Defending Inerrancy: Affirming the Accuracy of Scripture for a New Generation

this is another excellant work from apologist Norman Geisler.

A glossary of terms would be helpful for us lay people, but with the lack of sound teaching in many churches it is a good review or reminder of the continued truth of His word.

The book begins with an official sdescription of Biblical Inerrancy - as defined by the International Council on Biblical Inerrancy (ICBI). The authors do not begin with any arguments on whether or not there is any absolute truth to the notion of Inerrancy - nor whether the articles of inerrancy are even Biblical.

I was fine with it up to that point. But then there were some theology clubs that sprang up using the ICBI statement as a basis for membership. A number of Christian colleges also adopted versions of the statement. Still, fine.

But then, some people moved to eject theologians from those organizations, societies and colleges if they in any way disagree with the statement or (even more shocking to me) what the original framers of the statement MEANT by the articles in the statement. In other words, after the statement was framed, the framers became the sort-of supreme court on how the statement must be interpreted. I suppose that's fine; but some people were actually advocating the ruin of some peoples' careers based upon their disagreement with the theology of some of the framers of the ICBI statement! I got the very strong feeling that the articles of the statement achieved the level of inspired Scripture in the minds of the authors of this book.

As I read through the articles of the ICBI statement, I personally agreed with most of the articles but I didn't fully agree with all of them. I though to myself: It is fine with me if people want to adopt this statement. Some of the articles can be interpreted in a way with which I agree or possibly in ways I disagree.

The very first person the authors ambush is Clark Pinnock. Because Pinnock has a few really out-there positions (I counted one: that some of the accounts in the Bible are actually legends rather than actual chronicles), his whole theological approach to God is held in contempt. Best I can tell, the authors' real problem with Pinnock is that he rejects Calvinism. I also reject Calvinism so I took personally nearly every attack agains Pinnock.

The next victim is Bart Ehrman. He's an athiest (former believer). It made no sense to me that they attacked Ehrman - nor did the attack on Ehrman make any sense.

The bulk of the book went through and criticized various people for their rejection of the ICBI statement.

It's not till around page 300 that the authors actually try to defend inerrancy. Their support for it, in my humble opinion, is very weak. I bought the book hoping they would give strong arguments; but they started with a definition of inerrancy that I cannot fully embrace and then tried to tell me that the statement comes from Scripture. It doesn't.

We Bible students assume a lot - like, somehow, the 66 book cannon is closed. Everything that should be in is in and everything that's out should be out. I hold that view too; but it's an assumption and I know it. I believe the Scriptures are doctrinally inerrant but to think that it is historically inerrant is silly. There are too many cases in which small historical details are out of place in the scriptures.

One example: 2 Samuel 17:25 says Ithra is an Israelite. 1 Chronicles 2:17 says he's an Ishmaelite. One of them (2 Samuel) is incorrect. That does not mean the theology in 2 Samuel is in any way suspect. Doctrinally, it is inerrant.

Inerrancy has become an issue not talked about among Evangelicals. The issues of marriage, sex, the doctrine of the Trinity, and church discipline seem to be the hot buttons today. This was not even discussed during the Elephant Room. Inerrancy has become, as someone said, the monkey in the room. There has not been that many books on the subject as of late.

In Defending Inerrancy, Norman Geisler and William Roach take on the issue of Inerrancy (the belief that the Bible is without error). The book is divided into three parts, the history of inerrancy controversy, recent challenges to inerrancy, and reexamination of inerrancy. When talking about the history of inerrancy, Geisler & Roach discussed the formation of the International Council on Biblical Inerrancy (ICBI), which this book made several references to. The second part, talks about pastors and theologians who have either challenged, denied, or have some weird theories regarding the issue of inerrancy. Some of the men talked about were Bart Ehrman, Kevin Vanhoozer, and Brian McLaren (I was surprised that he was mentioned in this book). The third part of the book looks more in depth into the issue of inerrancy. There are chapters that talk about the nature of God, truth, language, hermeneutics, and the Incarnation in relation to the doctrine of inerrancy. The final chapter takes the major objections dealing with inerrancy and responds to them.

A lot of great information in this book. There is so much that you try to read all at once, your brain will go into information overload (thank you Sportscenter for that phrase). This is good book for all pastors (in fact all lovers of God) to have on their shelf when dealing with inerrancy. It is lengthy but a valuable resource to have.