Biblical Inerrancy VI: Why Is Inerrancy Necessary?

“My conscience is captive to the Word of God; to go against conscience is neither right nor safe; on this I stand, I can do no other; God help me, Amen.”

- Martin Luther

I appeal to you, brothers, to watch out for those who cause divisions and create obstacles contrary to the doctrine that you have been taught; avoid them. For such persons do not serve our Lord Christ, but their own appetites, and by smooth talk and flattery they deceive the hearts of the naive. For your obedience is known to all, so that I rejoice over you, but I want you to be wise as to what is good and innocent as to what is evil. The God of peace will soon crush Satan under your feet. The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you.
-Romans 16:17-20

(Introduction and subsequent links to the series can be found here)

After acknowledging that there is more truth than is contained in the Bible, that all truth is of God, and that there are other ways in which God speaks to us, why insist upon an inerrant Scripture? Aren’t all forms of revelation equally valid? Why would we consider a written revelation any more authoritative than a word directly from the Holy Spirit to someone? If God has spoken, who am I to contradict it? Perhaps a true, current example will suffice.

The current worldwide Anglican Communion comprises millions of members from throughout the entire world. However, the Communion is in danger of a split that may exclude parts of it from certain functions and meetings, if not from the Communion altogether. While the issues may be more myriad than on the surface, the issue that has the headlines is the acceptance and ordination of homosexual clergy. The Anglican branches in Canada, the US and New Zealand allow this. Other first world, westernized countries are neutral or considering it. The remainder of the Communion, particularly in the third world, is vehemently opposed to the practice.

The western branches, who happen to be primarily white, wealthy, western, and liberal, believe that they have been and are led by the Holy Spirit to move in this direction. Thus, they claim, in essence, revelation from God as an authority to do so. The majority of the Communion disagrees, and claims that the Holy Spirit has led them to an opposite conclusion.

Yet, we know that “There is one body and one Spirit—just as you were called to the one hope that belongs to your call—one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all.” (Eph 4:4-6)

The same Spirit cannot assent that an act is praiseworthy and abhorrent at the same time. There must be an arbiter – that arbiter is Scripture. In fact, they are more than arbiters – they are sufficient for our knowledge of the things of God. That is why St. Athanasius said, “For indeed the holy and God-breathed Scriptures are sufficient for the preaching of the truth.” Cyril, a bishop in the mid-fourth century, wrote, “In regard to the divine and holy mysteries of the faith, not the least part may be handed down without the Holy Scriptures…even to me, who tell you these things, do not give ready belief, unless you receive from the Holy Scriptures the things of which I announce.” St. Thomas Aquinas wrote in the thirteenth century, “we believe the successors of the apostles and prophets only in so far as they tell us those things which the apostles and prophets have left us in their writings.”

The belief that the Scriptures alone are the final authority for the believer is crucial to Christianity. For only as the authority of the Bible stands supreme over the authority of the individual, or the community, or even the church can we truly be addressed by the Word of God and not by our own word. Only when the difference between the work of the Holy Spirit in the inspiration of the Holy Scriptures is recognized as different from His work in the teaching ministry of the church can the church hear a Word from God rather than its own voice.

What do we have in those branches of “Christianity” that deny an inerrant Scripture? What do we have in liberal theology, neo-orthodoxy, and historical-critical theology? What do we have in the other theologies that have sprung up in the last 200 years or less that deny the authority of the Scriptures over their own authority?

They are not Christianity. They are made up religions.

That sounds harsh. I don’t think it is anything but the truth. While liberal, neo-orthodox, and historical critical theologies have distinct differences (all three are hereafter referred to as liberal), and those of one color are insulted when called another, in the end, they all have the same hermeneutic (method of determining what the Bible says) as described by Marcus Borg in “Reading the Bible Again for the First Time”: “There are parts of the Bible that we will decide need not or should not be honored, either because we discern that they were relevant to ancient times but not to our own, or because we discern that they were never the will of God.”

This kind of hermeneutic is one that, essentially, reduces our faith to a faith that is in only what we want to believe. Think about it. It is this faith that agrees that God is a God of love, who is our heavenly Father, yet denies that, somehow unlike an earthly father, He would give us rules that we don’t like, or knows things that we do not, or would impose his authority upon us in wisdom we cannot understand. It is this kind of hermeneutic that results in a faith that relies upon the “Spirit working in community”, yet restricts that community to my particular denomination, culture, place and time and completely rejects the testimony of historical Christianity, Scripture and the faithful the world over. It is this kind of hermeneutic that creates a “Christianity” that is extremely acceptable to secular intelligencia and culture, instead of preserving a gospel that offends the world and makes them hate us (Matt 10:16-41).

