Writing Style Used: APA
Course and Section Number: THEO 201 B01
Inerrancy and Inspiration
The Holy Scriptures have the power to give the moral laws that should govern ones life.
The Scriptures also have to power to explain who God is, what God’s plan is as well as how He
desires to be worshiped. Simply put the Bible has “the right and power to command, enforce
laws, exact obedience, determine or judge” (Elwell, pg. 153). Many question whether the Bible
actually has the power Christians claim it has. Jesus himself states in Matthew 28:18 “All
authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth.” One also reads in the Gospel of St. John,
In the beginning was the Word, and the Words was with God, and the Word was God. He
was in the beginning with God. All things were made through Him, and without Him
nothing was made that was made… And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and
we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and
truth. (John 1:1-3, 14)
Jesus was in the beginning with the Father, He is one with the Father and His authority is that of
the Fathers. “Authority may be bestowed or inherent” (Elwell, pg. 153), in the case of Jesus his
authority was inherent from the Father, and the authority of the Holy Scriptures are in the same
sense given their authority from God. One can see that the Scriptures themselves even state this,
in several place within the Bible one will read the phrase “Thus sayeth the Lord.”
II Timothy 3:16 says that “all Scripture is given by inspiration of God,…” meaning that
God has literally breathed the Scriptures into existence. God wrote the Scriptures through the
Apostles, and allowed their own stylistic differences to shape the style of the text not the content.
This affirms, “that Scripture is the product of his creative breath” (Elwell, pg 160).
Inerrancy is a term that means the Bible is without any fault, error or contradiction, and
is direct revelation for God Himself. Psalm 12:6 states that, “The words of the Lord are pure
words, like silver refined in a furnace of earth, purifies seven times.” There are four major
arguments to support the inerrancy of the Scriptures: The Biblical Argument, The Historical
Argument, The Epistemological Argument and The Slippery Slope Argument. The Bible itself
states that it is inerrant, Psalm 19:7 says the Law of the Lord is perfect, and that “all Scripture is
God breathed” (2 Timothy 3:16). Over the 2000 plus years of Church history, the Church has
always held to the belief that the Scriptures are inerrant. The Epistemological Argument states
that if we cannot be sure of the inerrancy of Scripture than we cannot claim to know anything
about truth. Lastly, the Slippery Slope Argument states that if we give up the doctrine of
inerrancy than doubt will creep into every aspect of our faith, and we will doubt and give up all
Biblical doctrine. The historical argument is the strongest of the four. It goes back to the time
from which Scripture had begun to be written down has the most tangible proof of all the other
arguments. One can also compare the Scriptures today to the Dead Sea Scrolls, Septuagint and
other ancient manuscripts to see that there are little to no differences in the manuscripts and the
current Scriptures we have access to. The weakest of the four would be the Slippery Slope
Argument. The term slippery slope is actually one of the logical fallacies; it means you draw a
drastic, unrealistic impact from a minor action. Just because one does not believe in the inerrancy
of Scripture does not mean they will discard the rest of the Christian faith.
Inspiration and inerrancy are in a sense, in communion with one another. The inspiration
of the Holy Scriptures would in fact support that they are by nature inerrant. If in fact the
Scriptures are inspired by God, and are as Psalm 19:7 states “The law of the LORD is perfect”
than one has no reason to doubt whether or not the Scriptures are without error. Sine God has
breathed the Scriptures into existence, and he by his very nature is perfect than by this very fact
the Scriptures are inerrant.
If one accounts the Scriptures as authoritative, inspired, and inerrant than one is without
reason for ignoring what Scripture commands for us to do. Jesus says in the Gospel of St. John,
“If you love Me, keep my commandments” (John 14:15). The Scriptures give us a clear picture
of what the Christian life should look like. A life filled with obedience, prayer, living ones faith,
repentance, humility and love.
The Bible has the authority to govern over the lives of man. God has bestowed that
authority to the Scriptures. The Scriptures have been inspired or “God-breathed” meaning that
God has written the Bible through the authors of each book. There are 4 major arguments that
defend the inerrancy (without fault or error) of the Bible. Since God inspires the Scriptures, one
can state that because God is perfect than his inspired word is also without fault. If one agrees
that Scripture is inspired and inerrant, than one is without excuse to follow the commands set
forth in Scripture.
References
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Elwell, W. (1984). Evangelical dictionary of theology. Grand Rapids, Mich.: Baker Book House.
The Orthodoxy study Bible. (2008). Nashville: Thomas Nelson
