JANUARY 20 - Is It Still Worth Believing That the Bible Is God's Word?

This message began with a "pre-test" - Five of the following ten statements come from The United Methodist Book of Discipline. Can you figure out which five?

1. The Bible contains all things necessary to salvation.

2. The biblical authors were illumined by the Holy Spirit.

3. Other writing may have equal authority to the Bible.

4. Our attempt to grasp the meaning of Scripture always involves tradition, experience, and reason.

5. Scripture is “inerrant,” and this applies to the original Hebrew and Greek copies of the Bible.

6. Scripture is received through the Holy Spirit as the true rule and guide for faith and practice.

7. Scripture is the primary source and criterion for Christian doctrine.

8. Scripture is verbally God-given, and without error or fault in all of its teaching about the events of world history.

9. The Bible is just one of many sources of inspiration and reflection.

10. The inspiration of Scripture guarantees true and trustworthy utterance on all matters of which the Biblical authors were moved to speak and write.


OKAY...make sure that you have picked the five you think come from Methodist teaching BEFORE you read any further!!
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The five statements that come from The United Methodist Book of Discipline are #1, #2, #4, #6 and #7. Below there is a link that goes into more detail about our core doctrine.

The other five statements come from other traditions:


3. Other writing may have equal authority to the Bible.

This could describe the teaching of the Mormon Church (Bible plus The Book of Mormon) or the Christian Science Church (Bible plus the Christian Science textbook).

5. Scripture is “inerrant,” and this applies to the original Hebrew and Greek copies of the Bible.

This is a description of fundamentalist view that the very first copy of the Bible was perfect and inaccuracies may be due to copying or translation.

8. Scripture is verbally God-given, and without error or fault in all of its teaching about the events of world history.

This is another fundamentalist view that sets up unnecessary conflicts between science and faith because the Bible then becomes the "perfect" source of science, history, geography, etc.

9. The Bible is just one of many sources of inspiration and reflection.

This view reduces the Bible to just one of many helpful sources, and puts it on the same plane as many "inspirational" works of literature.

10. The inspiration of Scripture guarantees true and trustworthy utterance on all matters of which the Biblical authors were moved to speak and write.

This is similar to #8.


The key verse from 2 Timothy reminds us that Scripture is not only "inspired" it is also "useful" - it is intended to be applied in our lives!

2 TIMOTHY 3:16-17. All scripture is inspired by God and is useful for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, so that everyone who belongs to God may be proficient, equipped for every good work.


Read this page - UNITED METHODISTS AND AUTHORITY OF SCRIPTURE - for a more detailed explanation.


To be fair, you can read here a more detailed explanation of those who insist upon a position called "biblical inerrancy."