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    WHO WAS INERRANT?

    From our book, "No Dead Ends!"  Copyright 1988.

    If the Old Testament is inerrant, then the Scribes and Pharisees and Priests were absolutely right and Jesus was wrong!  In every confrontation, these religious leaders stood firm on the infallibility of the written Scriptures.  As we criticize and condemn them, we may not realize that they were simply doing exactly what good fundamentalists always do---They were contending for the faith.  Furthermore, we may not realize that it was Jesus himself who was constantly reinterpreting, changing and outright repudiating the sacred Scriptures.  In all their clashes over various doctrines and practices, one basic underlying issue remained:  Old Testament inerrancy!

    Now, those “villains” of the gospels, called Scribes and Pharisees, didn’t just make up some narrow-minded intolerant regulations.  They got most of those regulations straight from the Scriptures.  Therefore, it’s not surprising that they reacted like devout fundamentalists always react when “liberals” use their own experience or scientific research to modify Scriptural injunctions.

    It’s not surprising that they were seriously disturbed when Jesus dared to pit his own opinion against the Bible!  On one occasion, the Pharisees said, “Don’t harvest grain on the Sabbath” (see Mark 2:23-24).  Jesus said, “Oh, that law of the Sabbath isn’t absolute.  We must apply situational ethics” (see Mark 2:25-27).

    Now, which was closer to the Old Testament Scriptures?  They said, “And the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, But as for you, speak to the sons of Israel, saying, ‘You shall surely observe My sabbaths; for this is a sign between Me and you throughout your generations, that you may know that I am the Lord who sanctifies you.  Therefore you are to observe the sabbath, for it is holy to you. Everyone who profanes it shall surely be put to death; for whoever does any work on it, that person shall be cut off from among his people.  For six days work may be done, but on the seventh day there is a sabbath of complete rest, holy to the Lord; whoever does any work on the sabbath day shall surely be put to death’ “ (Ex. 31:12-15);

    “Now while the sons of Israel were in the wilderness, they found a man gathering wood on the sabbath day.  And those who found him gathering wood brought him to Moses and Aaron, and to all the congregation; and they put him in custody because it had not been declared what should be done to him.  Then the Lord said to Moses, ‘The man shall surely be put to death; all the congregation shall stone him with stones outside the camp.’  So all the congregation brought him outside the camp, and stoned him to death with stones, just as the Lord had commanded Moses” (Num. 15:32-36);

    “Observe the sabbath day to keep it holy, as the Lord your God commanded you. Six days you shall labor and do all your work, but the seventh day is a sabbath of the Lord your God; in it you shall not do any work, you or your son or your daughter or your male servant or your female servant or your ox or your donkey or any of your cattle or your sojourner who stays with you, so that your male servant and your female servant may rest as well as you.  And you shall remember that you were a slave in the land of Egypt, and the Lord your God brought you out of there by a mighty hand and by an outstretched arm; therefore the Lord your God commanded you to observe the sabbath day” (Deut. 5:12-15).

    As to adultery, the Pharisees said, “Those taken in adultery should be stoned!” (see John 8:3-5).  Jesus said, “Well, I’m not going to condemn adulterers.” (see John 8:11).

    Now, which was closer to the Old Testament Scriptures?  They said, “The adulterer and the adulteress shall surely be put to death” (Lev. 20:10).  (Also see Deut 22:22).

    The Pharisees were very careful about associates.  They avoided the very appearance of evil.  “And behold, there was a woman in the city who was a sinner; and when she learned that He was reclining at the table in the Pharisee’s house, she brought an alabaster vial of perfume, and standing behind Him at His feet, weeping, she began to wet His feet with her tears, and kept wiping them with the hair of her head, and kissing His feet, and anointing them with the perfume. Now when the Pharisee who had invited Him saw this, he said to himself, ‘If this man were a prophet He would know who and what sort of person this woman is who is touching Him, that she is a sinner’ “ (Luke 7:37-39).

    “And both the Pharisees and the scribes began to grumble, saying, ‘This man receives sinners and eats with them’ “ (Luke 15:2).

    Jesus, on the other hand, was extremely lax in this regard.

    Now which attitude is closer to Old Testament Scriptures?  They said, “I hate the assembly of evildoers, And I will not sit with the wicked” (Ps. 26:5).

