Here's Part Three of my paper on inerrancy. Part One and Part Two discussed the definition.

A Defense of the Bible’s Claim to Inerrancy

           With an appropriate definition of inerrancy in hand, the next step is to assess whether or not the Bible claims inerrancy for itself, and if it does, to what degree it does so. Philosopher Stephen T. Davis said no. “The Bible does not teach inerrancy, nor does inerrancy seem to be presupposed or implied by what it does teach.”[1] He was correct in that the Bible does not explicitly teach inerrancy. As with many church doctrines, such as the trinity, the term inerrancy is not in the text. New terms are usually introduced to help distinguish between differing views about a subject, even if the views are not new. Thus, inerrantists believe that though the term inerrancy is not in the Bible, the concept is implicitly taught therein.

            The first passage most people turn to when discussing the integrity of the Bible is 2 Timothy 3:16-17. “All scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be competent, equipped for every good work.”(ESV[2]) The claim for divine authorship of scripture is of primary importance. The Bible is not simply inspired as a poet might be inspired by a beautiful sunset. Scripture was “breathed out” by God, meaning its origin and authorship comes from Him. “All” likely refers to the Old Testament, so this claims that every bit of the Old Testament is the Word of God. The word for “scripture” indicates that the subject is the written record of the Old Testament rather than the simply the concepts or intentions of the record[3]. So, this passage claims divine authorship for every writing contained in the Old Testament.

            Several other passages attribute Old Testament writings to God, such as Hebrews 1:1, John 10:34-35, and 2 Peter 1:19-21. Clearly, the Bible regards Old Testament scripture as the very words of God, but what of the New Testament? The most comprehensive statement is found in 2 Peter 3:16, where the author equates Paul’s writings with “the other Scriptures,” the Old Testament. Paul also made several claims throughout his letters that he was speaking for God[4]. Since Paul’s writings account for a large portion of the New Testament, this covers a lot of ground.

One of John’s letters is broader but less clear: “We are from God. Whoever knows God listens to us; whoever is not from God does not listen to us. By this we know the Spirit of truth from the spirit of error.” (1 John 4:6, ESV) “We” likely refers to the apostles, the witnesses of Christ discipled to teach His words. The claim to have God’s authority assumes some sort of inspiration (See also 1:5). The point is strengthened when coupled with Jesus’ promise in John 14:26 that the Holy Spirit “will bring to rememberance all that I have said to you” (ESV). It is believed by many that all the books of the New Testament were written by the apostles, either directly or indirectly. If this is the case, then this point strongly suggests that all of the accepted New Testament is to be regarded as the words of God[5].