Is the Scripture God's Inerrant Word?

The doctrine of Scripture lies at the very heart of the faith of the church of Jesus Christ. All the faith of the saints stands or falls with an answer to the question: Is the Scripture God's inerrant Word? If it is, Scripture comes to us with its own absolute authority and demands of us an unconditional faith. To believe the Scriptures is salvation, for to believe the Scriptures is to believe in the Christ of the Scriptures. If it is not, whether in whole or in part, Scripture can be reckoned as an interesting source of ancient belief, as a resource which can be consulted for its historical value, as a record of religions of people from past generations, as a moral guide in a life of perplexing ethical questions, or any other value which one may find in it; but its authority is gone and it is incapable of making any demands upon us. And this is unbelief with its consequent judgment of Almighty God. 

It is a sad fact that within the last half century or so, the absolute authority of Scripture has been lost. Higher criticism has made its destructive inroads into almost the whole ecclesiastical world. Wherever one turns, one is hard-pressed to defend vigorously ad convincingly the great truth which undergirds Scripture's authority: the absolute inerrancy of the Word of God. Arminianism has taken its toll also of this doctrine, and a convincing demonstration of the truth of the infallible inspiration of Scripture is scarcely to be found.
It is not difficult to see the relationship between Arminianism in the area of soteriology and Arminianism in the area of the doctrine of inspiration. If in the work of salvation man plays a decisive role, it ought not to surprise us that also in the doctrine of inspiration, man's role is crucial and determinative. This human role in Scripture's inspiration goes under the name of the "human factor" in inspiration. After all, Scripture belongs to the work of salvation, is inseparably connected with it, and is organically related to it. To the extent that salvation is dependent upon man, so is Scripture also dependent upon this human factor. While, with is amazing inconsistency, the infallible inspiration of Scripture is sometimes maintained in Arminian and fundamentalist circles, the arguments are unpersuasive and the battle for the Bible must be repeatedly fought, because the human element is so exalted that Scripture loses its divine authority.

There is a Reformed doctrine of Holy Scripture. It is the doctrine of the church of all ages. It was the great truth of the Reformation and it remained an integral part of the confession of those churches who have been faithful to the Reformation through all the years of the history of the church.


Prof. Herman Hanko
Grand Rapids, 1990
Source: (The Doctrine of Scripture by Homer Hoeksema, pp. 1-2)