These followers of this kind of faith are following something, but not Christ. They are following the teachings of demons (1 Timothy 4:1). (Appropriately enough, many of these very people will deny the existence of demons, or that they actually do anything.) They use a hermeneutic that allows them to pick and choose Bible verses they already agree with, and reject those they do not.

Consider this – what basis does one reject Scriptural teaching upon? Upon their own desires. Oh, they may cite the agreement of others or current scientific evidence, but the evidence and opinions of others conveniently agree with what they already believe.

So where does the Spirit play in all of this? The Spirit is active, living and mighty in our world. He leads us into all truth (John 16:13), and gives us guidance, comfort, strength, wisdom and discernment. What He cannot do is contradict himself. He does not “lead” one believer to march in a “women’s choice” rally and another to volunteer in a pregnancy counseling center to save unborn children. He does not “lead” one preacher to proclaim a gospel of earthly prosperity and another to preach financial sacrifice to help others. He does not “lead” one denomination to ignore the Biblical prescription for the qualifications of pastors yet another to adhere to it. He does not “lead” one Christian to support a gay pride event and another to campaign for a traditional marriage protection amendment. None of these views make one a non-Christian, but to claim that both in any case are Spirit-led actions is ludicrous. Specifically, He does not contradict Scripture or lead us into “new” readings that did not become acceptable until secular culture said it was acceptable. In fact, the way we know the difference between the Holy Spirit and the leading of evil spirits is obedience and submission to the Scriptures, (1 John 4:1,6).

There is another difference you will notice between the adherents of inerrancy and those who do not: fruit.

Go to the Passion 268 website and after you enter, click on “Watch Louie’s talks online” choose “Unthinkable Rescue”. After it loads far enough, move the pointer to 22:45 and listen for a few minutes. He reads a personal letter of deliberate sin and its consequences, followed by divine salvation and the joy that results.

These stories are frighteningly rare in liberal circles, and common enough in inerrantist circles to be beyond the highest level of statistical significance in comparison. They are found in churches that maintain an orthodox view of Scripture – though many of them may look very different in presentation. This one (Louie’s), for example, is a Southern Baptist Church, though you wouldn’t guess it until you hear the Word preached. The salt of the earth are found, not in highbrow European neo-orthodoxy, but in a Promise Keepers rally where gang members renounce their gang ties at the risk of their lives; where homosexuals leave that lifestyle as they deny themselves and take up their cross; where alcoholic fathers gives their lives to Christ after being witnessed to by a street preacher; where porn-addicted husbands find rescue from their addiction after watching Billy Graham on TV; where drug addict sons leave their sin behind forever when they meet the living Christ in the preaching of the gospel! The stories of redemption from unspeakable sin are found in fundamentalist Christianity, where the Bible is regarded and preached as fully inerrant. The former gangsters never become pastors preaching that gay sex is honored by God. They are instead in COGIC churches, Cities of Refuge, and other urban gospel congregations that demonstrate real joy and exuberance in the Lord and who believe in the inerrant Word. They are coming to Christ in Pentecostal and charismatic congregations who practice gifts of the Spirit in a way I never would and who believe in the inerrant Word. They find community in a little Baptist church that makes weekly altar calls and proclaims an inerrant Word. They serve others as part of a Roman Catholic mission that believes in an inerrant Word and lives it in service to the poor. The drunkards, prostitutes, child molesters, murderers, thieves and liars come to the Christ who was fully God and man, who was born of a virgin, who suffered bodily under Pilate, who was crucified, dead and buried, who rose again from the dead, leaving an empty tomb, rose into heaven to sit at the hand of the Father, and will come again in Judgment. They come in response to a call to repentance and submission to the King of Kings, and not because they are told they have a “God-shaped Hole” and are seeking comfort after a tough week at the office. Christians the world over are martyred not for a liberal gospel of pick and choose doctrines – the Chinese government, after all, makes their own approved Bible of pick and choose verses – but for proclaiming that the road is narrow and that the truth of the Bible that Jesus is the only way!

