Page 34 - Doctrine and History of the Preservation of the Bible Student Textbook

Cultism
The cults have created doctrines that do not agree with orthodox Christianity and reliable translations of
the Bible. Therefore, to hold their errant positions, the Bible has been rewritten or reinterpreted to
come in line with their teachings. Their view of inspiration is that the Bible is inspired in as much as it
has been corrected to agree with their doctrines. They claim their translators are scholars in Greek and
Hebrew, when such claims have never been validated. The Jehovah’s Witnesses only accept the
inspiration of Scripture as long as their translation of the New World Version of the Bible is accepted by
the reader. According to them, all other versions of the Bible have been tainted with errors.

Romanism
The Church of Rome places tradition and church authority above the
Scriptures. The claims of Rome are:

(1) Christ and the apostles taught much that is not recorded. This has been
preserved by an inspired church and constitutes a rule of faith as binding as
the Scriptures. (Tradition)
(2) The church is the only infallible teacher and interpreter of Scripture. If
Scripture conflicts with the church teachings, the Scripture must yield to the
church.
(3) The message of the church is in matters of faith and morals only.
(4) The present and past authorities of the Church of Rome are divinely
constituted infallible; therefore, not subject to criticism.

Since the Church of Rome holds these views, the Scriptures are relegated to a secondary position to the
ordinances laid down by the Church. They hold to the inspiration of Scripture as long as the Scripture
does not disagree with those ordinances of the Church, and if so, Church polity takes precedence.

The Definition of Inerrancy Coincides with Inspiration

Definition of Inerrancy: The original autographs that were written by the inspiration of the Holy Spirit
were created without any disharmony between books and the very words and even the punctuation
were penned by each author without error in thought or form. God’s thoughts were perfectly
expressed in written words.

The result of the divine-human authorship is a message without error. If God is true (Rom. 3:4) and the
Bible comes from God (2 Tim. 3:16), then the Bible must be true in all its parts. That is why the Bible is
said to be inerrant. “Inerrancy is the view that when all the facts become known, they will demonstrate
that the Bible in its original autographs and correctly interpreted is entirely true and never false in all it
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affirms, whether that relates to doctrine or ethics or to the social, physical, or life sciences”.

14 Paul D. Feinberg in Evangelical Dictionary of Theology, ed. Walter A. Elwell. Grand Rapids: Baker. p. 142
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