Introduction: The Shaken Bible Inerrancy
There are debates and discussions regarding the Bible inerrancy. Some people believe that it is completely error-free, while others argue that there are mistakes and discrepancies present in the text.
In this article, we will delve into the different aspects of the inerrancy of the Bible. We will also examine the impact of the inerrancy of the Bible, and how it has shaped the way people perceive and understand religion.
How Bible Inerrancy is Shaking within Modern Christianity
Iain H. Murray shows how Biblical inerrancy is shaking within modern evangelical academia.
According to him, a prominent phenomenon in English-speaking evangelicalism in the 1950s refers to a phenomenon in which leadership shifted from preachers and pastors to scholars teaching seminary students in schools.
This changes the intellectual climate of the conservative faith that some of the seminary and its Bible scholars held on Biblical inerrancy.
Opinions have begun to emerge that take a vague stance on Biblical inerrancy or abandon Biblical inerrancy.
Now, the academic community has come to stigmatize Biblical inerrancy as a narrow-minded idea that limits various discussions about the Bible.
Evangelical academia abandoning Biblical inerrancy
As a result of this evangelical academia abandoning Biblical inerrancy, Ian Murray cites the following.
The first is to rely entirely on professional scholars to understand the Bible. If you accept the claim that the Bible has the right parts and some wrong parts, you will need a tool to clarify the Bible I am reading, and eventually the interpretation of the Bible will rely entirely on scholars.
Secondly, if you do not believe in the perfect inspiration of the Bible, of course your faithful faith disappears. Denying and suspecting Biblical inerrancy is because it soon appears to be a suspicion of revelation, preventing trust and obedience to the Word.
Third, when the seminary begins to deny full Biblical inerrancy, theological education only results in destructive results, rather than richer and stronger pastoral faith.
A seminary student who will be a pastor will listen only to the Bible scholars’ mouths rather than to the voice of the Bible.
He says that the reason for giving up Biblical inerrancy in evangelical academia was that it tended to assimilate into modern culture.
While trying to raise the intellectual level, he did not delve deeply into the Bible’s truths about man’s corrupt nature, so he began to fundamentally go awry from the beginning I do.
Attitudes that Christians should maintain in dealing with the Bible
There are some attitudes that Christians should maintain in dealing with the Bible. Reverend John Stott refers to three attitudes.
First, the purpose of the Bible is not for science. Although the Bible contains things about science, the purpose of the Bible is not for science.
Secondly, the Bible is not literature. The purpose of the Bible is in the message and not in the style.
Third, the purpose of the Bible is not philosophical teaching. The Bible is not an explanation of any thought or ideology, but a book that presents a revelation of salvation.
Guidelines in interpreting the Bible
You should also follow the following guidelines in interpreting the Bible.
First, you have to interpret the Bible while praying in anticipation.
Secondly, you have to interpret the Bible in its historical context or context.
Thirdly, the Bible should be interpreted in the church, which is a covenant community.
Fourthly, the Bible must be interpreted in the Christian faith.
Fifthly, we have to interpret the Bible with a willingness to obey it.
Arnold B. Rhodes says in this regard as follows.
God did not come close to man as if he had lived away from other humans, but rather, he came to man through a historical event or a series of events. It responds to God’s actions through human faith and interprets them and understands them. And man captures the significance of events through a life changed by God’s grace. Man becomes a companion of God and others by performing God’s will where he lives. The best event that God reveals himself in the past and now is Jesus Christ. Christ reveals the true meaning of what all other revelation events have to do with the purpose of God’s salvation to be achieved in history. In a sense, Jesus Christ can be said to be the meaning of all revelational events throughout the past, present and future.
He then says that “the word of God” has a dynamic meaning, not a static meaning. The fact that God speaks means that he does something. On the contrary, it is said that the opposite is true.
And the peak of the word is the personality of Jesus Christ, in which the words of God are completed. Jesus Christ is also God’s best action. Both Jesus’ existence and actions were revelation of God. The miracles he did were also God’s great deeds.
Conclusion
Through these facts, we can see that Jesus Christ is the best revelation in the Bible, and he is the word and action of God. The gospel that will be mentioned in the future contains salvation, the highest virtue of God’s actions toward all humans through Jesus Christ.
