The following letters were
written during 1986/87. They comprise the correspondence
between Mr. James White, Director of Alpha and Omega
Ministries, and Mr. Dennis McKinsey, the editor of a
periodical entitled “Biblical Errancy.” As Mr. McKinsey feels
free to publish letters written to him in his periodical, and
as there is no copyright on "Biblical Errancy,” we have felt
free to include Mr. McKinsey’s responses. Only that material
relevant to the matters addressed in the debate between Mr.
White and Mr. McKinsey will be reproduced here.
In the spring of 1986 a
copy of the March edition of "Biblical Errancy” was sent to
James White. The full title of the paper is: "Biblical Errancy:
The only national periodical focusing on Biblical errors,
contradictions, and fallacies, while providing a hearing for
apologists." The periodical is six pages long. After reviewing
some of the supposed "contradictions” found in the May issue
of this paper, Mr. White wrote the first letter of three to
Mr. McKinsey. This letter was printed in the August, 1986
edition of BE. This precipitated a rather lengthy exchange,
both in the size of the letters as well as the number of
issues of BE in which the debate appeared. The following gives
the letters written by Mr. White, and the replies of Mr.
McKinsey, just as they appeared in “Biblical Errancy.” The
final section comprises Mr. Whites reply to Mr. McKinsey’s
final words.
“Biblical Errancy” is
obviously designed to promote the distrust and rejection of
the Bible as God’s Word. Anyone who has read the periodical
for any time at all is very aware of this. The uniqueness of
the work is not what it has to say; indeed, much of this
material can he found in Thomas Paine or in the material
published by the American Atheists. “Biblical Errancy” comes
out on a monthly basis with the same old tired arguments and
materials that atheists have been passing around for years.
But, Mr. McKinsey allows for some dialogue on the issues he
brings up, and this, of course, generates interest and
controversy.
Someone might well ask the
question, why bother debating this kind of issue? Aside from
the fact that I as a Christian believe the Bible when it
claims to he the Word of God, I also wished to see for myself
what kind of response would he elicited from an anti-theist
like Mr. McKinsey when faced with actual facts. I knew that he
had made a rather simple error in regards to his claim of a
contradiction between Jesus and Paul (see letters below for
all the details) - that was clear. I wished to know if his
drive to attack the Bible would keep him from admitting a
simple mistake. If so, then I could write off ‘Biblical
Errancy” and tell anyone else that it was not worth their time
to read. However, if Mr. McKinsey would admit such an error
and retract the false statement, then I would go on and
research more of his material, given the idea that he was
indeed honestly intent on the truth as he saw it.
Unfortunately, the following debate makes it clear just how
that issue ended up being resolved.
Another question might he
asked. This debate does not deal with all the great issues of
theism versus atheism. It deals with some pretty specific
issues. Why not deal with a broader range of topics? First, we
have done so in the past and plan on continuing to do so in
the future (contact
