Infallibility is the property of Scripture by which it is completely trustworthy and incapable of leading astray — it will not fail, deceive, or err. The concept flows from the nature of its Author: "God is not a man, that he should lie" (Numbers 23:19). A God who cannot lie, whose Word is truth (John 17:17), whose promises are "Yes and Amen" in Christ (2 Corinthians 1:20) — His written Word necessarily inherits these same properties. "Forever, O LORD, your word is firmly fixed in the heavens" (Psalm 119:89). "Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will not pass away" (Matthew 24:35). Paul grounds the entire trustworthiness of the gospel on the divine inspiration of Scripture: "All Scripture is breathed out by God" (theopneustos — 2 Timothy 3:16). The term infallibility specifically emphasizes that Scripture cannot fail in its purpose — it will accomplish what God sends it to do (Isaiah 55:11), it is sufficient for every good work (2 Timothy 3:17), and it will stand when every human word has perished. This is why Scripture judges us, not the reverse.
INFALLIBIL'ITY, n. [See Infallible.] The quality of being incapable of error; exemption from liability to mistake; inerrableness. The infallibility of God's word is grounded in the perfection and veracity of God himself. In Protestant theology, infallibility is attributed to the Scripture alone, as the written Word of God; the Roman Church extends it additionally to the Pope when speaking ex cathedra on matters of faith and morals — a claim Protestantism uniformly rejects as without scriptural warrant.
The erosion of biblical infallibility in mainline Protestantism began in the 19th century with the accommodation of higher criticism — the academic approach that treated Scripture like any other ancient document, subject to the same errors, contradictions, and mythological accretions as Homer or Gilgamesh. The result was predictable: once the Bible becomes a human document that may err, the authority to determine which parts are reliable and which are not shifts from the text to the scholar. The interpreter becomes sovereign over the text. Within a generation, denominations that abandoned infallibility also abandoned the historicity of the resurrection, the exclusivity of Christ, the reality of hell, and the biblical definition of marriage. This is not coincidence — it is the logical consequence of making Scripture answerable to human reason rather than the reverse. Evangelicalism has its own erosion: "red letter" theology that treats Jesus's words as more authoritative than Paul's implicitly denies that all Scripture is equally inspired. Infallibility stands or falls as a whole.
• 2 Timothy 3:16–17 — "All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness."
• Psalm 119:89 — "Forever, O LORD, your word is firmly fixed in the heavens."
• John 17:17 — "Sanctify them in the truth; your word is truth."
• Isaiah 55:11 — "So shall my word be that goes out from my mouth; it shall not return to me empty."
• Matthew 5:18 — "Until heaven and earth pass away, not an iota, not a dot, will pass from the Law until all is accomplished."
G2315 — theopneustos (θεόπνευστος) — God-breathed; 2 Timothy 3:16 — the divine origin of Scripture that grounds its infallibility
G3056 — logos (λόγος) — word, message, reason; used of both the written Word (Scripture) and the living Word (Christ)
• The Chicago Statement on Biblical Inerrancy (1978) is the definitive modern evangelical articulation of infallibility and inerrancy — signed by over 300 evangelical scholars.
• Infallibility does not require that every passage is easy to interpret — it requires that the God who inspired it is trustworthy, and that difficulty is our problem, not the text's.
• The practical test of belief in infallibility: when Scripture contradicts your opinion, which yields? Scripture or your opinion?