WHAT WE BELIEVE ABOUT THE BIBLE

A Guide to Biblical Inspiration, Infallibility and Authority

CONFERENCE STATEMENTS

EMC Statement of Faith

DEFINITIONS

Inspired: adj. Having a divine influence or action behind someone or something.(2 forms)

Infallible: adj. Incapable of error. Unerring. (Also Inerrant.)

Authoritative: adj. Having or proceeding from authority. Official. Definitive.

Our belief in the infallibility and authority of scripture is based on our belief in the inspiration of scripture.

SUPPORT

2 Timothy 3:16 “All scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness.”

How do we know what we claim about the Bible is true? Do we only use the Bible to claim that the Bible is true?

The claims within the Bible are only one supporting leg of the greater body of the Truth we believe in. There are other legs such as:

Personal experience Miracles (historical and current) History of the disciples Internal consistency of the message

It provides an answer that makes sense. Consistent lives (parents, friends, leaders, etc.)

“It works.” Fruit: love, joy, peace, patience…

Conversions Archaeological evidence Conscience

SUPPORT

How is this building being held up?

WHAT THE BIBLE SAYS ABOUT ITSELF 2 Timothy 3:16 “All scripture is God-breathed and is

useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness.”

Bible was written in three languages: Hebrew Greek Aramaic

In Greek: “πασα γραφη θεοπνευστος και ωφελιμος προς διδασκαλιαν προς ελεγχον προς επανορθωσιν προς παιδειαν την εν δικαιοσυνη”

“God-breathed” comes from the Greek “Theopneustos” which is a compound word made from “Theos” (God) and “Pneo” (Breathe hard, breeze)

MULTIPLE ANGLES FOR THE BEST PICTURE

MULTIPLE ANGLES FOR THE BEST PICTURE

http://yoke.cc/sidewalk.htm

WHAT THE BIBLE SAYS ABOUT ITSELF Scripture is sometimes hard to understand – we need to read

everything the Bible says about a topic to best understand it. John 10:35 “If he called them gods, to whom the word of God came,

and the Scripture cannot be broken,” Luke 16:17 “But it is easier for heaven and earth to pass away than

for one stroke of a letter of the Law to fail” Hebrews 1:7 “In speaking of the angels he says, ‘He makes his

angels spirits, and his servants flames of fire.’” (Psalms 104:4) Matthew 24:35 “Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words

will never pass away.” 2 Peter 3:15-16 “Bear in mind that our Lord’s patience means

salvation, just as our dear brother Paul also wrote you with the wisdom that God gave him. He writes the same way in all his letters, speaking in them of these matters. His letters contain some things that are hard to understand, which ignorant and unstable people distort, as they do the other Scriptures, to their own destruction”

WHAT THE BIBLE SAYS ABOUT ITSELF John 4:6 “We are of God, whoever knows God listens to us, and he who

is not of God does not listen to us. By this we know the Spirit of truth and the spirit of error.”

2 Peter 1:16-21 “For we did not follow cleverly devised stories when we told you about the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ in power, but we were eyewitnesses of his majesty. 17 He received honor and glory from God the Father when the voice came to him from the Majestic Glory, saying, “This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased.” 18 We ourselves heard this voice that came from heaven when we were with him on the sacred mountain. We also have the prophetic message as something completely reliable, and you will do well to pay attention to it, as to a light shining in a dark place, until the day dawns and the morning star rises in your hearts. 20 Above all, you must understand that no prophecy of Scripture came about by the prophet’s own interpretation of things. 21 For prophecy never had its origin in the human will, but prophets, though human, spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit.”

WRITING THAT THE BIBLE IS MADE OF

Law Prophecy

The phrase “The Law and the Prophets” seems to be a common way to refer to the OT. Matthew 5:17 “Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not

come to abolish them but to fulfill them.” Matthew 7:12 “So in everything, do to others what you would have them do to you, for this

sums up the Law and the Prophets.” John 1:45, Acts 13:15, 24:14, 28:23, Luke 24:44 (Law, prophets and psalms)

Gospel accounts Luke 16:16 “The Law and the Prophets were proclaimed until John. Since that time, the

good news of the kingdom of God is being preached, and everyone is forcing their way into it.”

Rom 3:21 “But now a righteousness from God, apart from law, has been made known, to which the Law and the Prophets testify.”

Letters 2 Timothy 4:9-13 “Do your best to come to me quickly, 10 for Demas, because he loved this

world, has deserted me and has gone to Thessalonica. Crescens has gone to Galatia, and Titus to Dalmatia. 11 Only Luke is with me. Get Mark and bring him with you, because he is helpful to me in my ministry. 12 I sent Tychicus to Ephesus. 13 When you come, bring the cloak that I left with Carpus at Troas, and my scrolls, especially the parchments.”

