Rightly Dividing The Word Of Truth: ********************************** Inspiration of Scripture. ************************* Introduction: ============ The Bible is Unique; Not only in appearance( now however, the Bible comes in a variety of colours and covers, as well as shapes and sizes), extent of appeal and Distribution, transforming influence,etc; But in its contents, construction, Continuation (through the centuries), and especially its com- mencement; how it originated. Its remarkable uniqueness stems from its divine origin. Every aspect of this Book proclaims unmistakably that it is not merely of human composition. One comentator has written (Dryden) of its unity and variety and deduced from this its heavenly origin; " whence but from heaven could men, unskilled in arts, in several ages born, in several parts, write such agreeing truths." The most significant name given by the Bible for itself is "The Word Of God": Mark 7:13, Rom.10:17, 2 Cor.2:17, 1 Thess.2:13, Heb.4:12. It also calls itself " The Holy Scriptures ": Rom.1:2, 2 Tim.3:15, sacred writings that are holy - set apart, because they come from God Who alone is Holy; and " Scripture of Truth " (Daniel 10:21) because the God from whom they come is also true and His " word is truth " (John17:17); and also " The Oracles Of God " (Rom.3:2, Heb.5:12). "Oracle": From the Greek word LOGION, a Diminitive of Logos, a word narrative, statement, Denotes a Divine response or utterance...(Vine) But obviously these divine communications came through human Penmen. How did this Happen? We shall never comprehend in time the mysteries behind this divine miracle; But it is the miracle of " INSPIRATION " Rightly Dividing The Word Of Truth... ************************************* Inspiration of Scripture. ************************* Introduction: ============ The Bible is Unique; Not only in appearance( now however, the Bible comes in a variety of colours and covers, as well as shapes and sizes), extent of appeal and Distribution, transforming influence,etc; But in its contents, construction, Continuation (through the centuries), and especially its com- mencement; how it originated. Its remarkable uniqueness stems from its divine origin. Every aspect of this Book proclaims unmistakably that it is not PAGE 2 merely of human composition. One comentator has written (Dryden) of its unity and variety and deduced from this its heavenly origin; " whence but from heaven could men, unskilled in arts, in several ages born, in several parts, write such agreeing truths." The most significant name given by the Bible for itself is "The Word Of God": Mark 7:13, Rom.10:17, 2 Cor.2:17, 1 Thess.2:13, Heb.4:12. It also calls itself " The Holy Scriptures ": Rom.1:2, 2 Tim.3:15, sacred writings that are holy - set apart, because they come from God Who alone is Holy; and " Scripture of Truth " (Daniel 10:21) because the God from whom they come is also true and His " word is truth " (John17:17); and also " The Oracles Of God " (Rom.3:2, Heb.5:12). "Oracle": From the Greek word LOGION, a Diminitive of Logos, a word narrative, statement, Denotes a Divine response or utterance...(Vine) But obviously these divine communications came through human Penmen. How did this Happen? We shall never comprehend in time the mysteries behind this divine miracle; But it is the miracle of " INSPIRATION " Revelation: ========== A large portion of the Bible is clearly information available naturally to the human penman; For example, historical events and facts, personal experiences communicated by others, observations from nature, etc... But alongside this, the human authors wrote frequently of things beyond all human experience and or knowledge; For example, the creation story; the nature and attributes of God; Prophecy of future events; the existance and characteristics of angels, demaons and Satan himself; events in heaven - such as the conversation between God and Satan in Job 1 and 2; etc... How did all these come to be recorded? The only answer is that God Revealed them to His servants. Also, repeatedly, we are told the direct words of God Himself, prefaced by such statements as: " The Lord spake unto Moses, saying..."; " The word of the Lord came to Elijah..." and other prophets; etc... Clearly, God has revealed Himself and His purposes and messages to His creatures in the Bible; His Word. Revelation has been defined as " that act of God by which He directly communicates truth not known before to the human mind ".