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Inerrancy: a Bible free of error. All points of view.

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The meaning of inerrancy:

"Inerrancy" refers to a text that is considered accurate, truthful, and totally free of error. Any text that contains mistakes is errant.

The term is often used by conservative theologians to refer to the content of their holy book(s):

	In Judaism this refers to the Torah,
	In Christianity to the Hebrew and Christian Scriptures (a.k.a. the Old and New Testaments),
	In Islam to the Qur'an, and
	In other religions to refer to their own holy books.

Evangelical beliefs in the inerrancy of the Bible:

In 1977, the International Council on Biblical Inerrancy (ICBI) was established to "clarify and defend the doctrine of biblical inerrancy." Under its auspices, during 1978, over 300 evangelical scholars met and signed the Chicago Statement on Biblical Inerrancy. The Dallas Theological Seminary describes the statement as "... probably the first systematically comprehensive, broadly based, scholarly, creed–like statement on the inspiration and authority of Scripture in the history of the church." ₁

It states in part:

"Article X

We affirm that inspiration, strictly speaking, applies only to the autographic text of Scripture, which in the providence of God can be ascertained from available manuscripts with great accuracy. We further affirm that copies and translations of Scripture are the Word of God to the extent that they faithfully represent the original.

We deny that any essential element of the Christian faith is affected by the absence of the autographs. We further deny that this absence renders the assertion of Biblical inerrancy invalid or irrelevant." ₂

Belief of biblical inerrancy in the U.S.:

On 2007-MAY-25, Gallup reported the results of a national poll on Biblical inerrancy. Those polled were asked which of three statements comes closest to describing their personal views about the Bible. The average of polls taken during MAY of 2005, 2006 and 2007 were:

• 31% believe that "The Bible is the actual word of God, and is to be taken literally, word for word." This would imply acceptance of biblical inerrancy.
• 47% believe that "The Bible is the inspired word of God, but not everything in it should be taken literally."
• 19% believe that "The Bible is an ancient book of fables, legends, history, and moral precepts recorded by man."
• 3% were uncertain or didn't answer.

• Margin of error was ±3 percentage points. ₃

An identical poll taken during 2011-MAY showed little change:

• 30% believe that "The Bible is the actual word of God, and is to be taken literally, word for word."
• 49% believe that "The Bible is the inspired word of God, but not everything in it should be taken literally."
• 17% believe that "The Bible is an ancient book of fables, legends, history, and moral precepts recorded by man."
• 4% were uncertain or didn't answer. ₄

Formal education can have a devastating effect on a person's belief in inerrancy. 46% of persons with high school education or less believe that the Bible should be interpreted literally. This dropped to 22% for persons with some college education, and to 15% among college graduates.

Topics dealing with inerrancy in this section:

Most of the following essays deal with inerrancy from a Christian perspective

	A brief overview; quotations; historical impacts of belief in inerrancy
	A more detailed introduction to inerrancy
	What is the impact of biblical inerrancy, authority, etc. on North American culture?
	More material on biblical inerrancy: What is biblical inerrancy? Terms associated with inerrancy -- authority, infallibility, inspiration Problems with infallibility
	Why belief in inerrancy can be hazardous to one's faith. Problems with inerrancy:  Part 1 Part 2
	Problems with biblical infallibility
	An analysis of apparent errors and inconsistencies in Jesus conception and birth
	Biblical inerrancy: beliefs, references: What Americans believe. Web sites dealing with inerrancy and errancy.
	Is inerrancy important?: Arguments yes and no

	What the Bible says about its own inerrancy
	Inerrancy, as interpreted by: Fundamentalist and other evangelical Protestants Mainline and liberal/progressive Protestants The Roman Catholic Church Contrasting beliefs among different Christian groups
	Why we cannot prove biblical inerrancy or errancy
	Harmonizing apparent biblical conflicts
	Twelve tests of biblical inerrancy/errancy: Part 1: Four indicators of errancy Part 2: Five more indicators of errancy Three indicators that are currently inconclusive A final indicator of errancy based on biblical ambiguity
	Did the Holy Spirit inspire the authors of the Bible?
	Books on biblical errancy, inerrancy, reliability, etc.

Classroom video:

Bible.org provides a theology program (TTP) which explains various historical beliefs from a conservative Protestant perspective. One free video is Session 8 - Inerrancy. See: http://www.bible.org/

References used:

1. "Records of the International Council on Biblical Inerrancy," Dallas Theological Seminary, undated, at: http://library.dts.edu/
2. Text of the Chicago Statement on Biblical Inerrancy, Dallas Theological Seminary, 1978, at: http://library.dts.edu/
3. "One-Third of Americans Believe the Bible Is Literally True," Gallup, Inc., 2007-MAY-25, at: http://www.gallup.com
4. Jeffrey M. Jones, "In U.S., 3 in 10 Say They Take the Bible Literally," Gallup, 2011-JUL-08, at: http://www.gallup.com/

Copyright © 1997 to 2013 by Ontario Consultants on Religious Tolerance
Author: B.A. Robinson
Latest update: 2013-SEP-14

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