BIBLICAL INERRANCY AND RIGHT DIVISION :
A MISSING FOUNDATION FOR GROWTH
“…when ye received the word of God which ye heard of us, ye received it not as the word of men, but as it is in truth, the word of God, which effectually worketh also in you that believe.”
1. What is Inerrancy
– 1 Thessalonians 2:13
a. The belief that the Bible is always true, accurate, and without error. (Bible belief)
b. Where it comes from:
i. God inspired the Bible: Mat 4:4, 2 Pet 1:21, 2 Tim 3:16
ii. God is true, accurate, and without error: His words must be too.
iii. We need God’s words today in order to function as the church
c. Your position on the Bible’s inerrancy is where you begin to grow or decline
d. Either, God is right and you’re not (Rom 3:4); or you have a different authority.
2. Why It Matters
a. The subject matter makes it important: God, life, death, salvation, right division
b. Doctrines depend on details: single words, verb tense, single/plural
i. Behold a virgin shall be with child – Mat 1:23
ii. I say unto thee, ye must be born again – John 3:7
iii. The seed doctrine – Gal 3:16 – plural or singular
c. Dispensational right division is undermined: Paul’s authority is questioned.
d. If the Bible has mistakes / errors / inaccuracies then all of it can be questioned.
e. God’s instructions are undermined: We need the words Rom 10:17; 2 Tim 2:15
f. God’s authority is undermined: the authority that corrects God is a greater one
3. Where People Place Their Trust
a. Original manuscripts – compromised Chicago statement of inerrancy, new norm
i. No one ever had all the originals; none of them exist today.
ii. We cannot use what we cannot possess.
b. Original languages – the scholar’s choice
i. This excludes early translations, requires tongue talking, texts differ
c. Minds of scholars, theologians, pastors
i. Maybe biased upon a man’s preference, interpretation, school of thought
d. Themselves – “We can’t find God’s inerrant perfect inspired words today”
i. Agnostic, subjective, experiential, forced to recreate it from books
e. Believe the Bible (the book) as inerrant / perfect / and your final authority
i. Tyndale’s idea -> to get God’s words into the hands of every man.
4. The Threat to Right Division
a. Pauline right division builds upon fundamental doctrines
b. It discourages word for word Bible study if it is not inerrant – 2 Tim 2:15
c. It discourages Pauline Bible study since his writings are more didactic
Outlines and sermons similar to this can be found at Graceambassadors.com