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What does it mean that the Bible is God’s inerrant Word? How should that doctrine affect how we read the Bible?
Welcome to Session 3 of Discovering Good News in John. Today, we’ll look at another basic Christian doctrine: the Bible as God’s Inerrant Word. Then we’ll see what that means for the way we read the Bible, including three Bible practices to avoid. Let’s begin with the Bible is God’s inerrant words.
The Bible Is God’s Inerrant Words
Professor Millard J. Erickson provides a simple definition of the doctrine of inerrancy:
The Bible is fully truthful in all of its teachings.
Introducing Christian Doctrine, 60
Here’s a fuller definition that’s adapted from the Chicago Statement on Biblical Inerrancy:
God, who is Himself Truth and speaks truth only, has inspired Holy Scripture… and Holy Scripture, being God’s own Word… 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.
It goes on to say,
Being wholly and verbally God-given, Scripture is without error or fault in all its teaching….
Chicago Statement on Biblical Inerrancy
So when we say that the Bible is inerrant, we mean that it “is fully truthful in all that it affirms” or teaches. Now, the Bible does not affirm everything it reports. For example, John 7:20 reports that people told Jesus, “You have a demon!” The Bible affirms that this is what people said, but it does not affirm that the people were correct. Quite the contrary.
Additionally, the Bible’s writers often describe things as they saw them without using technical language. We do that today too. For example, we often use the words sunrise and sunset even though we know that the sun doesn’t really rise and set. Instead, the earth rotates in a way that makes it look like the sun rises and sets. So when the Bible mentions sunrise or sunset, it is describing what things look like, not affirming that what they look like is technically what is happening.
Finally, inerrancy applies to the original manuscripts that were actually penned by the human authors of Scripture. Scholars call these autographs. Inerrancy applies to later copies and translations in so far as they reflect the originals.
On What Do We Base This Doctrine?
The books of the Bible are historical documents. As such, they make claims that we need to evaluate. For example, 2 Timothy 3:16-17 reads:
All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work.
2 Timothy 3:16-17
What evidence do we have that this statement is true?
If Jesus was raised from the dead, then he came from God and we should pay attention to what he said. Jesus called all of the Old Testament the “word of God” and “Scripture” that “cannot be broken” in John 10:35.
Jesus also chose certain people to be apostles whom he sent out to spread the good news that Jesus preached. He said the Holy Spirit would remind them of all his words. God gave the apostles the ability to perform signs and wonders so that people would know that he had indeed sent them.
The apostle Paul wrote that statement we read from 2 Timothy. Acts records that God gave many signs and miracles through Paul so that people would trust Paul’s message. The apostle Peter called the apostle Paul’s letters “Scripture” in 2 Peter 3:16. So the early church embraced certain writings as Scripture very early.
The New Testament was written by apostles or their close associates. Mark traveled with Peter and wrote a Gospel based on the Peter’s teachings. Luke was a physician and historian who accompanied Paul on missionary trips and who wrote Luke and Acts.
What Does Inerrancy Teach Us About How We Treat the Bible?
We read John chapters 3 and 4 this week and saw that in Jesus’s day (as today), people treated the Bible in different ways. Some practices were helpful and some were harmful. So let’s look now at three Bible practices to avoid.
Three Bible Practices to Avoid
The first person Jesus encountered in John 3 was a Pharisee named Nicodemus. The Pharisees had a long list of rules that they memorized about how to keep God’s commands. For example, the Fourth Commandment says that the Sabbath was to be a day of rest. The Pharisees had hundreds of rules about what people could and could not do on the Sabbath. What the Pharisees practiced was The Bible Plus.
1) The Bible Plus
In Jesus’s day, these rules were not written down, so they were called the “oral tradition” or the “tradition of the elders.” The Pharisees considered their oral tradition to be inspired by God just like the Old Testament books. This hindered their walk with God, however, for four reasons.
