by Jacob Lance

Created on: May 19, 2008

How many times have we heard the following verse?

2 Timothy 3:16
All Scripture is inspired by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness.
Yet few Christians and even pastors of today's churches really have any type of solid grasp on what that actually means. The below story sums it up best:

My friend Ken and I were talking over coffee, again.

He was discussing his thoughts on the inerrancy and infallibility of Scripture. He is not sure that the whole of the Bible is inerrant (as it's commonly understood).

He had an interesting observation about those of us who believe every word and idea is God breathed (2 Tim. 3:16), both the New and Old Testament.

He noted that the majority of Christians believe all Scripture is God breathed, inspired, infallible and applicable to the Believer today.

Do you?

Then, he remarked that most Christians actually DON'T believe that the Word is inerrant. He used as evidence, a simple few verses in 1Timothy 3:2-7 and Titus 1:6-9. They are references for the qualifications of an overseer (elder).

If we truly believed these short verses, and selected our elders based on these and not on personality etc., how would it change our church? How would it change how we do church?

I find it interesting how, when brought up, people know that this is God breathed, but rationalize it away: "well, that was important back then", "society has changed", "we are more enlightened today", "that is not what God meant", "it was a cultural thing",

Do we truly believe that God knew what our culture would be like today, when He inspired these verses?

The truth of the matter is, that if we say we believe in this foundational doctrine of Christianity, why do we ignore over two thirds of Scriptures? I am talking about the Old Testament, which sadly is becoming increasingly rare to hear expounded upon for it's value in righteous living instructions. God made a perfect Law; He Himself was perfect, and therefore all that comes from His mouth must be as well. The classic argument used by so many modern pastors and Christians is that "some commandments were done away with" during and shortly after Jesus' time. I ask them to show me where in the Bible does it say that. All they can come up with is their own interpretations (or in the case of some pastors, the canned responses they learned in seminary) of what certain verses mean. But an examination of the original texts, language styles, and mannerisms written in easily show that

• 1
• 2
• Next Page >>