So What Does Infallible Mean?

Atheists, those bastions of rationality and logic will tell you that we can’t believe what the Bible says because those who wrote the Bible believed what they were writing. Pftt!

As applied to the Bible, infallible means that the Bible is not misleading. It is true in what it teaches and is worthy of our trust. To say that the Bible is infallible means that its message, as a whole, is trustworthy and true. It means that verses must not be taken out of context. It means that Scripture itself must be used to interpret Scripture. It means that any given verse can mean “this” only if the rest of Scripture concurs.

Intent, or the mind of the author is important in understanding infallibility. For example, Genesis chapter one, in describing what appears to be six twenty-four hour days for the creation of the world is true, IF that is what the author was intending to mean. If that was not his intention, if his intention remains a mystery, then we cannot and must not press the fallibility presumption. This can also be said of Jesus’ parables. From our vantage point, a knowledge of literary form and genre is absolutely essential.

In other words, Scripture is infallible only as correctly interpreted.

This type of qualification has led fools to assert that the Scripture cannot be known; that in fact it is clearly man-made and unreliable. This is patently false. The Bible is in fact inerrant or free from error, as it was originally given. We can confidently base our lives, thoughts and behaviours upon what it says. This applies only to those who possess the Holy Spirit of the living God. As the saying goes, “Reading the Bible without the Holy Spirit is like reading a Sun Dial by the light of a quarter moon.”

Again, we must remember that any particular text is inerrant to the degree that we know what the author intended to say or teach, and the kind of literature in which the text was written. When Jesus said that He is the “door,” that does not mean that on His back or side we’ll find a latch of some type.

If a passage of Scripture is interpreted correctly, in harmony with the intention of the writer and in agreement with the rest of Biblical passages the truth of its inerrancy will be clearly seen.