Why I Am No Longer Christian

#1: The Bible is Not Inerrant

Many Christians believe in biblical inerrancy, and they fight tooth and nail with anyone who tries to argue otherwise. I found this out pretty quickly once I posted Christian and an Ally. After debating with people in the comments, I started researching biblical inerrancy and history, which led me down other rabbit holes that eventually dropped me here. Because of this, I knew biblical inerrancy had to be at the top of my list, even though it wasn't my only (or even biggest) reason for deconverting.

In simple terms, biblical inerrancy is the idea that the Bible is without error. Most evangelicals believe this. Evangelicals are Christians who believe that you can only reach heaven by accepting Jesus Christ's sacrifice for your sins and by being "born again" through him. Once you are "saved," you are responsible for bringing more people to Jesus by preaching the Gospel, lit. good news.

There are several Bible passages that Christians who believe in inerrancy like to quote. Among the most popular are:

2 Timothy 3:16-17: "All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the servant of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work."

Matthew 24:35: "Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will never pass away."

Isaiah 40:8: "The grass withers and flowers fall, but the word of God endures forever."

Proverbs 30:5-6: "Every word of God is flawless; he is a shield to those who take refuge in him. Do not add to his words, or he will rebuke you and prove you a liar."

The evangelical movement revolves around the concept of biblical inerrancy. Without it, inerrantists argue that Christianity falls apart. While I disagree with this argument (and think it undermines their cause), the more important question is, "is the Bible inerrant?"

The good thing about answering this question is that once you find one error, you're done. Even the smallest of errors disproves inerrancy, and the Bible has plenty of those. From the account of Creation to the Exodus from Egypt, from the Tower of Babel to the Flood, the Bible is full of falsehoods. Even the Gospels don't agree with each other. But more than that, there are other reasons why biblical inerrancy doesn't make sense.

For one, the Church has never owned originals of the biblical books. Inerrancy, strictly speaking, only applies to the original manuscripts. This immediately undermines the argument for biblical inerrancy, because scholars have known for many years that scribes made typos and mistakes (and even deliberately altered parts of the text) while copying down the Bible. If we don't have the originals or even the copies of copies of copies of the originals, then how does the concept of biblical inerrancy help us at all?

For another, defending biblical inerrancy involves rejecting science, archaeology, and history (among other subjects) and drives people away who might otherwise be interested in Christianity. Anyone who is educated in the fields of biology, evolutionary genetics, cosmology, archaeology, or history will quickly realize that the Bible contains a multitude of errors: creation did not happen in six days; a worldwide flood never engulfed the entire planet or wiped out all life; there is no archaeological evidence that the exodus from Egypt occurred; the list goes on. To deny these observable facts in favor of one's religious beliefs is ignorant and unconvincing. It only drives people farther away from Christianity, as well as encouraging blind faith, distrust of scientific advancements, and willful ignorance.

So, what about the given Bible quotes? Isn't the Bible claiming inerrancy for itself?

The first thing to understand is that some of these quotes are taken out of context. For example, in Matthew 24, Jesus is talking about the end times. Matthew 24:35 needs to be read within the context of Jesus's claim that "this generation will certainly not pass away" until everything he's predicted to happen happens. Only then will "heaven and earth pass away," although his predictions won't. The commonly quoted Revelation 22:18-19, which I did not list, is taken out of context, as well. Its author is talking specifically about people altering the words of his prophecy in Revelation, not the Bible as a whole.

Another, larger issue is that the Bible wasn't fully assembled until the late 4th century. Before that, it was a scattering of old texts, letters from early Christian leaders, and ancient Jewish scriptures. The above Bible quotes couldn't have been talking about the Bible being inerrant, seeing as the Bible as we know it didn't exist until hundreds of years later.

Since the Bible easily proves itself to be anything but inerrant, my following chapters will delve deeper into the most grievous of the errors and inconsistencies.