Inerrancy and the Trustworthiness of Scripture
For some Christians, a strong doctrine of inerrancy is essential to have any trust in the Bible. A good example of this is The Chicago Statement on Biblical Inerrancy. Part of the preface to that statement states:
The following Statement affirms this inerrancy of Scripture afresh, making clear our understanding of it and warning against its denial. We are persuaded that to deny it is to set aside the witness of Jesus Christ and of the Holy Spirit and to refuse that submission to the claims of God’s own Word which marks true Christian faith. We see it as our timely duty to make this affirmation in the face of current lapses from the truth of inerrancy among our fellow Christians and misunderstanding of this doctrine in the world at large.
I am not going to dive into the details of inerrancy or the Chicago Statement. But there are some Christians who would not hold to a form of inerrancy described in the Chicago Statement or in inerrancy at all.
Don Stewart gives this warning about giving up on inerrancy:
If there were mistakes, of any sort, in the original manuscripts, it would mean that the Scripture contains truth mixed with error. The Bible therefore would be subject to our own fallible judgment. We, then, would become the ultimate judge of what is truth and what is error, what is right and what is wrong. There would be no final source of authority.
That sounds like if someone saw any error of any kind in the Bible, you could not be sure of anything.
Again, I am not arguing for or against inerrancy here. I want only to think through the consequences. There are those who do not hold to strict view of inerrancy and yet still see the Bible as trustworthy.
One reason is that you do not need a modern view of inerrancy to believe the Bible is inspired. The other is that the Bible, especially the New Testament, holds up very well historically. Both in the number of manuscripts and the nearness in time to the events recorded, the New Testament is almost without comparison.
When we look at the books of the New Testament, we can appreciate their historical value aside from a doctrine of inerrancy. Faith in the resurrection of Jesus can be supported with the texts that we have.
It is possible to build a faith in Jesus without the doctrine of inerrancy. You may have a strong view of inerrancy but that does not mean that you should dismiss the faith of others. Some of the most devout pastors and scholars would not agree the Chicago Statement.
