...those that bears the name Christian must define the central doctrines of their faith and without equivocation embrace the authority of God's word for what it is. The eternal battle as to the inerrancy and infallibility between orthodoxy and orthopraxy demands significant attention and largely determines the positions on which a person will side. In my view, biblical inerrancy of the Bible is at the core of the Christian Doctrine is, and rightfully so. The attestation of the authority of the Bible as the Word of God requires an understanding of the belief in its inspiration, inerrancy, and authority of the Bible. 2 Timothy 3:16 calls the Bible is the "breath of God" and that all scripture was given under the inspiration of God. The Christian doctrine is like every other religion without the truth that the Bible is the inerrant, infallible, authoritative Word of God.” The close central biblical doctrine to inspiration and inerrancy of scripture is the resurrection of Jesus Christ. 1 Timothy 3:15 refers to the church as the pillar of truth because of the inspired and inerrant word of God, "if I delay, you may know how one ought to behave in the household of God, which is the church of the living God, a pillar and buttress of the truth." We cannot talk about inspiration and inerrancy without establishing that Bible is the revelation of God himself to humanity. The fact must clearly accept that the Bible is the Word of God by ascribing God’s revelatory message to it. The term...
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...Short Essay on Inerrancy and Inspiration In 2nd Timothy 3:16 it says “All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness” (KJV). It says all scripture is given by inspiration of GOD. According to the Biblical Argument we should believe in inerrancy because the Bible teaches it own inerrancy. We should accept the Bible’s claim about itself. So the Bible’s authority comes from the inspiration of GOD, because God is the author of the Bible. Biblical Authority must begin with God himself. For in him all authority is located. God is his own authority, for there is nothing outside of Him on which his authority was founded. So the Bible is GOD’s word and if there was nothing before GOD to base the Bible on then GOD is his own authority as well as His word. When it comes to the Bible inspiration is the guidance or influence of the Holy Spirit on human writers of Scripture so that GOD controlled them in such a way that what they wrote was exactly what GOD wanted to say without error. Whatever GOD wanted to say in the scripture, His Holy Spirit inspired the writer of the scripture to write exactly what GOD wanted, how GOD wanted it, and the way GOD wanted it written without error or human flaw. Isaiah 55:8 says “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the LORD.” This is why the Bible is without error. If we say that there is not inerrancy of the Bible,...
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...Inspiration and Inerrancy It was a routine morning; I woke up to the buzz of my alarm, had breakfast, and was on my way to the park where I have my daily Bible study. However, on this day, my time at the park did not go according to routine as normal. A jogger that regularly runs through the park suddenly approached me. He told me his name, but the next words that came out of his mouth were: “How do you sit there morning after morning and read that Bible. What drives you to do it, and what do Christians find so authoritative about it?” I didn’t respond right away, but after taking a few seconds, I concluded: The term ‘authority,’ when applied to the Bible, also has an application to words spoken or written whose accuracy has been established and whose information can consequently be trusted (McDonald). To say the Bible has authority means that these words have the power and right to command. This authority comes from God and we are meant to give our lives over to this supreme authority. Hence, we worship the God of these words, and not the words themselves. John 5:23 states, “He who does not honor the Son does not honor the Father who sent Him.” This evidences that Jesus and God are equal. Since Jesus and God are one, this means that Jesus has this authority as well. Biblical inspiration is a super-natural influence of the Holy Spirit upon divinely chosen agents in consequence of which their writings became trustworthy and authoritative. In II Timothy 3:16, the scripture is referred...
