I personally believe that the modern day Baptist teaching of Biblical inerrancy is just about as modern as the Baptist teaching of cessationism. These words are modern. Cessationism just used to be called deism–if you rejected miracles, dreams, visions, etc–you were labeled a deist a few hundred years ago. Inerrancy–in the Norman Geisler sense, the Chicago Statement–it just doesn’t exist throughout the history of theology. The top verse is Psalm 19:7 (KJV): “The law of the Lord is perfect.” And by that we mean the Ten Commandments; or perhaps the 613 commandments, but even they didn’t last the test of time. Only the Ten Commandments did. So I personally believe that most Bible difficulties or “contradictions” can be adequately answered (see Norman Geisler’s When Critics Ask, and the biblio at the back). But I think its wrong to say there are absolutely no discrepancies about dates, times, and places in the Bible…And if you do find them, then Hell’s not real and atheism’s true? That’s the problem with inerrancy teaching! It’s like a spiritual land mine for Christians.
The smallest tiniest thing with this stuff can lead to atheism. This is why its so important to have an actual relationship with Jesus and the Holy Spirit through God the Father. The level of certainty required by anti-Bible contradiction thinking today–I think is unrealistically high–so high, that its kind of foolish. And it just sets people up for failure. As if a perfect God can’t inspire imperfect and fallible men to write things out. If the slightest punctuation is wrong–the level of perfectionism!–now Hell’s not real. That’s what’s going on with this stuff. I think the way inerrancy is presented by Baptists, its spiritually dangerous, intellectually dishonest; and it distracts people from just trusting in Jesus and the Word of God as inspired by the Holy Spirit and useful for holy living. Its a massive spiritual distraction.
—
Dr. Michael F. Bird, “Inerrancy Is Not Necessary for Evangelicalism Outside the USA,” in Five Views on Biblical Inerrancy (Zondervan, 2013).
I will have mercy on whom I have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion… the Lord will carry out his sentence on earth with speed and finality… The one who trusts in Him will never be put to shame. –Romans 9:15, 28, 33 (NIV)–
—
The following Wesleyan-holiness denominations would likely accept the books below for an Arminian view of predestination and election: the Wesleyan Church, the Free Methodist Church, the Church of the Nazarene, the Salvation Army, Church of God (Anderson), Church of God (Cleveland), the Bible Methodist Church, the Evangelical Methodist Church, Assemblies of God, and the Pentecostal Holiness Church.
Martin Luther, Commentary on Romans (Kregel, 1982).
Jack W. Cottrell, “The Classical Arminian View,” in Perspectives on Election (B&H, 2006).
The works of the flesh are evident: SEXUAL IMMORALITY, IMPURITY, SENSUALITY, idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions, divisions, envy, drunkenness, ORGIES, and things like these. I warn you, as I warned you before, that THOSE WHO DO SUCH THINGS WILL NOT INHERIT THE KINGDOM OF GOD. –Galatians 5:19-21 (ESV)–
Do you not know that the unrighteous WILL NOT INHERIT THE KINGDOM OF GOD? Do not be deceived: neither THE SEXUALLY IMMORAL, nor idolaters, nor ADULTERERS, nor MEN WHO PRACTICE HOMOSEXUALITY, nor thieves, nor the greedy, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God. –1 Corinthians 6:9-10 (ESV)–
As for the cowardly, the faithless, the detestable, as for murderers, THE SEXUALLY IMMORAL, sorcerers, idolaters, and all liars, their portion will be in THE LAKE THAT BURNS WITH FIRE AND SULFUR. –Revelation 21:8 (ESV)–
Sexual sin is always at the top of the vice lists in the New Testament. This is because it is the most defiling to the temple of God; and is the only sin in which the body itself is defiled. Not all sins are the same. Sexual sin is capital, mortal, damnation level sin. It can be forgiven, but should definitely not be trivialized or treated like a personal opinion, such as whether vegetarianism is okay. Hell is on the line with sexual sin. Outside of the cross, its STDs in this life, mental and spiritual defilement, and eternal punishment in the next. It is the ultimate expression of selfishness, carnal-mindedness, and rebellion against the spiritual rule of the law of God over your mind and body. Sexual sin is often not a one-time thing; but its a vice, an addiction, a besetting sin that grips a person and won’t let go of them so easily. It should be avoided more than any other human conception of sin.
Temptation should mainly be based on sexual sin: pornography, fornication, prostitution, adultery, and homosexuality. Wherever you find these, practically every other damnation-level vice can be found as well. These kinds of things are against salvation if they’re not resisted. Stay away from any Christian who thinks lightly of sexual sin (1 Cor. 5:11; 2 Cor. 6:17). The only acceptable form of sexual expression is that which is within Christian marriage (Heb. 13:4). God has made it so that in all cultures, sexual sin is always linked with extreme disgrace and shame. He has written it on the hearts of all people that this is very, very evil and harmful. Exodus 20:14: “You shall not commit adultery.” If adultery is committed, it is the greatest insult to your spouse, a great devaluation, the greatest act of hatred you could ever commit against him or her. If fornication is committed, your partner will be devalued as well, once they find you’ve gone after some other partner, or see you’ve ghosted them. If prostitution is committed, the call girl is devalued, because she gives her body to a man that she personally thinks to be ugly, doesn’t really love, might have STDs, and just made use of her body because he paid her some money. If homosexual acts are committed, the devaluation occurs by perverting the image of God, and completely distorting the mind of the person who commits such a gender confused act.
Dr. David Miller said:
A gentleman who was in his fifties, he had led a homosexual lifestyle…he contracted the human papillomavirus (HPV)…genital warts…his entire buttock, his entire anal area had been eaten away by the warts…he ended up losing all of the buttock area. He ended up having a colostomy where his feces would come into a bag on his abdomen, because he no longer had a rectum…and it was a wide open gaping wound.
“In the same way the men give up natural sexual relations with women and burn with passion for each other. Men do shameful things with each other, and as a result they bring upon themselves the punishment they deserve for their wrongdoing” (Romans 1:27, GNT).
Dr. John R. Rice said:
If you are going to have a television set in your home, you must police it. Don’t ever allow it on unless something you know is good is showing. And when something is bad, turn it off. You have no business poisoning the minds of your children, or your own mind in soaking up all these wicked soap operas with affairs, premarital sex, divorces, slander, abuse–everything wicked and vile that comes out in the morals of those people…Christians have no business poisoning their minds with the things that tend toward adultery.
Somebody says, “There’s just one problem with purity culture. It makes girls feel condemned who have not maintained their virginity.” Then preach the cross to ’em! “He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, that we might die to sin and live to righteousness” (1 Peter 2:24, ESV). Forgiveness is available! Let your guilt show you how much this thing grieves the Spirit of God; and never, ever sin like that again! Remember that Mary Magdalene, a former prostitute, became a disciple of Christ. The person that has been forgiven much, loves much (Luke 7:47). The answer is not impurity culture: the answer is purity culture coupled with the grace of the cross.
WesleyGospel Ministries 