How to Deal With Errors in the Bible

The Bible is supposed to be inerrant.        
Because it is "the Word of God,"        
The perfect Word of a perfect God.        
But if there ARE errors in the Bible, does that automatically mean          
We have to throw Biblical inerrancy out the window??        
NOT necessarily!! What i propose is a way of holding onto inerrancy          
But at the same time ADMITTING that there are errors in the Bible.        
         
Let's say there are two definitions of inerrancy:        
(1) The Fundamentalists think in terms of no errors anywhere in the Bible, period.        
Their standard is just too high.You run the risk of self-imposed blindness,        
Which in turn turns people off, making evangelization harder, less successful.        
         
(2) The Neo-Fundies, like myself if i can claim that label,          
are willing to settle for "practical" inerrancy rather than          
hold onto the traditional doctrine of inerrancy,        
What I am calling "storybook" or "ideal" inerrancy.        
The "ideal" type of something can sometimes be impractical.        
         
Suppose a passage in the Bible says "2 and 2 is 3.5,"        
While another passage, a later-written passage, says it is 4.        
Well, the "2 + 2 = 4" passage corrects the earlier one,cancelling it out.        
The net result is that there is NO error.at all.        
         
Instead of saying that each statement,each word is correct,        
we can allow for some errors, as long as they are corrected          
by later passages that replace the earlier mistakes, OK?        
My point is that as long as an error is corrected,        
accuracy, truthfulness, INERRANCY is maintained !!!        
         
Over-all inerrancy is the kind that we can live with,      
NOT the no-mistakes-at-all perfectionism that is      
more like Christian Science than anything.        
Here's an example of what I'm talking about:        
We read that David struck Goliath the Philistine in the head          
with a stone slung from his sling-shot, killing him(1 Samuel 17.49-50).        
But then we read that as the giant was laying on the ground,
David took Goliath's own sword and cut off his head, killing him(verse 51).        
Verse 50 is an approximation of the truth, while verse 51 is the actual truth.        
If David hadn't decapitated him, it is certain Goliath would have revived.        
So when verse 50 says David killed Goliath with a slingshot,        
that has to be taken as "shorthand" for the longer statement:        
he killed him with the slingshot plus the sword.          
Thus verse 50 isn't exactly true - but it doesn't have to be !!        
For the following verse takes care of everything.        
         
Here's another example of an error in the Bible,          
followed by the clarifying correction:        
Luke 24.5 reports on the Resurrection of Christ,        
Followed by His walking with two disciples on the road to Emmaus,        
Followed by His appearing to the 11 disciples, plus others, in Jerusalem.        
And then comes His giving the Great Commission(Luke 24.47),        
Followed by His Ascension(24.51) - as if it all happened within a week.        
The correction comes in ACTS 1.3-11 where        
the Resurrection is followed by the Ascension,        
"40 days" later,NOT within a week like Luke 24 suggests !!        
       
The trouble with acting overly "macho" and defending        
the every-word-of-the-Bible-is-perfect type of inerrancy        
is this: it makes it harder for us to put a portion of the Bible aside,        
To treat it as something to be obeyed only temporarily, not forever.        
Some parts of "the Word of God" are meant to be followed only for a time,        
While others are timelessly true and eternally in effect.        
       
Take God's Word to Abraham for example:          
God orders him to sacrifice Isaac.        
That was THE Word of God to Abraham.        
But when the angel says,"Stop !" as he's about to        
plunge the dagger into his son's chest (or throat),        
Abraham is willing to let go of what he thought was his duty.        
He's willing, more than willing, to accept the change in his assignment.        
He doesn't argue with the angel, by saying something stupid like,        
"But it's the Word of God,and the Word of God can't change!"        
Yes,if that story shows anything, it's that "the Word of God" can indeed change.        
We have to be like Abraham and let go of parts of "the Word of God,"        
which in our case means the Bible - parts of it have to go !!        
       
Not that we edit the Bible and delete certain passages.        
Rather we are to see them as obsolete, no longer in effect.        
For example, Moses speaks of the "days" of Creation Week(Genesis 1).        
But Paul the Apostle comes to the rescue by speaking of "eons"        
("aionos" in the Greek) during which the universe was created.        
For we read, "By faith we understand that the worlds        
were framed by the Word of God"(Hebrews 11.3).        
But in the Greek, it uses the word, "aionos," instead of "the worlds."        
The English word "eon" comes from and is even the transliteration of aionos!!        
So we can take Heb 11.3 like this, "By faith we understand        
that the EONS were framed by the Word of God..."        
And then visible things were created from the invisible.        
So this verse is definitely focusing on the creation of the universe !!        
       
