Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!uwm.edu!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!brutus.cs.uiuc.edu!psuvax1!rutgers!aramis.rutgers.edu!athos.rutgers.edu!christian From: gilham@neon.stanford.edu (Fred Gilham) Newsgroups: soc.religion.christian Subject: Re: Attempting Inerrancy's Salvation Message-ID: Date: 12 Feb 90 09:37:50 GMT Sender: hedrick@athos.rutgers.edu Organization: Computer Science Department, Stanford University Lines: 36 Approved: christian@aramis.rutgers.edu "The Bible is the inerrant Word of God" -- Is this true? I like to think that Jesus is the Word of God (the bible tells me this!). There's a formula I like in dealing with the authority of the bible. I feel it avoids circularity and finesses most of the questions of inerrancy well: The bible is the witness to and derives its authority from Jesus Christ, who is its source. It seems to me that it's pretty silly to tell someone to believe in Jesus because the bible says he is the truth. Rather, the witness of the bible leads us to know about Jesus, and to come to know him. On this basis, the bible becomes authoritative AFTER Jesus himself starts to make headway with us. It seems to me that questions about inerrancy and such come up because people are trying to fit the bible into worldly categories of truth. It's the same sort of thing, in my mind, as scientific creationism. We try to accept canons of validity based on Positivistic presuppositions. These presuppositions are simply not compatible with Christianity, nor are they compatible with things like personality, moral responsibility, or meaning. However, just because they are fashionable these days doesn't mean they are right, nor even that they will continue in fashion forever. It makes a lot more sense to me to say that I believe in this guy, Jesus, and as a result, I believe in this book which has a lot of stuff in it that he said. This does not, of course, minimize the importance of establishing the things he did say (that is, the issues of canon formation and textual criticism). I just think we have to fight the right battles. Jesus is what's important. Everything else is important only in relation to him. -Fred Gilham gilham@csl.sri.com [So how do you deal with the OT? --clh]