HISTORICAL MANUSCRIPTS

How do we know the Bible shows us the original content that the writers wrote?

Old Testament: 700+ manuscripts

From 900 A.D. and on. OT written probably as early as 1500 B.C. Jesus read the OT from around 0 and on and trusted it.

Dead Sea Scrolls Discovered at Qumran in 1947 Originated a thousand years earlier (150 B.C.) than the other Old

Testament manuscripts we had. When compared, the two sets of manuscripts are seen to be

almost identical. What does that mean? (http://home.earthlink.net/~ronrhodes/Manuscript.html)

HISTORICAL MANUSCRIPTS

HISTORICAL MANUSCRIPTS

New Testament: 5,000+ Greek manuscripts 10,000+ Latin manuscripts 9,000+ various language manuscripts Over 24,000 full/partial manuscripts total Dated from 100 – 300 years after the originals No originals, and there are some differences or variants within the

manuscripts, but the copies agree enough that we can reconstruct the originals.

For example:

HISTORICAL MANUSCRIPTS

Compare the reliability of the OT and NT manuscripts with other ancient documents: Caesar’s Commentaries on the Gallic War

(written in the 50s BC)—10 copies—~1000 years gap

Tacitus’ Annals of Imperial Rome (written in 116 AD)—20 copies—~1000 year gap

Plato’s writings—7 copies—~1200 year gap Homer's Iliad—650 copies—~1000 year gap

(http://www.faithfacts.org/search-for-truth/maps/manuscript-evidence)

HISTORICAL MANUSCRIPTS

There are 150,000 “variants”. 99% are of no significance (a missing letter,

swapping common words like Christ Jesus, or some other obvious scribal error.)

Only about 50 of the variants have any real significance but even with these there is no doctrine or moral commandment that is affected.

A handful of places there are portions of scripture which the earliest manuscripts don’t include. Most Bibles will note these areas.

THE CANON

How do we know the books in the Bible are the ones that are supposed to be there?

Old Testament: Canon decided on in about 400 B.C. by Ezra, Nehemiah and a council of

Jews called The Great Synagogue. Jesus gives His stamp of approval.

New Testament: Canon mostly decided in 387 A.D. at the Council of Carthage. They wanted to come up with an agreed upon set of books that were

authoritative Christian writings. (Not authoritative because they put it in the Canon – this was an effort to collect all the true scriptures that were already being read by the churches as authoritative works.

It’s clear they made the right choice when the canonical books are compared with some of the other books that were floating around at the time.

http://www.bible-researcher.com/bruce1.html

THE CANON

We now have our Bible. We trust it comes through to us as an accurate copy of the originals - but what happens if we read it? Does what it says prove itself to be infallible?

There are “problem passages”.

“PROBLEMS”

“Problems” range from what appear to be slips of the pen (single characters dropped/added), differences in ancient cultural definitions, order of certain events, and “apparent” contradictions.

1 Kings 9:23 (550 supervising officials) vs. 2 Chron. 8:10 (250 supervising officials). Only one character is different, it is most likely that the ‘2’ and ‘5’ were swapped accidently.

Leviticus 11:13-19 (“These are the birds you are to regard as unclean and not eat because they are unclean: the eagle, the vulture…and the bat”). Bats are not birds, but to that culture they were.

Matthew 27:5 (“hanged himself”) vs. Acts 1:18 (“he fell headlong, his body burst open and all his intestines spilled out”). Different ways Judas dies. But new documents that have been discovered tell us that the Greek word for “fell headlong” also carries a meaning of “swelled”, which is what happens to the abdomen of someone who hangs themself.

2 Sam. 24:1 (God incited David) vs. 1 Chron. 21:1 (Satan incited David). Different characters causing the action. But we know that God sent an “evil” spirit or a spirit of “sadness” as a punishment to Saul 1 Samuel 16:14.

Matthew 1:16 vs. Luke 3:23. Different genealogies of Joseph. Luke 23:46 vs. John 19:30. Different final words of Jesus. Paul’s command for women not to speak in church. And others. (But note that the problem areas make up a fraction of a percent of the whole of scripture.)

Is it possible for infallibility to hold up despite these issues? After all, we should expect some form of infallibility of scripture if we trust that the Bible is inspired by God.

One answer is that with so much support (internal and external) in the truthfulness of the Bible, we can continue to hold to the infallibility of scripture, even when a problem seems to pop up – it just means we don’t see everything yet. If we saw everything behind the issue we would see that it’s not actually a problem.