    As to rewards and punishment, the Old Testament promised prosperity to the obedient and poverty to the disobedient.  “Now it shall be, if you will diligently obey the Lord your God, being careful to do all His commandments which I command you today, the Lord your God will set you high above all the nations of the earth.  And all these blessings shall come upon you and overtake you, if you will obey the Lord your God.  The Lord will command the blessing upon you in your barns and in all that you put your hand to, and He will bless you in the land which the Lord your God gives you.  But it shall come about, if you will not obey the Lord your God, to observe to do all His commandments and His statutes with which I charge you today, that all these curses shall come upon you and overtake you.  The Lord will smite you with consumption and with fever and with inflammation and with fiery heat and with the sword and with blight and with mildew, and they shall pursue you until you perish” (Deut. 28:1-2,8,15,22).

    Jesus rejected this teaching.  “No servant can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one, and love the other, or else he will hold to one, and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon.  Now the Pharisees, who were lovers of money, were listening to all these things, and they were scoffing at Him.  Now there was a certain rich man, and he habitually dressed in purple and fine linen, gaily living in splendor every day.  And a certain poor man named Lazarus was laid at his gate, covered with sores, and longing to be fed with the crumbs which were falling from the rich man’s table; besides, even the dogs were coming and licking his sores.  Now it came about that the poor man died and he was carried away by the angels to Abraham’s bosom; and the rich man also died and was buried.  And in Hades he lifted up his eyes, being in torment, and saw Abraham far away, and Lazarus in his bosom” (Luke 16:13-14,19-23).

    Jesus disregarded the “unclean” warnings (see Lev. 15:19,25-27).

    “And behold, a woman who had been suffering from a hemorrhage for twelve years, came up behind Him and touched the fringe of His cloak; But Jesus turning and seeing her said, ‘Daughter, take courage; your faith has made you well.’  And at once the woman was made well” (Matt. 9:20,22).

    Jesus was careless about washing.  “And the Pharisees and some of the scribes gathered together around Him when they had come from Jerusalem, and had seen that some of His disciples were eating their bread with impure hands, that is, unwashed. (For the Pharisees and all the Jews do not eat unless they carefully wash their hands, thus observing the traditions of the elders; and when they come from the market place, they do not eat unless they cleanse themselves; and there are many other things which they have received in order to observe, such as the washing of cups and pitchers and copper pots.) And the Pharisees and the scribes asked Him, Why do Your disciples not walk according to the tradition of the elders, but eat their bread with impure hands?  But in vain do they worship Me, Teaching as doctrines the precepts of men.’ Neglecting the commandment of God, you hold to the tradition of men.  He was also saying to them, ‘You nicely set aside the commandment of God in order to keep your tradition’ “ (Mark 7:1-5,7-9).

    This clearly violated Old Testament commandments.  “So they shall wash their hands and their feet, that they may not die; and it shall be a perpetual statute for them, for Aaron and his descendants throughout their generations” (Ex. 30:21).

    “Now when He had spoken, a Pharisee asked Him to have lunch with him; and He went in, and reclined at the table. And when the Pharisee saw it, he was surprised that He had not first ceremonially washed before the meal.  But the Lord said to him, Now you Pharisees clean the outside of the cup and of the platter; but inside of you, you are full of robbery and wickedness” (Luke 11:37-39).

    Jesus changed the admonitions on vows.  Moses said, “When you make a vow to the Lord your God, you shall not delay to pay it, for it would be sin in you, and the Lord your God will surely require it of you” (Deut. 23:21).

    David said, “Make vows to the Lord your God and fulfill them; Let all who are around Him bring gifts to Him who is to be feared” (Ps. 76:11).

    Jesus said, “Again, you have heard that the ancients were told, ‘You shall not make false vows, but shall fulfill your vows to the Lord.’ But I say to you, make no oath at all, either by heaven, for it is the throne of God, or by the earth, for it is the footstool of His feet, or by Jerusalem, for it is the city of the great King. Nor shall you make an oath by your head, for you cannot make one hair white or black. But let your statement be, “Yes, yes” or “No, no”; and anything beyond these is of evil’ “ (Matt. 5:33-37).

    Jesus totally rejected the retaliation commands.  “If a man injures his neighbor, just as he has done, so it shall be done to him:  fracture for fracture, eye for eye, tooth for tooth; just as he has injured a man, so it shall be inflicted on him” (Lev. 24:19-20).

    “You have heard that it was said, ‘An eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth’ But I say to you, do not resist him who is evil; but whoever slaps you on your right cheek, turn to him the other also” (Matt. 5:38-39).

