Christian professor J.P. Moreland is challenging the fundamental evangelical doctrine of biblical inerrancy, say his critics. Is he?
At a recent meeting of the Evangelical Theological Society (ETS), renowned Christian scholar and apologist J.P. Moreland presented a paper titled "How Evangelicals Became Over-Committed to the Bible and What Can Be Done About It.” People are still talking about it.
A Christianity Today article summed up Moreland's presentation like this: "To accuse evangelicals of over-commitment to the Bible at ETS would be like accusing environmentalists of talking too much about climate change at a Sierra Club meeting."
J.P. Moreland, in his presentation, declared:
In the actual practices of the Evangelical community in North America, there is an over-commitment to Scripture in a way that is false, irrational, and harmful to the cause of Christ. And it has produced a mean-spiritedness among the over-committed that is a grotesque and often ignorant distortion of discipleship unto the Lord Jesus.
Radio host and columnist Frank Pastore agrees with Moreland's main premise. "The Bible is not the sole source but the ultimate source of knowledge, meaning that there are realms of knowledge outside the Bible. No one denies this," writes Pastore.
However, Moreland's choice of words strikes at a fundamental tenet of evangelical Protestantism. Writes Pastore:
Christians have always struggled to properly balance Word and Spirit. But a sine qua non for Protestants is their commitment to Sola Scriptura—nothing should be elevated to the authority of Scripture—not tradition (contra Catholics), not reason (contra Unitarians) and certainly not religious experience (contra Mormons and many others). All things need to be tested against the standard of Scripture.
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