There are so many things that distinguish Christian churches today. Sadly, the most fundamental truths of the Christian faith can no longer be taken for granted. In this category of our blog, we’ll be highlighting those areas that make us distinct as a church. I thought it would be best to start with some of these most basic fundamentals of the faith. One of the most important fundamental truths that we affirm is something known as the inerrancy of Scripture. In short, we believe the Bible to be fully inspired by God, and thus it is without error.
Our church has for many years used the motto, “Where the Bible is sincerely believed and faithfully taught.” Part of what’s behind that motto is this doctrine of inerrancy. This doctrine of inerrancy stands in the face of much of the theological liberalism that has infiltrated the church in many ways today. Denomination after denomination has dropped this affirmation from their official doctrinal beliefs over the last 100 years or so.
When you lose this doctrine, you suddenly have no real authority in the church, save man. Either the church, or each individual person themself, can determine what is true or not. When this happens, essentially man is taking the place of God. But we instead believe what the church has held down through the centuries. We believe that God has inspired the holy prophets and apostles in giving divine revelation to them. This revelation recorded in Scripture is what we have in the Bible. We continue to affirm the full inspiration of the Scriptures, and thus we affirm it’s inerrancy. If the God who cannot lie and who knows all things has spoken forth his Word, then we know we can trust it.
Of course, this is the testimony of Scripture itself. The Scriptures claim to be “God-breathed” and the work of the Holy Spirit moving Godly men to record God’s words (i.e. 2 Timothy 3:16 and 2 Peter 1:21). Realize how bold of a claim this is! But this is the claim of the Bible itself. If you use the Bible, do you believe this claim?
It always amazes me how some churches still use God’s Word in their services, talk about it like its important, but no longer actually affirm its full inspiration or inerrancy. Yet, how can you in good conscience use the Word which makes claims like this, but just pick and choose what you will believe? At that point, the Bible is no longer the rule or authority for your faith, as God intends for it to be. It can no longer be a “light to our path,” if we decide at any point what we’ll believe from it and what we’ll disregard (Psalm 119:105).
One of the best statements of our day on the subject of the inerrancy of Scripture is The Chicago Statement on Biblical Inerrancy. It was written in 1978 and signed by over 300 notable theologians, including people such as James Boice, John Gerstner, Carl F. H. Henry, J. I. Packer, Francis Schaeffer, R. C. Sproul, and John Wenham. For your convenience and further reflection, here is a link to the statement on our site.
