While you are sitting on a bench in the park reading your Bible, a curious and nosy jogger approaches you, desiring to find out why in the world you study the Bible and how you can possibly consider it to be authoritative.
Keeping this scenario in mind, answer the following questions in your essay:
- What does it mean to say that the Bible has authority, and from where does the authority of the Bible come?
- When it comes to the Bible, what is inspiration, and what biblical support can you provide to support your view?
- What is your definition of inerrancy (with biblical support), and what arguments would you use to defend your view? In your response to the second part of the question, be sure to evaluate the validity of every single one of the 4 “arguments for inerrancy” (Elwell, pg. 157–59),and identify the strongest and weakest arguments while explaining your rationale.
- What is the relationship between inspiration and inerrancy?
- What are the implications of your views on the authority, inspiration, and inerrancy of the Bible when it comes to the way you should live your life?