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Is Scripture Inerrant?


Is Scripture Inerrant? If by inerrancy we mean all that is necessary for salvation is found in Scripture, then the answer is yes. If by inerrancy one means untainted by human beings or that it tells us the truth about every matter under the sun (not just faith, morals, salvation), then the answer is no. Classic Christians believe that Scripture is both truly the product of God and truly the product of humanity. In my opinion, the inerrancy debates, over the last 100 years or so, have been a worthy effort hopelessly confused. They have, at times, tried to answer the question about Scripture from the divine element alone. This has resulted in a very rigid view of Scripture in some cases.


Therefore, I personally like some of the older understandings of Scripture such as what written in the 39 articles of Religion of the Anglican Church-


“HOLY Scripture containeth all things necessary to salvation: so that whatsoever is not read therein, nor may be proved thereby, is not to be required of any man, that it should be believed as an article of the Faith, or be thought requisite or necessary to salvation. In the name of the holy Scripture we do understand those Canonical Books of the Old and New Testament, of whose authority was never any doubt in the Church.”

Here is the Catholic Catechism’s overview of Scripture-


II. INSPIRATION AND TRUTH OF SACRED SCRIPTURE

105 God is the author of Sacred Scripture. "The divinely revealed realities, which are contained and presented in the text of Sacred Scripture, have been written down under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit."69


"For Holy Mother Church, relying on the faith of the apostolic age, accepts as sacred and canonical the books of the Old and the New Testaments, whole and entire, with all their parts, on the grounds that, written under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, they have God as their author, and have been handed on as such to the Church herself."70


106 God inspired the human authors of the sacred books. "To compose the sacred books, God chose certain men who, all the while he employed them in this task, made full use of their own faculties and powers so that, though he acted in them and by them, it was as true authors that they consigned to writing whatever he wanted written, and no more."71


107 The inspired books teach the truth. "Since therefore all that the inspired authors or sacred writers affirm should be regarded as affirmed by the Holy Spirit, we must acknowledge that the books of Scripture firmly, faithfully, and without error teach that truth which God, for the sake of our salvation, wished to see confided to the Sacred Scriptures."72


108 Still, the Christian faith is not a "religion of the book." Christianity is the religion of the "Word" of God, a word which is "not a written and mute word, but the Word which is incarnate and living".73 If the Scriptures are not to remain a dead letter, Christ, the eternal Word of the living God, must, through the Holy Spirit, "open [our] minds to understand the Scriptures."74


Isaac

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