Is it possible to believe that only the Bible is inspired by God, and inerrant? What about the guys who chose the Bible? Doesn't there have to be just one exception? Weren't the people who chose the canon of Scripture inerrant in their choice?

Believe it or not, it is possible to be consistent in your belief (good little Protestants that we are here at DBU) that the words of the Bible are the only inerrant and inspired thing, and the authors the only people who were inerrant and inspired in anything they said. IE: the people who identified the books that are in the Bible as being Scripture were not inspired in that choice.

It's a very subtle distinction, but it's very important. I don't think it's some huge, heretical error to be an inconsistent Protestant and believe in “Sola Scriptura” (only the Bible) with the tiny little exception that the identification of the Bible was also inspired.

But it's nice to be consistent, and it's certainly good to know what people believe. DBU students: know that this is your tradition; you're free to believe it or not, but this is the tradition of the Reformers, the Baptists, blah, blah, blah. (One note: if you disagree with it, I recommend that you be like Karl Barth or like the Catholics; just not like the Protestant liberals.)

Anyways . . . one quick analogy and I'll get to the point because you’re all so busy (you think you're busy? I'm busy! You have no idea!).

THE ANALOGY is the difference between writing Scripture under inspiration and reading Scripture under illumination. One place you’ll find this difference mentioned is in Protestant Biblical Interpretation, a textbook here for Dr. Bell's Hermeneutics class. Inspiration is God's work in an author of the Bible to keep them from error when His truth is transmitted to mankind (for the first time) through the words being written. Illumination is God's work in a reader of the Bible to help him or her understand the truth already given.

You got that? Read it again if you don't!

THE THEORY. Well, the belief of inerrantist Protestants is this: the people who wrote the Bible were inspired. The people who identified the Bible were illuminated. In other words, when Christians got together and said "These are the books in our Scriptures," they weren’t creating the Bible. They were identifying the Bible. You'll hear this in Systematic Theology with Dr. Bell if you get a chance to take it.

So only the Bible inspired and inerrant. There was no decision as to what books were actually supposed to be in the Bible. There was just a recognition. I’ll close with a note Calvin, from the Institutes, Book I, chapter VII: Scripture created the Church; not the other way around.