How The Bible Plus Hindered the Pharisees
a) Their Tradition Caused Them to Void Scripture
First, their tradition sometimes voided Old Testament Scripture, as Jesus points out in Matthew 15:1-9:
Then Pharisees and scribes came to Jesus from Jerusalem and said, “Why do your disciples break the tradition of the elders? For they do not wash their hands when they eat.” He answered them, “And why do you break the commandment of God for the sake of your tradition? For God commanded, ‘Honor your father and your mother,’ and, ‘Whoever reviles father or mother must surely die.’ But you say, ‘If anyone tells his father or his mother, “What you would have gained from me is given to God,” he need not honor his father.’ So for the sake of your tradition you have made void the word of God. You hypocrites! Well did Isaiah prophesy of you, when he said: ‘This people honors me with their lips, but their heart is far from me; in vain do they worship me, teaching as doctrines the commandments of men.’ ”
Matthew 15:1-9
So Jesus called the tradition they thought was inspired “commandments of men,” while he called the OT books “the word of God.” This angered many Pharisees.
b) Their Tradition Caused Them to Neglect Scripture
Second, the Pharisees’ focus on their tradition caused them to neglect some important things in the Word of God. We saw that in John 3 when Jesus chided Nicodemus for not knowing the Old Testament book of Ezekiel well enough. We’ll see this happen again as we go through John’s Gospel.
c) Their Tradition Caused Them to Judge Themselves Righteous
Third, their adherence to their oral tradition made many of them judge themselves as good people who did not need a Savior to have their sins forgiven. That is why Jesus kept pointing out their sins, as he did in Matthew 23:27-28:
Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you are like whitewashed tombs, which outwardly appear beautiful, but within are full of dead people’s bones and all uncleanness. So you also outwardly appear righteous to others, but within you are full of hypocrisy and lawlessness.
Matthew 23:27–28
d) Their Tradition Caused Them to Reject Jesus as Messiah
Fourth, their commitment to the inspiration of their tradition caused many of them to reject Jesus as Messiah. For example, one of their rules was that people couldn’t see a doctor on the Sabbath unless their medical issue was life-threatening. As we’ll see soon in John’s Gospel, Jesus healed on the Sabbath. The Pharisees told him to stop, but Jesus instead declared their rules—their traditions—were wrong. Sadly, many Pharisees decided that Jesus could not be the Messiah if he didn’t obey their oral tradition.
So their Bible Plus tradition caused them to void Scripture, neglect Scripture, judge themselves righteous, and reject the Messiah.
Where Do We See The Bible Plus As a Practice Today?
First, 200 years after Jesus walked the earth, the oral tradition was written down in a book called the Mishnah. Many Jews today still embrace the Old Testament books along with the Mishnah and other rabbinic writings.
Second, the Book of Mormon is an example of The Bible Plus.
Third, sometimes Christians add rules to the Bible. One I read in a book was, Don’t drink apple juice in case you accidentally drink hard cider and become drunk.
How Do We Avoid The Bible Plus?
While it’s wise to avoid anything that might stumble us, we should take care not to make avoiding those things into rules for other people. Now, that doesn’t mean that we shouldn’t hear and read the teachings of godly people, but we don’t elevate those teachings to the same level as the Word of God.
Another Bible practice to avoid is The Basics Only.
2) The Basics Only
We saw he “Basics Only” in John 4 where Jesus met the Samaritan woman who thought only the Pentateuch was inspired. The Pentateuch is the first five books of the Bible, so she missed all the histories, wisdom literature, and prophets. She had only the basics.
Not only that, but the Samaritan version of the Pentateuch differed from the Jewish version slightly. It said that Moses built an altar on a different mountain. The Samaritans built a temple on that mountain, which the Jews destroyed. The woman brought up the point of difference to Jesus. Here’s how he responded in John 4:21-23:
Jesus said to her, “Woman, believe me, the hour is coming when neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem will you worship the Father. You worship what you do not know; we worship what we know, for salvation is from the Jews. But the hour is coming, and is now here, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for the Father is seeking such people to worship him.”
