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Biblical Inerrancy
Authority, Inspiration and Inerrancy in the Bible
There is no greater calling than living by the word of God. As Christians, we have a responsibility to exemplify God's wisdom in the way that we live our lives. This is the knowledge given to us by the scriptures and in recognizing the truth that is held within these scriptures, we understand that there could be no other way than the one laid out before us by God. As the discussion on authority, inspiration and inerrancy shows here, this is the imperative that makes the Bible so powerful a source of faith.
Biblical Authority:
The Bible comes to us not as a text authored by man nor as the allegorical mythology that non-religious scholars might argue. Quite to the contrary, we recognize that the authority derived from the Bible is in its direct origin as the Word of God. While there may be distinct theories about how these Words have become transcribed in their present day form, we are collectively agreed on where the narratives, imperatives and divinity conveyed in the Bible come from. According to Tinsley's (2012) analysis of Elwell, "biblical authority is the idea that The Bible is the word of God, points back to God, and can be trusted as factual...
In Elwell's article, he discusses John 14:10 which demonstrates that Jesus' authority came from God and Jesus was sent to bring the New Covenant to the world."
This denotes that the authority of the New Testament in constructing our lives in nothing short of a gift given straight by Jesus Christ, the only begotten son of God. No authority more powerful than this could be acknowledged as a source for the Bible, and certainly not the authority of man. In this way, we could explain gently and with patience to the passing stranger in the park that the Bible's authority is the overarching authority from which we derive our mortal senses of justice, mercy, morality, virtue, charity and love.
Biblical Inspiration:
In addition to the authority that extends from the Bible, we are moved constantly by the inspiration it provides daily in our lives. Authority can only give us a sense of that which we have been called to do. The inspiration in the knowledge that God gave his only son to us in forgiveness of our sins is a powerful force. It drives us as Christians to aspire always to be better. As Tinsley remarks, "the authoritative nature of the Bible implies a divine authority that inspires the words in the Bible. The…
Works Cited:
Tinsley, C. (2012). Biblical Authority, Inerrancy, and Inspiration. Carry Your Cross.
Biblical authority and Christianity: Is the Bible infallible? When people question whether the Bible has authority, they are often confused because the envision authority as coming from an external power. However, authority in the Bible is both internal and external. On one hand, when Jesus teaches in the Bible, he invokes the authority of his heavenly father and those prophets who taught and wrote scripture before him. He also invokes his
" It caused missionaries to deal with peoples of other cultures and even Christian traditions -- including the Orthodox -- as inferior. God's mission was understood to have depended upon human efforts, and this is why we came to hold unrealistic universalistic assumptions. Christians became so optimistic that they believed to be able to correct all the ills of the world." (Vassiliadis, 2010) Missiology has been undergoing changes in recent years
Their methods also include a great deal of logical reasoning as well as faith-based interpretation, all of which are appropriate means of engaging in investigations and forming conclusions in relation to scripture. The evidence that the authors used also seemed to be fairly accurate, insofar as it was verifiable; the Biblical passages cited were definitely on point, and many interpretations and criticisms that the authors cited seemed familiar and
Lewis Relativist said, 'The world does not exist, England does not exist, Oxford does not exist and I am confident that I do not Exist!' When Lewis was asked to reply, he stood up and said, 'How am I to talk to a man who's not there?'" (Schultz, 1998) Lewis: A Biography This quote shows how, in truly CS Lewis style, the writer took the everyday questions about religion and faith, tacking them