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I'm a recovering inerrantist..

I believe that there may be inaccuracies in the text of the bible. I'm not even sure that I feel like Infallibility of the original manuscripts even matters since we don't have them. If Paul wrote something in one of his letters that was from his heart, rather than God's mouth, it wouldn't destroy the bible for me (for example, I think Paul makes it clear that he did exactly that in 1 cor 7:12,25).

Some people think this makes me less of a Christian or that I have a low view of Scripture. Personally, I've never had a deeper love for the Book or respect for what it says than I do now; especially when I believed in the necessity of inerrancy and infallibility.

Verse of the Week:

But as for you, continue in what you have learned and have become convinced of, because you know those from whom you learned it, and how from infancy you have known the holy Scriptures, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus. All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work."
2 Tim 3:14-17

When looking at this scripture in the past, I never read it in context. Nor did I even read what it said. I read it through the lens of what I wanted it to say. First of all, the verse never claims perfection or inerrancy. It claims to come from God. One can try to justify inerrancy through a series of claims and "logical reasoning" because God is perfect and it came from Him; but so did all of creation! "And God said... and then there was." As a matter of fact, Creation didn't come through the hands of fallen man at all- it was directly from the will of God. He spoke- it was. There was no fallen intermediary. But now, God's Word that became creation is fallen because of us. The bible didn't even come that "clean" from God.

But look at what Paul says in the beginning of the reference above: "continue in what you have learned and have become convinced of, because you know those from whom you learned it." They are to continue in what they have learned from people, from "those from whom you learned it." If God wanted us to view the bible as inerrant or the perfect answer book, wouldn't he have instructed Paul to write something like: "It's the Scriptures that hold all the necessary Truth. Every word is perfectly placed. Continue in what the Scriptures instruct. The scriptures are without error or blemish. " But Paul says no such thing. As a matter of fact, he says the bible is only "useful." Why not necessary? Why not Perfect? Why not Everything You Need? He could have easily said all these things, but he never did. I fear that we may be doing exactly what the bible warns us not to: "Going beyond what's written." (1 Cor 4:6)

What's Pauls message then to the church? Continue on the journey brought about by the message of the disciples. It's about that loving, relational mission of the church to reach out with God's love to the world and redeem it. The scriptures support this message- as does creation, and the law and the prophets, the church, the witness of individual believers; but the scriptures do not supplant all the other witnesses, nor can it replace relationship with Jesus and the sweet whisper of the Spirit in ALL the ways God speaks to us- creation, spirit, brothers/sisters.

So we, the fallen believers who make up the church are supposed to be following the message that was given to us by other fallen believers. As humans, we have the spirit of God in us, yet we still battle our human natures ( Romans 6:2-14; 7:21-25, 1 Cor 6:19). But we are also witnesses of God and the way He chooses to reveal himself to the world. Even creation still speaks of God, even in it's fallen state. (Romans 1:20). So if God historically uses fractured, inconsistant vessels and means to reveal Himself, why does the Bible have to be different?

And when God spoke most clearly to us, how did He choose to do it? Through parable. Jesus ALWAYS spoke in parables! Sure he clarified it for the disciples, but couldn't that be because they looked so strictly through a jewish lens and brought so many interpretations to it that required the "un-jewishing" of the interpretation that the disciples would have in that culture?

I think of Peter's vision of the animals coming down on the sheet and God commands Peter "Kill and Eat." Peter says to God, who had just spoken to him directly and given him a command, "Surely not, Lord. I've never eaten anything unclean!" Even in this vision, God speaking directly to Peter, God had to tell him three times (poor peter, it's always three times with that guy...) not to call dirty what God has made clean. Peter was so clouded with his Jewish culture that even when God spoke directly to him, he said, "Surely not." What makes us think we're any better?

Maybe we're so clouded with our version of Christianity that we can't see the scriptures as they lie, but as we read them through our lens. If that's the case, I don't know why infallibility or inerrancy (especially inerrancy) even matters. There is Absolute Truth. We can know it. But it's not a grammatical detail. We have to start looking under the text and figuring out what it means, instead of focusing so much on what it says. If it was 5000 Jesus fed, or 4329, or 5386- it simply doesn't matter. If the "First day" means 24 hours or 24 million hours, who cares? Why does it even matter? I'm sure the idea of being in unity and being brothers and sisters in Christ is more important to God than where we stand on these issues.

It's a matter of either/or versus both/and. A biblical hermeneutic that is strictly black and white, right and wrong is simply inadequate. With that hermeneutic, you run into conflict, contradiction, and inaccuracy in the text. You also begin to divide the the Church over an issue that is really quite insignificant compared to the division in the Body of Christ we experience over differences in interpretations.

Here's the core of the issue for me: We're divided into all these denominations, arguing over proof-texts, dividing over individual verses- but the whole book clearly says we should "dwell together in Unity." (Ps 133:1). I think that those of us who are holding fast and dividing the body of Christ over the issues of inerrancy or infallibility are not practicing the kind of unity that is says we should. I think of the pharisees tithing on every little seed in the pantry but neglecting the more important issues- mercy, justice, and grace. Perhaps we're doing with scripture what they did with tithing. It's all in good intentions and out of a respect for God, but perhaps we're straining out gnats and swallowing camels.

I don't believe that I've found any errors in the text, and I accept them all as written without error and certainly I accept them as "useful for teaching, rebuking, and training in righteousness." But I refuse to divide with my fellow brothers and sisters who do not hold to an inerrantist view or who interpret a verse differently. We can talk, but we can't divide over the issues.

I guess the bottom line is that I see the issue as a non-issue. What does it matter if the scripture is perfect if we're not? How can we argue and divide over a verse when even if the text is perfect, our interpretation of it is flawed- seen through our contextual lens? What good can come of arguing the point? Seems to me that it only lets us get puffed up and self-assured and helps encourage the pride that we all already have enough of a problem with.

Let's just start following the mandates that the bible stories instruct us on. After we have that down, we can start to argue about who's right on specific issues. Does it matter if Jonah really got swallowed by a fish for 3 days? Seems to me that many people who argue about the historical accuracy of that story don't use it for "teaching, rebuking and training in righteousness." If they did, they'd be repenting from ignoring the people in the world that they can't stand to be around, but God has called them to love anyway. They'd be out in the world among sinners sharing the Gospel of Grace.