus says , as the , as god you know , revered the holy scriptures as reliable , which was the old testament . And many times jesus and the jews had strong disagreements on how the old testament was to be interpreted and then whether jesus was who he says . He is net , but never once did they disagree on whether the text interpreted was trustworthy . So Jesus and the religious rabbis might have disagreed on the interpretation of the scriptures , but they never disagreed on the trustworthiness of the scripture as a whole , on the trustworthiness of the scripture as a whole .

Speaker 1 9:20

So Jesus referred to the Old Testament as the word of God which cannot be broken . He said that in John 10 , 35 . He said Until heaven and earth disappear not the smallest letter , not the least stroke of a pen , but by any means disappear from the law until everything is accomplished . And that was Matthew 5 , 18 . Jesus said to the religious leaders of his day unify the word of God by your traditions , and that's in Mark 7 , 13 . Jesus turned their attention to the written word of God by affirming over and over again as it is written , as it is written , that's a phrase that occurs over 90 times in the New Testament and it's a strong indication of the divine authority of the word of God .

Speaker 1 10:11

Nay , if there are any mistakes in the Bible , there might as well be a thousand . If there be one falsehood in that book , it did not come from the God of truth . I think you know , as a society , truth is and should be important . You know , the Bible gives us truth because the author of the Bible embodies what truth actually is . So it's important for us , as Christians , to believe that the Bible is true Inerrancy . It governs our belief on the trustworthiness of the character of God . If scripture is unreliable , like I said , how can we offer the world a reliable gospel ? How can we be sure of truth on any issue if you know we're suspicious that the Bible isn't true ? So think about it and until next time , remember God is always good and he's always faithful . Next time , remember God is always good and he's always faithful . Thank you for listening to the podcast . Do me a favor by following the podcast and leaving a review to help spread the word . I look forward to hearing from you .