Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!mailrus!iuvax!rutgers!aramis.rutgers.edu!athos.rutgers.edu!christian From: bgsuvax!kutz@cis.ohio-state.edu (Kenneth J. Kutz) Newsgroups: soc.religion.christian Subject: Re: Attempting Inerrancy's Salvation Message-ID: Date: 16 Jan 90 00:53:19 GMT Sender: hedrick@athos.rutgers.edu Organization: Bowling Green State University B.G., Oh. Lines: 57 Approved: christian@aramis.rutgers.edu In article , paulj@b8.ingr.com (Joey Paul x4129 ) writes: The text: "All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, [17] so that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work." (II Tim 3:16-17 NIV) Our moderator writes: > II Tim 3:16-17 implies inerrancy only when combined with the assumption > that "useful" means inerrant. The belief in inerrancy, I believe, does not hinge on the word 'useful' but rather the fact that Paul here describes all Scripture as 'God-breathed'. The question then to be examined is what does the text mean when it says 'God-breathed'. The second text most often used as a defense for inerrancy is 2 Peter 1:20-21. "Above all, you must understand that no prophecy of Scripture came about by the prophet's own interpretation. [21] For prophecy never had its origin in the will of man, but men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit." Often pointed out is that 'prophecy' and 'prophet' are not restricted to mean simply 'predictions about the future' but any 'speaking forth' from God. Similar to this passage we find in Hebrews 1:1: "In the past God spoke to our forefathers through the prophets at many times and in various ways, [2] but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son" Paul speaks of the 'word of the prophets' as something the believers posessed in 2 Peter 1:19 and then heads into the 1:20-21 text cited above. Therefore, I believe when Paul states that all Scripture is 'God-breathed', he is stating the God actually 'spoke through' the human authors as they penned Scripture. This does not mean God 'dictated' Scripture in such a way that the human author's writing style was muffled; but rather that the original texts themselves take on the same characteristics as the source. I just finished a book by the founder of the largest inter-denominational Bible Study in the world (Bible Study Fellowship, A Wetherel Johnson). She mentioned in this book that there was a conference earlier in the 1980s called 'The Conference on Biblical Inerrancy' (or similar) in which she was invited to sit on the board of this conference for Bible scholars. Does anyone have a copy of the paper which was produced as a result of this conference? If not, I'll see if I can come up with a copy. -- Kenneth J. Kutz Internet kutz@andy.bgsu.edu Systems Programmer BITNET KUTZ@BGSUOPIE University Computer Services UUCP ...!osu-cis!bgsuvax!kutz Bowling Green State Univ. US Mail 238 Math Science, BG OH 43403