to be the Truth 2 —the disclosure of Ultimate Reality, the
Source of anything else that is real. 3 Christ embodies that
Reality as a Divine Person who reveals the truth to us in
His Word, the Scriptures. 4
The Case for Inerrancy
Now let’s summarize the deductive argument for inerrancy
(the utter truthfulness of the Bible). This doctrine techni-
cally applies to the original text of the 66 books of Scripture.
But to the extent that manuscripts and translations reflect
the original text, it also applies to what we have today. Fortu-
nately, we can have a high degree of certainty regarding the
actual wording of the original text for the vast majority of
passages in both the Old and New Testaments, and many
translations provide a careful representation of the biblical
text. 5 Here’s the argument for inerrancy:
Premise A: Every utterance of God is perfect, and thus
free from error.
Premise B: All the truth claims of the Bible writers are
the utterances of God.
Conclusion: All the truth claims of the Bible writers are
free from error.
Premise A is supported by the teaching that God cannot
lie (Titus 1:2) and that He knows everything (1 Jn 3:2). God
cannot say anything contrary to the way things really are. He
is morally perfect and will not lead anyone astray, especially
since He is omniscient. Bible writers declare that the words
of God are pure (Ps 12:6; Prov 30:5). Paul calls Scripture
the “word of truth” (2 Tim 2:15), and he says that the truth
excludes the possibility of lying (Rom 9:1). There is nothing
spoken by God that is contrary to what is really real.
Premise B is supported by 2 Timothy 3:16, “all Scripture is
God-breathed,” and other scriptures that refer to the words
of Moses and the prophets as actual words of God.
That is the deductive argument for inerrancy. If Premise A
and B are true, then the Conclusion (that all the truth claims
of the Bible writers are free from error) must be true. If the
Conclusion is true, then we must approach Scripture from
the stance of faith, trusting that when properly interpreted
there will be found no error in Scripture, no matter how
small. Nothing will be stated as a fact that does not corre-
spond to the way things really are. 6
If anyone were to suggest that there are assertions
in Scripture that don’t accurately represent reality,
then he would be implying that God is guilty
of knowingly making statements that are
factually untrue. But Titus 1:2 says that
God cannot lie, so we believe the Bible
will always pass the test of truth.
The Test of Truth
The test of truth attempts to see
the relationship between a bibli-
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