Journal: Journal of the Evangelical Theological Society
Volume: JETS 06:1 (Winter 1963)
Article: What Does Biblical Infallibility Mean?
Author: Gordon R. Lewis

BETS 6:1 (Winter 1963) p. 18

What Does Biblical Infallibility Mean?

Gordon R. Lewis

The purpose of this study is to investigate the meaning of infallibility, not to establish the grounds on which infallibility rests. However the writer questions the view that inerrancy is not “required” by the Biblical teaching of its own inspiration.1 Rather, he here assumes with Frederick C. Grant that in the New Testament “it is everywhere taken for granted that Scripture is trustworthy, infallible and inerrant… No New Testament writer would ever dream of questioning a statement contained in the Old Testament.”2

Neither does the paper intend to lay a foundation for the doctrine of propositional revelation. We assume a position similar to Bernard Ramm’s in his Special Revelation and the Word of God.3 Nor is it the purpose of this paper to discuss the implications of textual criticism for the nature of inspiration. It is assumed that textual criticism has generally confirmed the trustworthiness of by far the greatest part of the Greek and Hebrew texts. References to the Bible may be regarded as being to those passages on which there is not such variation in the manuscripts as to affect in any material way the meaning conveyed.

An important distinction between the Bible as given and the Bible as interpreted should also be noted. The doctrine of infallibility applies to the Bible as given, not to the interpretation of any individual. Therefore it is not the province of this paper to deal with the complex issues of hermeneutics, although they cannot be avoided entirely. It is assumed, however, that an objectively infallible standard is not in vain. Although no interpreter can claim inerrancy for himself, interpreters are not equally in a morass of subjectivity since there is an objective, standard of comparison in Scripture. The Bible’s meaning can be approximated by the use of sound principles of hermeneutics, the witness of the Holy Spirit, and the help of previously Spirit-illumined interpreters in the history of the Church.

Positively this paper explores a means of understanding and communicating the significance of Biblical infallibility to our generation. One of the most influential schools of thought is called Philosophical Analysis, a recent development from earlier Logical Positivism. In order to) help young people familiar with Philosophical Analysis to understand the import of Biblical infallibility we may employ its terms as far as possible for meaningful communication. In so doing our own concept of the applicability of the doctrine of Biblical infallibility to our times may be enriched and expressed w...