[jo kus]

To my understanding of inerrancy (I am not a fundamentalist, of course), it refers to faith and morals. That God uses human knowledge of the time to teach us various things about morality and His saving love, not a book of history or science. Would you have expected that God tell the writer of Genesis the theory of quantum physics, etc., so the writer could accurately explain the scientific method of how the earth was created?

No, God uses various human devices, literary genres, to teach His people of His saving love, etc. In the Joshua case, we are meant to take this (in my opinion) as a legendary story that shows God fulfilling His promises to the Israelites. It is not meant to be taken literally. Proof of this is comparing Joshua and Judges (two different literary genres describing many of the same events). Another example are the two creation stories. They both cannot be literally true, as they describe a different creation order!

If one believes that every single word is inerrant in the Bible, it can be difficult to explain such occurrences as Joshua, etc. Notice how defensive many people can get when confronted with your question. However, it should not have any negative effect on our beliefs that God loves us and has saved us from our wounded human condition. That is why, I think, it is important to regard such stories as what they are, a literary device, one of many, that the Bible writers use to give us a teaching.

To give a modern day example, I think you will see various styles of writing in the newspaper. The comics, sports, news, editorials - they are all using different literary genres, and all have something to teach us. Sometimes, we learn more from the comics than the front page!

Regards

[jo kus]

Let me make a correction before everyone gets upset! Every word of the Bible is inerrant. But not in every single category of human knowledge. Genesis 1 and 2 are inerrant, but not in the scientific fields. They are inerrant regarding teaching us what God wants us to learn from them. So every word of the Bible is inerrant, just not in every field of human knowledge. Sorry about the misunderstanding in my previous letter.

Regards