Tehya-lani Locke Dr. Chris Gnanakan
THEO 201-002 27 February 2021
Theology and Culture Essay
Introduction
It’s been said that a table must have at least three legs to stand. Take away any of the three legs
and it will surely topple. In much the same way, the Christian faith stands on three legs. These three legs
are the inspiration, infallibility, and inerrancy of Scripture. What happens to you after your life on
earth inevitably ends? Do you know what will happen to you? Where you will spend the rest of
eternity, heaven or hell? The Bible clearly informs us that everyone living on earth will one day
touch the moment when God’s judgement is passed which definitively determines where every
single soul will be spending eternity. Morality and ethics are not based off our worldly feelings
and thoughts but based off of Biblical truths and narratives. Do you rely on your own standard if
truth, or the biblical standard of truth?
Biblical Inspiration and Inerrancy
The Bible is wholly inerrant, meaning that there are no faults or errors in its text. It is a
belief in total certainty, truthfulness, and reliability of God’s words. “All Scripture is breathed out
by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness”
(2nd Timothy 3:16). God makes no mistakes, every word, every meaning, every message in the
Bible is completely and wholly truthful in every way. “God-breathed” words in the Bible have no
mistakes. Inspiration is that extraordinary or supernatural divine influence provided to those who
wrote the Holy Scriptures, rendering their writings infallible. “For no prophecy was ever
produced by the will of man, but men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy
Spirit” (2nd Peter 1:21). Biblical inspiration basically means that scripture is breathed out by God,
inspiring those writing and those who will read. Second Peter 1:21 tells us that "prophecy came
not in old time by the will of man: but holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy
Ghost." The word moved in this verse literally means to be "borne along" or "carried along."
Even though human beings were used in the process of writing down God's Word, they were all
literally "borne along" by the Holy Spirit.
“These differences call for precision in stating the biblical doctrine. Formerly all that was
necessary to affirm one’s belief in full inspiration was the statement ‘I believe in the inspiration
of the Bible.’ But when some did not extend inspiration to the words of the text it became
necessary to say, ‘I believe in the verbal inspiration of the Bible.’ To counter the teaching that not
all parts of the Bible were inspired, one had to say, ‘I believe in the verbal, plenary inspiration of
the Bible.’ Then because some did not want to ascribe total accuracy to the Bible, it was
necessary to say, ‘I believe in the verbal, plenary, infallible, inerrant inspiration of the Bible.’ But
then ‘infallible’ and ‘inerrant’ began to be limited to matters of faith only rather than also
embracing all that the Bible records (including historical facts, genealogies, accounts of creation,
etc.), so it became necessary to add the concept of ‘unlimited inerrancy. Each addition to the
basic statement arose because of an erroneous teaching.” (Charles Ryrie, Basic Theology. p. 67).
Application
According to Merriam-Webster’s Dictionary, ethics is “the discipline dealing with what is
good and bad and with moral duty and obligation.” Although humans are given an inherent sense
of good and evil, that cannot ultimately be our guide for ethics and morals. Without an absolute
standard, morality would basically be fully dependent on each individual; however, morality is
not a human invention; it flows from the nature of God, who is eternal and unchanging.
Therefore, as much as we may want to, we cannot determine what is right and wrong on our
own. Our Creator, the Source of all truth, has revealed what we need to know of right and wrong
in His Word. Many secularists and liberal scholars acknowledge that the Bible is full of excellent
moral teaching, yet ultimately, they reject the inspiration or inerrancy of Scripture. This is just
another example of how people want to pick and choose what parts of God’s Word they think are
true and apply that to their lives as they see fit.
However, if Scripture were not “God-breathed” truth and 100 percent reliable, how could
we trust anything written in it? If any part of Scripture were false, then the whole work would be
suspect—especially since the Bible claims to be truth without error! Jesus Christ, the Son of
God, regarded Scripture as the ultimate standard. He claimed, “Your word is truth” and “the
Scripture cannot be broken”. Jesus said, “Your word is truth” (John 17:17). This inerrancy isn’t just in
passages that speak about salvation, but also applies to all historical and scientific statements as well. It is
not only accurate in matters related to faith and practice, but it is accurate and without error regarding
any statement (John 3:12). Inerrancy is extremely important, as it is connected to the character of God.
who cannot lie (Heb. 6:18; Titus 1:2). God cannot lie intentionally because He is an absolute moral law-
giver. He cannot err unintentionally because He is omniscient. And if the Bible is the written Word of
God (and it is), then it is without error.
Conclusion
Inerrancy is foundational to all other essential Christian doctrines. It is granted that some other
doctrines are more essential to salvation. However, all salvation related doctrines derive their divine
authority from the divinely authoritative Word of God. So, epistemologically, the doctrine of the divine
authority and inerrancy of Scripture is the fundamental of all the fundamentals. And if the fundamental
of fundamentals is not fundamental, then what is fundamental? Fundamentally nothing! Thus, while
one can be saved without believing in inerrancy, the doctrine of salvation has no divine authority apart
from the infallibility and inerrancy of Scripture.
