I want to start out this article by stating I am well aware of the fact that defending the Bible as a full authority is an unpopular position. However, the fact that it is so unpopular brings me to remember something that Jesus Himself said about the way which leads to life: He said that it is a narrow way, and that their are few who find it (See Matthew 7:13-14 and Luke 13:23-24). Since Matthew 7:13 also says that the broad way leads to destruction, and there are many who go in by it, I think this is a pretty good indication that the popular position of rejecting biblical inerrancy is overrated. Just because the majority believes a lie does not make it true, but it just confirms the Bible's claim that mankind has a deceitful heart (See Jeremiah 17:9-10). And I think it is safe to say that the majority believes that the Bible is not infallible. With all of this being the case, it is no wonder that the Bible warned us twice that "there is a way that seems right to a man, but its end is the way of death" (Proverbs 14:12 and Proverbs 16:25).

Among the popular position which denies the Bible's inerrancy, one view of some who hold that position is that the Bible merely contains God's word, but is not entirely His word. For someone to hold that position after reading through the Bible, they would have to reject the Bible's claim to be fully inspired by God in the following passage....

"All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, thoroughly equipped for every good work" (2 Timothy 3:16-17).

I have decided to write this article mainly to explain why rejecting the above passage is a very serious error which often leads to even more error. First of all, since we do have a deceitful nature (as I noted earlier in this article), it is not up to us to decide what is inspired by God and what is not. One person that I debated this with said "God doesn't need a book to guide us", but I never once said that He does. This person was simply missing the point. What I am saying here is not about what God needs, but about what He wants. I believe that God could speak to us with an audible voice whenever He wanted to (would we really believe that it is Him though?), but He has made it clear through the above passage that He has chosen to communicate to us through written words. It is rather significant that He chooses words to bring us to faith in Him, as the following passage indicates: "faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God" (Romans 10:17). One reason it is so important to understand that is because we are "born again...through the word of God" (1 Peter 1:23). We are not born again by emotional experiences, or by what seems right to man, but by the word of God.

Many people today mistake what seems right to them as "hearing from God", but He has made it clear through the above passages that He brings us to faith in Him through words. Just like with any person, you can not know God without knowing the words that have come directly from His mind. To suggest otherwise only makes things more complicated than they need to be, and it may only leave some people embracing the post-modrenism that is found in the Emerging Church, because of the uncertainty of whether or not they are truly hearing from God regarding certain issues. However, once someone believes that 2 Timothy 3:16-17 is true, there is no longer a basis for them to believe in post-modrenism, because it removes any uncertainty of whether or not certain passages are inspired by God. In that case, the view that passages are inspired by God is no longer based on human opinion or speculation. For God to leave us with a book that claims to be fully inspired by Him, but is only partially inspired by Him....that would just leave us with too much confusion and uncertainty. Can you think of any logical reason that He would do that since he is "not the author of confusion" (1 Corinthians 14:33)? I certainly can't. But I find it very telling that those who deny the Bible's full authority often embrace many other false teachings as well. The Emerging Church movement is just one example of that. Another example of that is the Seventh Day Adventists.

A friend that I had who broke contact with me this year has recently started to deny the Bible's full authority. Around the same time, she also started to believe the doctrine of Annihilationism, and both of those views happen to be held by Seventh Day Adventists (although I am not sure how much of their views she has bought into). While apparently believing herself to be more spiritual than she was before embracing these views, I only started to see a pride in her words that I had never seen before. It seemed like she no longer cared about what I had to say at that point, because she was not listening like she did back when we first met (in 2006), and I just started to see a cult mentality in her that she did not have before embracing these views. I wanted to end a discussion that we were having about the new views she embraced after it became clear that she was not listening, so I tried to make it clear that I was concerned about a prolonged discussion of the subject driving a wedge between me and her. But she just got defensive, missed the point of why I wanted to end the discussion, and broke contact with me. Her final response was not exactly nasty, but the defensiveness of it just made me feel like she only cared about getting the last word at that point, even though I was no longer trying to argue with her. She seemed to think I was, but that only made it obvious that she was still not listening at that point.

I am sharing this experience because it was a reminder to me of how deceitful our hearts can be when we turn from fully relying on the light of God's word to expose what is really in them. That is something that I continually need myself. I am certain of that since I was very deceived until God's word revealed what was truly in my heart (See My Testimony). Since then, His word has continually revealed hidden selfish motives in my heart that I did not know were there, and they are motives that I am sure I never would have discovered without His word speaking to me. I would have gone on remaining prideful without even realizing that pride is my true motive. So please understand that I am not sharing any of this to exalt myself, but to point people to the true power of God's word, and it's distinction from what seems right to us.

Proverbs 3:5-6 says "trust in the Lord with all your heart, and lean not on your own understanding; In all your ways acknowledge Him, And He shall direct your paths". There is a huge difference between trusting in the Lord, and trusting in a feeling that certain teachings are from Him. This is why the next verse says "do not be wise in your own eyes" (Proverbs 3:7). For those who believe that the Bible merely contains God's word, they are left to their own understanding to figure out which passages are inspired by God and which ones are not, and I believe that is one example of being wise in your own eyes. Whether or not people realize it, the popular view which implies that it is up to us to figure out what is inspired by God and what is not is exactly what the above Proverbs warned against.

I have given some examples of how rejection of biblical inerrancy leads to more heresy (such as the Emerging Church Movement and the SDA teachings), and I hope it is now clear why it leads to more heresy. It is because it leaves us leaning on our own understanding. When we are leaning on our own understanding, it is very likely that heresy and erroneous judgement will be the result, and that is why this rejection of biblical inerrancy is not something to be taken lightly. I have seen over and over how rejection of the Bible's full authority is embraced by those who embrace many other heresies, seemingly as the result of rejecting the Bible's full authority.

When 2 Timothy 3:16-17 claimed that all Scripture was given by inspiration of God, it also stated "that the man of God may be complete, thoroughly equipped for every good work". So this is not an issue that I am raising for my own person gain, but for the gain of others. The fact of the matter is that people will not be "complete" and "thoroughly equipped for every good work" if they reject any part of what God has given them for that purpose. If someone thinks that there are certain passages of the Bible that are contrary to God's nature, then it simply means that it is their understanding of those passages that is contrary to His nature. It means that they need to trust God to reveal what it is saying rather than leaning on their own understanding (Proverbs 3:5-7).