# LCMS Convention Workbook_St. Louis Missouri_1973_S455
# Machine transcription, uncorrected — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

440

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revelation that God gave of
Himself and of His saving
actions in history when
earlier Scriptures are com-
pared with later Scriptures
(as when the Old Testament
is compared with the New
Testament).

Dd. Lutheran theology also ac-
knowledges that there are
in the Scriptures no conflic-
ting or contradictory con-
ceptions of God and His wavs
with men, but rather a per-
Fect theological unity.

For Lutheran theology it is a
self-evident truth that God's
revelation or Himself in the
Sacred Scriptures, though
varving in fullness from

age to age, is alwavs perfectly
consistent with itself.

An inerrant book

Another qualitative difference
between the Scriptures and
other literature is that the
Scriptures are inerrant.

a. The Lutheran Symbols make a
sharp distinction between
the Scriptures and "human
being's writings" (FC, SD,
Summary, 9) and clearly affirm
that the weaknesses which
characterize human writings
are not found in the Scrip-
tures (Ap, XXIV, 94-95).

bp. The Lutheran Symbols confess

the inerrancy of the Scriptures
with simple and forceful words:
"They will not lie to you"

(LC, V, 763; cf. also FC, Ep,
VIII, 13, and LC, IV, 57).
"These words of the Scriptures
are inerrant because they are
inspired by God--words taught
by the Holy Spirit, written

by men moved by the Holy
Spirit’ (CTCR, Revelation, p.
4, par. 2). :

Kg

CONTEMPORARY APPROACHES TO BIBLICAL INTERPRETATION

An errant book

While the Scriptures from the
theological perspective are
"not-or-this-world", histori-
cally considered they still are
"of-this-world.'' Hence, every
aspect of their history is open
to investigation by secular his-
torians. Thus, the Scriptures
bear the marks of their history
also in terms of what the criti-
cal eye discerns as faults.

One may still speak of in-
errancy, but not on the
level of errorless bibli-
cal statements about his-
tory and nature, for in-
errancy pertains exclu-
sively to the biblical wit-
ness concerning sin and
grace through which God
calls mankind to salvation.

"Inerrancv' is sometimes
defined to mean that the
Bible, although it is his-
torically conditioned,
nevertheless is the kind
of book that calls men to
faith and newness of life
through its manifold wit-
ness to God's redemptive
purposes in human history.
In this view, “inerrancy”
does not mean that the
Bible is the kind of book
in which there is perfect
agreement in all its
teachings and inerrant
information concerning

all matters of which it
speaks.