Innerentzee uv Skrypshur

John 6:19
"When they had rowed three or three and a half miles, they saw Jesus approaching the boat, walking on the water; and they were terrified."

The discussion of the inerrancy of Scripture versus the inspiration of Scripture is a fairly important topic. Is God's Word 100% true down to every last jot and tittle? Did each one of these stories actually happen? Or are they simply divinely inspired teachings, some true, some symbolic, to bring us into an understanding of Him?

I'll state right out front that I believe in the inerrancy and infallibility of Scripture. But the funny thing is, it's not the 'weird' stories such as Jonah, Balaam, Samson, etc that made me question it at first, it was verses like John 6:19. I mean, look at it above. If the Holy Spirit is truly writing this passage, wouldn't He know if it was 3 or 3 1/2 miles? Why the hestitation? Also, referring to the title of this blog, what about spelling and grammar? If God's writing it, I'm going to assume that these are perfect as well! Where does each man who actually penned the words get in the way with his intellect or personality? These are interesting questions to ponder, but I believe that they can get us off task very easily as we debate jots and tittles.

Sometimes I think we look at things from the wrong side. Salvation for example: Why only one way? That's the argument of man that I hear all the time. But that's looking at it backwards. We're in terrible sin and God tells us that there is A WAY OUT! Through Christ and Christ alone. Man tend to look at things from his own perspective, not God's, so he doesn't look at the solution, he wonders why it IS the solution. THINK: God's on the outside saying you can get out of the crumbling house through THE DOOR and we're wondering why we can't use the window!! Can't there by another way, we yell as we die in the house?

I see the same thing with the 'incredible stories' of the OT. A seven day creation? A talking donkey? A fish and a man? A blind man sees? From my perspective, this is impossible to believe!!!!

Paul runs into this in Acts, when confronting the Jews about Jesus rising from the dead. In Acts 26:8 he says, "Why should any of you consider it incredible that God raises the dead?" I mean, He is God after all. If He couldn't do that, then what's the point of putting any hope in Him, is what Paul is in effect saying.

Replace that question with "Why should any of you consider it incredible that God __________________" - had a donkey talk? - kept a man alive in a fish? - walked on water? - raises the dead? - healed a sinful man to the core of his being 2000 years later? As Paul said, if He can't do these things, then what's the point? I'm not interested in a good teacher - I need salvation. When Christ looked upon the paralytic in Luke 5, He healed the man to prove that He could forgive sins, because forgiveness is infinitely more important. But if you read the story you see that He did the miraculous to show he had the authority to forgive. An incredibly true miracle happened so that God would show me a more important truth. But the miracle couldn't just be a story - it had to have actually occurred for this truth to have any real meaning. If it was just an inspired story to paint a picture - then where's the authority? Where's the power? WHERE IS MY SALVATION?

All I'm saying is that we shouldn't let the incredible stories throw us off and use them as a proof-text that the Bible is not inerrant. That's looking at things from man's point-of-view, an always dangerous proposition. I've been in education for over 20 years and I know firsthand how often man's thoughts on things change. They're always shifting. So to put any argument against inerrancy on this shifting ground is a little dangerous.