IV. The Consequences of Denying Infallible, Verbal Inspiration

When people say the words of the Bible are not all God's words but some are human in origin, or when they say there may be errors in the Bible, consider the consequences.
A. We Are Left without Any Reliable Source of Authority or Guidance in Religion.
Matthew 22:32 - Jesus claimed the Bible language was so exact we can make arguments that rely on the tense of verbs. But if in fact there could be errors in the writings, no such arguments would be reliable. How would we know what parts are correct and reliable and what parts are incorrect and unreliable?
2 Timothy 3:16,17; John 10:35; Acts 3:22,23; Matthew 28:18-20; John 12:48 - Bible writers said the Scriptures were reliable sources of authority and guidance in religion because they were God's will. They said we must accept all that is taught or stand condemned. They said we will be judged by what is taught. They said we must reject all human doctrines that differ from Scripture (Matt. 15:9; Gal. 1:8,9). But if there may be errors in Scripture, then we should obey only the parts that are true. How can we decide what is true and what is not?
B. We Begin a Course of Continual Rejection of Bible Teachings.
When we conclude that the Bible may be in error on some points, we almost invariably begin to question and deny more and more of what it teaches. People may start out saying they don't believe creation (or the Flood, or some other miracle) occurred the way the Bible describes it . Or they may say they don't believe the Bible is correct in its teaching about women being subject to men, or they reject the writings of Paul.
But such denials leave us with no grounds for believing anything else the Bible says. Disbelief is progressive. Whenever we say, "I know the Bible teaches this but I still cannot accept it as true," we have opened the door for more and more unbelief. The camel's nose is in the tent. We have started down the slippery slope. There is no logical stopping point. Soon we deny more and more miracles or more and more doctrines, etc., because we have undermined the foundation of belief.
C. We Deny the Claims of the Bible Writers, Necessarily Implying They Are Liars or False Teachers.
We have seen that the writers said they did speak from God, they did not speak their own ideas, all they said was from God, and therefore it could not be in error. To deny these claims is to say they were lying or insane. In any case, they were not true teachers of God, but by their own statements they must be false teachers. If so, we should not follow their words as having any authority in religion, but should completely reject them as we do the Koran or the Book of Mormon.
The claims of the Bible writers are such that they will not let us take a middle ground, as modernists try to do. Either we must accept the Bible as completely God's word - it is not the word of men, but every word was given by God with no possible errors - or else we must completely reject it as having no authority in religion at all. In that case we must conclude that the Bible is the product of evil, hypocritical men. We cannot say the Bible is a good book but may teach error sometimes.
D. We Deny that Jesus Is God's Divine Son and Make Him too a False Teacher.
Some want to say they believe in Jesus, but don't necessarily believe that everything in the Bible is true.
But the Bible is the only way to know anything about Jesus' life and teaching - John 5:46,47; 20:30,31; Acts 17:23; 18:28; etc.
How can you know Jesus is God's Son and a true prophet without appealing to Scripture? In fact, what good would it do you to believe in Jesus without the Scriptures, since you would have no idea what He did or did not teach?
We have seen that Jesus claimed the Bible was from God, and that both Old and New Testament writers spoke God's will.
He quoted the Old Testament writers as authoritative, and He said the New Testament writers would be guided by the Holy Spirit. If we say this is not true, then we have rejected Jesus and His teachings just the same as we saw, in the last point, that we are rejecting the Bible writers.
Luke 10:16 - Further, Jesus said that, if we receive His apostles and prophets we receive Him, but if we reject them we reject Him and His Father. Hence, if we say these men may have taught error, then as we have seen, we are rejecting what they said, and therefore rejecting Him.
E. We Bring the Curse of God on Ourselves.
To claim there are errors in Scripture is to reject the claims of the Bible writers and the claims of Jesus Himself. We cannot disbelieve those teachings and yet have the blessings those teachings offer.
Galatians 1:8,9 - If we preach a different gospel, we are accursed. But the gospel says, even in the context of this passage (vv 11,12), that the message is from God not man, therefore it is infallible, etc. If we say this is not so, we preach a different gospel and we are accursed.
1 Thessalonians 4:8 - To reject what the inspired men said is to reject, not men, but God, because God guided the men by the Holy Spirit. The men said what they wrote was God's word, not their own. If this is true and you reject, then you have rejected the word of God Himself.
Conclusion
There is no middle ground. We must accept the Bible as exactly what it claims to be: God's verbally inspired and infallible word. Or else we must reject it completely and give it no weight of authority in our lives at all.
To decide which to believe, we must consider the evidence that it is or is not from God (fulfilled prophecy, unity, miracles, etc.). This is material for another study (see links below). But to compromise and say we believe some of it but not all of it, is to take a position that the teachings of the Bible itself will not allow.
What is your view of Scripture? Do you accept it? If so, have you obeyed it?