I was set to begin my Old Testament class in September of 2009. I was somewhat looking forward to my fall semester in 2009. I say "somewhat" not because I really did not want to take the classes, but because it has been a tough year mentally and emotionally. When I decided to take seminary classes I did so to challenge myself and to learn more about my faith. I wanted to challenge myself and be prepared if I needed to defend my faith in someway or another. What I found out was that some people are severely entrenched in their views and/or accept things without critically thinking about what they have accepted to be true.
It is fall and the seminary classes have begun! The class is about the Old Testament, but the professor begins by pressing the issue about the Bible being inerrant. The class was confronted with either accepting the Bible is error free or not. However, the doctrine of inerrancy supposes that the original documents are error free. What we have now is clearly NOT error free since textual critics have pointed out inconsistencies and alterations to some documents. So, I find it rather moot to posture some sort of hyper-fundamental mentality towards other Christians regarding the inerrancy of Scripture. Please do not mistake me for some lunatic and such—I just cannot see the importance of forcing the doctrine of inerrancy towards people. It is a doctrine that cannot be verified with the data that we have, but is taken on faith which is solely up to the believer. I find nothing wrong with the doctrine of inerrancy, but I do think that becoming judgemental against those who do not adhere to inerrancy is counter productive to the message of the Gospel. Lastly, I am in the class to learn about the Old Testament and NOT about some tangent regarding what the professor thinks about inerrancy...
