Thanks for the imput Reg. That is helpful.

To give you what for me was a roller coaster ride , I went form a hardcore inerrancy advocate , to seeing all sorts if contradictions and after going through that valley of both arrogance and doubt have reaffirmed that doctrine with a vengeance. Many books helped along my path back and writers from Sproul ,Horton and in particular James White, help me realize that taken as they are , the scriptures are an amazing consistent document that given humility on my part and time , with deep study , I found all the problems begun to fall away like a late fall trees leaves …till I was left with the realization , I will never know all the mysteries of this word till I go to God or Christ comes again but it is truth , period!!
Plus as I have seen around me many people , who begin to deny and let go of this doctrine , I yet seen them not begin to surrender other teachings . In fact in my life as I struggled with this issue , I was rationalizing all sorts of things which even lead to a more tolerant view of sin in my own life and a broader view of salvation.
I’m not as charitable as I used to be concerning this teaching and when I see someone beginning to let it go as if it didn’t matter . If we have a faith grounded in history , then that narrative is worth defending and upholding. Granted we must learn to read the bible in all its unique ways but I affirm and stand by the assertion that as given in its original languages it was without error and even in the manuscripts we have , I now have more confidence in declaring that it is God speaking , not just men prone to error and deception!!

The same thing that conversation has with a marraige. Without it, how would the relationship develop? But this is certianly going to take this thread off track!!

What, then, do the Scriptures have to do with our salvation, other than simply letting us know about it?

Ryan, I believe you are correct. We could have been His children and, theoretically (like with the Scriptures), not known it. But as a Father of children, I suspect that the greatest thing that a child can discover is that He is a child of God. Therefore, theoretically, this could be the case, but practically God wants us to know Him.

I hope that helps. It is a good question.

Hi Michael,

Thanks for your thoughtful and thought-provoking theological work. This post brought up a question for me in relation to your last post on the Calvinist vs. Arminian debate:

You state here, and correctly, I believe, that it is the life, death and resurrection of Christ that are the center of Christian faith and the means of salvation, and the Scriptures need not even have been written for this to be true. This begs the question for me, that if God has saved the elect unconditionally and requires no response, why did God even bother to tell us about Jesus? God would have, in Jesus, accomplished God’s purpose: saving the elect. It seems to me that the simple fact of God having preserved a record of Jesus is evidence of God requiring a response. No?

Blessings,
Ryan

Years ago while in seminary I wrestled with this problem. There were simply too many problems which absolutely could not be reconciled even if one were willing to jump through hoop after hoop, and I was on the verge of chucking the whole thing like your character Greg Jomes in the original posting. I was and am a Calvinist, however, and I see concrete evidence for the teaching of the Perserverance of the Saints in my own life. God would simply not take his grubby hands off me. Then along came Bultmann. Suddenly it all became clear. It was not the myth as contained in the scriptures which was the important point but the message which the myth contains. No, I’m not an inerrantist nor do I think the scriptures are infallible in matters of history or science or even of faith, but I do believe that through them God conveys to us the message of his love for his creation and most specifically for man. An infallible scripture is a terrible burden for the modern man. It requires him to either be blind to the facts or to be dishonest in dealing with the facts or to reject the scripture. I will have none of that. Despite all of my wrestling with the issue I found that “no man will pluck them out of my hand”, not even I can do this myself.

[...] at Ancient Hebrew Poetry has a good discussion and link to another blog  Parchment and Pen, where Michael writes regarding the doctrine of inerrancy.  (I know, I’m now guilty of the dreaded me-too [...]

I don’t believe that they do, but in the case that they did, it would be a matter of historical inquiry, just like every other document where study would be made of both internal and external evidence.

CMP
If the Scriptures have errors (be it many or very few) how do you, I or anybody know which is error and which is not?
wlesieur