To define biblical inerrancy, we would say that it is the belief that the Bible is completely truthful and without error in all its teachings in the original manuscripts.  This would include biblical teachings on science, creation, history, moral teachings and certainly includes all the spiritual lessons and instructions from the Bible.  They are all correct and they are all authoritative. 

Inerrancy describes the Bible’s characteristic as being perfect.  Inspiration concerns the Bible’s authority.  Since the Bible is inspired of God, it absolutely must hold authority over us.  Inerrancy doesn’t just refer to the Bible being “without error” but also to its inability to err.  In the same sense, when we say that the Lord Jesus was sinless, we don’t just mean that He did not sin, we mean that He could not sin.  Inerrancy, positively defined, refers to a central and crucial property of the Bible, namely, its utter truthfulness.  Therefore, we can speak of the Bible’s inerrancy and its inspiration together and realize they both are vital parts of God’s Holy Word.

  • 2 Timothy 3:16-17 tells us, “All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness: That the man of God may be perfect, throughly furnished unto all good works.”  The word for ‘inspiration’ literally means that all scripture is ‘God breathed.”  It is because ALL scripture is inspired of God that we understand that it is perfect.  It is inerrant in its original form. 
  • Proverbs 30:5 assures us that, “Every word of God is PURE: he is a shield unto them that put their trust in him.” 
  • Psalm 12:6 says, “The words of the LORD are PURE WORDS: as silver tried in a furnace of earth, purified seven times.”
  • Psalm 119:140 states, “Thy word is VERY PURE: therefore thy servant loveth it.”
  • 2 Peter 1:21, “For the prophecy came not in old time by the will of man: but holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost.”

As a believer on the Lord Jesus Christ, I find that I MUST believe in biblical inerrancy.  If I cannot believe that ALL the Bible is correct and pure, then I can’t trust that ANY of it is correct and pure.  The scriptures themselves constantly assure us that the Word of God is exactly that…the Word of God. 

The Apostle Paul commended the believers in Thessalonica for their faith in believing that the Bible is indeed the Word of God.  “For this cause also thank we God without ceasing, because, when ye received the word of God which ye heard of us, ye received it not as the word of men, but as it is in truth, the word of God, which effectually worketh also in you that believe.”  (1 Thessalonians 2:13.)  (CC)  (617.6)