CHURCH VIEWS ON INSPIRATION

How did the Church develop it’s thoughts on inspiration through history to the present?

Aquinas said that inspiration was not so much a grace that affected the intellect but a grace that affected the judgement.

In the 17th century, Jesuit thinkers came up with the idea that God provided the thoughts, but the writers could express them in whatever ways they wanted.

CHURCH VIEWS ON INSPIRATION

Modern views: Mainstream:

Verbal inspiration (2 types): Scripture was completely dictated by God. Every word of the Bible was God-breathed but the authors left their individual flavours (traits, cultures,

styles) but even these in themselves were arranged by God. Scripture was not dictated but the result is as if it pretty much had been. (Closest to what we believe today.)

Faith/Morals inspiration: Only parts of the Bible that have to do with faith/morals (spiritual teaching) are inspired.

What affect would this have on us? (If we already have reason to believe that God spoke through scripture – and we’re not doubting that – then probably not much since no core teaching is being questioned.)

Liberal: Event/experience inspiration: Only the events of the Bible are inspired (God’s actions) and the

writings are just mirrors to these events. Really spiritual people inspiration: Writers are very deep and mature Christians, who wrote as

they saw fit. Do you see problems with these views? Authors could still make mistakes in and then we wouldn’t be able to trust the core words of

scripture. Neo-orthodox:

“The Bible has too many inconsistencies so it can’t be verbally inspired, but it contains the ‘Word of God’ (the message of Christ) and is able to come alive to the hearer as God acts.”

What about this one? Sounds like mistakes in the core teachings could still be present.

(The Eerdmans Bible Dictionary, (1987) edited by Allen C. Myers)

3 FORMS OF “INFALLIBILITY”

1. No mistakes in any manuscript, in any way. We know there are mistakes in the manuscript

copies. 2. Scribal errors in the copies are allowed,

but the original writers made no mistakes in any way.

3. Mistakes by the original writers that don’t affect the meaning of spiritual truth are allowed, but all the other words are exactly right.

ENDING THOUGHTS

Here’s one more passage (one more angle) that helps us: 1 Corinthians 7:10-12, 25-28 “To the married I give this

command (not I, but the Lord): A wife must not separate from her husband. 11 But if she does, she must remain unmarried or else be reconciled to her husband. And a husband must not divorce his wife. 12 To the rest I say this (I, not the Lord): If any brother has a wife who is not a believer and she is willing to live with him, he must not divorce her…”

When taken in context, I take this to mean that because Paul points out where He speaks as himself, as opposed to when God speaks through him, it shows that the opposite (God speaking) is the norm even though Paul is very much “present” at all times.

Same Paul who forgot his coat in Troas. What can we infer about infallibility from this? (When Paul speaks with

authority about a spiritual topic, it is God speaking, when he’s talking about his coat, it’s not for us – so does it matter if we call it inspired?)

ENDING THOUGHTS

No matter which of the two main forms of the term “infallibility” we take, the evidence can still support what our tradition (the EMC) has in the statement of faith.

But when disagreements arise, what does “infallible” mean? “Every single word is literally correct.” or “God’s words for our life are fully true, will never fail us, are totally safe and dependable to base our life on.”? Is the Bible totally clear on the subject? We have our tradition, which is a good guide, but when problems come up, we need to keep our trust in who we know God to be, even as we keep a holy flexibility to our interpretations.

We have many “legs” of support holding up what we believe about the Bible – not just what the Bible says about itself – and enough for us to trust God even if there are certain issues that we don’t understand.

Can we see how debating this, to a certain extreme, might be missing the point?

WHAT DOES IT MEAN FOR ME?

God’s words for our lives should be treated with maximum respect. Isaiah 66:2b “These are the ones I look on with favor: those who are humble and contrite in spirit, and who tremble at my word.” How do you treat God’s word?

The whole message of the Bible is Good News - God came down to show us that He wants us in His family forever! John 3:16 “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.” Does your life reflect that you believe this is good news? How can you grow in this?

RESOURCES

The Eerdmans Bible Dictionary, (1987) edited by Allen C. Myers

Introducing Christian Doctrine, (1992) by Millard J Erickson

Manuscript support for the Biblehttp://home.earthlink.net/~ronrhodes/Manuscript.html

Historical/archaeological evidence http://www.faithfacts.org/search-for-truth/maps/archaeological-and-external-evidence

Bible timeline (OT)http://www.matthewmcgee.org/ottimlin.html

Evidence the NT was based on eye-witness accountshttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r5Ylt1pBMm8