There is a reason that Brian McLaren is never going to be translated into Sudanese; there is a reason that liberal theology isn’t exploding in North Korea; there is a reason that the trailer parks are not embracing neo-orthodoxy; there is a reason that spiritual revivals in the ghettos of New York are not found in churches that do not believe the Bible is the final and authoritative revelation, just as it was given. Lives are not changed by a “God” who doesn’t do real miracles, who doesn’t hold the universe in his hand, who somehow couldn’t communicate what He really meant until Bultmann, Schliermacher and Barth opened our eyes over the past 150 years.

Nancy Anderson and Richard Marius, both of whom are liberals, wrote sociological analyses of the Conservative Resurgence in the Southern Baptist Convention – and both came up with the same conclusion. When you look at people who were moving toward liberalism, and the ones who were standing toward orthodoxy, the ones who were the fundamentalist were those who grew up in blue-collar homes; while the ones who were liberal, regardless of how much money they had now, were those who grew up in very comfortable homes. Not as a hard rule, but generally. Why? Anderson and Marius both asked, Why? Their conclusion: those who are more at home in American culture, those who are more secure in American culture, were those who were more likely to move with American culture, were those who were more likely to be concerned about what the outside culture thinks. Those who instead were insecure, those who were already marginalized, were the ones who were willing to hear and to listen to a gospel that the scholars had been telling them is ridiculous!

What do those who claim Christ yet deny the Scriptures do? They say things like, “The crucifixion of Christ is not salvific.” Then they claim they are following Christ, and use their superior seminary education and high status as an ordained pastor as justification to scoff at the fools who believe the Bible. Yet, we should not be surprised.

For the preaching of the cross is to them that perish foolishness; but unto us which are saved it is the power of God. For it is written, I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and will bring to nothing the understanding of the prudent. Where is the wise? where is the scribe? where is the disputer of this world? hath not God made foolish the wisdom of this world? For after that in the wisdom of God the world by wisdom knew not God, it pleased God by the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe. For the Jews require a sign, and the Greeks seek after wisdom: But we preach Christ crucified, unto the Jews a stumblingblock, and unto the Greeks foolishness; But unto them which are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God, and the wisdom of God. Because the foolishness of God is wiser than men; and the weakness of God is stronger than men. For ye see your calling, brethren, how that not many wise men after the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble, are called: But God hath chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the wise; and God hath chosen the weak things of the world to confound the things which are mighty; And base things of the world, and things which are despised, hath God chosen, yea, and things which are not, to bring to nought things that are: That no flesh should glory in his presence. But of him are ye in Christ Jesus, who of God is made unto us wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption: That, according as it is written, He that glorieth, let him glory in the Lord. (1 Corinthians 1:18-31)

Those who are saved believe the Bible and those who are perishing deny it. The Scriptures and the communion of saints throughout the ages stand in unison against the false religions followed by many who call themselves Christians. Are there those who deny some part of the Bible that is true and are yet saved? I’m sure there are. There is a difference, however, between denying Scripture one is ignorant of or perhaps not discipled in and denying Scripture after studying it. The Holy Spirit will not allow a Christian to continue to deny the wondrous truths of his name and follow sin as righteousness (John 15:26-16:15). I would wager my own salvation on a brother from any culture who believes the Bible, is not ashamed of the gospel, and serves the Lord with his life – yet would not even consider it for a highly educated westerner whose faith mirrors that of their culture. Yet my assent is of no relevance – the One who brings well-being and calamity, the only one who saves, the one who has breathed out the words of Scripture, has the final say.

He has spoken – to whom will you listen? Will you listen to those “Christians” who deny the inerrancy and authority of Scripture like Borg, who says “the gospels are neither divine documents not straightforward historical records. They are not divine products inspired directly by God, whose contents are therefore to be believed”, or will you listen to the Word of God: “All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness” (2 Tim 3:16, from the larger section on Scripture 2 Tim 3:1-4:8)? These conflicting views cannot both be right. You either believe in an inerrant word or pick and choose that which you will believe and that which you will disregard, of which it is written, “There is a way that seems right to a man, but its end is the way to death.” (Prov 14:12)

(This concludes the inerrancy series. I will have two short addendums – one regarding the lectionary and one that is a warning to conservative Christian leaders)

UPDATE: The Passion website took down the Louie Giglio message (which was #3 in the Unthinkable Series) today, Oct 16th. I'm sorry you won't get to hear the story.