Inerrancy and the Test of Truth
By Dr. Mark Bird
T
HE DOCTRINE OF THE INERRANCY of Scripture
is one of Christianity’s most important doctrines to be
defended, especially as skeptical forces increase their attack
on the truthfulness of the Bible. In this article, I will define
the foundational concept of truth, review the case for the
utter truthfulness (or inerrancy) of Scripture, and then
discuss how the Bible passes the “test of truth” even down to
the details of its claims.
What is Truth?
The concept of inerrancy is based on the correspondence
view of truth and the law of noncontradiction. The corre-
spondence view of truth can be expressed simply as a state-
ment or idea which corresponds to reality. In other words,
a statement is true if and only if it matches the way things
really are. My affirmations should match reality. I can say
that the earth is flat or that the sky is green—but that doesn’t
make it so!
Implied in the correspondence view of truth is the law of
noncontradiction: something cannot both be and not be at
the same time and in the same respect. Truth is coherent.
Anything true will be consistent with itself. If two statements
absolutely contradict one another, they cannot both be true;
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they cannot both match reality. But two statements could
both be false if neither of them corresponds to reality. If I
claim that I only had corn flakes for breakfast this morning
and then claim that I only had cheerios for breakfast this
morning, there is a problem with my claims. These exclusive
claims cannot both be true. In fact, it would turn out that
neither is true if I didn’t actually have breakfast at all.
Throughout all of Scripture, there is an assumption of
truth as correspondence to reality. It matters to the Bible
writers that their truth claims match the way things really
are. For example, the apostles knew their claim that Jesus
rose from the dead had to match reality. If the resurrection
didn’t actually take place, then our faith is in vain, and the
apostles were liars. The apostle Paul put it this way: “[If the
dead rise not], we are found false witnesses of God; because
we have testified of God that he raised up Christ: whom he
raised not up, if so be that the dead rise not” (1 Cor 15:14-
15). Paul confessed that he would be a false witness (a liar)
if his truth claim didn’t match reality. The correspondence
view of truth is assumed here. 1
The biblical conception of truth always entails a corre-
spondence between the intended assertion and reality. This
understanding of truth culminates in the claim of Jesus