Inerrancy and Infallibility of the Bible Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3500 words

Inerrancy and Infallibility of the Bible - Essay Example Also, there are some who are only nominally members of these faiths, and although they may or may not have a faith in God, their belief in the truth of the scriptures may be incomplete or absent. Others are prepared to accept general truths such as that Jesus was a good man, but would find it much more difficult to accept that he was the promised Messiah, the Saviour of the world. There are many misapprehensions. Many people believe that the Bible was written in a chronological way, but upon examination, this assumption falls flat. The epistles, especially those of Paul, for instance, were written down before the dates of the Gospels, yet follow them in modern Bibles. The minor prophets such as Malachi and Zephaniah are simply gathered together in order of size, rather than any chronological order. 1 When it comes to early books of the Bible it must be remembered that stories would have in the first instance been passed on by oral tradition i.e. passed on a word by word down the gene rations. Abraham did not carry stone tablets out of Ur. His story was written down much later. This does not take away or add to their validity as historical documents. According to the introduction to the Book of Genesis by Youngblood2, within the last 200 years Bible scholars have managed to distinguish 4 different threads within Genesis i.e. document U which include Yahweh , the personal name of God; E, Elohim , a generic name for god, D for a Deuteronomic source, and P for a priestly source. These scholars believe that the documents date from the 10th to the 5th century BC. So some later writer has brought together many different sources into a coherent whole. Thesis The Bible is not a history or scientific text and does not claim to be so. It is inspired by an infallible God, ( 2 Timothy 3 v 16)3 but put together by man, who is fallible. But because it is said to be inspired by God, as far as points necessary for salvation and man’s relationship with God the Bible is inf allible. Method This thesis will be explored by considering various Biblical passages as well as certain historical instances. The Bible Record. On this topic, Paul, writing in Ist Corinthians, one of the earlier New Testament documents, said:- We have not received the spirit of the World but the Spirit which is from God, that we may understand what God has given us. This is what we speak, not in words taught by the Spirit, expressing spiritual truths in spiritual words.4 Not all the words in the Bible were recorded in written form immediately after the events they record. For instance Matthew 28 v 12 and 13 record how the Sanhedrin paid off the guard, instructing them to say that the disciples had stolen the body. The evangelist then adds in v 15 ‘This story has been widely circulated among the Jews to this very day.’5 i.e. thus indicating a passage of sometime before the story was recorded. Nor was everything known recorded in the books now contained within the canon of scripture. After describing himself as an eye-witness to events by saying that he testifies to the things recorded John goes on to say:- Jesus did many other things as well.