Is the Bible “God’s Word”? [Questions That Haunt]

Is the Bible “God’s Word”? [Questions That Haunt] April 2, 2013

We took last week off for Holy Week, and for the release of the QTHC ebook. With the release of that book, a host of new questions have come in — to date, hundreds have been asked. You and I have answered 21. It’s time to dive into another season of excellent questions and thoughtful answers.

If you’re new to the series, it works like this: people email their questions to me; I post them on Tuesday for general conversation in the comment section; and I make my attempt at an answer on Friday. You can read them all here.

One of the reasons I started this last summer was that I have repeatedly heard the accusation that emergent and progressive Christian leaders don’t answer questions forthrightly. That we tap dance, avoid the question, and say, “That’s the wrong question.” I think that’s a fair criticism, and I wanted to combat it. I wanted to answer questions as honestly and vulnerably as possible, even if my answers are unsatisfying; even if I don’t have a good answer.

To get back into our series, we’ve got a question from Jake:

I’m having trouble with believing that the Bible is literally God’s words, God’s actually intended message to humanity. I’m also having trouble with taking the Bible as my sole authority. I always hear Christians in arguments say, “Do you have a verse for that?” or “Where in the Word-of-Gawd does it say that?” So my question is: Is the Bible really inspired, and should we take it as our sole authority?

This is, of course, a multi-layered question. If you drop “literally” from Jake’s opening sentence, it changes the meaning. And in his closing question, the work “inspired” if rife with debate. So, have at it. Post your thoughts in the comment section below.


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