John 4:21-23
Jesus corrected her, and she believed in him. She knew enough from the Pentateuch to expect the Prophet like Moses, whom she called Taheb (Ta-HABE).
Another religious sect—the Sadducees—also practiced The Basics Only. The Sadducees were wealthy, aristocratic priests who may have accepted the Old Testament books we have today, but believed the later writings were subordinate to the Pentateuch. They said there are no resurrections, no angels, and no spirits. They also were not looking for an anointed king (messiah). Here’s what happened when they challenged Jesus in Matthew 22:23-32:
The same day Sadducees came to him, who say that there is no resurrection, and they asked him a question, saying, “Teacher, Moses said, ‘If a man dies having no children, his brother must marry the widow and raise up offspring for his brother.’ Now there were seven brothers among us. The first married and died, and having no offspring left his wife to his brother. So too the second and third, down to the seventh. After them all, the woman died. In the resurrection, therefore, of the seven, whose wife will she be? For they all had her.”
But Jesus answered them, “You are wrong, because you know neither the Scriptures nor the power of God. For in the resurrection they neither marry nor are given in marriage, but are like angels in heaven. And as for the resurrection of the dead, have you not read what was said to you by God: ‘I am the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob’? He is not God of the dead, but of the living.”
Matthew 22:23-32
Jesus quoted from Exodus 3:6, which is part of the Pentateuch, to show them they didn’t know even the part of the Scriptures they claimed to uphold. And notice that he also affirmed the existence of angels, which the Pentateuch talks about. Jesus told them plainly that they knew neither the Scriptures nor God’s power. Their low view of Scripture gave them faulty expectations and less faith in God’s power than they would have had if they embraced all of the Old Testament.
Where Do We See The Basics Only As a Practice Today?
Some people are afraid of the Old Testament or think the Old Testament is too hard to understand, so they don’t read it. But understanding how Jesus fulfills Old Testament Scripture is a major faith booster. And the histories teach us much by example. Also, as mentioned a moment ago, Jesus said the Old Testament was the inspired Word of God, so we disregard it at our own peril.
Others read only the “easy” books of the Bible: Psalms, Proverbs, Gospels, and short letters. There are a few who think Christians who aren’t Jewish should read only Paul’s letters in the Bible. These are also forms of The Basics Only. Here’s what Hebrews 5:12–6:1 say about The Basic’s Only:
For though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you again the basic principles of the oracles of God. You need milk, not solid food, for everyone who lives on milk is unskilled in the word of righteousness, since he is a child. But solid food is for the mature, for those who have their powers of discernment trained by constant practice to distinguish good from evil.
Therefore let us leave the elementary doctrine of Christ and go on to maturity, not laying again a foundation of repentance from dead works and of faith toward God.
Hebrews 5:12–6:1
How Do We Avoid The Basics Only?
If not understanding some parts of the Bible is what’s holding you back from reading more, then I recommend purchasing a study Bible. Study Bibles have notes that explain cultural, historical, and theological issues. They also have cross-references so you can easily find related verses.
Sometimes Christians tell me they’ve read the Bible through every year and now they find it boring. What I recommend for that is three things.
- Try a new translation.
- Change the order in which you read the books. Try reading it chronologically, for example. When you finish a Bible book, put a mark next to its name in the table of content.
- Third, emphasize quality time over quantity of time. Take as long as you want to read through a book, process the notes, and look up related passages.
Another Bible practice to avoid is The Blessings Only.
The Blessings Only
When Jesus left Samaria, he went to Galilee where he lived. The Galileans welcomed him as a miracle worker rather than Messiah. Matthew 13:54-58 supplies insight into the problem.
And coming to his hometown he taught them in their synagogue, so that they were astonished, and said, “Where did this man get this wisdom and these mighty works? Is not this the carpenter’s son? Is not his mother called Mary? And are not his brothers James and Joseph and Simon and Judas? And are not all his sisters with us? Where then did this man get all these things?” And they took offense at him. But Jesus said to them, “A prophet is not without honor except in his hometown and in his own household.” And he did not do many mighty works there, because of their unbelief.
