The authority of Scripture is a key issue for the Christian church in every age. Christians — Protestants in particular, with their belief that the Bible is the final authority for faith and practice — hold the Bible in high esteem. Historically, Christians have believed that the Bible is absolutely trustworthy, which implies that it is inerrant — without errors. The Baptist Faith and Message (1925, 1963 and 2000) affirms biblical inerrancy. It asserts that the Bible “has God for its author, salvation for its end, and truth, without any mixture of error, for its matter.”
Southern Baptist theologian David Dockery defines biblical inerrancy this way: “When all of the facts are known, the Bible (in the original documents) when properly interpreted in light of the culture and means of communication that had developed by the time of its composition, is completely true in all that it affirms, to the degree of precision intended by the author’s purpose in all matters relating to God and His creation.” Several features of this definition are noteworthy.
“When all of the facts are known” implies that no one can demonstrate conclusively the inerrancy of the Bible because no one knows all the facts. Human beings, as finite and sinful, are unable to make judgments on God’s Word. Only God in his omniscience can do that. The Christian’s belief in biblical inerrancy thus is grounded in the Bible’s teaching concerning its own inspiration.
“In the original documents” indicates that claims of biblical inerrancy do not include any given translation of the Bible. “When properly interpreted” implies that no specific person’s interpretation necessarily is inerrant. Some individuals claim to have found errors in the Bible, only to realize that the passage in question was not properly interpreted.
“Is true in all that it affirms … in all matters relating to God and His creation” claims that all portions of the Bible are equally true and that inerrancy is not limited to what the Bible teaches on certain subjects (salvation or moral issues, for example). “God and his creation” encompasses everything.
In 1978, a group of nearly 300 evangelical scholars met in Chicago to affirm their own conviction as to the inerrancy of Scripture and to encourage and challenge believers to grow in their appreciation and understanding of biblical inerrancy. The Chicago Statement on Biblical Inerrancy was the result of that meeting. The Chicago Statement has been used by various evangelical groups, including Southern Baptist agencies and institutions, to explain and clarify the meaning of biblical inerrancy.
Article XIII is immensely valuable with its clarification of precisely what is meant by inerrancy. The document argues that the Bible’s use of the language of common appearance (such as “the sun rises”) is not an error. Nor does the Bible’s use of round numbers and figurative language constitute an error. The fact that books such as Jeremiah and the Gospels are arranged topically rather than chronologically does not indicate there are errors. The fact that parallel accounts of stories in the Bible differ in details does not indicate an error is present; differences are not the same as contradictions. Contradictions are errors; mere differences are not.
Affirming biblical inerrancy does not deny that unresolved difficulties and problem passages in the Bible exist. These problems persist because human knowledge is limited, not because the Bible errs. Over the centuries, many of these problem passages have been resolved as further information became available.
A variety of dangers signals that Christians must insist on biblical inerrancy. If biblical inerrancy is denied, Christians are forced to find a replacement for their final authority in religious matters. One thing or another will serve in that capacity. If the Bible is not the ultimate authority, the prime candidates will be fallen human reasoning or subjective human experience, making our own finite minds a higher standard of truth than God’s Word itself. In either case, the result is disastrous — as church history testifies.
If biblical inerrancy is denied, Christians are left not knowing what parts of the Bible to believe. Some biblical passages, such as historical claims, are potentially independently verifiable — (Solomon was a king in Israel, for example). Theological claims, such as “God was in Christ reconciling himself to the world,” are not verifiable by experience. If one cannot trust historical claims, one cannot trust theological claims. If Christians do not believe what the Bible says simply because the Bible says it, they have no grounds to believe it at all.
If biblical inerrancy is denied, the church is weakened. History demonstrates that when the church has had confidence in its source of authority, it has been a strong body and ministered effectively to the world. When the church has been unsure of its source of authority, it has been ineffective. “If the trumpet sends an unclear sound, who will go into battle?” (1 Corinthians 14:8.) People do not invest heavily in an enterprise whose truth status is in question. Nor will they give their lives in devoted service to a cause for which they themselves are uncertain. The radical decline of mainline denominations in America that have renounced biblical inerrancy serves as a beacon of warning to God’s people. The denial of biblical inerrancy, in the majority of cases, soon leads to denial of other biblical doctrines.
Southern Baptists should be humbly thankful that they stand in the tradition of Augustine, who wrote, “I have learned to yield this respect and honor only to the canonical books of Scripture: of these alone do I most firmly believe that the authors were completely free from error”; and with Martin Luther, who asserted: “The Scriptures have never erred.” But above all, Southern Baptists stand with the Lord Jesus Christ, whose life and ministry were grounded in a complete confidence in the absolute truth of God’s Word.
Walter Johnson is dean of the College of Christian Studies at North Greenville University.