How would you define "inerrancy"?

[Joseph Gill]

Some bible believers say anything inspired by God cannot have any mistakes, not even grammatical errors.

Others profess that inerrancy speaks of truthfulness, not the degree of precision with which events are reported; so they say inerrancy allows for idiomatic language, rounded measurements, free quotations, even hyperbole.

How would you define "inerrancy"? What does it mean to say the bible in inerrant?

[Evangelist Joyce Murray Alim]

inerrancy can be defined as with out error.  Can we judge the truthfullness of the Bible?  No we were not there and all we have is a diluted changed translation that has been given to us.  I believe that there is God and everything else is questionable.

[Joseph Gill]

Why do you have confidence in God's existence?

[Evangelist Joyce Murray Alim]

There is a belief called the watchmaker's theory.  If someone is walking on the beach and finds a watch then he must assume from this evidence that there is a watchmaker.  The same with the order in nature and the universe.  There is too much order for simply a chance event that caused creation

[Joseph Gill]

Do you subscribe to the Deist view that God "designed the watch, wound it up, and then left it alone" (that the Creator is not directly involved with His creation) or the Natural Theology view that the God of Christianity (extremely active, as the bible describes him, in history) is the designer?

[Joseph Gill]

Perhaps thinking people can agree that the purpose of scripture is not to teach history, geography, science, sociology,  or anything other than revelation of God and His plan for salvation. Nonetheless, we incidentally encounter statements about history, geography, science and sociology within the pages of scripture... if we encounter a historical, geographical, scientific or sociological fact in scripture, should we automatically trust in its accuracy?

[Pastor Rodrick Sweet,ThM]

Yes! I think that the best way to answer this is this way:

Biblical Inerrancy

• Basic Definition
  • Scripture is inerrant =df. (for any statement S, if scripture affirms S, then S is true).
  • Scripture speaks wholly truthfully; it makes no false claims.
  • The doctrine of inerrancy concerns the content of scripture’s claims. It does not concern whether errors of grammar or syntax appeared in the original autographs. Sometimes the author violates the rule of grammar on purpose. 

“The Bible is full of Contradictions”

Ex: To say that Author Ash is the greatest tennis player in the history of the game and then say that Author Ash is not the greatest player in the game is a contradiction.

Ex: There is precisely one God and there are precisely three divine persons.

Ex: There is no contradiction when Christians say “that Christ is fully human and fully divine.

Matthew 27:9-10

Matthew uses a common rabbinical interpretive practice known as gezerah shawah also known as (pearl-stringing). This involves stringing together several passages of

Scripture, based on similar vocabulary, to arrive at a reading which synthesizes the passages and treats them as a literary unit.

 

[Joseph Gill]

Pastor Sweet,

Thanks for weighing in, but you've got to take this a little slower...

How does gezerah shawah explain what appears to be an erroneous attribution of Zechariah's prophecy to Jeremiah?

Is there a simpler than seminary-level resource I can access to learn about this interpretive practice?

[Pastor Rodrick Sweet,ThM]

I'm not sure that there is any Commentary on this that does not requires a more than intermediate Greek and Hebrew, It's better to look up pearl stringing to get a better understanding of. The NT is full of this and that is why I also believe in the doctrine of inerrancy! Hope that this helps.....

[Joseph Gill]

Thanks, Pastor Sweet. The Dictionary of Biblical Criticism and Interpretation, by Stanley E. Porter, had a great article on Paul's practice of "pearl-stringing" arguments. And I'll keep checking into this... it's very interesting.

[Pastor Rodrick Sweet,ThM]

Yes it is and it only adds to one's love for the Word of God. I need to say thanks I will have to pick up a copy of that book.

[Joseph Gill]

How would you define "inerrancy"? What does it mean to say the bible in inerrant?

[Pastor Rodrick Sweet,ThM]

Brother Watson I just picked up that book at the local Half Price Books. Will start reading it this weekend. how have you been?