Matthew 13:54-58
The people welcomed Jesus as a healer but weren’t ready to grant him authority. They wanted blessings only, not commands or in-depth teaching.
A similar problem happened with the kingdom of Judah. In time, they embraced God’s promises but not his commands. They thought that the temple sacrifices were a way to get away with sin. Here’s what God said in Jeremiah 7:9-11:
“Will you steal, murder, commit adultery, swear falsely, make offerings to Baal, and go after other gods that you have not known, and then come and stand before me in this house, which is called by my name, and say, ‘We are delivered!’—only to go on doing all these abominations? Has this house, which is called by my name, become a den of robbers in your eyes?”
Jeremiah 7:9-11
God’s solution was to send the people into exile where they would be forced to learn self-control. The problems with clinging to promises only and ignoring the rest of the Bible are that we don’t grow and we compromise our faith.
Where Do We See The Promises Only As A Practice Today?
We see this when people pull verses out of context and quote them as promises when the Bible does not affirm them as promises. There are several ways this happens.
a) Quoting Promises Without Conditions
First, people sometimes quote promises without the conditions that go with them. For example, they may quote only “Ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you” in John 15:7 when the whole verse reads, “If you abide in me, and my words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you.” Those who abide in Jesus will ask differently than those who don’t.
b) Quoting Job’s Friends
Second, people sometimes quote the words of Job’s friends as promises even though God said that Job’s friends did not speak what is true about him.
c) Reading Devotionals Only
Third, this can happen when people read devotionals instead of the Bible. For instance, one woman told me she didn’t have time to read the Bible so on her lunch break, she read from a book of short devotionals. While that’s certainly better than reading no Scripture, some short devotionals are heavy on encouragement and promises, and light on the rest of the Bible. She’d been a Christian for many years but didn’t know the Scriptures that could help her through marriage and work struggles.
Another woman in her mid-40s told me that she had believed that God would not allow a Christian spouse to die, and her faith failed when her husband died. She felt betrayed because she believed God had promised her something that the Bible didn’t promise. She could not have been taking in all of God’s Word, or it would have corrected her belief.
How Do We Avoid The Blessings Only?
First, understand that it’s not just promises that provide blessings but all of God’s instructions. Following God’s instructions blesses our lives and relationships.
Second, start to read entire books of the Bible. Look for promises, commands, and lessons.
And third, talk to God about what you’re reading as you read it. Treat the Bible as you would a birthday card. What I mean is that when someone hands you a birthday card, you read a little, comment on it, read some more, and comment some more. Since the giver is standing there, you talk to her about it as you read. Well, God is there with you when you’re reading the Bible. So talk to him. If something encourages you, give thanks. If you read a command, ask for help to follow it. If something convicts you, confess it. If something blesses you, praise God. Make your time in God’s Word a conversation.
In Conclusion
Today we saw that the doctrine of inerrancy means that the Bible is fully truthful in all its teachings. Because of that, we should avoid three practices that we saw in John chapters 3 and 4. First, we should avoid adding to God’s words, as the Pharisees did with The Bible Plus. Second, we should embrace all of the Bible rather than clinging to just the basics, as the Samaritans did with The Basics Only. Third, we should embrace the Bible’s commands and lessons, not just The Blessings Only, as some of the Galileans did with Jesus.
This week in Discovering Good News in John, complete chapter 3: Expectations Meet Reality. We’ll see the Pharisees again practice The Bible Plus and we’ll see the Jewish crowds embrace The Blessings Only. We’ll also answer the question, Why do people reject the good news? See you next time.
Join the Discussion!
Please answer these questions in the comments below.
- What one thought stuck out to you in this week’s post? Why did it stand out?
- What one thought stuck out to you from week’s chapter? Why did it stand out?
- Question 41, page 48: Describe a time God answered a prayer request differently from the way you asked him to answer. What benefits did God’s way have over your way?
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