01.13.06

If you can’t believe the Bible…

Posted in Religion at 4:09 pm by spryken

I was not going to tackle “Inerrancy”. NO WAY, NO HOW!!!!

My friend Bob had asked about a church he was visiting. It seems they used the word “inerrancy” and he wondered what it meant. I shared that it was the belief that the Bible is the literal word of God, without error. I didn’t want to get into the deeper theological discussion of whose translation was THE INERRANT translation. This is just too hot of a topic. It incites strong passions on both sides of the argument.

Yesterday, as I was posting You’re Baptist, aren’t you, I resolved that I would not address Inerrancy in my blog. Then the Raleigh News and Observer published
If you can’t believe the Bible…. I couldn’t believe it. Here was the topic I didn’t want to address.

Oh well. It is not that I am ashamed of my beliefs. It is just that I dislike arguing with people that are so convinced they are correct that they have turned off their reasoning.

When I was in Seminary, I studied the Biblical Greek and Hebrew. There were so many different manuscripts that had slight differences. The issue of inerrancy seemed silly. I mean really, I can possibly agree that the original texts were the “Literal Word of God” and so inerrant. But, after so many copies and translations and with the differences in the manuscripts we do have, I have to say that what we have as the Bible cannot be the “Literal Word of God”.

However, I have to disagree with Dr. Ehrman. I still believe the Bible is the Inspired Word of God. I believe God has spoken to man and has left us His teachings. But I also believe that as God has always worked through mankind, he has allowed His Word to come through mankind. When I study the Bible, I always try to look at more than one translation. I also try to consider the agenda of the translators. I don’t mean that translators consciously attempted to intrepret the scripture for their own ends, but every one approachs all tasks with their own filters. Our life experiences change the way we see the world.

Some Christians seem to need to have someone else take responsibility for what they believe. They want to know what is right and what is wrong. And they want it absolute. I’m afraid that we live in the real world. There are very few absolutes. The true Christian life is lived in the struggle of here and now. We are called to be Christ to others in this life. That means tackling problems that did not exist when He walked the earth as a man.

There are no easy answers. Inerrant, I don’t think so; Inspired, yes.

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