Importance of Innerrancy to Moderate Christians

This isn't the Bible though.I wouldn't say that it is easy to distinguish between 'truth' and 'fantasy' in the Bible, but it is fairly easy to tell between plausible stories and fantasy.For example, Joseph rising to a very high position of power in Egypt is entirely plausible, whereas the tales of people living to 900 years plus is clearly fantasy.Of course, I am talking about when people who are rational research the Bible and not the type of person who will tie their cerebral cortex in a double knot to preserve their wee fantasy world complete with imaginary friends.Brian.

Personally, I'd answer:1. Whichever Bible version the particular person prefers (invariably the KJV), because they will promote that over all others.2. Without any errors, everything can be taken at face value.At least that's how I have come to understand the weird fundy inerrant chappies.

Did you know that taking the Bible at face value is a relatively new stance?NONE of the church fathers took the entire Bible literally, they all interpreted the text to some degree.I have stated before, and I hope if I am wrong I can be corrected, that I cannot find anyone who says to take the Bible at face value before Martin Luther in the 16th century.Maybe other members know of someone, but I haven't seen any evidence.This 'gimmick' of having to contort reality to make the Bible inerrant is actually the product of a weak faith, these people do not trust the words in the Bible, they NEED external evidence because their faith in its accuracy is so weak.Imagine if they did find some evidence of Noah's flood, or an Exodus, or a Conqest, or a period of the Judges, or a united monarchy, or this or that, surely that would make Jesus' promises in the Bible just that little bit more believable.Nope, Bible inerrancy = weak Christian.Brian.

Hi Q,Augustine did take a lot of the Bible literally, but not all of it.For example, he didn't take the six days of creation literally, he maintained that ALL of creation was instantaneous. There are some other examples here. I don't have much time right now, but I can post a few examples for you tomorrow.There's an interesting quote from Augustine on that site that is very relevent to some of our members!Reckless and incompetent expounders of Holy Scripture bring untold trouble and sorrow on their wiser brethren when they are caught in one of their mischievous false opinions and are taken to task by these who are not bound by the authority of our sacred books. For then, to defend their utterly foolish and obviously untrue statements, they will try to call upon Holy Scripture for proof and even recite from memory many passages which they think support their position, although they understand neither what they say nor the things about which they make assertion. The best way I think to take Augustine's view of the Bible is that he took his interpretation literally.Brian.