What is inerrancy?

The​ doctrine of Inerrancy is the doctrine that Scripture, in its purest form, contains no errors. Properly understood, this does not mean there is a perfect translation, or that there are no textual variants, or even that there are no technical inaccuracies. There are errors in translations, there are textual variants, and there are inaccuracies, such as the language of appearance, or rounding off of numbers. However, in the message the Bible intends to convey, there are no errors, only truth. If Scripture says something, that thing is true as long as its meaning is correctly understood.

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Of course, there have been attempts to CHARGE Scripture with error. Many of those charges have been answered in the Countering Criticisms section, or elsewhere in the Apologetics section. This particular section seeks to defend Inerrancy, both addressed to pseudo-Christians who claim to be Christian, yet reject Inerrancy, and, to some degree, from a secular perspective as well. Of course, the latter is significantly harder, as it effectively requires going through the entire Bible and showing its lack of errors. To that end, again, most charges of error will be examined elsewhere. In this section, Inerrancy will be defended against secular claims that X counts as an error, when in reality, it is more likely one of the aforementioned technical inaccuracies. The main difference between an inaccuracy and an error is that an error is that which is incorrectly stated as true, whereas an inaccuracy is more of a "sacrifice" of truth for sake of conveying a more important message, usually making language easier. Think "sunrise" and "sunset". These terms are inaccurate, as the sun is not rising or setting, yet it is not errant, it is a tool of language.

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From a pseudo-Christian standpoint, this section will show that Inerrancy is vital to the Christian faith. Aside from Scripture presenting its own Inerrancy, which of course stems from the fact it is the word of the infallible God of truth, it is actually illogical for a Christian to believe the Bible contains errors, simply because if it did, we have no authoritative source of doctrine. The irony is, if Scripture was not Inerrant, we would be in a significantly worse position than the "bronze age goat herders" who saw God face to face. Yet, rejection of Inerrancy stems from the kind of pride that says we are in a BETTER position than them. We, allegedly, have progressed further than our primitive forerunners in the faith, who had no idea what they were doing. So, now, we can afford to ignore their words and substitute our own.

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Obviously, that is rotten, self-serving heresy. When the Bible makes a claim, it is a claim as if directly from the mouth of God. When Christians deny this, they start believing some VERY anti-Christian things, from "small" heresies like Theistic Evolution, all the way down to outright apostasy, such as Universalism. Thus, for those claiming to be Christian, this section will turn on the electricity on that fence they're sitting on, showing that Inerrancy is essential to the Christian faith.