By Ken R. Speakman
Member, Tulip Grove Baptist Church, Old Hickory
When invited to join the staff of The Gideons International in 1968, I had been a member of the Gideons for only one year. I had been very successful in my business career and leaving my business to take a job with the Gideons was a major step for me and my young family. I would be taking a considerable cut in income.
Before I could accept the call to leave my position and join the staff of the Gideons, I had to be sure I believed the Bible to be the inspired, inerrant, infallible Word of God. This would be a life-call on my life, not just a job change. I had to determine in my own mind and heart that the Bible was in fact the Word of God and that it was worth investing my life in and giving up a promising career. I settled in my heart and mind that the Bible is in fact God’s inspired Word to man and I can trust the Bible to be true and God to look after my needs. With that settled, I accepted the offer.
II Timothy 3:16 states, “All Scripture is given by inspiration of God … .” A century ago, virtually all who had a personal testimony for Christ had no trouble believing, without reservation, that the Bible was written by “holy men of God” who truly were moved and inspired by the Holy Spirit so that their writings were (are), in fact the Word of God, and not the word of men as clearly indicated in II Peter 1:20-21.
During the past 50 years, beliefs regarding the Bible have changed. For the first time in the history of the church, there are those within the church today who believe that the Bible can be from God, but can contain errors. Previously, people either believed the Bible was not the Word of God and therefore, contained errors, or that it was the Word of God and therefore, without error, or inerrant. The liberals flatly deny that the Bible is inerrant; the conservatives accept it as inerrant. Such differences of opinion are largely confined to the church, or various theologians. People outside the church are not arguing about it. It is always inside the church. Our own beloved denomination has not escaped this issue.
For a person to believe that the Bible is inspired by God and also contains error is a futile attempt to harmoniously join two irreconcilable concepts. If the Bible, in its original writings, or autographs, contains error and is fallible, one must then believe that the Holy Spirit inspired error. Pontius Pilate asked the Lord Jesus, “What is truth?” In His high priestly prayer in John 17, the Lord Jesus Christ gave a clear answer: “Thy word is truth” (John 17:17). Thus, if the Bible contains error, it cannot be fully truth. If it contains error, then the Lord Jesus Christ Himself was either in error or a liar. God forbid!
In Titus 1:9, Paul instructs the elders to “hold fast the faithful word … .” Faithful means authentic, dependable. Since the Bible is the only completely trustworthy basis for the Christian faith, if it contains error, then we have no “faithful word.” Rather, our faith is based on sinking sand. Thus, it is essential today, in this age in which we live, that true Christians hold firm to the Bible as the Word of God for “instructions in righteous” (II Timothy 3:16).