In this excerpt from STR University’s course “Unbreakable,” Jon Noyes addresses doubts about the Bible’s inerrancy and explains why everything hinges on whether it’s merely a human book about God or a divine book given by God.
Transcript
Are there errors, inaccuracies, and mistakes in the Bible? That’s the question a lot of people are asking today, even in the church. Can we trust everything the Bible affirms, or is it just riddled with missteps, outdated ethics, and antiquated ideas?
Jesus once said, “Scripture cannot be broken.” Was he wrong? A surprising number of Christians, including pastors and influential theologians, have answered yes. They reject the idea that the Bible is completely accurate, reliable, and truthful in all that it affirms. In other words, they say the Bible is not inerrant—that it does contain errors. But that raises a deeper question, a question everything else hinges on. What kind of book is the Bible? That’s the issue. The Bible is either a book written by men about God, or it’s a book authored by God given to men. Those are the two options. That’s it. If it’s just a human book about the divine, then it’s subject to all the errors, flaws, and misguided opinions that all humans are prone to. But if it’s a divine book—if it’s ultimately authored by God himself—then that changes everything.
So, what is inerrancy? Good question. It’s important for us to define our terms. Inerrancy simply means “without error.” The Bible is inerrant, and if it is, then it can’t be wrong in anything the biblical authors intended to communicate. More formally, biblical inerrancy is the view that the Bible, in its original manuscripts, is without fault or flaw in all that it teaches because it’s ultimately authored by God.
Inerrancy is closely connected to two other doctrines: inspiration—which explains how the Bible was written by the breath of God through human author—and then the other is infallibility. Infallibility affirms that Scripture is completely trustworthy and can’t fail. We’ll explore both of those in more depth later in this course. Together, these doctrines lead us to a simple but really powerful conclusion: Scripture tells the truth. It tells the truth in everything it asserts. Whether in theology or history or geography or science or morality, it tells the truth.
The authors of the book Introduction to Biblical Interpretation put it this way: “The Bible is a trustworthy communication by spirit-guided interpreters and is true in all it intends to teach. Its statements convey what is factual given its literary conventions. Its record is faithful and reliable. This includes all its individual parts as well as its overall message.” You see, guys, I love that definition because it brings in two important qualifiers—literary conventions and Spirit-guided interpreters. Let me explain just for a minute.
Genre and grammar matter. The Bible is a diverse book, and truth is communicated in different ways depending on the kind of writing any particular passage represents. So, when we read it, we need to respect genre and grammar. They make sense. Okay, let me give you an example. Poetry doesn’t communicate facts the way something like historical narratives do. Proverbs—they’re not airtight promises, but they’re general pieces of wisdom about how life typically works. In a similar fashion, apocalyptic literature, like Revelation, uses vivid symbolic imagery to convey theological truth. Inerrancy, it doesn’t mean every statement is woodenly literal. It means every statement is true in the way it was intended, according to its literary form.
The Spirit also aids in our understanding. In my view, the Spirit doesn’t give the meaning of the text directly to the person. The words and grammar do that. In fact, even a non-Christian can grasp the basic meaning of a passage by paying close attention to the context and the language used by the author. But what the Spirit does is give a significance to that meaning. Here’s what I mean. A non-believer might read a text in the Bible and understand exactly what it teaches about the deity of Christ, for example, but they can remain unmoved by that passage. But a Christian, they can see the same truth, and they’ll respond in worship. Why? Well, because the Spirit brings illumination, not new meaning. He lights up what’s already there.
So, when we say that Scripture is inerrant, we’re saying that it’s a Spirit-authored book communicated through human writers and true in everything it teaches.
So, back to our original question. Can Scripture err? If the Bible is from God, the answer is no. God doesn’t lie, he doesn’t make mistakes, and he doesn’t mislead. If the Bible is the Word of God, it carries his authority, his truthfulness, and his power.
Now, let me offer a word of warning. Okay? One last bit of advice on why we should be careful in how we talk about inerrancy. And this is especially true when we’re in conversations with skeptics or non-believers in general. Something every thoughtful Christian should consider: Inerrancy—it’s a doctrine for believers, not a starting point with skeptics. It’s a family discussion. So, let me say that again. Inerrancy is important—it’s vitally important—but it’s not evangelism’s opening move. This is an in-house discussion. When we talk about inerrancy, we’re having an in-house conversation—something meant for those who are already believers, and they already believe that the Bible is, in some sense at least, the Word of God. So, it’s not where we should begin when we talk with someone who doesn’t even believe that the Bible’s worth reading, let alone that it’s divine. In fact, when we lead with inerrancy in evangelism, oftentimes what ends up happening is we shoot ourselves in the foot.
Here’s what happens. As soon as you claim the Bible is without error, the skeptic is going to throw back a litany of apparent contradictions and moral objections to what’s in the text. They’ll say things like, “Well, what about the genocide in Joshua? What about differences in the resurrection accounts? What about slavery? What about the way the Old Testament treats women?” All of this. You’ve heard it before. But unless you’re trained to handle every one of those challenges—and let’s just be honest here, most believers aren’t trained—then that means the conversation is going to get stalled, and, even worse, the skeptic walks away thinking the Bible has been debunked, proven wrong, and now the gospel has no ground to stand on at all. That’s why it’s so much wiser to lead with what matters most—what matters most to the Christian worldview—the historical reliability of the Gospel accounts and the truth of the resurrection.
In the book of Acts, the apostles Peter, Paul, and early church leaders, they didn’t begin with, “Let me explain the doctrine of inerrancy.” They began with Jesus. Peter didn’t appeal to inerrant texts. He didn’t even have a complete New Testament to cite or appeal to. Instead, he pointed to a public event. “This Jesus God raised up again, to which all are witnesses.” We can take a lesson from him. The resurrection was the centerpiece of the message, and that message was simple. Jesus, the Messiah, was crucified and rose from the dead, and we witnessed it. That’s a historical claim, not a theological one. And the implications are staggering. He died and rose again for a reason, and that reason is to rescue you and to rescue me—to save us from wrath, to call us into restored relationship with God. That’s where the apostles started, and that’s where we could take a lesson from them. That’s where we should start, as well.
So, what to say instead? When a skeptic challenges the Bible, here’s a better strategy. Don’t start with inerrancy. Start with reliability. Say something like, “Look, we don’t have to agree that the Bible is divinely inspired, but we can agree that it’s an ancient document worth reading. Let’s start by treating it like any other historical source and see what it says about this person, Jesus.” And now you’ve shifted the conversation. You’re no longer defending every verse. You’re investigating a person—Jesus of Nazareth. And that’s a conversation that can lead to salvation.
So, yes, the Bible is inerrant, and that’s important. It’s a hill worth dying on inside the church—inside the family. But when we step outside the family and into the public square, let’s follow the apostles’ lead. Let’s lead with Jesus. Let’s invite people to examine the facts of history. And remember, it’s not the doctrine of inerrancy that saves; it’s the death and resurrection of Christ. So, let’s major in the majors.
In the next class, we’re going to look at the biblical basis for inerrancy. What does Scripture say about itself? What did Jesus believe about the Bible? I’ll see you then.