Claims are often made about the text of the bible that the text never makes about itself. These claims are usually dressed up with the titles infallible, inerrant, or inspired. All too often, the attempt at dealing with these topics is something of a minefield, filled with areas of dangerous terrain. We need not fear taking an objective look at what has become the object of our faith in so many arenas. Doubt and uncertainty are friends of faith, not foes. In doubting we find ourselves driven to study, driven to find answers, and driven to question those answers. In uncertainty we find ourselves driven to search out what is certain, and to reevaluate our faith and dogma. However, when the idol of certainty begins to creep in again we are coming dangerously close to a prison of faux faith, a cage of infallibility. As we look into these topics, we must learn to keep an open mind, and to realize that much of what we hold fast is not ancient faith, as though Jesus himself had dictated it, but rather recent inventions of the minds of humans, usually trying to make sense of a group of documents that at times seem to have issues of disconnection and various historical, clerical, and translational errors.
As we progress through this essay, we will discuss what I am going to call the classic views of inspiration, inerrancy and infallibility, showing where the beliefs come from, and then offering an alternative view to the previously accepted belief. I am not declaring myself to be a decision maker on matters of the faith, I’m rather simply offering an alternate understanding to something that ought to be open to the halls of discussion rather than locked away for none to investigate. I am also not trying to advocate the dismissal of the text, or a mass Bible burning across the globe. I hold the scripture at an extremely high value in my life and the life of the believer. I firmly believe that there are answers to all of life’s problems found in the pages of the book, but that doesn’t mean that every word is an answer!
To read the rest of this essay: Download Caleb Miller Inspiration
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