Why Is Biblical Inerrancy Not An Essential Doctrine Of Historic Christianity?

            Historic Christianity is predicated on many essential doctrines. Essential doctrines are those doctrines that affect one’s salvation. Unbelief in any one or more of the essential doctrines will result in a loss of salvation.

            Christ’s bodily resurrection is one such essential doctrine. Christians believe that Christ’s resurrection was a bodily resurrection. Those who do not believe in this doctrine cannot be Christians.

            Similarly, should Christians believe that the Bible has no errors (biblical inerrancy)? If a Christian does not believe in unlimited inerrancy of the Bible, would he/she lose salvation?

            Some Christians believe that the Bible has no errors in its redemptive teaching. They believe in the Triunity of God, the Lordship of Christ, and all the other essential doctrines. They also believe that the Bible is infallible i.e. trustworthy. But they do not subscribe to the notion that the Bible has no errors in all that it affirms. Would such Christians lose their salvation because they do not believe in the unlimited inerrancy of the Bible?

            I do not think so.

            If a person believes that the Bible is not trustworthy in its entirety, then he/she would lose salvation. This situation is entirely different from that of a Christian who believes that the Bible is absolutely trustworthy, but is not absolutely inerrant.

            Why would a Christian, who does not believe in the unlimited inerrancy of the Bible, not lose salvation?

1. Belief in Essential Doctrines

            Christians who do not believe in the unlimited inerrancy of the Bible will not lose salvation if they believe the essential doctrines.

            The Nicene Creed contains the essential doctrines of Historic Christianity:

I believe in one God, the Father Almighty, Maker of heaven and earth, and of all things visible and invisible.

And in one Lord Jesus Christ, the only-begotten Son of God, begotten of the Father before all worlds; God of God, Light of Light, very God of very God; begotten, not made, being of one substance with the Father by whom all things were made.

Who, for us men and for our salvation, came down from heaven, and was incarnate by the Holy Spirit of the virgin Mary, and was made man; and was crucified also for us under Pontius Pilate; He suffered and was buried; and the third day He rose again, according to the Scriptures; and ascended into heaven, and sitteth on the right hand of the Father; and He shall come again, with glory, to judge the living and the dead; whose kingdom shall have no end.

And I believe in the Holy Spirit, the Lord and Giver of life; who proceedeth from the Father and the Son; who with the Father and the Son together is worshipped and glorified; who spoke by the prophets.

And I believe one holy universal and apostolic church. I acknowledge one baptism for the remission of sins; and I look for the resurrection of the dead, and the life of the world to come.

            Very minimally, belief in the doctrines stated in the Nicene Creed is sufficient for one’s salvation. 

2. Logical Conundrum in Unlimited Inerrancy

            In order to arrive at the conclusion that the Bible cannot err, unlimited inerrantists believe in the following reasoning:

            Premise 1: God cannot err.

            Premise 2: The Bible is God’s Word.

            Conclusion 3: Therefore, the Bible cannot err.

            This reasoning is not bulletproof.

            Premise 1 is correct. But Premise 2 could be questioned.

            The term God’s Word can offer two meanings. It could either be the spoken word of God or the written word of God.

            In the case of the Bible, although it is God’s word, it is not God’s spoken word. Rather it is the written word of God.

            If the Bible is a voice recording of God’s spoken word, then one plausibly cannot argue against the veracity of the conclusion presented above.

            But human agency/authorship was involved in the creation of the Bible. The Bible was not dictated to human authors. The human authors were inspired by God.

            The presence of fallible human authors and scribes, who were involved in the transmission of the Bible, presents a window of opportunity for errors to creep in. Hence errors cannot be ruled out in the Bible.

            It is not necessary to dig deep into how errors could creep into the Bible. It is sufficient to recollect the results of the textual criticism of the Bible.

            Textual critics have affirmed that the New Testament is 99.5% accurate. It is a well-known fact that the New Testament contains 0.5% errors. It is also a fact that these errors do not affect any significant doctrine taught in the Bible.¹

            So, at the very least, the Bible contains some errors. Hence, the conclusion that the Bible cannot err because it is the word of God, can be disputed.

3. Essential or Not?

            Finally, why is the doctrine of Biblical Inerrancy not an essential doctrine of Historic Christianity?

            As already discussed, the person who believes in the limited inerrancy (i.e. that the Bible is in inerrant in only the redemptive matters) has the dual option to believe in the essential doctrines of Historic Christianity and reject unlimited inerrancy of the Bible. Rejecting unlimited inerrancy need not affect one’s belief in the essential doctrines of Historic Christianity.

            Christianity’s truthfulness does not depend on an inerrant Bible. As elaborated in my previous blog, the truthfulness of Christianity is independent of the Bible.² Therefore, the doctrine of Biblical inerrancy cannot be considered as an essential doctrine of Historic Christianity.

Endnotes:

¹https://www.str.org/articles/is-the-new-testament-text-reliable#ANCHOR19

²https://rajkumarrichard.blogspot.com/2019/08/does-bible-contain-errors-or-not-how.html

Websites last accessed on 24^th August 2019.