12. OBJECTIONS TO BIBLICAL INERRANCY

The Inerrancy Warrant (If the Bible is inspired, then it must be free from error) can be objected to on several grounds.  I had not meant to explore this issue, but it seems promising.  Here are my objections in no particular order. 

Please note that Biblical inspiration and inerrancy are two entirely different concepts. 

Biblical inspiration is first of all an unsupported claim is a matter of faith.  In logic, we would say that Biblical inspiration is a given or an axiom which one does not prove.  Biblical inspiration only requires that Scripture not be exclusively human in origin.  Biblical inerrancy goes a lot further in ascribing total freedom from errors to the Bible.

So, then, here are my objections for readers to ponder if they wish, but which won’t figure (at this point) in any future posts.

1.  How do we know that divine inspiration frees the Bible from human errors?  There is no verse in the Bible which states the that the Bible is inerrant.

2.   Suppose that the Bible does provide us with some kind of Inerrancy Warrant.  Then its testimony could not be accepted, since it would be circular reasoning.

3.  How do we know that divine inspiration frees the Bible from human errors?  If a human source says that it does, then we must assess that claim on its own merits.  If our hapless opponent claims that it is free from error because it is divinely inspired, then he is assuming just what he is supposed to prove. 

4.  Even if the Bible’s claim to its own testimony were not circular, according to Dt. 19:15, we must have two or three witnesses for resolving any matter.  This verse is cited several times in the New Testament, of which John 8:17 is most relevant, where it is a question of testimony and not allegation.  What second or third witnesses could be brought forward to corroborate the Bible’s claim to be free from error?  Does the Bible have such peers?

5.  Why should the Bible be free of human frailties like errors?  When the Son of God was incarnate, he took on human frailties.  Why should the Bible be free of something which Christ gladly bore?