The Inspiration of Scripture: Human or Divine?
Research shows that Americans are interested in Spiritual Matters.
While that is interesting and perhaps some would say good, I won’t
go so far.
Why?
Well, if most Americans are reading the satanic bible (please note: I
am referring to an actual text that satan worshipers use, not to a
version of the Christian Bible) to satisfy their spiritual interest, then
I think the answer would be obvious.
However, the answer is much less obvious when we get into the
vagaries of satanic doctrines that masquerade as truth.
What if a certain belief system only ’seems’ good, but in fact is
not good? Or how about looking at it this way, if a belief system
doesn’t ultimately get you to heaven, is it, in fact, good?
Okay, so today I will address the nature of the Bible in terms of
inspiration. That is to say, is the Bible from God or from man.
Who inspired the Holy Bible? There are two extreme viewpoints that
we will examine briefly using Dr. Samuele Bacchiochi’s book Popular
Beliefs - Are They Biblical?
The first school of thought we will examine through the lens of the
Bible is that of Biblical Criticism. In short, this view holds that,
similar to evolutionary thought, the Bible is just a man-made book
evolved over time.
This view rejects inspiration as being from God, thus reducing the
Bible to a collection of interesting literature.
The second school of thought is that of what I call Biblical Verbal
Dictation, often mislabeled as Biblical “Inerrancy.” This view seems
pious and God-fearing in that it holds that God dictated or chose every
single word of the Bible much like the President dictates a letter to his
secretary. The secretary then writes down every word exactly as given.
The problem with both these views, Biblical Criticism and Biblical
Dictation, is that neither of them take what the Bible says about its own
inspiration seriously!
In some cases, the Bible does teach that some things were dictated by
God, such as the Ten Commandments. God spoke them, and Moses
copied it down word for word verbatim.
However, the same Bible makes it clear that God did not dictate Luke’s
gospel to him, but that Luke essentially performed an investigative
journalist’s job (Luke 1:1-4). The Bible teaches that Luke wrote his
gospel based on careful interviews of eyewitnesses, not from divine
dictation or a vision.
The lesson here is that we must allow Scripture to inform us how it is
inspired and what this inspiration means. Any other method, no matter
how “scientific” or how seemingly “pious,” is not faithful to the inspiration
of Scripture.
As one of my good friends often says, “if God dictated every word
of the Book of Revelation, then He has really poor Greek.”
The Greek grammar in Revelation contains real grammatical errors
that are worse than a first year Greek student and cannot be
explained away by saying it was the Koine Greek used by the
commoners. If God dictated every word of Revelation, that God has
poor Greek grammar! Which we know cannot be the case.
Is my friend being irreverent? Not at all. He holds God in the highest
respect and honor. He says that only to shock us into thinking about the
nature of Scripture, which leads me to a third option.
Biblical inspiration, in essence, says all Scripture came from God.
The third option is akin to viewing the Bible writers as God’s penmen, not
as His pen (i.e., verbal dictation). This allows for the fact that each writer
wrote with his own knowledge of events, history, and other details.
This view allows for minor discrepancies found in the Bible without
undermining the authority or inspiration of Scripture. For example, John
makes it clear he was given visions from God while on Patmos and that
he (John) faithfully wrote down what he saw. John does not claim that God
dictated every word to him.
Some passages may have been dictated (i.e., actual spoken utterances
by God or angels), while other passages John wrote down faithfully like a
journalist. This would account for the poor quality of Greek in Revelation
without undermining Revelation’s authority and inspiration. John, a Jew
alone on Patmos with no secretarial help, faithfully wrote down what he
saw in his limited Greek.
God inspired men to be His penmen, not His pens.
Allowing the Bible to inform us about how it was inspired, rather than forcing
our own opinion down upon Scripture no matter how pious and nobly-intended,
enables thoughtful people to believe in the primary message, such as salvation,
while not getting tripped up about why one Gospel writer gives one number for
a detail and another Gospel writer gives another number.
The point is not to try to reconcile how many times the cock crowed before
Jesus looked at Peter, but the point should be obvious that Christ died for
sinners, glory and Hallelujah!
Should you desire to look into this more deeply, I HIGHLY recommend the book
entitled “Popular Beliefs - Are They Biblical?” authored by Samuele Bacchiochi,
Ph. D. Here is a link where you can securely order it from my website…
All the best of health and happiness (and not just temporal) to you!
I owe a debt of gratitude to Jarrod J. Williamson, Ph.D. for his contribution
to this article. You can read more from Jarrod at his blog…
It is Faith Alone That Saves, but
Tags: Biblical, Biblical Inerrancy, Inspiration of Scripture, Popular Beliefs
