Gordon R. Lewis on the Meaning of Infallibility

The following article is now on-line in PDF:

Gordon R. Lewis, "What Does Biblical Infallibility Mean?" Bulletin of the Evangelical Theological Society 6.1 (Winter 1963): 18-27.

This article explores a means of understanding and communicating the significance of Biblical infallibility and concludes:

(1) Although there is a clear distinction today between meaning and sentences, inspiration may be viewed as implying neither merely conceptual or merely verbal supervision on the part of the Holy Spirit. Inspiration in this realm of discourse applies to both content and wording, meanings and sentences.

(2) “Inerrancy” may be used most clearly for meanings which are cognitively taught by those with delegated authority as spokesmen for God, and for non-cogni­tive meanings relating to the speakers themselves.

(3) “Infallibility” most helpfully designates the verbal media of the Scriptures as effective communicators of the Spirit-intended meaning through the Biblical writings.

(4) All that is written in Scripture is infallible. All that Scripture teaches cogni­tively is objectively true. All that Scripture teaches non-cognitively is subjectively true, i.e. true of the one whose idea is expressed. This then is a plenary view of verbal inspiration; all sentences are infallible, and all meanings are inerrant for their respective purposes.