Infallibility and Inerrancy of Scripture

6.1 What is the doctrine of the infallibility of Scripture?

"The Holy Scripture is the only sufficient, certain, and infallible rule of all saving knowledge, faith, and obedience." (LBCF 1689, I.1)

Scripture is infallible, meaning it is exempt from the liability of error. Infallibility means that Scripture will never lead us astray. (Ventura, New Exposition of LBCF 1689, p.40)

Notice that the confession states that the Bible is "the only infallible rule of all saving knowledge, faith, and obedience." The term only sets Scripture apart as the one infallible source with authoritative capacity. Scripture is the rule of our faith, which has to do with all that we believe, and it is the rule of our practice, which has to do with all that we do. It does not say that the Bible "is infallible only when it speaks of faith and obedience." This statement would give us a view called "limited inerrancy." (R.C.Sproul, Everyone's a Theologian, p.31)

In contrast, the Church of Rome, with its claim to infallibility, places itself above Scripture and tradition. It posed as the only body that could determine infallibly what was and was not apostolic tradition and give an infallible interpretation of Scripture. (Berkhof, Intro to ST, p.163)

"The Bible is the believer's infallible book of truth when read under the direction of the Holy Spirit." (Calvin, Institutes of the Christian Religion 1960, p.lvi)

6.2 What is the doctrine of the inerrancy of Scripture?^[1]

Inerrancy means that the Bible does not declare anything contrary to what is true and real, and all it declares is faithful and accurate because it is the Word of God. Inerrancy means that all the Bible declares in its original manuscripts is true. The term inerrancy extends the Bible's veracity to all its messages to state that it does not affirm anything contrary to the truth.

• Inerrancy does not mean that the Bible is written by perfect people.
• Inerrancy does not mean the Bible is written with absolute perfection of grammar or literary form.
• Inerrancy does not mean the manuscript copies do not differ from one another at some points.
• Inerrancy does not mean the Bible speaks with the same precision of terminology used in modern scientific writing.
• Inerrancy does not deny that the Bible speaks from an ordinary human point of view.
• Inerrancy does not contradict the Bible's use of figures of speech.
• Inerrancy does not deny difficulties in interpreting the Bible.

Francis Turretin wrote, "The question is not whether the sacred writers (as men simply and in a divided sense) could err (for we readily grant this); or whether as holy men influenced by the Holy Spirit and in a compound sense, they did in fact err (for I think no one of the adversaries, except a downright atheist, would dare to say this). Rather, the question is whether in writing they were so acted upon and inspired by the Holy Spirit (both as to the things themselves and as to the words) as to be kept free from all error and that their writings are truly authentic and divine. Our adversaries deny this; we affirm it." (Turretin, Institutes of Elenctic Theology, 2.4.5)

William Ames summarizes the Reformed orthodox view of the inerrant text of the original manuscripts in The Marrow of Theology.

• The Scriptures were written in Hebrew and Greek, “languages which were most common and widespread in the church at the time when they were written.” Translations, such as the Greek Septuagint and Latin Vulgate, were done by “interpreters” who did not hold “the office of a prophet; they were not free from errors in interpretation” but must be “weighed” according to the Hebrew and Greek text. (Ames, The Marrow of Theology, 1.34.24–25, 28–29)
• “God’s providence in preserving the sources is notable and glorious, for neither have they wholly perished nor have they been injured by the loss of any book or blemished by any serious defect—though not one of the early versions remains intact.” (Ames, 1.34.31)

6.3 What is the difference between infallibility and inerrancy?

The word infallible may be defined as “that which cannot fail”; it means something is incapable of making a mistake. From a linguistic standpoint, the term infallible is higher than inerrant. By way of illustration, a student can take a test made up of twenty questions and get twenty correct answers, giving him an inerrant test. However, the student’s inerrancy in this restricted arena does not make him infallible, as mistakes on subsequent tests would verify. The Bible is inerrant and infallible. Of the two terms, inerrancy and infallibility, inerrancy is the lesser term; it flows naturally from the concept of infallibility—if something cannot err, then it does not err. (R.C. Sproul, p.30–31, 34)

6.4 What are some practical applications to the inerrancy of Scripture?^[2]

• Since the Word of God is pure truth, we can place our complete trust in what God has said. To trust in the Bible for truth is to trust the God who cannot lie. We glorify God when we trust in his Word, especially when everything around us militates against that trust (Rom. 4:19).
• Inerrancy is not a cold, academic doctrine, but a great encouragement to faith and the foundation of all sustaining comfort and solid hope, for we know that God will never break his promises to us in Christ.
• If we believe in the inerrancy of Scripture, then we will drink deeply of the Holy Scriptures and as little as possible of the lies of this world. Many people foolishly mingle the Word with vast quantities of worldly wisdom in their minds.
• The church’s role is not to judge the Word, but to submit to it and obey it (Deut. 4:2).

6.5 What is the Chicago Statement on Biblical Inerrancy?

The “Chicago Statement on Biblical Inerrancy” (CSBI) was produced at an international Summit Conference of evangelical leaders held at the Hyatt Regency O’Hare in Chicago in the fall of 1978. This congress was sponsored by the International Council on Biblical Inerrancy. Nearly 300 noted evangelical scholars signed the Chicago Statement. This landmark document is the “first systematically comprehensive, broadly based, scholarly, creed-like statement on the inspiration and authority of Scripture in the history of the church.”^[3]

Article I. WE AFFIRM that the Holy Scriptures are to be received as the authoritative Word of God. WE DENY that the Scriptures receive their authority from the Church, tradition, or any other human source.

