Inerrancy

The term ‘inerrant’ means ‘without error’. The Scriptures in their original manuscripts are free from anything that could be considered untrue. This is because the Bible is inspired to the human authors by the Holy Spirit, who cannot lie (2 Timothy 3:16-17, Titus 1:2, Psalm 12:6). This does not mean that those who made copies of the original manuscripts could not have made copying errors in some small instances. They sometimes did, but these are very few, and do not call into question the truth of Scripture (where there is a copying error, most Bible translations will tell you the possibilities in a footnote). Inerrancy also does not mean that a translation of the Bible into another language is always accurate to the original meaning. This is why it is good for church leaders to have some knowledge of the original languages. What the doctrine of inerrancy means is that we can be confident in the biblical text as we have received it. We can be confident that it is true and is therefore reliable and useful for our own lives and for instructing others in the truth. If we do not believe in the Bible’s inerrancy in every part, then everything that God says in His word is called into question. The doctrine of inerrancy does not mean we must interpret every verse in a literal sense. For example, when we read statements like Isaiah 55:12 ’the mountains and hills will burst into song before you, and all the trees of the field will clap their hands’, we are not required to believe that mountains can sing or that trees have hands to clap, because we recognise that this is poetic and not literal language. (see Bible, Infallibility, Inspired)