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...Inerrancy and Inspiration Morgan Sikes Liberty University THEO 201-B18 Inerrancy and Inspiration Although, contrary to some who believe otherwise, the Bible is an all-authoritative book. As Christians we believe, that scripture is God breathed and because it is from God, it is accurate and authoritative. The Bible is directly from God, written through his disciples. Since the authority belongs to God, our command as Christ followers is to follow Jesus’ example of how he lived in the Bible. According to the Evangelical Dictionary of Theology, “Authority is the right and power to command, enforce laws, exact obedience, determine or judge.” In respect to the Bible, this means that because it is authoritative, we must follow the laws given by its word. This empowerment belongs to God, and to God alone. Matthew 21:23-24 states, that Jesus’ authority came from God his Father, the one who sent him to Earth. The Bible’s authority, comes from God, but was not written by God, or Jesus themselves. The people chosen to write the books of the Bible were chosen specifically by God, and were inspired through the work of the Holy Spirit. Along with authority and inspiration, comes the discussion of inerrancy. Inerrancy is the view that the entire Bible is completely accurate and true. There are four arguments for inerrancy, including The Biblical Argument. This argument states that if God has authority over the Bible, then it has to be inerrant because God is truth. The Bible is...
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...Stephen L. “Biblical Inerrancy.” Chafer Theological Seminary Journal 08, no. 1 (January 2002): 2-21. THEO 525-B04 LUO (fall 2013) Systematic Theology I Liberty Baptist Theological Seminary Jennifer C. Wood (ID# L25703677) September 1, 2013 Contents Introduction……………………………………………………………………………………….1 Brief Summary…………………………………………………………………………………….1 Critical Interaction………………………………………………………………………………...2 Conclusion Selected Bibliography Introduction This paper is a critical examination of Stephen Andrew’s “Biblical Inerrancy” as published January of 2002 in the Chafer Theological Seminary Journal. Andrew writes the article as a graduate student at Fuller Theological Seminary pursuing a Master of Arts in Theology. In the exposition he presents a historical overview of the biblical inerrancy debate and reviews arguments concerning inerrancy of the bible as relevant to modern evangelicalism. Due to spatial limitations, Andrew restricts his focus to examining the views in support of and against inerrancy from four major perspectives: the slippery slope, epistemological, historical, and biblical arguments. Brief Summary The article is written as an exhortation for the promotion and defense of the inerrancy doctrine while warning against a universal acceptance of all supporting arguments. Andrew opens by defining inerrancy according to Paul D. Feinberg1, as well as Article XII of the Chicago Statement on Biblical Inerrancy2; and “limited inerrancy” using a description...
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...Inspiration? Inspiration is define in the book as supernatural influence of the Holy Spirit upon the Scripture writers. The dictionary has inspiration defined as the process of being mentally stimulated to do or feel something; the quality of being inspired; a person or thing that inspires; a sudden brilliant, creative or timely idea and lastly the divine influence believed to have led to the writing of the Bible. The word inspiration is derived from the word inspire which in Greek is theopneustos meaning God-breathed. We have Scripture because God spoke the words. The Holy Spirit moved the writers to record the word of God. Inspiration is receiving the word of God. In a supernatural way the Holy Spirit used man to write the words of God. The Bible was the result of these writings. It is a product of the inspiration given to the writers. God inspired the writers leading them speak and write his words. The Bible is error free as the words are God infallible. It is Gods way of communicating his will for his people. The Bible is the authoritative word of God. Erickson states that there are five types of theories of inspiration. Intuition theory in which the writers possessed a high degree of insight. They were great religious and philosophical geniuses that had great insight on the moral of man. Illumination theory states the Holy Spirit influence the writers of the Scripture. With the help of the Holy Spirit the people will understand the word of God. Dynamic theory combines...
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...Short Essay on Inspiration and Inerrancy of the Bible The statement, “the Bible is the inspired inerrant Word of God”, is weighty and carries with it many ramifications. There have been numerous debates about the validity of this statement, all of which have produced many sides to this argument. As a Christian, it is essential to research and study for oneself in order to come to an educated conclusion that the Bible is, in fact, the inspired inerrant word of God. Everything starts with questioning the authority of the Bible. If the Bible has no authority over life, if it is nothing but empty words, how then can one rationally use it to be the foundational instruction in one’s life? Does it have authority and from where did this authority come from? “An approach to the subject of biblical authority must begin with God himself. For in him all authority is finally located…there is nothing outside him on which his authority is founded”. One of the strongest arguments from those with an opposing view on the authority of the Bible will “regard the bible as a fallible collection of religious writings…” However, “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. In revelation God declares his authority”. “Over 3,000 times in Scripture the authors claim their message is from God”. “The phrase ‘Thus saith the LORD’” appears 1,700 times in Scripture. While these claims cannot be...
