What Does 'Inerrant' Even Mean? 🤔

Today, Dr. Robert Plummer attempts to answer the question "Is the Bible inerrant or infallible?" And if I'm honest, he leaves us with more questions than he answers, all while trying to paint those who doubt inerrancy as having a view that lacks nuance and critical thought.

Cards:
AiG Canada is Lying for Clicks! 😯:
Proof of Not God? An Atheist Claims to Falsify God:
Without The Image of God, Slavery Makes Sense?!?:

Sources:
Nebuchadnezzar's Dream: The Crusades, Apocalyptic Prophecy, and the End of History. Jay Rubenstein (2018). ISBN: 9780190274221

All my various links can be found here:

Mailing Address:
Viced Rhino
PO Box 343
Fort Erie, Ontario, Canada
L2A 5N1

Federal law allows citizens to reproduce, distribute, or exhibit portions of copyrighted motion pictures, video tapes, or video discs under certain circumstances without authorization of the copyright holder. This infringement of copyright is called “Fair Use” and is allowed for purposes of criticism, news reporting, teaching, and parody.

[VicedRhino]

Just a reminder that I am not on telegram, and I also don't reply with a long string of emoji hearts, not sure what the end game is with that one, but don't ever let a reply in the comment section lead you to trying to contact me on something as sketchy as telegram.

[travis]

Better example of translating ancient idioms. Imagine someone 2, 000 years from now reading both "booty call" and "butt dial".

[brunozeigerts]

There was a scene in MASH, where Father Mulcahy reads, 'Thou SHALT commit adultery?' Potter replies, jokingly, 'This is the New Army, Father.' Mulcahy: "I hope this is a misprint... these boys are trained to take orders.'

[ozscoop]

"I'm having trouble understanding the bible."

"Here, try this."
*hands them the bible*

[krackkokichi]

i was taught scriptural inerrancy, and as a very literal minded person, when i found out the bible wasn't inerrant, i went "oh so what are we even believing in then" and i still don't understand how people can acknowledge errors and still believe (like good for them but thats not me)

[fthm]

OMG the Low Bar Bill part killed me:DD LoL!!!

[ianchisholm]

For Dr. Plummer, 'Inerrant' seems to mean the same as 'You get the general idea'. His PhD, by the way, is from the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, where he works.

[helenaconstantine]

I recently read an evangelical book on Biblical history. The author complained that "critical scholars" don't apply the same level of skepticism to non-Biblical texts as they do to the Bible. He gave as an example, scholars denying the historical reality of David, but accepting Solon. What he didn't realize is Solon (from whom we have his own poetry and biographical or historical references by several different authors who used sources contemporary with Solon) is not the correct comparandum for David. David's equivalent in Greece would be Theseus--you know, the one who killed the half-bull/half-human minotaur. No modern scholar has ever thought Theseus was a historical figure.

[martinholt]

42:16 The whole thing about the Passover vs the Unleavened Bread got me giggling. All I could think about was the Monty Python skit, where the Pope was arguing with Michelangelo about his painting of the Penultimate Supper, which featured thirty disciples, three Christs, and at least one kangaroo.

[Chrismas]

I was a witness to VR affirming the mic dousing was entirely purposeful

[stevewithaq]

34:03 On the contrary, a claim of getting a new puppy requires strict evidentiary support.
You must provide the puppy for physical verification.
This process may appear to the layman to be a series of pets, boops, and/or silly phrases like "whosagoodboyden", but is actually a rigorous test of the evidence.

[markrothenbuhler]

VR, your super-star microphone did die, but it resurrected three days later.

[christianjalexander]

Oh my god, you felt like such a kindred spirit to me with the Monsters, Inc. 2319 clip, because that was literally how I remembered the reference of that exact verse in Numbers when I was memorizing hundreds of passages for the National Bible Bee a decade ago.

[brunozeigerts]

The question of original documents makes me think of the ship of Theseus, or Theseus' paradox. It's a thought experiment of whether an object that has had all of its components replaced remains fundamentally the same object.

[Christopher_Giustolisi]

This is simple. Inerrant means without error and when something turns out to be wrong, believers will claim it´s not meant to be taken literal.

[chameleonx]

I just thought of something. If God is supposed to have directly inspired every word of scripture, such that we can consider it to be God speaking through a human author, saying exactly what he wanted them to say... what does that say about free will?

Like, a lot of these people presumably didn't even know they were speaking for God. He wasn't literally in the room dictating precisely what words to use. They were just writing down what they thought, and somehow this was also what God wanted them to say.

... How, though? Did he just put the words into their minds? Did he control what they wanted to say so it matched what he did? How does that work exactly?

[timothymulholland]

I taught in secular universities for 40 years. I NEVER heard of a "professor" who attacked religion or religious beliefs.

[crestofhonor]

One great example of how people can interpret things differently is Dragon Ball Super. Akira Toriyama never wrote directly to Toei or Toyotaro. Both the manga and the anime were given the same outlines of how Toriyama wanted the arcs to go to both Toyotaro and Toei and yet their interpretations of how to execute the same ideas ended up differing. So while both the manga and anime have similar events, how they go about executing each plot point is different.

It’s pretty much impossible to know how Toriyama wanted the events to go down in his mind originally as we got two different versions of similar events based off of how they wanted to execute each of these

[martinholt]

My choice for the final empire mentioned in Daniel is the Edo Period of Japan. At that time, Japan was ruled by the Tokugawa Shogunate, a military regime akin to European feudalism. The Japanese 'knight' was the samurai, whose symbol of Bushido was the katana, or longsword, forged of folded iron. However, the Imperial seat still existed, mainly in a ceremonial role, largely because the ruling nobles were obsessed with artwork, particularly pottery, which is baked ceramic clay.

Iron mixed with clay. Nailed it.

[markboz]

Footnotes needed by the big man himself to let us know which verses need interpretation and which are literal.Who are we to make our own minds up?