Jar writes:
Which Bible? There are several Canons (lists of what is or is not in the Bible) and no one Universal Canon. Until you can identify what the Bible is, it is impossible to even ask if it is inerrant.
I'm glad you pointed this out.
I had a fundamentalist Protestant friend in college who argued with me once over pizza about inerrancy. The Bible was the infallible Word of God. No contradictions, no errors.
For the record, let me state that my friend gave every appearance of being someone who had spent a lot of time with his Bible. He had a prooftext for every occasion. At the drop of a hat he could quote John 3.16 and any number of other passages to explain why he and his church thought as they thought and did what they did.
I raised the question of the Apocryphal/Deuterocanonical books recognized by Eastern Orthodox and Roman Catholic Christianity. I got the standard explanation that these books were not inspired, but contained valuable supplemental history.
I said 'So what is it in the book of Obadiah that convinced you it was infallible?
My friend choked on his 7-Up. I repeated the question. When I again got no answer I asked if he could tell me what was
in the book of Obadiah.
He admitted he had never read Obadiah. But the fact that the text was inerrant, and vital to salvation--
this my friend knew.
My next question: 'So what is it about 3 Maccabees that made you decide it was
not inspired? What was the giveaway?'
My friend admitted he had never read 3 Maccabees--its recently asserted value as supplemental history notwithstanding.
'The Wisdom of Sirach'?
Had never even heard of it. But knew it was uninspired and 'errant,' regardless of what those Orthodox Christians think.
Now, not everyone who asserts inerrancy is that badly read. But most are. Thousands of people who affirm the doctrine claim divine origin for texts they have not read and deny it to texts that fall in the same category.
'Inerrant' is a lot to claim for a documents one has not examined. And 'Word of God' is a downright strange thing to say of a document one has ignored.
All of this raises the question of exactly who--or what--is really infallible. The
real answer turns out to be their herd. They know which books are inspired and which are not because they have been told by their preacher, their parents, the Council of Nicaea and the Zondervan Bible Company. When the herd says it, they believe it, and that settles it.
Archer
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