Whether it was the debate over Christianity in the public square, the role of presuppositions, critiquing atheism, or addressing pluralism, over the years I’ve either written, spoken or debated these issues. Contending for the truth of Christianity hasn’t become any less relevant in our era as compared to any other time in history. But our ability to effectively make disciples is being hampered by something I consider a more insidious threat to the church–the reconsideration of the nature and role of scripture.
You may be wondering how it is that a self-described Calvinist could believe that anyone’s faith might be hampered by anything, because if God draws anyone to him, they will come and grow in the knowledge of God. While God’s will cannot be thwarted, he uses the work of the worker he’s called to reach into the lives of others. It’s not for us to decide that God has acted or not acted in the heart and mind of an individual. Instead, we are to continue sharing the truth of his revelation and defending it as necessary.
But the ugly truth is that within the church there is a persistent assault on the inerrancy and authority of scripture. An effort is being made to reduce it to a document of inspirational stories and esteem-building proverbs. It’s no longer to be viewed as a historically accurate document because its accuracy is being challenged. By inerrancy, allow me refer to the the Chicago Statement on Biblical Inerrancy,
“We affirm that Scripture in its entirety is inerrant, being free from all falsehood, fraud, or deceit.”
This is a fairly self-explanatory statement, but entirely necessary for the Bible to have any authority in our lives. Yes, there is to be a necessary association between inerrancy and Biblical authority. For any written document to have authority, it must demonstrate internal accuracy. For example, any legal contract that contains errors can be disregarded as having any binding authority on those involved in the signing of that contract. But if this contract, when agreed upon by all parties, is free of errors it retains its authority. It enjoys oversight over the particular circumstances. This is the claim made of scripture–and by scripture– especially as a response to those vigorously seeking to disrupt its authoritative place in the life of the church by attacking its internal reliability.
For the red letter Christians who like to cite only Jesus to develop their theological statements, I would highlight the fact that the gospels document Jesus’ regular citing of other portions of scripture. But if scripture is not free of falsehood, fraud or deceit, we can’t even know if Jesus’ words are recorded as accurate at any point. If any of the Bible is to be regarded as erroneous, who among us is above it such that we can discern which parts of it are free of falsehood, fraud or deceit? The correct answer is that none of us are able to decide the answer to this. Pondering this question reminds of the supernatural origins of the Bible…written by men by the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. The Church never decided that the Bible is inerrant and, therefore, authoritative.
It’s an all or nothing situation we find ourselves in. Either the Bible is free from errors, or it isn’t. Likewise, because of the claims of scripture–that God is sovereign, man is fallen, man needs a Savior, that we are to pursue a life that reflects the holiness of Christ, and so on–if the Bible is free of errors as is the fundamental assumption of Christianity, then these areas of scripture are to be regarded authoritatively. They are not optional positions and are to be understood and honored by the reader.
One blog commenter wrote this on the stories of the Bible: “I don’t know whether this really happened, but I know that this story is True.” This sort of esoteric (understood by or meant for only the select few who have special knowledge or interest) handling of scripture reduces the worldview to a subjective, personal experience that hardly requires it to meet the intellectual demands of a haughty culture intent on debunking Christianity. It does the work of debunking Christianity by impugning its historicity. Do you understand that when questions are raised up against the inerrancy and authority of scripture, it is at risk of having any meaningful place within the life of the church? I contend that without an inerrant and authoritative Bible, the church is only a shell and there is no life in it.
More on this matter as the newest version of this debate continues.
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