Biblical inerrancy

[RickD]

I put this topic in Questions for Christians, because it only pertains to those here who are professing believers. As far as this topic is concerned, anyone who is not a professing believer, please do not post on this thread.

I simply want to know how believers feel about Biblical Inerrancy. Is it important? Is it an essential belief of a believer?

I just chose this link to give an overview of what biblical inerrancy is.

A Short Statement

1. God, who is Himself Truth and speaks truth only, has inspired Holy Scripture in order thereby to reveal Himself to lost mankind through Jesus Christ as Creator and Lord, Redeemer and Judge. Holy Scripture is God's witness to Himself.
2. Holy Scripture, being God's own Word, written by men prepared and superintended by His Spirit, is of infallible divine authority in all matters upon which it touches: it is to be believed, as God's instruction, in all that it affirms: obeyed, as God's command, in all that it requires; embraced, as God's pledge, in all that it promises.
3. The Holy Spirit, Scripture's divine Author, both authenticates it to us by His inward witness and opens our minds to understand its meaning.
4. Being wholly and verbally God-given, Scripture is without error or fault in all its teaching, no less in what it states about God's acts in creation, about the events of world history, and about its own literary origins under God, than in its witness to God's saving grace in individual lives.
5. The authority of Scripture is inescapably impaired if this total divine inerrancy is in any way limited or disregarded, or made relative to a view of truth contrary to the Bible's own; and such lapses bring serious loss to both the individual and the Church.

[PaulSacramento]

Theologically speaking, the bible is without error.
I don't think that we should view the WHOLE of the bible to the same degree of "inerrancy" because not all books and letters were divinely inspired to the same degree.
Luke for example, though inspired to collect and write his gospel, openly admits that what is there is a collection of the eyewitness accounts of the apostles and while poems in the bible are most certainly of the HS I don't think we should expect of them explicit theological statements to end arguments since that was NOT the intention of the writers.
Prophecies, IMO, should be regarded as being with the highest degree of inspiration as are any passages that say " The Lord Said..."

[Furstentum Liechtenstein]

The Bible is absolutely the inerrant Word of God. Every single word is inspired, God breathed, 2 Tim 3:16. Every word is important, as Jesus said in Mt 5:18. The Bible is infallible, Jn 10:35.

FL

[Philip]

FL: The Bible is absolutely the inerrant Word of God. Every single word is inspired, God breathed, 2 Tim 3:16. Every word is important, as Jesus said in Mt 5:18. The Bible is infallible, Jn 10:35.

I would agree, but only if we are speaking of the original autographs. The copies have minor flaws, a few tiny additions (that do not change anything doctrinally). Perhaps the ending tacked on to the end of Mark is the most problematic. However, textual criticism and literary techniques, along with a vast number of old manuscript copies, have provided us a way to have a very high degree of confidence that today's Protestant Bible essentially contains what was in the originals.

[Furstentum Liechtenstein]

FL: The Bible is absolutely the inerrant Word of God. Every single word is inspired, God breathed, 2 Tim 3:16. Every word is important, as Jesus said in Mt 5:18. The Bible is infallible, Jn 10:35.

I would agree, but only if we are speaking of the original autographs. The copies have minor flaws, a few tiny additions (that do not change anything doctrinally)...

The above goes without saying, which is why I didn't say it! In any event, we do not have the originals. The photocopies that have come down to us serve me just fine! The few scribal additions that exist (see Biblical Archaeology Review July/August 2011, page 30) are of no significance, and...who's to say they were not done under the HS's inspiration? As for copyist errors, they do not change the sense of the text. e.g., If I write, You're wife thinks your handsume, you still get the message.

FL

[PaulSacramento]

Personally I believe the copyists were inspired as well, though not to the same degree as the original writers/transmitters.
The "technical errors" in the manuscripts mean nothing really.

[abelcainsbrother]

I believe all scripture is the inspired word of God and when understood properly it is true.The problem with inerrancy comes in based on man's interpretations of the inspired word of God and it is important to make sure our interpretation is correct and we as believers need to be flexible in our interpretations so that we can change our mind if our translation turns out to be wrong.Instead of having pride in our interpretation and unwilling to change because we've believed this or that for so long we need to humble ourselves and consider all possibilities and to be willing to change according to God's word.

This is hard to do for some Christians who have been in a ministry for years teaching their interpretation and when it is discovered it is wrong? They are unwilling to change,this is dangerous because I believe that we will answer to Jesus at the judgment seat of Christ for what we taught and I would not want to stand before Jesus and have him say you were wrong,you knew it was wrong but kept on teaching it anyway,etc.