Article II. WE AFFIRM that the Scriptures are the supreme written norm by which God binds the conscience, and that the authority of the Church is subordinate to that of Scripture. WE DENY that Church creeds, councils, or declarations have authority greater than or equal to the authority of the Bible.

Article III. WE AFFIRM that the written Word in its entirety is revelation given by God. WE DENY that the Bible is merely a witness to revelation, or only becomes revelation in encounter, or depends on the responses of men for its validity.

Article IV. WE AFFIRM that God who made mankind in His image has used language as a means of revelation. WE DENY that human language is so limited by our creatureliness that it is rendered inadequate as a vehicle for divine revelation. We further deny that the corruption of human culture and language through sin has thwarted God’s work of inspiration.

Article V. WE AFFIRM that God’s revelation within the Holy Scriptures was progressive. WE DENY that later revelation, which may fulfill earlier revelation, ever corrects or contradicts it. We further deny that any normative revelation has been given since the completion of the New Testament writings.

Article VI. WE AFFIRM that the whole of Scripture and all its parts, down to the very words of the original, were given by divine inspiration. WE DENY that the inspiration of Scripture can rightly be affirmed of the whole without the parts, or of some parts but not the whole.

Article VII. WE AFFIRM that inspiration was the work in which God by His Spirit, through human writers, gave us His Word. The origin of Scripture is divine. The mode of divine inspiration remains largely a mystery to us. WE DENY that inspiration can be reduced to human insight, or to heightened states of consciousness of any kind.

Article VIII. WE AFFIRM that God in His work of inspiration utilized the distinctive personalities and literary styles of the writers whom He had chosen and prepared. WE DENY that God, in causing these writers to use the very words that He chose, overrode their personalities.

Article IX. WE AFFIRM that inspiration, though not conferring omniscience, guaranteed true and trustworthy utterance on all matters of which the Biblical authors were moved to speak and write. WE DENY that the finitude or fallenness of these writers, by necessity or otherwise, introduced distortion or falsehood into God’s Word.

Article X. WE AFFIRM that inspiration, strictly speaking, applies only to the autographic text of Scripture, which in the providence of God can be ascertained from available manuscripts with great accuracy. We further affirm that copies and translations of Scripture are the Word of God to the extent that they faithfully represent the original. WE DENY that any essential element of the Christian faith is affected by the absence of the autographs. We further deny that this absence renders the assertion of Biblical inerrancy invalid or irrelevant.

Article XI. WE AFFIRM that Scripture, having been given by divine inspiration, is infallible, so that, far from misleading us, it is true and reliable in all the matters it addresses. WE DENY that it is possible for the Bible to be at the same time infallible and errant in its assertions. Infallibility and inerrancy may be distinguished, but not separated.

Article XII. WE AFFIRM that Scripture in its entirety is inerrant, being free from all falsehood, fraud, or deceit. WE DENY that Biblical infallibility and inerrancy are limited to spiritual, religious, or redemptive themes, exclusive of assertions in the fields of history and science. We further deny that scientific hypotheses about earth history may properly be used to overturn the teaching of Scripture on creation and the flood.

Article XIII. WE AFFIRM the propriety of using inerrancy as a theological term with reference to the complete truthfulness of Scripture. WE DENY that it is proper to evaluate Scripture according to standards of truth and error that are alien to its usage or purpose. We further deny that inerrancy is negated by Biblical phenomena such as a lack of modern technical precision, irregularities of grammar or spelling, observational descriptions of nature, the reporting of falsehoods, the use of hyperbole and round numbers, the topical arrangement of material, variant selections of material in parallel accounts, or the use of free citations.

Article XIV. WE AFFIRM the unity and internal consistency of Scripture. WE DENY that alleged errors and discrepancies that have not yet been resolved vitiate the truth claims of the Bible.

Article XV. WE AFFIRM that the doctrine of inerrancy is grounded in the teaching of the Bible about inspiration. WE DENY that Jesus’ teaching about Scripture may be dismissed by appeals to accommodation or to any natural limitation of His humanity.

Article XVI. WE AFFIRM that the doctrine of inerrancy has been integral to the Church’s faith throughout its history. WE DENY that inerrancy is a doctrine invented by scholastic Protestantism, or is a reactionary position postulated in response to negative higher criticism.

Article XVII. WE AFFIRM that the Holy Spirit bears witness to the Scriptures, assuring believers of the truthfulness of God’s written Word. WE DENY that this witness of the Holy Spirit operates in isolation from or against Scripture.

Article XVIII. WE AFFIRM that the text of Scripture is to be interpreted by grammatico-historical exegesis, taking account of its literary forms and devices, and that Scripture is to interpret Scripture. WE DENY the legitimacy of any treatment of the text or quest for sources lying behind it that leads to relativizing, dehistoricizing, or discounting its teaching, or rejecting its claims to authorship.

Article XIX. WE AFFIRM that a confession of the full authority, infallibility, and inerrancy of Scripture is vital to a sound understanding of the whole of the Christian faith. We further affirm that such confession should lead to increasing conformity to the image of Christ. WE DENY that such confession is necessary for salvation. However, we further deny that inerrancy can be rejected without grave consequences, both to the individual and to the Church.