Christian Doctrines

Christian Doctrines What We Believe and Why

Inerrancy Defined • Recap: scriptural authority • God cannot lie (Num 23:19; Tit 1:2; Heb 6:18) • Scripture is God’s words • Scripture is completely true, without error in any part (2 Sam 7:28; Ps 12:6; 119:140; 1 Pet 2:2; Rev 19:9; 21:5) • Scripture is the ultimate standard of truth (Josh 1:8; Ps 119:9; John 17:17)

Inerrancy Defined • Definition of inerrancy • Grudem: “Scripture in the original manuscripts does not affirm anything that is contrary to fact” (Systematic Theology, 5.A)

Inerrancy Defined • Chicago Statement on Biblical Inerrancy • Art. VI: “We affirm that the whole of Scripture and all its parts, down to the very words of the original, were given by divine inspiration.” • Art. X: “We affirm that inspiration . . . applies to the autographic text of Scripture,”

Inerrancy Defined • Art. XII: “We affirm that Scripture in its entirety is inerrant, being free from all falsehood, fraud, or deceit.” • Art. XIII: “We affirm the propriety of using inerrancy as a theological term with reference to the complete truthfulness of Scripture.”

Consistent with Variety • Perspective, approximation • Examples: • Science: sun rises and sets Leviticus 22:7 ‘But when the sun sets, he will be clean, and afterward he shall eat of the holy gifts, for it is his food.

Consistent with Variety Ecclesiastes 1:5 Also, the sun rises and the sun sets; And hastening to its place it rises there again.

Consistent with Variety • Numbers: 8,000 people died in battle Judges 1:4 Judah went up, and the LORD gave the Canaanites and the Perizzites into their hands, and they defeated ten thousand men at Bezek. Matthew 15:38 And those who ate were four thousand men, besides women and children.

Consistent with Variety • Measurements: twenty feet tall Genesis 30:36 And he put a distance of three days' journey between himself and Jacob, and Jacob fed the rest of Laban's flocks.

Consistent with Variety Judges 3:16 Ehud made himself a sword which had two edges, a cubit in length, and he bound it on his right thigh under his cloak.

Consistent with Variety Acts 27:28 They took soundings and found it to be twenty fathoms; and a little farther on they took another sounding and found it to be fifteen fathoms. • Not absolute scientific statements, but statements based on perspective, rounding, or approximation

Consistent with Variety • Figures of speech: hyperbole, word-play, metaphor, etc. • Loose quotes • Modern western culture: quotes are the exact words, paraphrases are accurate restatements of content • Biblical authors’ culture: quotes only need accurately state the content, not the exact words

Consistent with Variety Genesis 11:3 They said to one another, “Come, let us make bricks and burn them thoroughly.” And they used brick for stone, and they used tar for mortar.

Consistent with Variety Numbers 25:4, 5 4 The LORD said to Moses, “Take all the leaders of the people and execute them in broad daylight before the LORD, so that the fierce anger of the LORD may turn away from Israel.”

Consistent with Variety Numbers 25:4, 5 5 So Moses said to the judges of Israel, “Each of you slay his men who have joined themselves to Baal of Peor.”

Consistent with Variety Matthew 4:6; Psalm 91:11-12 Matt 4:6and said to Him, “If You are the Son of God, throw Yourself down; for it is written, ‘HE WILL COMMAND HIS ANGELS CONCERNING YOU’; and ‘ON their HANDS THEY WILL BEAR YOU UP, SO THAT YOU WILL NOT STRIKE YOUR FOOT AGAINST A STONE.’”

Consistent with Variety Matthew 4:6; Psalm 91:11-12 Ps 91:11-12For He will give His angels charge concerning you, To guard you in all your ways. They will bear you up in their hands, That you do not strike your foot against a stone.

Consistent with Variety • Unusual grammar (e.g., singular subject with plural verb, masculine subject with feminine verb) • These are due to human style differences, education level of human author, or authorial intent to make a theological point • They do not affect the truthfulness of the claim

Christian Doctrines