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Original airdate: Tuesday, November 26, 2019
(unedited/draft show notes here, not a transcript)
Lead:
What is biblical inerrancy? How should we talk about biblical inerrancy? Part two of two.
Intro:
Throughout the history of Christianity since Jesus, there have been occasions when groups of leaders have assembled to formally address issues and pursue clarity. These councils usually represented Christians from dispersed geographic regions and representing differing views on things. But there’s unity that comes out of them as agreement is reached on whatever the issue is. For instance, the Council of Nicaea came together because a dude named Arius was teaching heresy about the nature of Jesus, so the council created what we now know as a the Nicene Creed, clarified what is, and isn’t, the known truth received from the original apostles and writings. We still use that statement today.
Today in our All Our Minds segment, you and I are gong to talk about part two of our discussion of biblical inerrancy and a council that formed an agreement in the 1970s. Like councils of the past, it clarifies things in a way that also responds to contemporary Ariuses who, unfortunately, needed refuting.
Housekeeping: FYI for those of you who subscribe via email, this week I’m going to be cutting over to sending one summary email a week instead of having it auto-send every day. Unfortunately, I learned that mail programs don’t handle the formatting that I use for the blog posts, meaning that you can’t just play the podcast from a player embedded in the mail like you see on the website. So… sit tight. AND thank you to listener Shannon who gave me some awesome feedback.
The book of Titus is the third of what are called the “Pastoral Epistles.” Again written by Paul, it’s a shorty little letter that will have some familiar sounding things.
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Bible:
Passage: Titus
Translation: NASB (New American Standard Bible)
Verses: 46
Words: ~922
All Our Minds:
So both in Timothy in the last few days and today in Titus we hear Paul talk about the importance of not only teaching sound doctrine in accord with what the original apostles and eyewitnesses received from Jesus, but that that includes refuting falsehood as necessary. That’s exactly what councils having been doing.
Today we talk about the briefest summary slice of the Chicago Council on Biblical Inerrancy of 1978. We’ll do a quick review of the three definitions we touched on yesterday, give you a little deeper peek into inerrancy, and then talk about what we do with it all.
Quickie review as we get going:
Inspiration means that God worked through men to reveal Himself by empowering and protecting them. Their voice or style comes through, but it’s the work of the Holy Spirit we trust, not the work of Paul or Moses.
Infallibility is the Bible’s inability to make an error in what it teaches. God cannot err, therefore His Scripture cannot err.
Inerrancy therefore follows — Scripture, in the original writings, does not affirm anything contrary to fact.
But this last thing is really, really important. Why? Because literally all of the heresy — false teaching — in today’s church, just like in the world of Jesus and Paul, comes from people twisting or denying the authority of Scripture. So here is the five-statement summary from the Chicago Statement, and then we’ll talk about what to do with this.
1. God, who is Himself Truth and speaks truth only, has inspired Holy Scripture in order thereby to reveal Himself to lost mankind through Jesus Christ as Creator and Lord, Redeemer and Judge. Holy Scripture is God’s witness to Himself.
2. Holy Scripture, being God’s own Word, written by men prepared and superintended by His Spirit, is of infallible divine authority in all matters upon which it touches: it is to be believed, as God’s instruction, in all that it affirms: obeyed, as God’s command, in all that it requires; embraced, as God’s pledge, in all that it promises.
3. The Holy Spirit, Scripture’s divine Author, both authenticates it to us by His inward witness and opens our minds to understand its meaning.
4. Being wholly and verbally God-given, Scripture is without error or fault in all its teaching, no less in what it states about God’s acts in creation, about the events of world history, and about its own literary origins under God, than in its witness to God’s saving grace in individual lives.
5. The authority of Scripture is inescapably impaired if this total divine inerrancy is in any way limited or disregarded, or made relative to a view of truth contrary to the Bible’s own; and such lapses bring serious loss to both the individual and the Church.(1)
The bottom line
First, and I should have said this yesterday when talking about all this being a trusting-God issue,I want to assure you that having doubt is natural. In fact, some theologians argue that this is a sign of your heart being open to God’s prompting. You’re not numb, which is a possibility. Most people have doubts sometimes, and I encourage you to take it God in prayer. In my experience, He wants you to come to Him just like a loving parent wants their child to come to them with whatever’s going on.
Second, remember that the people you interact with might have doubt. But here’s the thing both for us and for how we talk to them. Us having doubt doesn’t mean God isn’t good. The issue is ours, not God’s. Sometimes our brokenness screws up how we relate to Him just like it screws up how we relate to other people sometimes. Unlike other people — and even ourselves —however, God’s perfectly trustworthy. Like I said, my issue isn’t God, it’s me.
Third, be sure to distinguish between God’s Truth, capital T, and interpretive truth, small t.
The bottom line
Finally, ask yourself, and perhaps others, some questions:
IF there is a God who created everything and IF that God chose to communicate with us in the manner of His own choosing, how should we approach that communication?
Do you trust that the Bible is God’s special revelation of Himself?
Now you see why I take the Bible seriously. I’m glad you’re along for the ride.
Love you!
-R
ForTheHope is a daily audio Bible + apologetics podcast and blog. We’ve got a passion for just keepin’ it real, having conversations like normal people, and living out the love of Jesus better every single day.
Roger Courville, CSP is a globally-recognized expert in digitally-extended communication and connection, an award-winning speaker, award-winning author, and a passionately bad guitarist. Follow him on Twitter -- @RogerCourville and @JoinForTheHope – or his blog: www.forthehope.org.
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