It is sometimes reasoned that…

1. All men are fallible.
2. Men wrote the Bible.
3. Therefore, the Bible is fallible.

On first glance, this might look sensible. The first two premises are true, and the conclusion sounds reasonable, but lets look a little closer.

First, lets reword it to make it a little clearer what the argument is…

1. All men make errors.
2. Men wrote the Bible.
3. Therefore, the Bible contains errors.

To see the fallacy, lets look at something parallel…

1. Eric makes spelling errors.
2. Eric wrote this blog post.
3. Therefore, this blog post contains spelling errors.

The key is to examine the first premise and it’s relation to the conclusion. Just because I am prone to make spelling errors, it does not follow that I always make spelling errors.

In order for the conclusion to necessarily be true, we would need a stronger premise #1, something like this…

1. Everything a man writes contains errors.
2. Men wrote the Bible.
3. Therefore, the Bible contains errors.

Now, we have sound logic but the first premise no longer holds true. It is clearly not true that everything a man writes is in error. If I write “1 + 1 = 2” on a sheet of paper, I have disproved the first premise by a counter-example.

The bottom line is this: Just because man is prone to error does not mean that he cannot produce a statement that is without error. With God’s superintendence, man is perfectly capable of producing an error-free Bible.