My point is that Paul is correcting Genesis 1, or you could say,        
Simply showing that "days" is symbolic, rather than literal !!        
But if "days" in Genesis 1 aren't literal 24-hour days,        
why are they divided into "evenings" and "mornings"??!!        
That's easy. If we take the 7 "days" of Creation Week        
and divide them into halves (evening,mornings) we have 14 periods.        
Which is just the right number !! for according to the Big Bang Theory,        
The universe is 14 - fourteen - billion years old.        
Not 13 billion years, not 15 billion years.        
It is 13.8 billion years old, which rounds off as 14 billion.        
Yes, I thank God that Moses put in that part about "evenings and mornings."        
       
(I used to rack my brain about that question, Why the evenings,mornings??!!        
And then the answer came! Talk about an answer to prayer!        
As you can imagine, i was full of rejoicing, saying, "Glory to God!!"        
That discovery remains one of my greatest "breakthrus".)        
     
PS: the Luke 24/Acts 1 relationship serves as a template      
as to how to deal with Genesis 1 and Hebrews 11.3.      
I mean, simply, that Genesis 1 is like Luke 24 (in that both present a week).      
While Hebrews 11.3 acts like Acts 1.3 in that both replace      
the socalled "week" with a much larger period of time !!      
     
PART 2:  Let me compare the truthfulness of the Bible        
to paying the mortgage of your home.      
You are supposed to pay each month, right?      
Let's say you fall behind by 10 months,      
Then you catch up, paying all that back debt all at once.      
Well, it's as if you NEVER were behind in  your payments, OK?      
       
How does this relate to the Bible?, you ask.     
If the Bible has errors, they are shortcomings, shortfalls,      
a bit like months where you (or in this case GOD) haven't        
lived up to your share of the bargain,the contract.      
God hasn't lived up to His "obligation" or promise to put only truth in  His Word.      
How can God "catch up" on His payments in this scenario?      
It's very simple - when the Second Coming of Christ        
overwhelms the whole world(and it will !!),      
THAT single event will more than compensate for whatever flaws are in the Word.      
Payment in full. No more mortgage, you could say.      
The TRUTHfulness of the reality of the God of THE BIBLE      
will become nakedly clear, cancelling out even a hundred errors in the Bible.      
So instead of the Bible being inerrant, it will become the equivalent of it.      
If someone owes you a thousand dollars and instead of cash        
they pay you in jewelry worth ten thousand dollars,      
You are willing to take it because EQUIVALENCE is good enuff.      
     
Also,we read that God promised that there would ALWAYS be      
a Davidic king upon the throne of Israel, meaning a king    
of the Davidic dynasty( 2 Samuel 7.12-17;1 Chronicles 17.13).    
"..Your offspring..I [God] will establish his kingdom...
I will be a father to him,, he shall be a son to me.  
When he commits iniquity, I will punish him with the rod of men...
But i will not take my steadfast love from him, as I  
took it from Saul whom I put away from before you.  
Your [dynastic] house and kingdom shall be made sure forever before me."     
   
But apparently that promise wasn't as unconditional as it sounds,    
for, first, Israel split into two warring nations.    
Then Judah, the nation where David's line continued to rule,    
fell to conquest by Babylon.followed by possession by Persia,etc.
So there has been no descendant of David on the throne    
for something like 2600 years, ever since 586 BC.    
   
BUT BUT BUT when the Davidic King DOES sit on the throne,    
all those lost years will be compensated for !!!    
Christ's reign,His spiritual rulership from the Second Coming onward,      
will be so glorious as to make up for God's seeming shortcomings heretofore.    
(Not that Christ will rule in bodily form but in the Spirit.    
For "the knowledge of the Lord will fill the Earth    
like the waters covers the sea"(Isaiah 11.9;Habakkuk 2.14)).    
   
Ditto with the errors in the Bible.    
They will be compensated for,such that    
the equivalent of inerrancy will be conceded by all.      
     
to be continued