What exactly is meant by the confession: "The Bible is without error in the original manuscripts?"

The doctrine of the inerrancy of Scripture is foundational to evangelical faith, yet there is some diversity in the opinion of what inerrancy entails. Back in 1976, John Piper sought to bring clarity to this issue in a short paper, "How Are the Synoptics 'Without Error'?"

This paper was recently transcribed as another new-old resource to feature in the Resource Library under The Life of the Mind column. Coming from Pastor John's professor days, these resources are mostly academic in nature, though this particular work concludes with a pastoral word of application:

From history and from my own experience, I can say that it is almost impossible to exaggerate the importance of the Bible. We humans are incapable of finding out what we need so much to know: how to overcome sin, to escape the wrath of God, to become new creatures, to walk pleasing to the Lord. God must reveal this to us or we perish. This he has done and continues to do by means of a written Word, the Bible. When a man has understood the Bible he has understood the revelation of God infallibly, inerrantly and verbally.

Read the entire paper.