By Pastor Bruce K. Oyen
Is the Bible the inerrant Word of God? Or, is it an error to say that it is without error? Some Christians say it is completely inerrant, and some say it is partly inerrant. This topic has been wrestled with for a very long time. At times, it is a topic on the back burner of Christian debate. At other times, it is on the front burner. But at all times it is a significant one, for the simple reason that the Bible is to have great influence in the Christian life.
This influence can be seen in the following examples: 2 Timothy 3:15 - 17 says that the Holy Scriptures "are able to make thee wise unto salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus. All Scripture is given by inspiration of God and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness; that the man of God may be perfect, thoroughly furnished unto all good works." And Romans 15:4 speaks of the comfort of the Scriptures, by which we can have hope. And Psalm 119:11 says, "Thy Word have I hid in mine heart that I might not sin against thee." If you want to do your own homework on this subject, read 1 Corinthians 10, Psalm 1, Psalm 19, and Psalm 119.
However, if we have doubts about the trustworthiness of the Bible, it will be somewhat comparable to having doubts about the trustworthiness of a spouse, a preacher, a neighbor, a workmate, a family member, a friend, a politician, or someone else. And we all know the effect of such doubts: we don't know when we can trust them.
Therefore, we need to face the question of whether or not the Bible is inerrant. In his book, "Calvin On Scripture And Divine Sovereignty," theologian John Murray did that very thing when he presented John Calvin's view of the Bible. He concluded that the famous Reformer affirmed the inerrancy of the Bible. And in so doing, Murray gave a reasonable discussion of the subject of inerrancy. This discussion can be helpful to us today.
The following quote from Murray (in red) is taken from chapter 1, page 30, of his just-mentioned book. Murray wrote: "It must be emphatically stated that the doctrine of biblical inerrancy for which the church has contended throughout history, and for which a great many of us still contend, is not based on the assumption that the criterion of meticulous precision in every detail of record or history is the indispensable canon of Biblical infallibility. To erect such a canon is utterly artificial and arbitrary and is not one by which the inerrancy of Scripture is to be judged. It is easy for the opponents of inerrancy to set up such artificial criteria and then expose the Bible as full of errors. We shall have none of that, and neither will Calvin. The Bible is literature and the Holy Spirit was pleased to employ the literary forms of the original human writers in the milieu in which they wrote. If Solomon's temple took sever and a half years to build, as we can readily calculate (cf. 1 Kings 6:37, 38), are we to suppose that it is an error to say in the same context that Solomon was seven years in building it (1 Kings 6:38)? Or if a certain king is said to have reigned twenty-two years (cf. 1 Kings 14:20), we must not impose upon such a statement the necessity of his having reigned precisely twenty-two years in terms of twenty-two times three hundred and sixty-five days. He may have reigned only twenty-one years in terms of actual computation and yet twenty-two years in terms of the method of reckoning in use. The Scripture abounds in illustrations of the absence of the type of meticulous and pedantic precision which we might arbitrarily seek to impose as the criterion of infallibility. Everyone should recognize that in accord with accepted forms of speech and custom a statement can be perfectly authentic and yet not pedantically precise. Scripture does not make itself absurd by furnishing us with pedantry."
