Inerrancy and Interpretation

It is a fundamental belief in Christianity that the Bible is the inerrant Word of God. This doctrine is logically necessary and a practical necessity. First, if God breathed it, how could it be in error? If God superintended this document, how could it possibly be wrong? Practically speaking, we need solid ground on which to stand. If you believe the Bible is riddled with error, then arguing about what it says and what it means and how we are to respond is pointless. It's wrong. (I've never been able to figure out why people that deny the inerrancy of the Bible go on to argue about what it means. Why bother if it's erroneous?)

The basic premise of inerrancy is that the Bible is without error in its original form. In other words, it is possible to allow the possibility of copy errors. Of course, that becomes a non-issue when you consider that, due to the large number of extant manuscripts, we are sure that more than 99% of what we have is true to the original, so "in its original form" becomes an extremely minor point.

The problem, however, arises when we mix the inerrancy of the Bible with our own interpretation. Christianity affirms (despite what some might say) that the Word of God is inerrant. Good! But nowhere in Christianity do we find the argument that our interpretation of what the Bible says is inerrant. Somehow, it seems, this fact eludes a lot of people.

Here is often how it goes. An ardent believer will make a statement like, "The Bible says ___." A skeptic (who may be an equally ardent believer) might reply, "No, it doesn't." And the first will respond, "So, you deny the Word of God??!!" (with the implied "Heretical Blasphemer!" unsaid on the end). No, not necessarily. The denial is not of the Word of God, but of the interpretation applied.

Let me give you an example that should be obvious. The Bible says, "There is no God." Oh, sure, deny it if you will, but I can give you chapter and verse. Psalm 14:1 is quite clear. "There is no God." Of course, I've managed to stretch what it actually says by ripping it entirely out of context. What it actually says is "The fool says in his heart, 'There is no God.'" Was I accurate when I said that the Bible says "There is no God"? Yes! Would you be correct in disagreeing with me? Absolutely!

We have an inerrant Bible. It is logically and practically so. We believe it by faith and have found by experience that it is so. Good! Let's not make that next step, however, and mistakenly think, therefore, that our interpretation is infallible. We are, after all, according to Scripture suffering from hearts so deceitful that we don't even know it. It should bring some sense of humility to your approach if you keep in mind that God is always right ... but you and I are not.