How trustworthy is the Bible? (a question, not an answer)

Hi Pascal,
I appreciate your light exegesis of the first chapter of Romans. Your thinking is very much in-line with where mine was a few years ago. Lately, I’ve found that almost every time I open the Bible I uncover difficult questions which challenge the notion that the Bible is trustworthy, and Romans is no exception. I know you’d like to hear what verses are issues to me and why, so I’ll do my best to address them one at a time.

I know I’ve been slow to post lately, and you know my free time comes in waves. I don’t want the topics in Romans 1 to get away from me, so I’ll try to catch up by making posts of specific difficulties with what you’ve written so far. Since time is limited, I’ll try to keep them short. If you get tired of this format I can always start posting from my big list of Bible issues uncovered during my own readings, very few of which are centered around Romans.

Until I can get the post up (hopefully this weekend), I thought it would be helpful to understand how you see the Bible. When you have time, please answer the following in whatever way seems appropriate.

1. How do you view the Bible in terms of inerrancy/infallibility/etc. and what does your chosen term mean to you (I’ll let you define it)?
2. Why do you believe your answer to 1?
3. How certain is your belief in 1?
4. What, if anything, do you wish were different about the way the Bible was formed?

Readers, I’d really love to hear your answers as well. I’ll try to keep them in mind as I write so I can consider my words from your perspectives.

Gentleness and respect,
–Russell