I Cannot Use the Word Inerrancy . . .
A Story of Personal Reflections Regarding Biblical Inspiration and Interpretation
I Cannot Use the Word Inerrancy . . .
“. . . and have the appreciation and respect I hold so profoundly for the Bible.”
This is what I told the president of a North American missions agency in a private conversation in 1989.
Because of a common ministry context experience I shared with this president, I believed he understood.
I left this missions agency four years before to lead the missions work for the regional Southern Baptists denominational organization in South Carolina.
Now I was asked to lead church planting efforts for all of North America. I felt drawn to it. My entire life from birth forward involved church planting.
Philadelphia
The missions agency president and I had a common heritage in the Philadelphia metropolitan area. In 1965 my family moved there for my father to oversee the planting of new Southern Baptist churches.
The next year this missions leader came as pastor of an SBC church in New Jersey near metropolitan Philadelphia. I preached for him at his church a few times.
Churches affiliated with the American Baptist Churches dominated the metropolitan area. The Philadelphia Baptist association organized in 1707. They had a rich heritage in the area.
Without the presence of Southern Baptists, when the desire arose to have churches more conservative in doctrine and evangelical in approach, Southern Baptists were not an alternative.
Therefore, other groups grew. Independent Baptists. General Associational of Regular Baptists. Independent Bible churches. Other evangelical groups.
Inspiration of Scripture Issues
Southern Baptist’s doctrinal statement included the concept the Bible is truth without any mixture of error.
As interpreted to me growing up, this meant—in concert with the priesthood of the believer—I sought a sense of spiritual assurance about the Bible as God’s written story of redemption. I continually desired prayerful guidance from God’s Holy Spirit in arriving at the meaning of scripture for my life and ministry.
The message of the Bible was and is our reliable faith story. I held to the significance of scripture and applied its principles faithfully. I urged churches to lead people to respond to the message of the Living Word, Jesus the Christ, and to continually mature as disciples.
While in Philadelphia I discovered the concept of inerrancy in practice outside of Southern Baptist churches.
Through my family heritage, I learned an open-hand approach to scripture that sought to hear the voice of the Holy Spirit speaking through God’s written word. The phrase truth without any mixture of error was commonplace in my disciple journey.
Among the various conservative Christian groups in Philadelphia, I encountered a closed-hand approach. Seek the one right interpretation of every verse. Inerrancy is the only true way to understand the Bible.
So rigid were the adherents to inerrancy that the word “inerrancy” took on a pejorative tone—judgmental, harsh, and scornful.
Inerrancy did not provide me with the appreciation and respect I held so profoundly for the Bible.
Back in the South Again
As an adult ministering in the South, I went through the years of denominational controversy within Southern Baptists. The word inerrancy became the key word when speaking about biblical inspiration and interpretation.
Every time I heard the word, I had a fingernails-on-a-chalkboard type of experience.
As I approached the possible presentation of my candidacy to the national missions agency board, I knew I must tell the president how I felt. I hoped he felt the same way.
“George, I know exactly what you are talking about,” was his response.
He went on to say I would not need to tell the board what I believed about the Bible. He would tell them for me and testify to my orthodoxy on the doctrine of the Bible.
What a relief!
But it never happened. A bizarre set of circumstance intervened. Something took place at the missions agency. My candidacy was delayed four months. When they came back to me, God’s Holy Spirit gave me a clear sign I should remain in South Carolina. I did.
Later that year Hurricane Hugo stormed through South Carolina. The response to it called for all the leadership I could provide as my area of work included disaster response. I am glad I was there to help lead the effort when the low country area of the state and many churches was so greatly impacted.
Your Reactions:
How have you handled the issue of biblical inspiration and interpretation throughout your life and ministry?
How has encountering people with different approaches within the Christian family helped you to move deeper in your faith?
How do you distinguish the written word of God from the Living Word of God, and simultaneously hold a high and profound respect for both perspectives?
Comment from a Ministry Colleague Received by Email: "During his tenure (GWB: of the missions agency president referred to in this post) he constantly reached across the lines that existed during that season in the SBC to befriend and show care for all the political parties. He spoke at our meetings and banquets for new work. He encouraged the language missions. You could tell he had lived it and been in the trenches. He came many times to be with our pastors (a wide variety) and gave support to our New Work and Church Planting in meaningful ways. He was a great encourager to me. "
Comment from a Ministry Colleague Received by Email: "Good morning. I just read your comments on biblical inerrancy and write to thank you profoundly for your broaching the subject and for the way you did it. I believe/hope that your openness in essay can have impact on some folks who are caught up in that hermeneutic. Your statement about the idea of one inerrant interpretation of every text is exactly to the point. I think the whole inerrancy movement in the SBC is evidence that the doctrine requires the idea of inerrant interpreters, and that we are observing where that approach has taken and is taking the SBC. Again, thank you for your statement of concern, and for the way you articulated it."