( W. Evans: " The Book of Books " - The Moody Press, Chicago, 1902 ) Of course, God reveals Himself in many ways; in Creation, Providence, History, Christ...Here we are considering His Revelation of Himself and His word and purposes through the Scriptures.... Continued On Next Page PAGE 3 Inspiration: =========== As has been indicated in previous posts, not everything in the word of God has been directly "revealed" to man: The Bible contains, not only God's words, but the words of evil men and even Satan. But all that is in the Bible is inspired, and given under the guidance of the Holy Spirit. What is " Inspiration "? The best way to discover this is to study what the Bible itself says about it: 2 Timothy 3.16: " All Scripture Is Given By Inspiration Of -------------- God ". " All Scripture ": Without exception. In the Previous verse(v-15), Paul reminds Timothy that he has "known the holy Scriptures" since childhood: Clearly this was the Old Testament, Because none of the New Testament had probably been written then. However, when he writes "all Scripture", he may well be including both Old and New Testaments. Peter(2 Peter 3.15 to 16), who likely wrote his 2nd. epistle about the same time a 2 Timothy, wrote about Paul's writing and classed them with "the other scriptures" of the Old Testament(2 Peter 3.16). The English R.V., A.S.V., N.E.B.(but not the R.E.B.) and other translations have "Every Scripture" instead of "All Scripture". Is this an important dif- ference? Probably not. E.J. Young comments: " A little explanation will make it clear that the difference between the two is not, for our present purpose, of great moment. If Paul means "every scripture", he is looking at the various parts of the Bible...considering Scripture Distributively...whatever Scripture we consider, it is ispired of God. If he means "All Scripture"... his reference is to the Scripture in it entirety. In either case he is saying that whatever may be called scripture is inspired of God. At the same time... we believe that the King James rendering has more in its favour that the R.V. The evidence tends to support the veiw that Paul is here speaking of "all scripture" rather than "every scripture". (E.J. Young: " The Word Is Truth " The Banner of Truth Trust, London)" The R.V. and the N.E.B., however, Translate: "Every scripture inspired of God" and the R.E.B. has Perpetuated this Misconseption. This is, at best a misleading translation and "seems to leave open the possiblity that Paul considered some Scriptures inspired and others not inspired...Ther is not a particle of evidence to support that Paul thought some Scripture uninspired." (Ibid) The Phrase "given by inspiration of God" is the translation of one Greek word, "theopneustos", meaning "God Breathed"(breathed out from God through Human Pen) IE. breathed from God: expiration or spiration rather inspiration.(This is the only occurance in the New Testament; the parallel Hebrew word for inspiration occurs only once: in Job 32.8: "There is a spirit in man: and the inspiration (breath) of the Almighty giveth them PAGE 4 understanding.") Young says: "They were the product of the creative breath of God."(Ibid) This is the truth expressed by the Lord to Satan in quoting Deut. 8.3 "Every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God."(Matt. 4.4), and by the Lord to Jeremiah(1.9): "I have put My word in thy mouth", and even to Moses(Ex. 4.12): "I will be with thy Mouth." The scriptures originated with God and were breathed out by Him into human channels. This, of course, is totally different from "inspiration" as it is commonly used - of a poet, musician, or research scientist: Scriptures are not the composition of men of genius in moments of "inspiration". They came directly from the mouth of God. Young continues: "Paul does not wish Timothy to understand that the Scriptures are a body of human writings into which something divine has been breathed. That is Precisely what he does not wish Timothy to understand."(Ibid) 2 Peter 1.20 to 21: ================== This passage brings the human element into focus. " No Prophecy Of Scripture Is Of Private(I.E. his own - only time traslated "private") Interpretation. " I.E "the Sripture did not come into being as the result of individual invest- igating into matters and then writing down there findings. The Scriptures are not the product of human investagation and reasoning."(Ibid) The prophets were not declaring their own message or giving their own explan- ation of it. " Prophecy Came Not By The Will Of Man ": negitively: i.e. not of human origin. " But Men Spoke From God As They Were Moved By The Holy Spirit. " : positively: i.e. divine origin. MEN spoke: the human factor; but they were under the influence of "carried along by"(NIV) - God, the Holy Spirit: the divine factor. They were not, however, mere automations: passive, mechanical instruments, nor even recording secretaries, writing by dictation. Their own Personalities, abilities, idiosyncrasies and sytles are impressed on their writings, so we can distiguish Paul's writings from Peter's and John's. Yet, in writing, they were under the direct influence and guidance of God, the Holy Spirit, so were preserved from error in the very words they wrote. In this sense, we believe in "Verbal Inspiration". Thw writers were not left absolutely to themselves in the choice of words. We believe also in "Plenary Inspiration": Full, not partial, extending to the whole Bible: All Scripture is equally inspired. The Bible Does not just Contain the words of God, it is his word in its entirety. Continued On Next Page PAGE 5 Definition: ========== "inspiration is a superintendence of God the Holy Spirit over the writers of the Scriptures, as a result of which these Scriptures possess divine author- ity and trustworthiness and, possessing such Divine authority and trustworth- iness, are free from error".