In our family’s newspaper office in Natimuk and later in Horsham, there was a motto on the wall, a reminder to journalists: “Is it true? If not, don’t write it. If not sure, make sure”. These are the standards journalists are held to on a good newspaper. And if you make a mistake, you may have to print a correction and an apology. You may even be up on libel charges.
This is the standard to which we hold secular journalists. Yet when it comes to the divine Scriptures, many assume a lower level of accuracy. This, despite what St Paul writes to the Thessalonians: “We thank God that when you received the word of God which you heard from us, you accepted it not as a human word but as what it really is, the word of God” (1 Thess 2:13). Nevertheless, many critical scholars over the past 300 years have claimed the Bible is full of errors. Other scholars feel pressured, then, to go along to some extent with this critical attitude to the Bible. One theologian, a man with a high view of Scripture, had an occasional lapse. On one occasion he got stuck into “fundamentalists” – a trendy thing to do. He wrote: “It is part of this way of thinking that fundamentalists make a doctrine of every statement or every fact that appears in the Scriptures. So the dimensions of the ark become a doctrine, as do the details of Absalom’s rebellion or the number of years Aeneas was bed-ridden before Peter healed him, and thousands of facts like these”. Now this is a caricature. No-one who upholds the Bible’s truthfulness makes a doctrine of every fact. We just assume that the facts recorded in the Bible are accurate. The Book of Acts tells us Aeneas was bed-ridden for 8 years. If you read in a newspaper that someone was sick in bed for 8 years, you’d normally assume that was correct. Yet while we assume a responsible newspaper will get its facts straight, some are far too quick to question the Bible’s accuracy. So, for example, despite Luke’s claim to have investigated everything carefully, it’s alleged he made a lot of historical, geographical, and chronological mistakes. Despite Paul’s claim to be Jesus’ apostle, it’s alleged he got many things wrong.
The Bible claims to be totally true: “Your word is truth” (John 17:17). Its primary author is the God “who never lies” (Titus 1:2). Paul tells Titus we can depend on the gospel because we have a God who never lies. The authority of his word and promises depend on his truthfulness (Similarly, if a political leader is shown to be a liar, he can no longer speak with authority).
I believe we must reaffirm the old doctrine of the Bible’s inspired truthfulness. And this has implications for our pastoral care. The more confidence people have in the Scriptures, the more likely they are to turn to them in times of need.
Greg Lockwood