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...Ashley Stamp THEO201_B31_201320 Short Essay #1 Inspiration and Inerrancy of the Bible “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.” (John 1:1) The Gospel, according to John, starts with one of the most important ideas of the inerrancy and authority of the Bible. The Bible is inspired by God and is from God, because it is a part of God as we can clearly find in the first part of John. Many today argue the inerrancy of the Bible, even though scripture says, “Every word of God proves true; he is a shield to them that put their trust in him”. (Proverbs 30:5) We must trust the infallible Word of the Lord. The Bible’s authority comes directly from God, and His revelation is used to understand that authority. He is the founder and maker of all, and as such, his Word has the right and power to command just as God does. Paul declares that, “every scripture” is God breathed. He was aware that he was being guided by the Holy Spirit and the words that he transcribed had power and authority. Among other writers of scripture, Paul was merely chosen to translate into human form, the revelation of God. Since the Holy scriptures retain the power of God, It, as a result, establishes its own inerrancy. It is inerrant because it is pure and true, without fault or error, and cannot be disproven by man. “Human knowledge is limited in two ways. First, because of our finitude and sinfulness, human beings misinterpret the data and…secondly we do not possess...
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...clarify the meaning of inspiration. Inspiration is the process by which God chose to reveal Himself, apart from general revelation, through his written word. By his word, we mean being Gods own word written by men and superintended by His Holy Spirit as the divine author, it is whole and was verbally given with the incorporation of the writer’s personality without any error or fault. The Bible itself also testifies that it is the Word of God. Dr Elmer Towns states, “Over 3,000 times in the Scripture the authors claim their message is from God. Expressions like ‘”thus saith the Lord”’ appears approximately 500 times in the Pentateuch and over 1200 times in the prophets.” (Towns 2008) Now if that evidence alone is not enough we cannot deny the empirical evidence we have concerning the fulfillment of prophecy. “The strongest empirical argument that the Bible is the Word of God is based on its demonstrated ability to predict the future”(Towns 2008). In light of the predictions that Scripture has made regarding the predictions concerning the Messiah, His birth, life, death, burial and resurrection, it’s hard not to see the Bible as the...
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...Of Moises Silva “Old Princeton, Westminister, and Inerrancy” Westminister Theological Journal 50(1988) 65-80 THEO 525 B10 LUO (Spring 2014) Liberty Baptist Theological Seminary Thomas O. Elder24618510 Lynchburg, Virginia 25 March, 2014 I Contents Introduction 2 Summary 2 Interaction 3 Conclusion 4 Bibliography 5 2 Introduction The occasion of the Journal article’s content is the inauguration of the speaker’s call as “…professor of New Testament at Westminister Theological Seminary. The date is February 19, 1985.” The purpose of the speech and hence the article is to make a command statement for all time to any who will hear the speech or read the article that the professor is publicly, fully committed to the argument that “…The scriptures are truly God’s very breath.” Summary The article...
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...Ashlee Ford April 20, 2011 Margaret Sofianos Essay Assignment What is the difference between strict and limited inerrancy? Which seems more convincing? Why? What is the significance of seeing different genres in the Bible? In this module, we look at the Christian view of the scriptures, and revelation sections. Here they discuss the problems with revelations, the definition of a scripture, the problems with scriptures, etc. My take on this, is that the scriptures are all witness testimony, which means they are opinionated. To some, that could be the problem. The difference between strict and limited inerrancy is with strict inerrancy, it demonstrates the view that there are no mistakes in the bible, while limited inerrancy leaves room for the possibility of mistakes within the scriptures. The significance of seeing different genres in the bible is to see scripture readings with a fresh eye, and to discover the different ways that testimonies were put together. The genre of the bible is basically biblical answers. “Inerrant” is a word that means “incapable” of making a mistake. And it refers to the belief that God protected the biblical authors from making mistakes (pg. 212). I don’t really agree with this because I believe that everything in the bible (well scripture wise anyways) is a witness testimony. John, Paul, Matthew and Luke all wrote down the events of what happened, and its how they took things. Twenty people could view the same event, and all record...