(Young - Ibid) "In the literal biblical terminology, inspiration is the process by which Spirit moved writers recorded God-Breathed writings." "That mysterious by which divine authority causality worked through the human prophets without destroying their individual personalities and styles, to produce divinely authoritative writings."( N.L. Geisler and W.E. Nix: "A General Introduction to the Bible" - The Moody Press, Chicago, 1968) 1 Peter 1. 10 to 12: =================== Peter again writes of the human and divine aspects of the Old Testament: " The Prophets ": human penmen; " The Spirit of Christ Which Was In Them ": the divine author; " The Sufferings of Christ and The Glory That Should Follow ": the divine revelation re the divine subject: The prophetic message. The prophets, guided by the Spirit did not themselves understand what they were writing: " Have Enquired and Searched Diligently ": " Searched Intently and With Great Care "(NIV) to find out what the Spirit was revealing through them. It was revealed to them that they were not writing for themselves or their own time, but for others at a future time(v. 12): that is, for use in this age, who have heard the Gospel of Christ. As in the Person of Christ we can discern both the divine and the human; so, in scripture: divine origin, human penmen. "The gold was His; the mould was theirs."(W.Evans, op cit.) Let us now move on to the Authority of The Lord Jesus in reference to "The Inspiration of Scripture." Christ's Statements on The Origin of The Scriptures: =================================================== We have already noted the Lord's response to Satan when he tried to tempt Jesus to change stones to bread: "It is written 'Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God'"(Matt.4.4). It is evident that the Lord reverenced the Old Testament Scriptures. He refered repeatedly to them: it has been calculated that 1870 verses in the Gospels record His words: of these, 180 - nearly 10% - are direct quotations or clear allusions to the Old Testament. He refered to all parts of the Old Testament and placed His Authoritative stamp on PAGE 6 parts that are discredited in some cirles to-day:e.g. creation, the flood, Jonah and the whale, Daniel, etc...He recog- nized the human Authorship of the Scriptures, mentioning Moses, David, Isaiah, and Daniel specifically. But He also declared clearly their divine origin. In JOHN 10.34 to 35, Quoting from the psalms(82.6), He spoke of "your law" and "the Scriptures" as " The Word Of God ", affirming its inerrancy and infalli- bility: "The Scripture cannot be broken." In MATT.19.4 to 5, He attributes the words of Scripture to the Divine Creator: "He who made them at the beginning said: 'For this cause shall a man leave his father and mother and shall cleave to his wife and they twain shall be one flesh'." Note that He was quoting from Gen.2.24, written by Moses and not attributed directly to God> He thus affirmed that God spoke this Scripture. "To Him the God of the Old Testament was the living God and its teaching the teaching of the living God. To Him, what Scripture said, God said."(J.W. Wenham: in "Inerrancy", edited by N.L Geisler, -Zondervan, Grand Rapids, Mi) This same feature - attributing the words of the Old Testament writers to God Himself - can be seen several times in the New Testament: See Matt.1:22 to 23 (cf. Is.7.14); Matt.2:15(cf. hos.11:1); Matt.22:43 to 44(Psm.110:1); Heb.1.8 (cf. Psm.45:6); Heb.1:10 to 12(cf. Psm.102.25 to 27); Heb.3.7 to 11(cf. Psm.95. 7 to 11). The Lord Also Asserted the absolute veacity of the Holy Scriptures in (John 17:17); Their Performance (Matt.5.18), Spiritual Neccesity (Matt. 4.4), and their sufficiency for life after death (Luke 16.31) Questions About Inspiration: =========================== 1)What is inspired: the Writer or the Writings? A) "BOTH" 2 Timothy 3.16 asserts that the writings - "all Scripture" - is God Breathed; 2 Peter 1.21: that the writers were "moved -Carried along - by the Holy Spirit." 2)Are the words Inspired? A) "YES" Words are the necessary medium for the communication of truth. " The Bible literally abounds with the assertion that God gave the VERY WORDS of the prophets. Moses was told, 'I will be with your mouth and teach you what you shall speak'(Ex4.12). God charged Ezekiel saying, 'And you shall speak My words to them'(Ezek.2.7). Of the Decalogue it is said, 'And God spoke all these words'(Ex.20.1). Paul claimed to speak 'inword...taught by the spirit'(1 Cor. 2.13). These references serve to illustrate the idea of the claim that the very words of the Bible were God-given. " (N.L Geisler and W.E Nix, op cit.35) Continued On Next Page PAGE 7 3)Does Inspiration apply to the original manuscripts or to the copies and translations? A) Only the Autographs were inspired. In the wisdom of God, These have been preserved. Evidently they are not necessary in God's purpose. Perhaps God foresaw that men would worship them as they did the Brazen serpent(2 kings 18.4) (Evans, op cit.43) 4)Can we not then consider the King James Version( or any other Bible we may use) as the inspired word of God? A)This question will be considered in a subsequent study. Meantime, it can be stated that "a good copy or translation of the autograph is For All Practical Purposes the inspired word of God."