Dr. R. Albert Mohler, Jr. opened a recent editorial (here) on The Christian Post website with the following statement,The affirmation of biblical inerrancy is nothing more, and nothing less, than the affirmation of the Bible’s total truthfulness and trustworthiness. The assertion of the Bible’s inerrancy - that the Bible is “free from all falsehood or mistake” - is an essential safeguard for the Bible’s authority as the very Word of God in written form. The reason for this should be clear: To affirm anything short of inerrancy is to allow that the Bible does contain falsehoods or mistakes.His goes on in the editorial to quote the "Chicago Statement on Biblical Inerrancy," which states that,
The authority of Scripture is a key issue for the Christian Church in this and every age. Those who profess faith in Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior are called to show the reality of their discipleship by humbly and faithfully obeying God’s written Word. To stray from Scripture in faith or conduct is disloyalty to our Master. Recognition of the total truth and trustworthiness of Holy Scripture is essential to a full grasp and adequate confession of its authority.The underlying assumption is that in order for the Bible to be authoritative it must be absolutely true, absolutely without blemish, and absolutely without error. It cannot contain even one single falsehood or mistake because, if it does, then its authority is undermined. Ostensibly, this assumption is based on the nature of God. God is perfect. The Bible is God's Word. Therefore, the Bible must be perfect. But, here again there is an underlying assumption: since God is God, God must be perfect, that is all-knowing (omniscient), all-powerful (omnipotent), and all-containing (omnipresent).
As someone who tries to be faithful to Christ, I simply don't buy the assumption. It's a human, philosophical assumption that one can accept or reject as a philosophy. I don't accept it because, first, it tends to replace Christ, the Word (John 1) with the Bible, which is a form of idolatry. Second, those who profess biblical inerrancy have a history of using the Bible as a tool for oppression. Before the Civil War, southern clergy used the Bible to "prove" the inferiority of black slaves and that slavery itself was part of God's plan. More recently, biblical literalists have used it to imprison women in second-class citizenship in the church. Today, they use inerrant scripture to prove that homosexuality is a sin. These are not Christ-like views. And in each case, those holding them have to cherry-pick a few biblical passages and then interpret them in ways that generally are out of context.
Third, the assumption itself is simply not necessary. One can humbly submit oneself to the core teachings of the Bible without believing that it is all perfect. We can seek to live our lives as Christ taught us in scripture to live them without thinking that the Bible is inerrant. The thing is, in the Christian tradition, we are firmly convinced that the Holy Spirit works through imperfect humans calling us to faith. The Spirit was alive in the early church although it was far from perfect. The Spirit spoke through Peter, Paul, and the other apostles even though none of them were even remotely perfect. Indeed, Christ himself was a real, physical person with a human body that was decaying day by day, as all of our bodies do. He was an imperfect human—and the Son of God. By the same token, we call the church "the body of Christ," and no one ever accused it of perfection. Still, the Spirit is alive in churches. As best as I can understand it, God works with and through the imperfect, calling us forward.
The authority of scripture need not lie, then, in a philosophical perfection that it does not have. It is a very human document, filled with the stories and the faith of real people who were clearly far from perfection. It's authority, rather, lies in its witness to the way in which God is actively Present in human history calling us forward to Something New. Thus, the story of the Exodus is an amazingly inspiring story, which remains powerful in our day—a vision of justice and freedom. The occupation of Palestine by the Hebrews, well not so much. It's a story of genocide and race war that we need to see as being something that ancient folks might have found inspiring, but in the light of Christ we don't.
In the end, it is simply a fact that is clear from the writings of the biblical literalists themselves. Biblical literalism is all too often used as a cover for personal opinions and prejudices, which undermine the otherwise good intentions of faithful Christians who believe in a perfect Bible. You see, even if the Bible were perfect, we humans always find ways to taint and tarnish anything, including the Bible. Even if the Bible were perfect, we simply cannot read it or live it perfectly. The problem is not, ultimately, the Bible. It is us.
