Everyone on the staff of Songtime is totally committed—without any reservations—to the full authority of the Bible. However, because the word "authority" in our day has become so anemic, this statement must be amplified. We, at Songtime, believe the Bible, containing Old and New Testaments, to be the completely inspired, infallible, and inerrant Word of God in the original Hebrew, Aramaic, and Greek texts. Second Timothy 3:16 and 11 Peter 1:21 spell this out for us. The first text tells us that the writings were inspired:

"All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness." The second text tells us that the writers were inspired (contrary to the erroneous footnote in this Open Bible at II Timothy 3:16): "Holy men of God spake [spoke] as they were moved by the Holy Spirit."

God is the divine Author of the sixty-six books that make up the Bible; hence, it is consistently called "The Word of God." As He is living, so is His Word living (Heb. 4:12). And as God is perfect, making no mistakes, so is His Word perfect, without error (Deut. 32:4, Ps. 19:7; Mat. 5:48; Jas. 1:25). Error cannot come from One who is perfect. The psalmist assures us, "Forever, 0 LORD, thy [Your] word is settled in heaven" (Ps. 119:89). Consequently, we speak of the Bible as "infallible" and "inerrant." But we stress that this perfection applies to the Word as it originally was given to the human authors by God. They were "moved by the Holy Spirit" (2 Pet. 1:21). The Greek word for "moved" suggests that the writers were picked up and borne along supernaturally as they wrote down what God wanted them to write. The writers—as humans—were fallible, sinful creatures. But when the Holy Spirit took hold of them, they became infallible channels through whom His Word came, during the time they were penning God’s Word. This does not imply that God dictated the Bible verbatim, word-for-word, no! Although, admittedly, there were some times when God did dictate (Ex. 34:27; Rev. 14:13; Rev. 19:9). Most of the time, however, the writers were allowed to write in their own individual styles, using their own words. Yet, the Holy Spirit so superintended the project that what they wrote was precisely what God wanted them to write—even to the words (Ex. 34:27; Jer. 36:2ff; Mark 13:31; Rev. 17:17); indeed, even to the letters. As an illustration of this, check Galatians 3:16, where God rested a whole case on whether there was a plural or a singular noun—"seed" or "seeds." This is the marvel of pie-nary or full supernatural inspiration, extending even to words—thus, "verbal inspiration." The word "inspiration" (theopneustia, in Greek) literally means - "God-breathed." God breathed His Word into the minds of the human writers of the Bible, and they wrote under divine direction—even compulsion—where-by He guarded their writings and kept them from error. Thus, we at Songtime believe in the "inerrancy" of Scripture. Through the centuries, the church has been at odds over the "errancy" or "inerrancy" of Scripture—i.e., whether or not the Bible contains errors. Admittedly, we do find some difficulties, conflicts, and alleged contradictions in the translations. Inerrancy does not include the attempts of man to translate the Bible into the vernacular. For, try as translators will to avoid errors, inevitably some can and do creep into the translated texts, for these are subject to human fallibility, something which was not true of the original texts. This is one of the reasons why we have so many different modern versions and translations. Each seeks to eliminate alleged errors and restore, as closely as possible, the purity of the original texts.

Interestingly, however, the so-called errors that do exist, are remote and relatively insignificant. There are no conflicts in any of the vital texts dealing with major doctrinal truth. The "contradictions" lie in the realm of relatively minor discrepancies regarding numerals, dates, spelling, identification of per-Sons or texts, etc. Yet, even such "minor" problems must be taken seriously, and solutions must be sought in an endeavor to demonstrate the inerrancy of Scripture. Often, a careful study of the problem will suggest a solution. Be-sides, many of the claimed errors of twenty-five or more years ago have been solved by the discoveries of archaeology and no longer exist as problems. In-deed, archaeology, historical and textual scholarship are constantly corrobo-rating Scripture. So it is quite legitimate for us to "shelve" whatever remaining problem passages still bother us, until further evidence is unearthed—as it will be. Meanwhile, we are certainly justified in standing firm on the full author-ity, infallibility, and inerrancy of Scripture. And there can be no question that the Bible as we have it is entirely trustworthy. There are a number of classic books which interested readers of the Bible ought to consult for demonstrable proof of the Bible’s authority, inspiration, and inerrancy. We, at Songtime, recommend the following books for your consideration:

It is important to remember that new books are constantly being published on this general theme. The above list is only a sampler. Do not hesitate, at any time, to write for further information or help. Address your letters to: Songtime, Box 100, Barnstable, MA 02630