By Any Other Standard but the Bible: A Book Review of Dr. Greg Boyd’s, Inspired Imperfections: How the Bible’s Problems Enhance Its Authority

Inspired Imperfections is the story of how Greg Boyd went from an emotional experience he had in an oneness Pentecost apostate "church" to construct a new "faith" built upon mythology, neo-orthodoxy, and his own flawed reasoning. It is an account of how you can believe the Bible is filled with "errors, contradictions, inaccuracies, and morally offensive material," yet still use that flawed Bible to construct a mythical Jesus of your own making. 

This book displays Boyd's deep faith in the presuppositions of evolution, historical-criticism, man's reason, and anything else but the Bible itself. It is a book that attempts to rescue the Bible from itself. 

After reading Imperfect Imperfections, Boyd hopes the reader can use ideas he gleaned from this flawed Bible as the guiding principle to interpret the Bible itself. 

In short, Inspired Imperfections is Boyd's brilliant self-deception that he seeks to foist upon unsuspecting Christians. Based upon most of the reviews on Amazon and other sites, he has done a masterful job.

If only Boyd learned the real lesson of his evolutionary biology teacher, who said, "It's always good to critically reexamine our foundational assumptions in science." (see Introduction, page xiii) Boyd swallows the presuppositions of evolution, historical-criticism, and human authority hook, line, and sinker. He has a remarkable faith in Man. He believes in anything but the self-attesting revelation of the self-existing Trinity, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, given to us in the Bible. 

Boyd misrepresents Biblical inerrancy throughout his book. As Dr. Greg Bahnsen has shown in his excellent article Inerrancy of the Autographa, any copy errors of the Bible are so inconsequential and infrequent that the Bible's integrity is preserved. Besides, the Bible has so many reliable copies, more than any other ancient book, that any minor copying errors are easily detectable.

Moving along, Boyd holds a heretical view of the Trinity. For him, the Trinity is Father/Mother Godself, he, and she. (see his Introduction, pages xx, xxi)

This book is a guide on how you can believe in Jesus apart from Scripture. On page 18, Boyd relates how C.S. Lewis helped him understand that you don't need the Bible to believe in Jesus. This Jesus is vastly different than the Jesus of the Bible. The Jesus of the Bible is given in the historically accurate account of how the Word became Flesh and dwelt among us. (John 1:14) Paul wrote in 2 Corinthians 11:4 and Galatians 1:8 that if anyone proclaims a different Jesus than the one presented in Scripture, they offer a false Christ. The Jesus of Dr. Greg Boyd is based upon mythology and the neo-orthodox "theology" of Karl Barth.

Speaking of Karl Barth, Boyd takes after his mentor in many ways. Both distrust the self-revelation of the self-existing Father, Son, and Holy Spirit through His self-attesting Bible. Both do not believe in history as presented in the Scripture. Both accept the presuppositions of evolution and the evolutionary presuppositions of historical-criticism. Both believe the Bible must be rescued from itself through redefining Biblical theology according to an existential worldview. Both assume "glory to man in the highest," that is, Man is the measure of all things. Boyd and Barth's only real difference is that Boyd thinks his "Cruciform Inspiration" is better than Barth's "Christocentric" theology. 

Boyd cannot see that every one of his critiques starting on page 74 of Barth can be applied to his theology. 

What Boyd never answers is by what standard does he determine what constitutes "errors, contradictions, inaccuracies, and morally offensive material?" My question does not have to do just with the Bible. It has to do with how Boyd determines these things overall. The standard(s) that he uses has to be error-free, logically consistent, 100% accurate, and objective to determine what is or isn't morally offensive? 

Here is Boyd's Achilles heel. In fact, this is the Achilles heel of anyone who denies the absolute authority of inerrant (in the original autographs) and infallible (defined as "cannot make a mistake") Bible. The Bible self-attests to its reliability, integrity, trustworthiness, inspiration, and infallibility. In short, there is no other standard than the Bible itself. 

To presume anything less is to destroy the foundation of science, reason, and morality. It is to set Man as the ultimate standard rather than the self-existing Trinitarian God who revealed everything we need to know about Him and what He requires of us in the Bible.

Boyd implies those who presuppose the Bible as the only authority are committing "Bibliolatry." (see his Glossary on page 174) I ask Boyd and anyone who adheres to this book's theology, How can you say you honor the King but teach that His Word is filled with errors, contradictions, inaccuracies, and morally offensive material? 

Those of us who presuppose the Bible as the only infallible standard do not worship the Book, but we certainly do take seriously "Every word that comes from the mouth of God." (Matthew 4:4)

I could accuse Dr. Greg Boyd of Boydolatry, that is, believing that Boyd, or any other human being for that matter, can stand in judgment of God and His word and make Man's reason the ultimate standard to judge the Bible. 

It's your choice. Do you believe in the fallible theology of Dr. Greg Boyd or the infallible (defined as "cannot err") Bible?

In short, this book is a piece of rubbish. Don't waste your money, instead buy anything from Dr. Greg Bahnsen or Dr. Cornelius Van Til. Both these men will affirm your confidence in the necessity of starting with Sola Scriptura.