What Is Inerrancy Anyway?

Sometimes theological terms can help us understand complex concepts, and at other times those terms may just add confusion to complexity. Especially when a concept is under siege, and terms get thrown back and forth across two sides of a debate, the terms become slippery and escape definition.

For me inerrancy is one term that has been thrown around a lot lately, it is something that I know should support, but I've not been exactly sure what it is, or why I should care. I was recently helped reading John Frame's definition of inerrancy:

Inerrancy, therefore, means that the Bible is true, not that it is maximally precise. To the extent that precision is necessary for truth, the Bible is sufficiently precise.... So I think it is helpful to define inerrancy more precisely  by saying that inerrant language makes good on its claims. When we say that the Bible is inerrant, we mean that the Bible makes good on its claims. 

Read the whole chapter on inerrancy in Frame's Doctrine of the Word of God. I'm finding this book so far very helpful in thinking deeper about Scripture. Don't be daunted by the size, dip into it.