Trusting in God’s Word
When you go to the doctor, there are a few fundamental things that a doctor looks for to check your overall health. Temperature, pulse, respiratory rate, blood pressure. These are called vital signs. And the church also has a few vital signs by which we can judge our overall health. We won’t talk about them all today, but one of these is how we view the word of God.
Let’s go back to Genesis 3. Adam and Eve knew the command of God—do not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil or you will die. Right and wrong is defined by God. We are not in a position to make that call. We are dependent upon the revelation of God to tell us what is right and what is wrong. But one of Satan’s first attacks on God’s word is in Genesis 3:1 “Indeed, has God said…” Is it really true? He is trying to get them to doubt the truth of God’s word. Look at Matt 4:1-4. Look at Jesus’ response: “It is written: Man shall not live by bread alone, but on every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God.” Adam and Eve should have responded back to Satan with the word of God. People, we are to live and breathe on the words of God. This means we are to take the word of God and see what it says on every area of life. We are not to see the word of God as a buffet, but as a feast. And that is the very thing that Adam and Eve failed to do. They failed to feast on God’s word therefore, when Satan said, “You will NOT die!”, they believed him. How quickly they abandoned the word of God!
But then one day someone comes up and tells us that there are “errors” in our Bible. Is this consistent with what God says about His word? Does your Bible contain errors? How you answer that question will make a HUGE difference in how you view God and the reliability of His word to us.
I. Is the Bible inerrant, infallible or what?
Clarifying the terms
Much of the confusion with inerrancy lies with the fact that people are using the word “inerrancy” but meaning completely different things. Some would say that the Bible is inerrant in that it does not try to purposefully or intentionally deceive. Some would say that the Bible is inerrant, but only in matters of faith and practice. The small details, such as historic and scientific facts can be false. They say that the Bible is not inerrant but it is infallible. But we need to examine whether or not there is a distinction between the two! Up until 1960 or so, the two words were used interchangeably! And after 1960, somehow this word came to mean that God’s word was true only in matters of faith and practice. But if you look at the definition of the two words, they are practically identical.
The core issue here is this: are there errors in my Bible?
So how do we know if the Bible does or does not contain errors? The place we need to go for the answer is directly to the Scriptures.
Scriptural witness
First of all, how do we know that the Bible we have today is reliable? Let’s say I tell Amy to write down a statement word-for-word that I wanted her to tell the rest of you. And the only way for Amy to pass this on would be to make a copy by hand and pass it on to another person. And then that person was to copy it down and pass it on to another and so on, so that eventually every one of us in here …Now I guarantee you that you would make some errors in some of those copies. There would be misprints, duplications, letters left out, etc. But we could find the original copy by comparing all the copies to one another. That is the way we know that we have an accurate text of the NT. In those days, Moses couldn’t take his final copy down to the local Kinko’s and make a bunch of copies and send them out, the copies were made by hand.
30,000 copies; 10,000 areas of miscopies; all but 400 can be corrected easily; out of 400 only 50 will change the meaning of the text. And out of those 50, not one affect any major doctrines. And all 50 can be examined in light of the rest of the Scriptures. Therefore, we have a 98.5% degree of copying accuracy. NO OTHER book can make this claim, yet no other book has been under more attack. The only other book that comes close is the Iliad 12 copies. 95% copying accuracy. Therefore, what we have in our hands is an accurate representation of the original.
Now what does this book say about itself?
The Old Testament
The prophets claimed to be proclaiming the very words of God. Ezekiel 3:17 “Son of man, I have appointed you a watchman to the house of Israel; whenever you hear a word from my mouth, warn them from Me.” The purpose of the prophet was to proclaim the words of God, nothing more and nothing less. See also 2 Peter 1:20-21. The OT prophets wrote His word through them by filling their masts with air and moving them along. (Note: the ship is a vessel!).
Psalm 119:160—“The sum of your word is truth, and every one of Your righteous ordinances is everlasting.” (Psalm 119:89 says the word of the Lord “stands firm” in the heavens).
Isaiah 40:8 “The grass withers, the flower fades, but the word of our God stands forever.” And who are we, mortal men and women, to change or alter what the word of the Lord says?
Finally, look at Jesus’ claim about the OT and His purpose for coming. Matt 5:17-18. Smallest letter was a yod. Smallest stroke was a part of a letter that made the difference between a resh and a dalet. And Jesus says neither one of these will pass away!
The New Testament
2 Tim 3:16. The word for Scripture is used primarily as a reference to OT writings. But there are times when the NT writers use the word Scripture for NT writings as well. Look at 1 Tim 5:18. Where are those words of Scripture found? The first is Deuteronomy 25:4 but where is this second “Scripture” from? The very mouth of our Lord: Luke 10:7. Not only this, but Paul’s writings were also considered on the same level as “Scripture.” Look at 2 Peter 3:16. So now we see that there is an awareness among the writers of the NT that there were new writings now that also were labeled under the name “Scriptures.”
