When Conservatism Is Not Enough

I am a conservative. If you have been a regular reader of The Beast's Lair, this should not be a jaw-dropping statement. (Incidentally, my conservatism is at time masked for those who do not know me as well because I have long hair.) I have many friends who would consider themselves "moderates" and even some who would call themselves "liberal" in their theology and approach to Scripture. (I recognize that the terms conservative, moderate, and liberal can mean many things to different people, but for the purposes of this post, these labels will suffice.)

Historically, one of the pivotal issues to determine where a person falls along this spectrum of conservative to liberal is in the area of Scripture. For the most part, and again I am speaking in generalities so I can quickly get to my ultimate point, if you are talking with a moderate, you will hear words like "infallible" crop up in the conversation. If you are talking to a conservative, the more likely word will be "inerrant" coupled with "infallible." Scripture doesn't really ever come up in conversations with liberals.

That last line was supposed to be funny.

When someone uses the word "infallible," they typically lean on an "at the end of the day" argument. At the end of the day, the bible will accomplish all it was designed for in faith and practice and we can have complete confidence in its overall message. When someone uses the word "inerrant," they typically mean that the bible is without error or contradiction in every way, perfectly inspired by the Holy Spirit and penned with the personalities of the biblical writers. That is a ridiculously simple explanation of those terms and much more should be said to do justice to those positions. But, here is what I am getting at:

This year will mark a decade of having the privilege to serve in the local church. God has blessed me in tremendous ways and I have learned a great deal about many things. Here is one that concerns me. Conservatives like me in the church are real quick to jump on the "inerrant" bandwagon. (And we are right to do so). We don't take kindly to those blasted moderates telling us that the bible is trustworthy for faith but not necessarily without error on some issues. We will stand our ground and hold forth the banner of inerrancy.

But then comes time to live it.

When is conservatism not enough? When we as conservatives proudly proclaim the inerrancy of Scripture but pay little attention to its sufficiency. In other words, we hold tight to the absence of error in the bible, but then brush to the side its teachings that interfere with our own worldview. The topics are endless. Divorce, church discipline, evangelism, worship, personal growth and on and on. Many are not even convinced of the sufficiency of Scripture to accurately portray God's self-revelation of Himself! But hey, it's inerrant! Something is wrong here. I have had a couple, and will continue to have more, conversations with a dear lady in my church concerning the nature of God. Among many issues, her biggest roadblock, and there are many right along with her even among evangelicals, is that God would never send anyone to hell. This is not the place to defend the judgment of God, but she will say to me in every conversation, "I know the bible is without error, but I just don't think God would do that."

Listen friends, the bible is tough. And we are inconsistent. My dear sister in the faith does not believe God would judge a person to hell, but yet has no problem believing God would joyfully crush His son to save a wretched sinner. The former is deserved, the latter is undeserved. Which is more difficult, the doctrine of God's judgment or the doctrine of God's love? His love.

So, we can and should hold fast to the inerrancy of the bible. But we Christians need to grasp the power of its sufficiency and seek it out in all matters of life and faith. For the glory of God.