Some Concrete Biblical Evidences Of Inerrancy

By Author: Johnson Philip
Total Articles: 90
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1-THE EVIDENCE OF MATTHEW 4:1-11: The account of the temptation of our Lord reveals some important matters concerning His view of the Bible.

First, Jesus accepted the plenary inspiration of the Bible; when first approached by the devil to turn stones into bread, our Lord replied that man lives by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God (Matt. 4:4 quoting Deut. 8:3). He did not say "some words" but "EVERY word". If Scripture is breathed out from God (II Tim. 3:16), then all Scripture must be included in what sustains man. Not merely parts of Scripture but all of it.

Second, Jesus' response to Satan's attacks negates every view of errancy. He said, "It is written" (Matt. 4:4,7,10). He did not say, "It witnesses". He relied on statements from the Bible to convey truth in and of themselves and to convey it accurately.

2-THE EVIDENCE OF MATTHEW 5:17-18: "Do not think that I came to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I did not come to abolish, but to fulfill. For truly I say to you, until heaven and earth pass away, not the smallest letter or stroke shall pass away from the Law until all is accomplished". ...
... The verse is not only a statement of fact, but also a promise about the Bible made by the Lord Jesus Himself. Several things should be noticed.

First, what is the promise ? It is that the Law and the Prophets will NOT be abolished, but be fulfilled. Christ is guaranteeing that the all the guarantees and statements of the Bible shall surely be fulfilled.

Second, what all in included in this promise ? The "Law and the Prophets" included all of the Old Testament, our Lord's Bible. "Law" in verse 18 means the same thing (compare the use of "Law" in John 10:34 where it includes more than the Mosaic Law).

Third, in what detail will all the promises of the Old Testament be fulfilled ? The Lord said we can count on all the Old Testament promises being fulfilled down to the very jots and tittles (KJV). An explanation of "jot and tittle" would be helpful to the non-Hebrew readers.

THE JOT: The jot is the Hebrew letter titled YODH. It is the smallest of all the letters in the Hebrew alphabet. It would occupy proportionately about the same amount of space that an English apostrophe takes up in a line of English type. Actually, the Hebrew letter looks very much like an English apostrophe. Though it is the smallest of the Hebrew letters it is an important as any other letter, for letters spell words and words compose sentences and sentences make promises. If we spell a words one way, it is that word; if we spell it another way, even with only a single letter differently, it is a different word. For example, "Tough" means strong. One letter changed spells as "touch". One letter added makes it "though". Single letters are enough to change words. Thus our Lord promised that not one jot would fail. Every promise will be fulfilled exactly as it has been spelled out.

Many people (influenced by the radical theologians) believe and teach that Biblical writers were inspired only with 'concepts' and that inspiration did not extend to the words used by the Biblical writers. We must observe here that Christ does not start with concepts and then allow for optional words to be used to convey those concepts (contrary to what proponents of "concepts-inspiration" teach). He begins the other way around. The promises are based on the words as spelled out in the Holy Writ and those words can be relied on fully and in detail.

Neither did our Lord say that the promises would be fulfilled provided they were culturally relevant at the time of fulfillment. In some theological circles it has become fashionable today to say that promises and commands of the Bible are to be culturally reinterpreted. This is a subtle attempt to invalidate the original promises as spelled out in the Old Testament.

THE TITTLE: A "tittle" is even more MINUTE than a Jot. Whereas a Jot is a whole letter, a "tittle" is only a PART of a letter. The presence of a tittle forms a certain letter, but its absence causes that letter to become a different one. For example, the Hebrew letter BETH and KAPH look very similar. The only difference between the two letters is that the bottom horizontal line on the BETH extends slightly to the right of the vertical line, whereas no extension appears on the KAPH. That extension (not the entire bottom horizontal line but only the part of it that extends to the right of the vertical line) is a tittle. If it is present then the letter is a BETH; if it is absent, it is a KAPH. And whether you use a BETH or a KAPH will decide what word it would ultimately be. According to the Lord, even such tiny differences were there by God's ordinance.

