HH #4.5: Family Discipleship

Note for parents

After each episode of Household Hermeneutics, we are going to have a second, much smaller episode that will encapsulate the topic of the main episode and provide some resources and other useful things that you can use to teach your kids in a family worship setting. This week’s main episode covered the authority and inerrancy of Scripture, so today’s family worship episode is going to be about how the Bible is perfect, true, and does not contain any errors. Then we will work on a new memory verse together, and we will also memorize a question and answer from a catechism. As we usually do here, we will end with a hymn.

Family Worship - The Inerrancy of Scripture

In our couple lessons, we’ve been talking about the Bible. We’ve talked about how the Bible is divinely inspired by God, and how important it is to study and know it. Today, we’re going to answer the question, “Does the Bible contain any errors?”

So to start thinking properly about this, let’s start with an illustration or 2. Imagine that you are trying to bake homemade cookies, and you are following a recipe from a famous baker who makes the most amazing chocolate chip cookies in the entire world. You have all the ingredients laid out in front of you, the oven is preheating, and you open the cookbook to the page with the recipe on it. Just as you’ve read through the first few steps and are starting to follow them, your mom walks into the kitchen and tells you that the recipe you’re following has some mistakes in it, and then walks away.

We’ll come back to this illustration in a little bit, but first, let’s look at what the Bible has to say for itself on this topic. John 14:6 says, “Jesus said to him, ‘I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.’”

Hebrews 6:18 says, “… it is impossible for God to lie…”

1 John 5:20 says, “And we know that the Son of God has come and has given us understanding, so that we may know him who is true; and we are in him who is true, in his Son Jesus Christ. He is the true God and eternal life.”

Proverbs 30:5a says, “Every word of God proves true; he is a shield to those who take refuge in him.”

Okay, what do all four of these verse have in common? They clearly tell us that God does not lie, he cannot lie, as it is not in his nature, and thus every word he speaks is true. So, with that in mind, let’s go back to the question that I asked at the beginning: Does the Bible contain any errors?

We’ve already established that the Bible was entirely inspired by God, right? Every word of Scripture is God’s Word. Now we’ve also shown that God never lies. So, how could the Bible, which is the word of God, a God who is always true, possibly contain any errors? If there were mistakes or errors or things that weren’t actually true in the Bible, that would make God a liar, and we know that he’s not. That would be impossible, right? Therefore, we can have confidence that the Bible does not contain a single error, and that it is trustworthy.

The fact the Bible is inerrant, that it can be fully trusted to be true, is extremely important, and let me tell you why. If the Bible contained errors, then how could you know with any confidence what was true, and what was not true? You are reading and studying God’s Word, and trying to learn how to glorify and enjoy the Lord, but how can you if there are mistakes? What do you do, and what do you ignore? How can you trust any of it, if you can’t trust some of it?

Let’s circle back around to my cookie baking illustration from earlier. If the recipe you were using to make the world’s greatest chocolate chip cookies had errors in it, then the cookies wouldn’t turn out well, would they? In fact, there wouldn’t be any point in even bothering to make them. The same is true of the Bible. There is no real point in trying to understand and live your life by the words in a book that you can’t trust to be true.
So, with all that said, we can be very thankful to God that we can trust him to always be truthful, and that we can His Word to be entirely true.

Memory Verse

John 14:6 - “Jesus said to him, ‘I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.’”
 

Catechisms

Keach’s Catechism

Q. 5. How do we know that the Bible is the Word of God?
A. The Bible evidences itself to be God's Word by the heavenliness of its doctrine, the unity of its parts, its power to convert sinners and to edify saints; but the Spirit of God only, bearing witness by and with the Scriptures in our hearts, is able fully to persuade us that the Bible is the Word of God.

Worship Song

What a Friend we have in Jesus,
All our sins and griefs to bear!
What a privilege to carry
Everything to God in prayer!
O what peace we often forfeit,
O what needless pain we bear,
All because we do not carry
Everything to God in prayer!

Have we trials and temptations?
Is there trouble anywhere?
We should never be discouraged,
Take it to the Lord in prayer.
Can we find a friend so faithful
Who will all our sorrows share?
Jesus knows our every weakness,
Take it to the Lord in prayer.

Are we weak and heavy-laden,
Cumbered with a load of care?
Precious Savior, still our refuge—
Take it to the Lord in prayer;
Do thy friends despise, forsake thee?
Take it to the Lord in prayer;
In His arms He’ll take and shield thee,
Thou wilt find a solace there.

Credits: Words by Joseph M. Scriven (1855), Music by Charles C. Converse (1868)
Public Domain

Fun fact: preacher Joseph M. Scriven as a poem in 1855 to comfort his mother

Resource Recommendations

What a Friend We Have in Jesus - https://youtu.be/znWu2HCJ92c
What is Inerrancy? - https://youtu.be/zzIxAB3Mh0U