Nepaug Bible Church - http://www.nepaugchurch.org - Pastor's Evening Sermon Notes - http://www.nepaugchurch.org/ev/ev20040912.htm

APPLYING OUR CHURCH'S STATEMENT OF BIBLICAL FAITH
Article III, Part I Of The Nepaug Bible Church Bylaws: The Word Of God
B. Applying The Truth That The Whole Bible Is God's Infallible, Inerrant, Authoritative Word
(2 Timothy 3:16-4:2; 2 Peter 1:21; Matthew 5:18)
  1. Introduction
    1. Some claim that parts or all of the Bible are in error either intentionally (that the Bible is not infallible, a charge by Liberal Theologians) or unintentionally (that the Bible is not inerrant, a charge by "moderate" Evangelicals), or that the various writing styles and vocabulary selection of the Bible's authors show it lacks God's inspiration and authority and is thus to be treated as any other book (Liberal Theologians).
    2. Contrary to these views, our Nepaug Bible Church's Statement of Faith reads: "We believe that the Bible in its entirety . . . was produced by men of God who used their distinct personalities and literary abilities under the Holy Spirit's superintendence as He protected their writings from error, so that the autograph writings reveal precisely that which the Triune God wanted to reveal, even to the very selection of the letters. The Bible is thus both infallible and inerrant." We give the reasons for this statement as follows:
  2. Applying The Truth That The Whole Bible Is God's Infallible, Inerrant, Authoritative Word.
    1. 2 Timothy 3:16a claims all (plenary) Scripture is given by God's inspiration and bears His full authority:
      1. Where the KJV reads "All scripture is given by inspiration of God," the words, "given by inspiration of God" comes from a single Greek word, theopneustos, cf. U. B. S. Grk. N.T., 1966 ed., p. 736.
      2. Since this word ends in -tos, it here carries the "meaning of a perfect passive participle" in which the entity, "scripture" is permanently acted upon by the subject, cf. Bruce M. Metzger, Lexical Aids For Students Of N. T. Greek, 1970 ed., p. 44; J. Gresham Machan, N. T. Greek For Beginners, p. 188.
      3. Now, that subject is found by breaking down the word, theopneustos, an "objective compound" into its two parts where "the first part is related to the other as a kind of grammatical object," Ibid., Metzger, p. 47-48; thus, we are to read it as theo-pneustos, meaning "inspired by God", Ibid.
      4. Thus, Paul claims that ALL Scripture is once-for-all the passive recipient of God's authoritative inspiration; as such, all Scripture bears the authority of God's upholding all its words all the time!
    2. Matthew 5:18 reveals that Scripture in its entirety (plenary) is verbally infallible (without intentional errors) and inerrant (without unintentional errors) as follows:
      1. Jesus claimed not one "jot or tittle" would pass from the "Law" until all was fulfilled, Mtt. 5:18, and by "law," Jesus meant the O. T., Mtt. 5:17; Ibid., U. B. S. Grk. N.T., p. 13; Ibid., Arndt & Ging., p. 545.
      2. As the "jot" is the tiny Hebrew letter yodh "like an apostrophe (')" and a tittle is a "small extension or protrusion on several Hebrew letters which distinguish these letters from similar ones . . . every letter of every word of the O. T. is vital and will be fulfilled," Ryr. St. Bib., KJV, 1978 ed., ftn. to Matt. 5:18.
      3. Jesus Christ, Who is God Incarnate, thus taught that the Bible as penned by its human authors in its author's autograph manuscripts, is verbally infallible and inerrant in its entirety.
    3. 2 Peter 1:21 reveals the Spirit of God so superintended the ministry of the human Bible authors that, without inhibiting their personal writing styles or vocabulary selection, what they wrote was His Word:
      1. The word "moved" KJV here is pheromenoi, meaning "borne along" is used of "a sailing vessel carried along by the wind" so that where the wind takes the ship, it ends up, Bible Know. Com., N. T., p. 869.
      2. Well, a sailor can chose to go where he wants to go while he is on his ship only to end up where the wind takes his ship; the sailor's liberty is there, but his destiny is fixed by the power of the sea's wind!
      3. Thus, God so superintended the authorship of the autograph manuscripts that were penned by the Bible's human authors that, without His inhibiting their personal writing styles or vocabulary, they wrote to the letter precisely the truth that God wanted them to write.
Lesson: The Bible was written by holy men of God who were so borne along by God's Holy Spirit that, without God's overriding their personal writing styles or vocabulary selection, they penned exactly what God wanted them to pen in Scripture's entirety (plenary) so that the Bible is verbally without ANY INTENTIONAL (infallible) or UNINTENTIONAL (inerrant) errors, and so bears God's full authority.

Application: May we rely on ALL of the Bible as the perfectly true, divinely authoritative Word of God.