There are many other places where the presence or absence of the tittle makes a difference. While it is easy for an ordinary copyist to overlook the presence of the tittle, the Lord made it very clear that it is an important part of the inspired scriptures. The Lord's affirmation was that all of the promises of the Old Testament will be fulfilled precisely as they were spelled out, in their minutest details.

In English we might illustrate a tittle this way. Suppose I invite you to my house to have some "Fun". You might rightly wonder what I consider fun. If I put a tittle or small stroke on the F, then you might conclude that I like to "Pun". Punning is fun to me. There's nothing like a fast repartee of puns with someone. But you may not enjoy making puns, so I'll put another tittle on the letter. Now I have spelled "Run". To run is fun for some, but not to me. So I'll add another tittle and now I am inviting you over to have a "Bun". The difference between Fun, Pun, Run and Bun is just the addition of a tittle in each case. But four entirely different words result, and with them, four different invitations:

3-THE EVIDENCE OF JOHN 10:31-38: Often minute things do make a difference. Towards the end of His earthly ministry the Lord again reaffirmed His total confidence in the reliability of the minutest elements of the Scripture. At the temple celebration of the Feast of Dedication, or Hanukkah (instituted in 165 B.C to commemorate the cleansing and reopening of the temple after its desecration by Antiochus Epiphanus three years earlier), the Jews asked Jesus to tell them plainly if He is the Messiah (John 10:24).

His answer was, "I and the Father are One." The words "one" is neuter, "one thing", not "one person". In other words, He did not assert that He and the Father are identical but that He and the Father possess essential unity together, that He enjoys perfect unity of nature and of actions with His Father. The Jews had asked if He were the Messiah. His answer was more than they had bargained for, for in it He claimed also to be equal with God.

This was certainly the way they understood His claim, for immediately they prepared to stone the Lord for what they considered to be blasphemy. In order to restrain them the Lord appealed to Psalm 82. He called this portion of the Old Testament "the Law" (John 10:34), as He did on two other occasions (John 12:34 and 15:25). In that Law, He said the judges of Israel, human beings, were called "gods" by virtue of their high and God-given office. Then, He concluded, if that Psalm can apply the term "gods" to human beings, then certainly the term "Son of God" may be rightly applied to the One whom the Father sanctified and sent into the world. In other words, if the title Elohim is applied to men, how much more appropriate it is to apply it to Himself, since He does possess essential unity with the Father.

Though this argument is highly sophisticated, certain claims Christ made here about the Bible can clearly be deduced:

The Bible is verbally inspired: He pointed the Jews to what had been written. God's Word came in written prepositional statements, not merely in concepts, thoughts, or oral tradition. It is the written record that was inspired and that can be relied on.

The Bible is inspired even in what looks as minor statements: Psalm 82 is not what would be considered a major Old Testament passage. It is not a psalm of David nor a messianic psalm. This is not said to demean the psalm in any way for, of course, it is equally inspired with all other parts of the Bible, but it is to emphasize that the Lord did not pick up an outstanding passage on which to base His argument. Indeed one might say, without being disrespectful, that He chose a rather ordinary, run-of-the-mill passage. Of course, He could not have done so if He did not believe that even such passages are God's inerrant and inspired Word. Furthermore, from that ordinary passage He focused on a single word, "gods". He could not have done so unless He believed in the verbal inspiration of the minutest part of the Bible and also on any word in any part of the statement.

The Bible is authoritatively inspired: In the midst of His sophisticated arguing the Lord threw in almost incidentally the statement: "and the Scripture cannot be broken". What does this mean ? Simply that the Scripture cannot be emptied of its authority. The only way it could fail to have complete authority would be if it were erroneous, but Christ said that here it is both authoritative and inerrant. Christ was here staking His life on the reliability, accuracy, and authority of just one word of Scripture when His enemies were about to stone Him.
Dr. Johnson C. Philip is a Christian Apologist who offers important apologetics resources and free courses through his websites.