It’s Perfect
“Inerrancy” is a term used to explain that the Bible is completely true and contains no errors in the original autographs. The denial of inerrancy often leads to the denial of other literal truths. Historical facts are taken as myths/stories. Biblical viewpoints on issues, such as homosexuality or women’s roles, are easily denied when inerrancy is denied. Liberal evangelicals today will acknowledge that Paul said, “Wives submit to your husbands” and then say that “Paul was wrong.” It is one thing to interpret what a scripture means, but it’s another to claim the Apostle Paul, under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit was “wrong” or “in error.” (Sid Litke, How we got the Bible, Bible.org)
The Bible is wholly true (in whole and in part) in all that it affirms. It is God’s Word in that, “all Scripture is breathed out by God,” (2 Timothy 3:16) who is holy and cannot lie (Hebrews 6:18). What scripture says, is what God has said and to deny the total truthfulness of the Bible is to deny the total truthfulness of God.
When the Bible is read carefully it is clear to see that there are no contradictions. Those who say otherwise usually have ill motive and believe they are the first people in thousands of years to stumble on a difficult scripture that hasn’t been reasoned or explained before. Furthermore, copyist errors do not discredit inerrancy which simply claims the originals are inerrant.
The Masoretic scribes (A.D. 500-1000) in charge of the Old Testament manuscript copying used a very meticulous system of transcription and had a deep reverence for the text. God used their almost obsessive respect for the text to preserve the text’s accuracy. They had specific rules on the type of ink and the quality and size of parchment sheets. No individual letter could be written down without having looked back at the copy in front of them. The scribe could not write God’s name with a newly dipped pen (lest it blotch) and even if the king should address him, while writing God’s name, he should take no notice of him. They were so meticulous that they counted all the paragraphs, words and even letters, so they could know by counting, if they had done it perfectly. They knew the middle letter of each book so they could count back and see if they had missed anything. (Sid Litke, How we got the Bible, Bible.org)
Differences in Bible versions occur because of the use of different ancient manuscripts. The thousands upon thousands of historical manuscripts and fragments dating from as early as 100 AD make it easy to determine and rectify where any copyist mistakes have occurred. There has never been a difference in manuscript that has impacted a single Christian doctrine.
Regarding manuscripts, we have 100% of the truth of the Word of God. We possess 110% with the extra percentages coming from accidental copyist additions or extra vocabulary necessary in language translation. Overall, there is a 99% agreement on tens of thousands of ancient writings, which span across a 2000-year period, across 3 different continents and 3 different languages and from 40 different authors - which is phenomenal.
The Bible is reliable and perfect. The Bible has a shorter time frame between the original writings and surviving copies, a greater number of source manuscripts, and more empirical and historical support than any other ancient work by far. To use the same scrutiny on other historical manuscripts would leave no human history at all. For example, there are 251 copies of the works of Julius Caesar, the earliest from 950 years after he wrote, with no way to know how well those copies represent the originals. If the Scriptures don’t pass a test for trustworthiness, then no records from that era can.
The Bible’s reliability is proven in its historical accuracy, its accurate transmission and more significantly: its power to transform men and women who believe what is says is true.
