THE INFALLIBLE RULE

THE INFALLIBLE RULE

The divine source and authority of the Scripture assure us that the Bible is also infallible, that is, incapable of error and therefore not capable of misleading, deceiving, or disappointing us. Some writers make a distinction between inerrancy (“exempt from error”) and infallibility, but they are very near synonyms. “If there is any difference in the shade of meaning between the two terms, inerrancy emphasizes the truthfulness of Scripture, while infallibility emphasizes the trustworthiness of Scripture. Such inerrancy and infallibility apply to all of Scripture and include both revelational inerrancy and factual inerrancy. It is truth (2 Sam. 7:28; Ps. 119:43, 160; John 17:17, 19; Col 1:5).”5

Humanistic unbelief is the real source of objections to the authority and infallibility of the Bible. Its arguments are not new. Ancient writers such as Irenaeus, Tertullian, and Augustine had to combat some of them and in doing so declared their own confidence in the Scriptures. The reformers Zwingli, Calvin, and Luther also accepted the full authority of Scripture.6 Over the years unbelieving critics have made extensive lists of what they called discrepancies in the Bible, and some have claimed the Bible was indisputably in error. In 1874 J.W. Haley did a thorough study that is still worth reading.7 He classified these alleged discrepancies and found they arose from several causes:

1. A failure to read exactly what the Bible says.

2. False interpretations of the Bible, especially those which fail to take into account ancient customs and modes of speech.

3. Wrong ideas of the Bible as a whole and a failure to recognize that the Bible on occasion records the words of Satan and of evil people. For example, God told Job’s friends, “You have not spoken of me what is right” (Job 42:8). But the Bible gives a true record of what they said, even though they were wrong.

4. A failure to recognize that some accounts are condensations of what was said or done.

5. Chronological difficulties due to the fact that Babylonians, Egyptians, Greeks, and Romans all used different systems of measuring time or dating. Even Israel and Judah sometimes differed in their methods of counting kings’ reigns.8

6. Apparent discrepancies in numbers due to the fact that some passages use round numbers, others give more exact figures, depending on the purpose of the writer.

7. In some places copyists’ errors crept into certain ancient manuscripts. A comparison of manuscripts has corrected most of these errors. (In fact, most scholars agree on what was the original reading in the vast majority of the cases.9 Furthermore, those cases where we cannot be sure do not affect the teachings of the Bible in any way.)

8. Finally, some so-called discrepancies were just a matter of a Hebrew or Greek word having more than one meaning, just as some of our English words do (e.g., compare “lead” in “lead weight” and “lead the blind”).

One after another, alleged mistakes and discrepancies have been proved false. Again and again new discoveries by archaeologists and other scholars and scientists have shown that the so-called errors were errors of the critics due to their unbelief and insufficient knowledge.10

Some who deny the infallibility of Scripture nevertheless believe the Bible has value. That is, they say it does not matter whether the history and science of the Bible are true. They say that a sinner can be saved without knowing the whole Bible or its claims to inspiration. It is true that the sinner does not need to know about the Virgin Birth, divine healing, sanctification, the baptism in the Holy Spirit, and the second coming of Christ in order to be saved. But once a person becomes a believer, such teachings will become the means of becoming mature in the faith (cf. Heb. 5:11 to 6:2).

For those who are troubled by what they consider the imprecision of the Bible in describing natural phenomena, they should realize that scientific language and terminology have developed only in modern times. Moreover, each science develops its own vocabulary. For example, the word “nucleus” means one thing to the biologist and quite another thing to the astrophysicist. Even ordinary words can be given new meanings by scientists. To the botanist, for example, the word “transpire” means “to give off moisture through pores (stomata).” Consequently, the Bible uses nontechnical, everyday language; we can expects its use of terms such as “sunrise” and “sunset” to be just like ours, even though we now know that it is the movement of the earth that is taking place, not that of the sun. nevertheless, when the Bible does make an authoritative, propositional statement, such as “God created the heavens and the earth,” we can be sure the Bible is infallible.

The Bible will not lead us astray. It is a wonderful revelation of God as our Creator and Redeemer; a personal God who loves us and is concerned about us; a God who has a plan, who sent His Son to die for us (1 Cor. 15:3), and who will continue to do His work until Satan is crushed, death destroyed, and a new heavens and earth established. The whole Bible shows that He is reliable, dependable, trustworthy, and that His very nature guarantees the authority, infallibility, and inerrancy of His Word.

5 Where We Stand, 7–8.

6 Ibid., 9.

7 John W. Haley, Alleged Discrepancies of the Bible (Grand Rapids: Baker Book House, 1988).

8 For a good discussion of this, see Edwin. R. Theile, The Mysterious Numbers of the Hebrew Kings (Grand Rapids: Zondervan Publishing House, 1983).

9 R.K. Harrison and others, Biblical Criticism: Historical, Literary and Textual (Grand Rapids: Zondervan Publishing House, 1980), 150.

10 For example, Dr. Stanley Horton heard a Harvard professor say that sevenfold lamps were not in existence in Moses’ time; therefore, the Bible was mistaken when it told of one being made and placed in the tabernacle (see Exod. 37:17–24). However, on an archaeological expedition at Dothan in 1962 with Dr. Joseph Free of Wheaton College, Dr. Horton watched workmen uncover a sevenfold lamp dating from 1400 B.C, right from the time of Moses. Stanley M. Horton, “Why the Bible is Reliable,” Pentecostal Evangel, 14 January 1973, 8–11.

William W. Menzies, Bible Doctrines: A Pentecostal Perspective, ed. Stanley M. Horton (Springfield, MO: Logion Press, 1993), 26–28.