The doctrine of Inerrancy simply states that Scripture in the original manuscripts does not affirm anything that is contrary to fact: all of the Bible is true, from book to book, chapter to chapter, verse to verse, in every way, concerning everything that it talks about. This does not mean that the Bible contains all there is to know concerning a given subject but, with regard to what it does mention about that subject, it is absolutely factual.

Sometimes claims are made against the factuality of the Bible based upon what appears to be scientific errors, such as statements of the Sun moving around the Earth but these statements are describing an event through the eyes of an observer using everyday speech. For someone standing on the surface of the Earth describing a sunset, it is quite common for them, even today, to describe the “Sun moving.”

Sometimes the Bible gives different quotations for the same speaker for the same phrase but we must remember that all cultures do not follow the exact quotation rules we follow in both American and British cultures. Other cultures regard loose rephrasing as acceptable. In these cultures, it is perfectly fine to quote a general meaning rather than exact words. This does nothing to the phrase’s truthfulness. If Bob told me he’d “be back in thirty minutes”, it would be completely truthful for me to say that Bob said he’d “be back later.”

Critics also point to the use of rough grammer to attempt to point out mistakes. How can an all-powerful God make grammatical mistakes? We must remember that the Bible was written by God through specific men in their own language and grammer using their personalities and literary styles. We must not question why God chose to do it this way, but accept that He did so. This also has not bearing on the statement’s truth or falsity. If I wrote “Bob’ll be back more sooner,” this also would do notthing to the factuality of the statement, regardless of poor grammer.

Others state that the Bible is only truthful in what it says about faith and religious practice. I’d like to ask them how much faith we can place in a document that makes other claims about reality that are untrue by this definition? Why would we belive the “religious things” of the Bible when we think that the “historical or scientific” details are falshoods? One can not hold one belief without the other.

The doctrine of Inerrancy can be summarized as follows: God, who is truth, inspired the Bible, which is therefore truth. The Bible was written by men with the inspiration of the Holy Spirit who then authenticates this written word to the reader. Since the Bible comes from God, it is without error or fault in all of its teaching; it has divine inerrancy. The Scriptures get their authority from God, not the church and Scripture surpasses all church creeds or statements. God’s Word was progressively revealed over time through the writers of the Bible. God never changed His mind, He only revealed more and more as time passed. Anything in the Bible that appears to be contrary to scientific or historical “facts” is still correct: we just havn’t learned how to correctly interpret the “facts” yet to fully understand them. When we do, they will fall completely in line with the revelation of the Bible. Since God created both the Earth and the Bible, is is impossible for them to contradict each other. Human beings, however, can misinterpret either. Remember when science thought the Earth was flat?

Although the Bible says in numerous other places that stealing is wrong, I would not make that application from this passage. I would not say that Achan was punished for stealing. He was punished for not following the orders of God, knowing he was not following the orders, and trying to hide his disobedience from his fellow Israelites. What Achan realizes, though, is that one cannot hide ones sins from God. God knows all, even the things that we do in secret. Stealing may be a subset of the order not to possess the banned items, but it is not the main issue in this passage; disobedience is.

[bibleblock]Joshua 7:1-26[/bibleblock]

The main theological significance of the passage is relatively simple – if God says to do something (or more specifically not to do something in this case), do it. If you do not, there may be some very severe consequences. Although these consequences may not involve the death of one’s family by stones and fire, there will be consequences nonetheless. Every sin has a consequence and many sins have physical consequences in addition to the spiritual ones. For example, excess alcohol consumption might involve both the spiritual consequence(s) of sinning and the physical consequence of a damaged liver or even death if one were to get drunk and then get behind the wheel of the car.

God guides us for our own well-being. We must recognize that God is not trying to keep us from any good things as we might feel in the short term (like Achan probably wondering why God was preventing him from being wealthy), but is trying to provide good things for us for the long term (like trying to keep Israel from sin by trying to separate them from both the Canaanites and their possessions). Instead of attempting to think that we know better than God and not following him, we should accept that it is God, and not us, that knows everything and, in this knowledge, is establishing rules for us to keep us from going down the path to spiritual death. Not following the commandments of God can lead to spiritual death or, in the case of Achan, a premature physical death.

[bibleblock]Colossians 3:5-16[/bibleblock]

In short, Paul is directing us to not act like the world. We are to act like Jesus instead through the guidance of the wisdom of His word. This specific passage removed from its context seems to direct the believer to completely remove himself from worldly culture and interaction with non-believers. In addition to the specific moral exhortations (i.e. do not lie), there is the direction to come together as one body of believers separate from the world.

It is important to understand, however, that this comes after verse two where Paul directs the reader to “set your mind on things above, not on the things that are on earth” (NASB).

[bibleblock]Colossians 3:2[/bibleblock]

The following passages also deal with where the mind of the Christian is to be, not where his body shall be. While his body can be out in the culture amongst sinners (just as Jesus’ body was during his earthly ministry), the mind of the believer is focused on heavenly things and the salvation of the sinner (just as Jesus’ mind was during His earthly ministry). This passage must be taken in this context and not be used to support monastic separation. In a fallen world, we can never be separate from the things that are fallen. Everything around us is not what it was meant to be. Complete separation is impossible. It is our responsibility, then, to be in the world (“put [it] aside”) without being like the world (“put on the new self who is being renewed”).

I personally attempt to accomplish this by trying to emulate Jesus in all that I do. I am not successful all of the time and sometimes it is very difficult to not be like the world, but it is my hope that I do a better job in each situation that I am in so that next time I am just a little bit better. I know that I can never be perfect like Christ and even if I get twice as good each time I’ll never reach the goal until final perfection comes. This can even be mathematically expressed: suppose you got rid of half your sin each day and your original sin level was 100. The next day it would be 50, the next 25, etc. If this number is divided in half forever it will never reach zero.