Inerrancy vs Obedience
Many today are searching for the perfect Bible translation (in English). Either that or they are furiously defending one against the others, usually The King James Version. Books have been written. Movements have been started. Some churches are built upon the foundation of KJV onlyism. 99% accuracy is not good enough for our favorite version. It seems we must find or claim perfect and complete authority. Divine inspiration of the translation is hardly good enough in the opinion of many. The voice of God on audio recording would barely meet with our approval. Apparently, we are intending to obey God's slightest thought or whisper. Wait a minute. Is that really anyone's intention?
What is the percentage of rat droppings in Raisin Bran?
As a customer or consumer we would shout, “None! It's inexcusable to have any!”. Let's look at it from another vantage point.
As the owner or manger of a factory that produces a Raisin Bran-type of cereal, they would have a great responsibility. Let's say that the factory produces millions of boxes of cereal annually. If one customer finds or claims to find one piece of foreign debris in a box, this could have far reaching consequences. Millions of finished product would have to be removed from warehouses and destroyed. All of the food items in process at the factory would have to be cleaned out. The equipment would have to be emptied and sanitized. Almost all of the 800 employees would have to be sent home, perhaps permanently. 800 families would have to do without income indefinitely. As the manager of such an operation a decision to close a factory, even temporarily, would be a serious consideration.
Perhaps unbelievably, even the FDA recognizes what is at stake here and states
"it is economically impractical to grow, harvest, or process raw products that are totally free of non-hazardous, naturally occurring, unavoidable defects".
Even the Food and Drug Administration allows a certain small percentage of rodent droppings in our food. It is impractical, impossible, and ridiculous to expect or demand perfection in an imperfect world. I am not referring to any particular Bible translation. I am referring to demanding or claiming that we need perfection in our translation to match the perfection in our obedience. Of course, we need something that we can trust. Inaccuracy is not our goal. However, the unspoken inference that we must have absolute flawlessness in our English Bible, when we have no intention of believing it or doing what it says, is hypocrisy to the maximum degree.
I visited a Spanish speaking church in the U.S. one time. After the main service the pastor wanted to have a short meeting to finalize some details of an event that their group was invited to participate in. The debate started. The noise, the arguing, the fervent and heated discussion went on for a long time. As a one time visitor, I was embarrassed and anxious to leave. The pastor realized the meeting was going to go nowhere so he had an idea. He said, Let's just arrive at the event and we will have to work things out in the last moment. He asked, “How many are going to volunteer for this event?”
I am not exaggerating. Not one person volunteered. Zero people! No one was even intending to be at the debated event. All debate and NO action. All talk and arguing and no reality.
Many times, Bible version debate is all argument and no matching amount of obedience. Noise combined with imaginary righteousness.
I think limiting the human contamination in Bible translation is a good thing. We need something we can trust. We need something accurate. However, this demand that God produce a English book that is exactly to my understanding and liking is nauseating. The claim that God has done precisely this just because I say so, is evil.
Let's say that X Bible translation is 98% accurate or inerrant. That's pretty good, yet 98% is not total accuracy. What is your understanding/obedience of this Bible? 40%? 50%? Stop whining. We have a long ways to go before even worrying about it.
I believe that the human contamination in handling the Bible does not destroy the Divine inspiration when translated by godly men who want to honor God's Word. When men want to bring doubt on what God has said, yes. There are people who want to bring discredit to the Scriptures.
I understand about the importance of the Bible being able to be trusted. Yes, I know that much of the devil's attack is upon the Word. My point is not that Bible accuracy doesn't matter, it's our ungodly attitude about it.
A disobedient slave does not demand anything of the Master. An obedient servant waits on his Master, asking for wisdom and insight. Wisdom is promised to the sincere seeker (James 1:5). God's words are pure (Ps 12:6), not our obedience.
Nov 29, 2024