A common objection to the assertion that God inspired the writings of the Bible is that men wrote it, so it must have mistakes. Sadly, I have often heard this from committed Christians.
The argument usually goes like this:
Premise 1: Men wrote the Bible.
Premise 2: Men make mistakes.
Conclusion: God didn’t write the Bible.
But note that premise 1 is just another way of stating the conclusion. If you are trying to determine who wrote the Bible, your first premise can’t be that men were the sole authors. So this “argument” doesn’t prove that God didn’t write the Bible, it assumes it.
Here is another syllogism you may have heard:
Premise 1: Men wrote the Bible.
Premise 2: Men make mistakes.
Conclusion: The Bible has mistakes.
This one has a major problem as well. It assumes that just because people sometimes make mistakes that they will always make mistakes. But lots of things get done without mistakes – perfect scores on tests, 300 games in bowling, diseases cured, etc. If God was the author then an error-free Bible would be expected.
Of course, this doesn’t prove that God did inspire the Biblical writings, just that these are bad arguments to use against the inspiration of the Bible. We have separate, robust reasoning for why we can trust that it is God’s Word. More on that another day, or just peruse the Apologetics links to the right.
P.S. Keep in mind that claims of inerrancy relate to the original writings, not to copies or translations. If making a copy error invalidated the inerrancy claim, then any atheist could make a deliberate “mistake” and claim that it disproved the Bible.
Hat tip: Stand to Reason
