Biblical inerrancy is a minority view among conservative Christians. It’s a minority view, because there isn’t an overall agreement on the question of inerrancy between scholars and the vast majority of Christians. Biblical inerrantism is also usually called “bible literacy”, a fancy term meaning “holder of the Bible.” Some Bible translations are difficult to read but not so difficult to understand that no one appear be wrong. That’s interesting, however; let me explain.
Biblical inerrantism is a minority view, only because it doesn’t match the dominant view, the traditional doctrine of infallible atonement. Traditional doctrine maintains that salvation is predicated on the actions of Christ, and that if Christ didn’t perform the required acts of salvation, then people wouldn’t get saved. The idea is that if you don’t believe that Jesus is going to save you, then your inability to keep on working on the “kingdom of God” will cause you to become a “non-believer”. In other words, to be saved, you must believe that Jesus is going to save you – and the Bible, in its modern form, says that you can believe that! So if you hold to that traditional doctrine, then you are committed to Biblical inerrancy.
Biblical inerrancy teaches that there is no such thing as free will, because the “words of God” alone can bring people into eternal life. It also teaches that our faith is needed to bring about salvation, because our faith is needed for the grace to bring about salvation. Because our faith is needed, therefore, we cannot avoid God and sin, because the presence of God alone can bring about salvation. That’s why the Bible says that we should not go into the field to preach the gospel unless we are washed in the blood of Christ. Biblical inerrancy teaches that to believe in Jesus is to believe in his ability and power to perform what he said – and that means that we cannot avoid or get around the fact that we are sinners, and that means that we need to experience consequences in this life, and we must trust in and obey God accordingly.
Photo by pixelheadphoto digitalskillet / Shutterstock.com