So now we see here that the NT writings were being considered on the same level as OT Scriptures. Meaning that when Timothy says “all Scripture” he means that to include the NT writings as well. So what is Timothy trying to say about “all Scripture”? He says that it is “inspired by God.” Inspire means “God-breathed.” It is as if the very mouth of God spoke the words. Many times we think of “inspired” as being emotionally uplifted. “I was really inspired by that movie!” But that is not the meaning of this word here. It means that God breathed through them the very words He wanted them to say. And what is amazing is that God used their own style and personality to do this!
This brings us to the next question: But weren’t the Scriptures written by man? Yes and no. The Scripture teaches that it is the product of divine and human authorship. But just because humans were used to write the Bible, it doesn’t mean that they erred when writing the Bible. “The spokesmen of God were human, but inspiration kept them from error.” (Evangelical Dictionary of Theology, 159). How did Mary (a sinful human) give birth to a holy child? How did she not pass on her depravity? By the empowering of the Holy Spirit (she was conceived by the Holy Spirit!). How does a sinful man give birth to the Bible? By empowering of the Holy Spirit. Just because God used human authors to write the Bible, it doesn’t mean that these human authors had to error in their writing.
Therefore, we see here that the “Scriptures” are God’s words to man. They are His words from His lips. If God is truth, then His words also must be true. Hebrews 6:18 says “It is impossible for God to lie.” Therefore, this does not leave any room for any of God’s words to be errant.
In other words, the words of God can be trusted and completely relied upon.
II. But aren’t there “errors” in the Bible?
No. But there are some difficult passages that some has assumed to be “errors.” The best thing I can say to you is if you come across one of these apparent errors, take a look at some books that can help you work through these. If you have any difficulty that has you stumped, let me know and we can work through it together. I will admit, these problems are tough, but I guarantee you that all of these apparent errors are able to be solved.
Find a good book:
Gleason Archer, Encyclopedia of Bible Difficulties
James Montgomery Boice, Dealing With Bible Problems: Alleged Errors and Contradictions
Walter Kaiser, Hard Sayings of the Bible
D. James Kennedy, Solving Bible Mysteries
III. What about historical facts and scientific facts?
Some would say that the Scriptures are true in matters of faith and practice, but it does contain errors in the scientific and historical realms. In other words, the Scriptures were not meant to be a science book or a history book. This is true. But you can bet that God does not lie when He speaks on these matters.
“If the Bible is not correct in factual and empirical matters which are verifiable, then how could it be trusted in spiritual matters which are not subject to such tests?”
Geisler, Norman L. & William E. Nix, From God to Us: How We Got Our Bible
If the Bible says that there is a river x, I better be able to find it or have a good explanation of why we can’t find it today.
IV. Problems with saying the Bible contains errors.
Saying the Bible contains errors means that we make our own reasoning a higher standard of truth than God’s word.
Some people would say that the Bible is inerrant only when it speaks on matters of faith and practice. Two questions 1) Where is this distinction in Scripture? 2) Who are we to say what exactly is inspired and what is not inspired? As we saw earlier, God’s word claims to be entirely and completely true and without error. Therefore, merely limiting the inerrancy of the Scriptures to matters of faith and practice simply cannot be done. When we do this, we set ourselves up to be that standard that says when God’s Word speaks truth and when God’s Word speaks error.
Saying the Bible contains errors means that we no longer know what is true and what is not true in the Scriptures.
If God’s word is only partially inspired how can I know that the parts that are inspired are really true? If there is an error when it comes to a historical event, how do I know that the historical event of the cross really happened? If we leave open the potential for errors in the Scriptures, we are bound to say that this potential for error can occur in any area of Scripture and not just merely on passages that speak on “matters of faith and practice.” And eventually we won’t have any confidence that any parts of the Scriptures are true.
Application:
To say that the Scriptures are all breathed by God gives weight to the Scriptures that makes it “profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness.” Why is it profitable for all these things? Because it is the very words of God. And since these words are the very words of God, they speak with authority. The word of God speaks into our life. It speaks to us as husbands as to how we are to treat our wife. It speaks to moms and dads as to how to raise their children. It speaks to college students as to how to treat their roommates. Plus, this is the only word of God we have!
I beg you today to take up a fresh view of Scripture. Every word that comes forth from the mouth of God is true and right. Let me close with a picture of a man who is so in love with the word of God. Ps 119:41-48. Why does this guy love the word? Because he is in love with the Lord behind the word. But you cannot separate the two. So, fall in love again with the words of God today.