    Furthermore, the Pharisees were fanatically committed to monotheism.  They had fought long and hard to elevate a “one God” theology and their crusade was based on innumerable Old Testament Scriptures.  “The one who blasphemes the name of the Lord shall surely be put to death; all the congregation shall certainly stone him. The alien as well as the native, when he blasphemes the Name, shall be put to death” (Lev. 24:16;
    “But He said, ‘You cannot see My face, for no man can see Me and live!” (Ex. 33:20);

    “For you shall not worship any other god, for the Lord, whose name is Jealous, is a jealous God” (Ex. 34:14);

    “To you it was shown that you might know that the Lord, He is God; there is no other besides Him” (Deut. 4:35);

    “I will not execute My fierce anger; I will not destroy Ephraim again. For I am God and not man, the Holy One in your midst, And I will not come in wrath” (Hos. 11:9);

    “I am the Lord, that is My name; I will not give My glory to another . . .” (Isa. 42:8);

    “Thus says the Lord, the King of Israel And his Redeemer, the Lord of hosts: ‘I am the first and I am the last, And there is no God besides Me” (Isa. 44:6);

    “The heavens are the heavens of the Lord; But the earth He has given to the sons of men” (Ps. 115:16);

    In light of these passages and hundreds of others, it’s understandable that they would be deeply concerned about Jesus’ rather startling claims:

    “The Jews therefore were grumbling about Him, because He said, ‘I am the bread that came down out of heaven.’ “ (John 6:41);

    “ ‘I and the Father are one.’  The Jews took up stones again to stone Him.  Jesus answered them, ‘I showed you many good works from the Father; for which of them are you stoning Me?’  The Jews answered Him, ‘For a good work we do not stone You, but for blasphemy; and because You, being a man, make Yourself out to be God.’ “ (John 10:30-33);

    “And seeing their faith, He said, ‘Friend, your sins are forgiven you.’  And the scribes and the Pharisees began to reason, saying, ‘Who is this man who speaks blasphemies? Who can forgive sins, but God alone?’ “ (Luke 5:20-21).

    Before we self-righteously judge those detestable Scribes and Pharisees, let’s put ourselves in their place:  What would we say if a teacher came along advocating reasonable and practical responses, instead of unquestioning obedience to Scripture?  “And they were watching Him to see if He would heal him on the Sabbath, in order that they might accuse Him.  And He said to the man with the withered hand, ‘Rise and come forward!  And He said to them, ‘Is it lawful on the Sabbath to do good or to do harm, to save a life or to kill?’ But they kept silent.  And after looking around at them with anger, grieved at their hardness of heart, He said to the man, ‘Stretch out your hand.’ And he stretched it out, and his hand was restored.  And the Pharisees went out and immediately began taking counsel with the Herodians against Him, as to how they might destroy Him” (Mark 3:2-6).
    Would such “subjectiveness” disturb us if we didn’t have the advantage of hindsight?  Of course, it would.

    Before we condemn those “evil” Scribes and Pharisees, let’s consider their position.  How would we feel if an unknown and uneducated man appeared and began to repudiate all the beliefs and moral standards we hold dear?  Would we immediately and happily give up our traditional doctrines and change our lifestyle just to please him?  I doubt it!

    Yes, it was Jesus versus Old Testament inerrancy.  Fortunately Jesus, with the aid of another avid “errantist” named Paul, won.

    Later, when Paul and Peter had their famous showdown, it was Peter who held to the Old Testament Scriptures.  It was Paul who insisted upon updating and changing the rules to fit modern life.  “But when Cephas came to Antioch, I opposed him to his face, because he stood condemned.  For prior to the coming of certain men from James, he used to eat with the Gentiles; but when they came, he began to withdraw and hold himself aloof, fearing the party of the circumcision” (Gal 2:11-12).

    Paul said Jesus abolished Old Testament rules, “By abolishing in His flesh the enmity, which is the Law of commandments contained in ordinances, that in Himself He might make the two into one new man, thus establishing peace” (Eph. 2:15).

    Thus, we see that Christianity itself becomes a refutation of inerrancy.  Christianity represents a radical change; and inerrant things don’t need to be changed!  Indeed, inerrant or perfect things can’t be changed without thereby becoming errant and imperfect!

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Copyrighted 2009 by Miles and Maralene Wesner, Idabel, OK.  PLEASE FEEL FREE TO USE THIS MESSAGE IN ANY WAY YOU THINK IS APPROPRIATE.  The only thing we ask is that you give credit for original material in PUBLISHED works. 

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