Do We In Fact Believe It?

I read these thoughts from Francis Schaeffer last night concerning the significance of the Bible as the inerrant Word of God:

Does inerrancy make a difference? Overwhelmingly; the difference is that with the Bible being what it is, God’s Word and so absolute, God’s objective truth, we do not need to be, and we should not be, caught in the ever-changing fallen cultures which surround us. Those who do not hold the inerrancy of Scripture do not have this high privilege. To some extent, they are at the mercy of the fallen, changing culture. And Scripture is thus bent to conform to the changing world spirit of the day, and they therefore have no solid authority upon which to judge and to resist the views and values of that changing, shifting world spirit.

We, however, must be careful before the Lord. If we say we believe the Bible to be the inerrant and authoritative “Thus saith the Lord,” we do not face the howling winds of change which surround us with confusion and terror. And yet, the other side of the coin is that if this is the “Thus saith the Lord,” we must live under it. And without that, we don’t understand what we have said when we say we stand for an inerrant Scripture.

I would ask again, Does inerrancy really make a difference — in the way we live our lives across the whole spectrum of human existence? Sadly we must say that we evangelicals who truly hold to the full authority of Scripture have not always done well in this respect. I have said that inerrancy is the watershed of the evangelical world. But it is not just a theological debating point. It is the obeying of the Scripture which is the watershed! It is believing and applying it to our lives which demonstrate whether we in fact believe it. (The Great Evangelical Disaster, by Francis A. Schaeffer, Crossway Books, 1984)

As we reflect on Tim's current excellent, hugely important foundational FreeTruth series on why we have good and sufficient reasons to believe that the Bible is what it claims to be--the Word of God, I deeply hope that we will all purpose to thoroughly absorb and apply what he is saying. I hope that we will make these thoughts our thoughts, to both strengthen our own confidence in the Bible as the very Word of God written, and to help us as we interact with our non-Christian friends and acquaintances, giving them objective reasons for the hope that we have in the Savior, and why they should embrace Him as their Treasure too (1 Pet. 3:15).

And as we do so I pray that for both you and I the implications of the full truthfulness and absolute authority of the Bible as that which is Theopneustos--breathed out by God, will, across the whole spectrum of our lives, in all the details of our lives--in thought, word, and deed--be such that it will truly function with absolute authority over our lives (2 Tim. 3:16-17). May we tremble before God's Word (Is. 66:2)--indeed tremble at the prospect of dishonoring God through disbelieving or disobeying His Word at any point. May it make that kind of a difference.