Is The Entire Bible Inerrant And Divinely Inspired In Everything It Says?

Throughout history, people have ridiculed the idea of biblical inerrancy and do not believe it to be free from error or untruths or culturally appropriate today. To the faithless, the Bible is simply another fallible book written by imperfect humans.

Within the pages of the Bible, it is written, "God said...,” "thus says the Lord," or these are "the words of the Lord...." These kinds of statements appear hundreds of times in both the Old and New Testaments (ex: Ex 20:1; 4:1; 5:14; Ps 119). The writers of the Bible were moved and guided into all truth by God, the Holy Spirit (John 16:13; 2 Peter 1:21).

Not only does the Bible claim to be inspired, but it also defines and describes what it means by inspiration. The Apostle Paul, writing under the guidance of the Holy Spirit, claimed, "All scripture is given by inspiration of God" (2 Tim 3:16). The Greek term underlying the word "inspiration" is 'theopneustos' and means "God-breathed," just as His breath brought the Universe into existence and gave life to human beings (Ps 33:6; Gen 2:7). Paul said, "Therefore...preach the word" because it is God's breathed-out word to humanity (2 Tim 4:2). It must be noted there is a growing belief, in what appears to be an attempt to undermine the divine authority of Scripture, that Paul was not the author of the Pastoral Epistles and that they were written after the first century. Although there is considerable proof to refute those claims, it doesn't matter who wrote them or when.

Time and time again, Jesus and the writers of the Bible attributed their actual words to God and sometimes referred to the Scriptures as if they were God (Rom 9:17; Gal 3:8). They also referred to God as if He were Scripture. King David said, "The Spirit of the Lord speaks by me; His word is on my tongue" (2 Sam 23:2). The Bible presents itself as the very words of God, and the writers made it very clear He is its author (Matt 19:4-6; see Gen 2:24; 2 Tim 3:16; 1 Cor 6:16).

Throughout the Bible, it says that God spoke the words of Scripture even though the words attributed to God were not specifically His words in their original setting, but merely the words of Scripture itself (Ps 2:1, 16:10, 95:7; Isa 55:3; Acts 4:25,13:34; Heb 3:7).

What did Jesus say about the Scriptures?

The New Testament declares that Jesus was "pure" and "righteous" (1 John 3:3; 2:1), and "committed no sin, nor was deceit found in His mouth" (1 Peter 2:22). He was "a lamb without blemish and without spot" (1 Peter 1:19), "Who knew no sin" (2 Cor 5:21). Jesus was not a mere human being. He was 100% a perfect human being and 100% fully God.

Jesus prayed on the night of His betrayal, God's "word is truth" (John 17: 17). He, nor the direct writers of the Bible, ever doubted or called into question a single passage of Scripture, but believed in the truthfulness and historical reliability of even the most disputed parts of the Old Testament.

Jesus confirmed the existence of an original couple created during the Creation week (Matt 19:4; Gen 2:24), and that Noah was a real person and that there was a global flood (Matt 24:37-39; 2 Peter 2:5; 3:6; Gen 6-8); Lot was a real person, and the city of Sodom was thoroughly destroyed (Luke 17:28-32; 2 Peter 2:6-7; Gen 19); Jonah spent three days and nights in the belly of a great fish (Matt 12:39-40); and the Israelites were miraculously healed when they looked at the bronze snake set up by Moses in the desert (John 3:14; Num 21:4-9).

Jesus endorsed the entirety of the Old Testament at least a dozen times, using such designations as the Scriptures (John 5:39); the Law (John 10:34); the Law and the Prophets (Matt 5:17); the Law, the Prophets, and the Psalms (Luke 24:44); or Moses and the Prophets (Luke 16:29).

Jesus also quoted, cited from, or alluded to incidents in at least eighteen different Old Testament books. He affirmed verbal inspiration down to the very minutest accuracy each letter of Scripture when He said;

"Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them. For truly, I say to you, until heaven and earth pass away, not an iota, not a dot, will pass from the Law until all is accomplished." (Matt 5:17-18 ESV)

The word "iota" (yod) was the smallest Hebrew letter, and the "dot" was the tiny stroke on specific Hebrew letters. It is equivalent to saying that even the dotting of "i" s and crossing of "t" s will stand.

The Pharisees challenged Jesus to clarify the identity of the Messiah (Matt 22:41-45). Jesus focused on David's use of the single term "Lord" in Psalm 110:1 and asked them, "If David then calls Him 'Lord,' how is He his Son?" (Matt 22:45). The point Jesus made depended on verbal inspiration.