Bible Inerrancy -- One

[Snow]

Bible Inerrancy: Personality of God

Issue:

An inerrant Bible would correctly and consistent describe the character of God.

Option 1: One of the generally accepted attributes of God is that he is not subject to change. He is the same yesterday, today and tomorrow. So, if the Bible is inerrant, then the authors' description of God would also be consistent, from Genesis through to Revelation.

Option 2: The Bible is not inerrant. Different writer promoted their concept of God. God is described differently throughout the Bible.

What the Bible Shows:

In the Torah, God is frequently described as an angry god who commits genocide and mass murder. He killed people for trivial reasons (e.g. Onan for practicing birth control; Lot's wife for looking the wrong way). He exterminated all of the men, women, girls, boys, infants and newborns in Sodom and Gomorra because the men were inhospitable towards strangers. He ordered his followers to enslave children, take virgins as booty and steal cattle. He commanded his followers to kill an entire population in retribution for offenses committed by someone else, 4 hundred years earlier. He killed all mankind in a great flood, saving only eight people: Noah and his family. He hardened the heart of the Pharaoh of Egypt, and then punished the Pharaoh for having a hardened heart before the Egyptian leader would release the Hebrews from bondage. As it so happens some early Gnostic Christians, one of the three main movements in the early Christian Church, considered Jehovah to be an evil deity, called the Demiurge.

In the Gospels, Jesus often refers to God as Abba, which is probably closest to the English word "papa." Jesus stresses God's love for humanity, his concern for justice and his readiness to support and encourage each believer. He urged individuals to develop a close, intimate, loving relationship with God through private prayer. Rather than inciting genocide, stealing, enslavement and rape, he instructs that we should love our neighbor as ourselves

In Revelation, God is once more described as a vengeful deity who inflicts massive worldwide death and destruction on men, women, boys, girls, infants and newborns. Martin Luther thought that Revelation should be removed from the Bible for this reason. He included it in an appendix to his German translation of the Bible.

Conclusion:

One can argue from the lack of consistency in the Biblical authors' concept of God that they are portraying very different and mutually exclusive concepts of God. Again, this topic does not bode well for Bible inerrancy (ideas from rel tol)