There are many good books defending the total truthfulness of the Christian Scriptures. However, Derek Thomas’ The Bible: God’s Inerrant Word (a Banner of Truth Mini-Guide) serves as a worthwhile introduction to the Bible that begins by explaining how God reveals Himself to His people. He not only reveals Himself through creation (general revelation) but also through the Bible (special revelation).
Thomas, who serves as Senior Minister at First Presbyterian Church in Columbia, South Carolina, explains that God is a speaking God who speaks through the pages of Scripture. Therefore, every jot and tittle of the Bible matters (Matt 5:17-18). Thomas’ book is unique in that he does not start with the assumption that people accept the Word of God as authoritative and inerrant. He succinctly, yet thoroughly, aims to convince the reader the reason why words have objective meaning. Thomas writes:
Before we examine the nature of all the words in the Bible, we should ponder the more basic starting-point: the Bible contains words spoken objectively by God. These words are true, and have objective meaning, because God is true and has meaning (15).
Solidifying that Scripture is tied to the character of God works as the perfect transition into the progressive revelation of the Bible. Progressive revelation is the idea that God makes Himself known to His people not all at once, but little by little. Not only does God reveal Himself through objective words, but He also reveals Himself over the course of time in Scripture.
The greatest strength of the book is the logical progression of each topic within each chapter. The book starts out by describing the very concept of truth itself and how God reveals Himself through words. Then, the book advances to describe the essential process of verbal plenary inspiration and how He used imperfect human authors, guided by the Holy Spirit, to write infallible words. In the next stage of the book, Thomas details how the Bible can be known to be without error and with the correct books. The final stage of the book explains how an inerrant Bible is to be interpreted and applied. Overall, Thomas does a remarkable job in explaining the different attributes of the Scriptures in a cohesive and developing way.
Similar to Sinclair Ferguson’s From the Mouth of God: Trusting, Reading, and Applying the Bible, Thomas argues that before the reader can interpret and apply the Bible, they must understand the Bible’s trustworthiness, down to the letter of every word.
What I appreciate the most about Thomas’ little book is that he takes two chapters to explain the human authorship of the Bible and how, despite the different personalities writing the Scriptures, the written text is the very word of God. Thomas writes:
Care must be taken not to contradict what has already been said about the human involvement and initiative in the production of Scripture. Men wrote. And their contributions are discernable. But the finished product is what God intended. The nuance is breathtaking. Sovereignty and responsibility in compatibilist harmony (52-53).
While humanity is fallible, the words written by the individual authors of Scripture were both completely human and completely divine due to what theologians call “concurrence.” God worked through the human writers of Scripture, not by dictation, but by verbal plenary inspiration. This means that while God utilized the individual personalities, style, experiences, and research of the biblical authors, the final product—the Scriptures themselves—are breathed out by God (2 Tim 3:16). This simple but important truth is vital to the spiritual life of the believer because it helps Christians trust their Bibles. It also undermines the argument by critics of inerrancy who suggest that inerrancy does not account for the humanness of the Bible.
The last section of Thomas’ book deals with the interpretation, application, and central message of the Bible. While he touches lightly on these topics, he offers good definitions of how we are supposed to interpret the Bible, with Scripture interpreting Scripture. He also reminds the reader that the central message of the Bible is the promise and fulfillment of Christ.
The extent of biblical sufficiency may be one of the greatest theological questions of our time.
It would have been helpful for Thomas to include a section or even a separate chapter on the sufficiency of Scripture (2 Tim 3:17). Is the Bible enough to answer our questions about life? This is the logical end of biblical inspiration, interpretation, and application. The extent of biblical sufficiency may be one of the greatest theological questions of our time. Although God’s Inerrant Word is only an introductory book, the absence of any discussion of this topic is a glaring weakness.
Overall, however, Thomas’ book serves as an important introduction to the doctrine of Scripture. As he says in the introduction, the book is not meant to be exhaustive on each of the topics discussed. This is not a book that should be given to seekers because of the technical jargon used in the book and the book is written in such a way that the reader is already convinced God is real. However, it does serve as a great resource for both new and seasoned believers involved in discussions in a small group or Sunday School lessons. The Bible: God’s Inerrant Word can also serve as a refresher for individual pastors and laypeople who need to brush up on their doctrine of Scripture.