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... By His Word, we mean being God’s own Word written by men and superintended by His Holy Spirit as the divine author. The written word of God is whole and was verbally given with the incorporation of the writer’s personality without any error or fault. In 2 Timothy 3:16 (KJV) we read that “all scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction and righteousness.” Also in 2 Peter 1:19-20 (KJV) we read that no prophecy came from the will of man but rather that men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit. In light of the prophecies and predictions that Scripture has made regarding the predictions concerning the Messiah, His birth, life, death, burial and resurrection, it is hard not to see the Bible as the inspired Word of God. I do not think men of their own accord could have been that accurate apart from divine inspiration. Now there is still a question pertaining to inerrancy that must be answered and it is one that proves to be of equal importance. If men were the authors, and men are fallible and sinners, how do we know that the Bible is without error? Could the authors who penned the Scriptures have made mistakes? These are valid questions and indeed the authors were fallible themselves being men and were capable of making mistakes. But one must ask...
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...1 Kristine Williams THEO201_D01_201240 Short Essay 1 Authority, Inspiration, and Inerrancy The word of God has been a book that has touched the lives of many, whether leading to professions of belief or unfortunate rejections of faith. In all of its glory, the Bible has complete authority, inspiration, and inerrancy from God because it is God. These three attributes go hand in hand to the overall divine nature of the scriptures while having their own impact in the argument of Christianity. Since “authority is the right and power to command, enforce laws, exact obedience, determine or judge,”[1] to say that the Bible has its own authority is a simple, but faith-demanding concept. The Bible is authoritative in that its information can be trusted and is completely valid. This is mainly due to the fact that the author sends that authority. The Lord and creator of the universe gives His word evidence simply because He is truth and portrays accuracy. As God’s word the Bible reveals God’s authority. In reference to the Bible, inspiration simply means that God is the author of all scripture. I believe this way because in His authority He says: “All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness.”[2] I am fully confident that every word in the Bible comes divinely from the creator of the universe, not only because that is what His word says, but because it gives explanation...
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...Jae Lee MLA Theo 201-D21 Short Essay on Inerrancy and Inspiration. While sitting on a bench in a nearby park I was reading the Bible, when a jogger had stopped in the middle of his jog and asked me why am I reading the Bible and do I really think that the words of God has authority. So I answered his first question by telling him that I am a student in a Christian College and that I found my love for God. The second question that he had, I answered him with a question saying whoever might you believe in or what you believe in does it have authority? With that reply I went on briefly and told him that Jesus in my father and he is my savior. He is the one I believe in and the one that sets plans for all of us. Inspiration can be also defined as Approach, influence, a way to help one rise and other things. the purpose of the Bible Inspiration is that it helps one understand or even let one rise from their problems because the father Jesus Christ is there to protect and provide for them. Every writer from the past and every reader till this day have an inspirational story to tell. We all are inspired by God’s word. Through-out the whole Bible there are inspiring passages and verses. But the Bible as a Whole in the biggest inspiration that one needs. “All scripture is God-breath and useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting, and training in righteousness.” The bible is given by the Inspiration of God. The Scripture is words we need to hear so that we can overcome things in life...
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...foundational topics such as biblical authority, inspiration, and inerrancy. This essay will deal with such topics and give implications for how a Christian is to live their life based on these concepts. To begin, biblical authority must be defined. According to the American Heritage Dictionary, “Authority is the right and power to command, enforce laws, exact obedience, determine,...
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