How factually accurate do
you believe the Bible is? How much does factual accuracy matter to you? Are
there any parts that, if they weren't factually accurate, would be debilitating
for your faith? Is it possible to be a Christian without believing in the
inerrancy of the Bible? What about just the inerrancy of the gospels? What
about just the inerrancy of the crucifixion/resurrection? How much can be
subtracted while still remaining a Christian in your estimation of what that
means?
Confusing truth and fact is a
common misconception of some who hold the Bible in high regard. Subjecting
mystery to rationalism has led to a bizarre understanding of the gospel not
unlike that of the Queen in Wonderland who at times could believe as many as
six impossible things before breakfast. The scripture inerrancy yardstick for faith
has been one of the most divisive concepts of the past decades. In fact, when
the word “inerrancy” pops up in discussion, it generally means that an “us” or
“them” designation is on its way.
So, to begin by addressing the
last question first, we might ask… Subtracted from what? There are different
Christian Bibles for Protestant, Catholic, Orthodox, Ethiopic, Syriac, and Samaritan Churches St. Issac the
Syrian wrote,
“Just because the terms wrath, anger, hatred and the rest are used of
the Creator in the Bible, we should not imagine that He actually does anything
in anger, hatred, or zeal. Many figurative terms are used of God in the
Scriptures, terms which are far removed from His true nature.”
Some stories just can’t be told
with facts. As Will Bloom describes his father in Big Fish, “In
telling the story of my father's life, it's impossible to separate fact from
fiction, the man from the myth. The best I can do is to tell it the way he told
me. It doesn't always make sense and most of it never happened... but that's
what kind of story this is.”
I believe that there is a
spiritual reality that supercedes the reality that we know. Just like Einstein’s physical theory includes
and adds to Newton ’s,
there is spiritual truth that includes and expands upon what we can see and
know. Unfortunately, we generally only think
in the context of what we can see and know. But by his very nature, God is
He-who-can’t-be-known and so the Bible is an attempt to express the
Inexpressible. For the sake of argument,
say God did take the initiative to reveal himself to us. What if we experienced
the impossible? How could that be communicated? Could we write it down in a
book or a poem or sing it or tell it through a symphony or a painting? If not,
why have people been trying to do
that for as long as we have records of people trying to do anything? I believe that God reveals spiritual truth to
us --- sometimes when we’re seeking it and sometimes when we least expect it
--- and it’s not necessarily a simple matter of relaying the information.
The New Testament accounts of the
Resurrection seem to indicate an event, not a parable, but the details are far
from consistent. Jesus is alive and Rome ’s
military representatives are “like dead men.” There were anomalies in the
natural world --- darkness from noon to 3 pm and earthquakes. Graves
opened up and dead people walked out and visited people in town. The temple
curtain ripped itself in two. From Roman
soldiers to some peasant who got to talk to a dead relative, there was a new,
updated version of reality. God revealed
himself to people in a way that they could understand but had trouble
explaining. Matthew 28:17 says of the 11 remaining disciples, “When they saw
him, they worshipped him, but some doubted.” Doubted? Even as they were looking
at him? The Biblical record of God’s earthly
interventions culminates in the Resurrection, and in my opinion, there is no
version of Christianity that makes sense without it. I think the gospels also
clearly indicate that it wasn’t just the people who had believed all the
correct facts who were impacted by an encounter with God. Indeed, there appears
to have been no effort at all put into making the facts line up.
The Orthodox Church perspective
is that the spiritual truth of the Bible is to be found in its non-literal
meaning. The crucifixion and resurrection are central to the church with 7
weeks of Lent and 40 days of Pascha (Easter), but I’ve never heard the
question, “How much of this literally happened in a way that can fit into human
reason?” But that’s not to say that they
don’t have a lot to say about the resurrection. There are comparisons with
Genesis (tree of life/cross with paradise lost/gained, the garden setting, rib/pierced side, etc.) and
other Old Testament passages to explain redemption and a multitude of other
observances surrounding the gospel accounts, but setting down a literal
timeline or fact list is not emphasized.
The same reasoning applies to exactly how Christ’s death saved us.
“The question isn’t whether Christ’s death was a ransom to the devil or
a sacrifice to the Father. Christ did not die on the Cross to “pay off” the
evil one, or to quiet the Father’s rage. The sacrifice was for our sake and as
an offering for our sins. We must not go any further than this. We cannot know
how Christ’s death grants us communion with God. We do not need to know. But
one thing is certain. God’s love, not legal negotiations, has saved us.” (Anthony
Coniaris)
The words we read in the Bible
are not lifeless rules and interesting stories, but insights into a world
beyond expression. We are to value both the divine aspect and the human
element in Scripture. So, in response to the original questions, inerrancy or
factual accuracy matters little to me if “factual” is defined as being
verifiable by human reasoning. In a larger sense, inerrancy defined this way
would represent not a condition for, but a detriment to spiritual truth. There is no fact that we have to believe to be a Christian, and there is unlimited truth
that we can receive through God’s grace.
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