Short Essay on Inerrancy and Inspiration

Brian Adams

THEO201_B21_201340

Short Essay # 1

Short Essay on Inerrancy and Inspiration

The largest piece of the relevance of the Christian faith rests upon its sacred text, the Holy Bible. It is my belief that the Bible carries the full authority of the one true God, conveys His inspired message and is completely without error in its original form.

The Oxford Dictionary of English defines authority as the power or right to give orders, make decisions, and enforce obedience (Oxford Dictionary of English 2010). To the Christian, God is the ultimate possessor of authority and the Bible, as the inspired Word of God, carries His full authority. This view was taught by Reformers Luther and Calvin and led to the Reformation slogan, “sola scriptura” (Musser and Price 1996, Authority). Opponents of biblical authority argue either the church must confer authority on the scriptures or scriptures gain authority when legitimized by the Holy Spirit (Musser and Price 1996, Authority). In many passages the Bible clearly confirms its own authority in representing itself as the actual word of God. Paul’s descriptions of his writings as “not as a human word, but as it actually is, the word of God” (1 Thessalonians 2:13) and “speaking in the sight of God as those in Christ” (2 Corinthians 12:19) are only two examples of biblical writers asserting the authority of the Bible.

The belief that the Bible was written by human authors who were supernaturally influenced by the Holy Spirit, therefor, giving the Bible authority is called inspiration (Elwell 2001, 160). The inspired nature of the Bible guarantees there is no error in grammar, historical locations, sociological understanding, mathematics, geology, geometry or geography (Townes 2008, 59). The scriptures again support themselves as being inspired in passages such as 2 Timothy 3:16 where Paul writes “All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in...