(Geisler and Nix, op cit., 33) 5)How much of the Autograph is inspired? A)All Scripture may not be equally "inspiring", but is certainly equally inspired. As previously stated, we believe in the PLENARY(complete, full) ISPIRATION of SCRIPTURE. 6)How did Inspiration operate? A)We Do Not Know! This is one of the mysteries of the Bible. As Kenneth Kantzer wrote, "The mechanics of inspiration are left unexplained."( K. Kantzer, quoter by Geisler at Nix, op cit.35). Just as we cannot understand with our finite minds the Deity and Humanity of Christ(though Scripture does present it clearly - we can not fully comprehend it), so we believe but can- not fully explain that the Scriptures were given by God through human author: their words are both divine and human in nature. We do not completely under- stand how God spoke His words to Moses, David, The prophets who wrote the pro- phetical books of the Old Testament, or the Apostles who wrote the New Test- ament; nor can we comprehend how the Spirit quided them in their recording of facts that were known to them: for example concerning the life and teachings of the Lord Jesus. We do know that the Holy Spirit, The Comforter, Brought all things to their rememberance (John14.26) Unsatisfactory Theories Of Inspiration: ====================================== Not all who say they "believe in the 'Inspiration' of the Bible" believe in the inspiration of which the Bible speaks. Many Different views are held. (W. Evans, op. cit, 22 to 24. and N.L Geisler and W.E. Nix, op. cit., 37 to 47) For Example: Natural Inspiration: They believe that the Bible is inspired ******************* the same way as the writings of Shakespeare, Milton - or Mahomet or Confucius: men of piety and genius wrote their insights and ideas for the benifit of mankind. As has been shown, this view is completely contrary to the claims the Bible makes for itself. Page 8 Universal Christian Inspiration(Illumination): The ********************************************* inspiration of the Bible writers is no different from that of Christ- ians of every age, including to-day: "the ordinary Christian of to-day is in- spired as much as was the apostle Paul." This view too puts the Bible in the same class as any other Christian literature, not as "God-Breathed" writings by men who were "moved by the Holy Spirit." Neo-orthodox View: The Bible Becomes The Word Of God:(Ibid, **************************************************** 40) Karl Barth, faced with the Problem of how the Bible could be God's perfect word and have so many (supposed) errors and Imperfections, answered that "the Bible and the Bible alone uniquely reveals God to man - not in PROPOSITIONS about God, but as a means of PERSON ENCOUNTER by God with men in an act of revelation." Even though containing (supposed) error, " the Bible can transmit the word of God through its imper- fect record." We believe that the Bible - in the original manuscripts - is without error; that it is - not just "becomes" - God's word. God speaks to us in it whether we listen or not. Mechanical Dictation View Of Inspiration: Verbatim **************************************** Reporting robs the writers of their individuality and makes them mere machines and robots. Even a casual reader - much more, a careful student - of the Bible can really discern the distint and characteristic styles of the various writers: Even their vocabularies differ. Dynamic View Of Inspiration: The concepts or thoughts of *************************** men were given by Inspira- tion. In otherwords, they were free to express them in there own words. This would lead to the possiblity of the writers incorrectly expressing the ideas communicated to them, leading to errors. "How can the final product be infallible or authoritative if there was no divine control over the actual composition?" (Ibid, 45) Conclusion: The Bible is a unique divine-human composition. ********** It comes to us Divine Creator through human creatures whom He used to express in human terms His eternal word. He Superintended the Writings to guard it from error so that the Bible is the Inerrant, infallible word of God. Because it is God's word, it is trustworthy and authorita- tive: We Should Trust and Obey It. Compiled By Dennis MacIntyre...Feburary 1994 Special thanks To Dr. James Naismith for his notes and lectures on this subject...