Good post here from Scot McKnight on the topic of inerrancy. He summarizes and wisely comments on the chapter by Al Mohler in Five Views on Biblical Inerrancy in Zondervan’s Counterpoints series. McKnight points out the numerous problems with Mohler’s position and calls evangelicals to think through more carefully on what we mean by the term inerrancy and whether or not it can adequately address the complex issues around the record of God’s Word to us.
Regarding 2 Peter 1:21, McKnight writes:
[Mohler’s] case for the Bible starts off poorly for me. He quotes 2 Peter 1:21, which in the NIV 2011 reads: “For prophecy never had its origin in the will of man, but men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit.” Mohler’s observations: “Peter’s point is that the Scripture is to be trusted at every point, and he defines its inspiration as being directly from God, through the agency of human authors, by means of the direct work of the Holy Spirit” (37). Well, not exactly: Does “prophecy” mean “Scripture… at every point”? I doubt it. He speaks of the “original text” but is that one of Peter’s categories? Anyway, the point is that Mohler colonizes 2 Peter 1:21 into his existing theory of inerrancy and explains Peter through his theory.
Read the entire post here.