Deeper Doctrine

Inspiration, Infallibility, and Inerrancy

By: Colonel Richard Munn

The first doctrine of The Salvation Army specifically references a conviction that the Scriptures are “given by inspiration of God.” The Spirit of God breathes into the original writers, through them, and into us, the readers. It makes the Bible a living word, “God breathed,” inspired.

Interestingly, the individual personalities of the writers, their styles of writing, their cultural background and their literary genres can still be seen in the biblical text. Our Handbook of Doctrine helpfully notes: “Each individual passage must be read and interpreted carefully, in context and with reference to the whole of biblical truth.”

Here we approach some key words, whose definitions and understanding are important to understand:

Inspiration – We can say that scripture demonstrates the writers of the Bible exhibit a unique and divine inspiration, while avoiding the idea they were simply copyists.

Infallibility – We can say that the Bible is infallible in that it will not fail in its intended purposes, while avoiding platitudes.

Inerrancy – We can say that the Bible is without error in all it affirms, while avoiding literalism.

The matter is of utmost consequence regarding how we process ever-evolving cultural and societal matters. Tradition, reason, and experience are vitally important, but scripture always remains paramount. Rather than a smorgasbord of sayings, scripture sets the course for our understanding and “constitute the divine rule of Christian faith and practice.”

Sola Scriptura.