Introduction
Insatiable nature of human needs and wants has been a subject, which has been explored in various academic, social, and economic fields. In religious circles, the bible forms the backbone of the Christian faith, and it houses sixty-six books written in different genres and by different authors.
According to Christians, God inspired all the forty authors of the bible, which renders the bible inerrancy and infallible. Significantly, the many genres of the bible enable Christians to understand the word of God easily.
However, since the bible is the central book in Christianity, its inerrancy and inspiration has triggered endless and unquenchable desire for better and newer things among humanity.
Christian’s perception/definition on bible inerrancy
Intellectual realm is where the insatiability of human nature lies, and thus there is need to go beyond what is attainable by mere human ability. In the process of searching for the meaning of existence, human beings have proliferated thousands of different religions in different societies throughout the world, and countless religious writings and sacred texts attempting to satisfy their intellectual conundrum (Imperato 85).
Christians are propagating the bible teachings because they view them as inerrant. Inerrancy is in different categories, strict/absolute, limited, or no inerrancy at all. According to Catholics, strict inerrancy means that the bible is free of errors because God inspired the authors (Lindsell 90).
On the contrary, the concept of limited inerrancy speculates that, the bible is true on specified areas about morality and faith among others. However, it is errant on matters pertaining scientific or historical events (Stuart 80).
Strict inerrancy seems more convincing because the content or words of the bible are from God. According to Grudem, bible inerrancy means, “the inerrancy of Scripture means that Scripture in the original manuscripts does not affirm anything that is contrary to fact” (49) while others, think there is no scripture, which confirms God inspired the authors.
Relationship between inerrancy and inspiration
The liberal Protestants and some Catholics disagree with strict inerrancy of the bible because it is inaccurate on scientific and historical matters and has religious politics (Stuart 67). Catholicism firmly support that the bible is inerrant (Imperato 100).
For instance, some of the leaders acknowledge the bible as a firm and faithful book written without error; a book that teaches about God’s salvation (Geisler 294), which means the issue is not debatable per their doctrines. The catholic doctrines teach that God cannot inspire people to write untrue events in the bible (Geisler 86). Therefore, God inspired both the words and the authors.
Inspiration is a strong influence by God to human minds. Catholicism asserts that the words in the bible came directly from God but through the authors (Albl 79). On the other hand, some Protestants assert that, God inspired the original bible writings only (Greek, Armenian) and not the translated versions.
“No single view of inspiration conveys the total and so true picture” (Earle 319). Therefore, God inspired different people to write the bible, which led to many genres.
God guided each author to write in a different way depending on the applicable genre during the contemporary times. In relation to inspiration and inerrancy, the genres in the bible open up the human mind to understand God’s message.
The various genres of the bible
The diverse views about the inerrancy and inspirational nature of the bible remain debatable in churches except in Catholicism. This exemplifies that human will is human characteristic that is never satisfied. If satisfied, it lasts only for a while, which leaves the individual to desire more.
Since human will stems from the individual, the general expectation is that the decisions and actions that actualize themselves through free will lead to the long-lasting satisfaction for the individual. However, that is never the case.
Works Cited
Albl, Martin. Reason, Faith, and Tradition: Explorations in Catholic Theology. Winona, MN: Anselm Academic, 2009
Earle, Ralph. “Revelation and Inspiration: The Spoken Word of God”. A Contemporary Wesleyan Theology 1.1 (1983): 319.
Geisler, Norman. William E. Nix. A General Introduction to the Bible. England: Moody Publishers, 1986.
Grudem, Wayne. Systematic Theology. Leicester, England: Inter-Varsity Press, 1994.
Imperato, Robert. Footings: Creation, World Religions, Personalism, Revelation, and Jesus Revised. Lanham, Maryland: University Press of America, 2009.
Lindsell, Harold. Battle for the Bible. Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1976.
Stuart, Douglas. Inerrancy and Common Sense. Ed. Roger Nicole and Ramsey, Michaels. Grand Rapids: Baker Book House, 1980.