{"id":2538,"date":"2021-01-08T06:00:41","date_gmt":"2021-01-08T12:00:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/allsetfree\/?p=2538"},"modified":"2021-01-07T17:15:13","modified_gmt":"2021-01-07T23:15:13","slug":"7-reasons-the-bible-is-not-the-inerrant-word-of-god","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/allsetfree\/2021\/01\/7-reasons-the-bible-is-not-the-inerrant-word-of-god\/","title":{"rendered":"7 Reasons the Bible is NOT the Inerrant Word of God"},"content":{"rendered":"<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC \"-\/\/W3C\/\/DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional\/\/EN\" \"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/TR\/REC-html40\/loose.dtd\">\n<html><head><meta http-equiv=\"content-type\" content=\"text\/html; charset=utf-8\"><meta http-equiv=\"content-type\" content=\"text\/html; charset=utf-8\"><\/head><body><p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.allsetfree.com\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-2542\" src=\"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/821\/2021\/01\/cross-2598300_1280.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"768\" height=\"512\"><\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe Bible is the inerrant Word of God,\u201d or so says many Christians.<\/p>\n<p>But it\u2019s not. I\u2019m sorry, but I\u2019m not sorry.<\/p>\n<p>Now, before you gird up your loins and fit yourself ready for battle, here\u2019s 7 reasons why I say such an inflammatory thing.<\/p>\n<h2>I. The Bible Never Claims to Be<\/h2>\n<p>Let\u2019s start with the obvious. The Bible never claims to be the inerrant Word of God. Not in Genesis. Not in Exodus. Not in Deuteronomy. Not in the rest of Torah. Not in the Prophets. Not in Psalms. Not in the Apocrypha. Not in the Gospels. Not in the Epistles. Never. Not once. Nunca. Zilch. Nada.<\/p>\n<h2>II. The Bible Says Christ Is<\/h2>\n<p>In John\u2019s prologue, however, the Bible tells us that Christ is the \u201cWord\u201d of God. Better yet, Christ is the \u201cLogos\u201d of God. What is the Logos? Put simply, according to Greek philosophy, the Logos is the \u201cstructuring principle of reality.\u201d Again . . . Christ. Not the Bible.<\/p>\n<h2>III. The Bible is Human<\/h2>\n<p>Sure, the Bible is inspired by God. But what isn\u2019t? Humans are inspired by God, too. Other books are inspired by God. The Bhagavad Gita is inspired by God. The Koran is inspired by God. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.amazon.com\/Matthew-J.-Distefano\/e\/B017WEJBV0\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\" class=\" decorated-link\">My books<\/a> are inspired by God (though perhaps not entirely endorsed by God). And no one would claim we are inerrant. Well, unless you are a narcissist. Then perhaps you\u2019d argue for personal inerrancy. But for the rest of us, we\u2019re aware that we mess up. We\u2019re aware that we aren\u2019t \u201cwithout error.\u201d<\/p>\n<h2>IV. The Bible Contains Errors<\/h2>\n<p>Let\u2019s put aside the crazy stuff for a second \u2013 like a sun that stops midway through the sky (imagine what would happen if that really happened!), or leviathans that roam the open waters, or dragons with 7 heads, or wooden ships that contain meat-eating predators for half a year without having prey to devour. The Bible contains theological errors. How do I know? It makes contradictory claims. That\u2019s okay though, because again, it\u2019s human. Humans debate. Humans disagree. And that\u2019s okay.<\/p>\n<h2>V. There Are Different Bibles<\/h2>\n<p>Yes, that\u2019s right! There are different Bibles. You may need to sit down Protestants, but other Christians have more than 66 books. Catholics have 73. Eastern Orthodox have 75. Georgian Orthodox and Russian Orthodox have 76. And the Ethiopian have a whopping 81+. That\u2019s 15 more than Protestants! \u2018Nuff said.<\/p>\n<h2>VI. The Bible Has Been Edited . . . A lot!<\/h2>\n<p>The Bible as we currently know it has undergone a lot of changes. It\u2019s been edited. Heavily. Hell, it was even edited for the folks<em> in<\/em> the Bible. What?! Yeah, I know. The Septuagint \u2013 the Greek translation of the Hebrew Masoretic Text \u2013 was translated and interpreted by 70 (or 72) Jewish scholars and then that was the \u201cBible\u201d folks were using. So, I guess that doesn\u2019t necessarily mean it still isn\u2019t the \u201cWord of God,\u201d but . . . c\u2019mon, it\u2019s not likely, is it?<\/p>\n<h2>VII. Jesus Didn\u2019t Have a Bible<\/h2>\n<p>News flash: Jesus didn\u2019t carry a Bible with him. That wasn\u2019t a thing back then, unless you were a scholar at a University or something. And sure, while Jesus studied his Scriptures, it\u2019s not entirely clear what his Scriptures were. Why? Because, like Christianity, different Jewish sects have different canons. Further, when Jesus did quote Scripture, he, like Paul after him, did so creatively. In my book <a href=\"https:\/\/www.amazon.com\/Heretic-Lgbtq-Affirming-Violence-Denying-Universalists-Christianitys\/dp\/1938480309\/ref=tmm_pap_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&amp;qid=&amp;sr=\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\" class=\" decorated-link\"><em>Heretic!<\/em><\/a>, I give a bunch of examples.<\/p>\n<hr>\n<p>So, there you go. Now that you\u2019re good and pissed, feel free to come at me in the comments. But beware, haters and trolls get banned quicker than water gets turned into wine.<\/p>\n<hr>\n<p>If you wanna get to know me better, please follow me on social media. I\u2019m pretty active on all platforms:<\/p>\n<p><a class=\"decorated-link decorated-link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/matthew.distefano.7\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">Facebook<\/a><\/p>\n<p><a class=\"decorated-link decorated-link\" href=\"http:\/\/www.twitter.com\/mj_distefano\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">Twitter<\/a><\/p>\n<p><a class=\"decorated-link decorated-link\" href=\"http:\/\/www.instagram.com\/mj_distefano\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">Instagram<\/a><\/p>\n<p><a class=\"decorated-link decorated-link\" href=\"http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/c\/matthewdistefano\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">YouTube<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Also, if you\u2019ve been digging my work on here, and want to see me be able to continue writing as close to full-time as humanly possible, please take a look at my Patreon page at\u00a0<a class=\"decorated-link decorated-link\" href=\"http:\/\/www.patreon.com\/mjdistefano\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">www.patreon.com\/mjdistefano<\/a>. Even\u00a0$1 a month helps bigly!!!<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>\u201cThe Bible is the inerrant Word of God,\u201d or so says many Christians. But it\u2019s not. I\u2019m sorry, but I\u2019m not sorry. Now, before you gird up your loins and fit yourself ready for battle, here\u2019s 7 reasons why I say such an inflammatory thing. I. The Bible Never Claims to Be Let\u2019s start with [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2874,"featured_media":2542,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14,13,40,6],"tags":[801,15,20,798,17,180,795],"class_list":["post-2538","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-hermeneutics","category-old-testament","category-religion","category-theology","tag-7-reasons","tag-bible","tag-inerrancy","tag-inerrant","tag-jesus","tag-scripture","tag-word-of-god"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v21.1 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>7 Reasons the Bible is NOT the Inerrant Word of God<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"&quot;The Bible is the inerrant Word of God,&quot; or so says many Christians. But it&#039;s not. I&#039;m sorry, but I&#039;m not sorry. 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