Maybe I should become a Nazarene? Nah, just kidding.
But a small, recent doctrinal change to that Wesleyan denomination’s view of the authority of scripture mirrors my own quite nicely. Apparently, before the change, their statement read that the Bible is “inerrant throughout, and the supreme authority on everything the Scriptures teach.”
The tricky word there is “inerrant.” My problem with the word is that it represents a thoroughly modern concept, alien to scripture itself, and beholden to a post-Enlightenment view of the world. According to an inerrantist view, the Bible pays for the privilege of being our authoritative guide because it contains nothing that our modern world would call an “error,” at least in the original autographs.
So if the world wasn’t created in six literal days, then that’s an “error.” Never mind that Genesis 1 is a poetic description of Creation that conveys theological rather than scientific truth. Except even distinguishing theology from science is modern. Thomas Aquinas called theology the “highest science.” Regardless, I wouldn’t say that Genesis 1 is in error, even though I don’t believe the world was created in six literal days. See what I mean?
So why not avoid the term altogether? The Bible has nothing to prove. Skeptics haggle over questions of historicity and science so they can avoid dealing with the God revealed therein, who they hope doesn’t exist. It’s not like anyone comes to faith in Christ because the Bible’s truth has been proven to them. As the Nazarene report says, “We know that we are not brought to faith by having the inerrancy of the Bible proved to us, but that our faith in Christ is what leads us to trust his messengers, the prophets and apostles, and all who wrote the Holy Scriptures.”
Another problem with inerrancy is that it locates the miracle of scripture somewhere in the past—when the Holy Spirit first guided its authors to write down its words. While I agree that the Spirit inspired and guided the words of scripture as they were written, the miracle of scripture is ongoing: when we read it today, the Spirit continues to speak to us through it. I believe this is in part what Jesus means when he tells his disciples on Holy Thursday that he has “much more to say to you, more than you can now bear. But when he, the Spirit of truth, comes, he will guide you into all the truth” (John 16:12-13a).
But if you’re going to use the word “inerrant” to describe the Bible’s authority, you ought to use it the way the Nazarenes now use it: The Bible “inerrantly reveal[s] the will of God concerning us in all things necessary to our salvation.”
This statement uses “inerrant” to emphasize the classic Protestant doctrine of the “sufficiency of scripture,” with which I wholeheartedly agree: the Bible perfectly (infallibly, inerrantly) reveals the way of salvation in Christ and nothing beyond the Bible ought to be taken as an article of faith or dogma.