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Please Visit Our Sponsor Gift Shop Bible is the
Inspired Word of God Biblical inspiration is defined as the work of the
Holy Spirit by which, without setting aside their personalities and literary or human faculties, God so guided the authors of Scripture as to enable them to write exactly the words which convey His truth to men, and in doing so preserved their judgements from error in the original manuscripts. The Word of God as given to us in the Bible is a product of two free agents, human and divine. Through (fallible) human
authors, God manifested the infallible and errorless
writings, which convey His messages. A natural question is, why God chooses to have humans write the Bible; couldn't He write the Bible Himself much like what He did in inscribing the Ten
Commandments on the tablets? Won't this be an easier way in preserving the accuracy of the Bible, instead of through the hands of fallible men? Although God is sovereign and can do anything by Himself, He chooses to have humans interact in His plan. This is one of the biggest
differences between Christianity and other religions; with God reaching down to
man, instead of man reaching up to Him. We have seen many examples in the Bible, which God chooses to have human interaction. The creation of the Written Word (Bible), the Living Word (Jesus), and Promised Word
(Salvation) all share this characteristic. After discussing why God chooses to have human
involvement in the writing of the Bible, lets look at how inspiration is
done. First of all, we learn from 2
Timothy 3:16 that the entire Bible is inspired by God, not just partially. It is an important concept, for if we choose and pick some parts of the Bible as inspired and others are
not, then the entire Bible soon falls apart.
Who has the authority to decide the extent of inspiration, but God
Himself. And God made it very clear
that all Scripture, is inspired by Him.
Therefore those who preach partial and degrees of inspiration are
playing God. Since God is truth (John
3:33, Romans 3:4), whats breathed out by God, must also be true (John 17:17) and
infallible. The process of inspiration
is described in 2Peter 1:21, for prophecy
never came by the will of man, but holy men of God spoke as they were moved by the Holy Spirit. All Scripture was regarded by the Jews as
prophecies, that it did not originate from man, but came from God. The Holy Spirit inspired the prophets or apostles to mouth the truths, which was then recorded and superintended (or
moved) by God to ensure that the messages were not diverted, misdirected or
erred by the fallible author. The
word moved in 2 Peter 1:21 is the same word used in Acts 27:15-17, meaning
that the boat was 'moved' or 'borne' by the wind. While the crews (human authors) on the boat have full freedom of
steering the boat, the motion of the boat is entirely borne by the wind (God)
in a storm. The use of this word
indicates that the Holy Spirit completely superintended the human author in the
process of recording His words. It is
important to point out that inspiration was not a mechanical dictation of the
Scripture to the authors. The authors
are free to express their emotions and style in the writing. It is also important to mention that only the
Autographs (the original written documents by the biblical authors) are
inspired. Let's look at what the Bible
says about itself. Throughout the Old
Testament it was mentioned repeated that the Scripture is the word of God (Jer 1:9,
31:2; 2 Sam 23:2; 1 Kings 20:13). God
also instructed His spokesmen to write the message down (Ex 17:14; Jer 30:2). Another strong proof for the inspiration of
the Bible is the fulfillment of the prophecies, particularly those relating to
Jesus (His birth- Isaiah 7:14, Micah 5:2; His crucifixion- Psalm 22:16-17,
Isaiah 53:12; and His resurrection- Psalm 16:10, 22:22). Because of the fulfillment of these prophecies,
Jesus proved that He is the Son of God, giving Him the infallible authority to claim
the inspiration and inerrancy of the Bible.
Jesus taught that the entire Bible, both the Old Testament (Matt 21:13,
26:31, 5:18 and Luke 4:27) and the New Testaments (John 14:24, 16:12-13) is the
infallible and inerrant word of God.
Since the gospels give an accurate and reliable record of what He
taught, it has been established that the entire Bible is really the errorless and
authoritative word of God. Not only can
we believe everything in it, but it demands our obedience. The apostles also attested the
inspiration of the Scripture, in both the Old Testament (Rom 3:2) and the New
Testament (2 Peter 3:15,16). Moreover,
they proclaimed their own writings as Gods words (1 Cor. 14:37), and their
messages as Gods words (Gal 1:12; 1 Thess. 2:13). Conclusions: The entire Scripture is the inspired word of God because
the Bible says so (2 Timothy 3:16). This
is probably the strongest argument from a presuppositional point of view. However, most believers would rebuke that the
authority of the Bible is what one tries to prove in the first place, so how
can one use quotes from the Bible to sustain such a claim. In this case, the
fulfillment of prophecies about Jesus, his birth, death and resurrection,
proves the accuracy of the Bible and that Jesus is the Son of God, giving Him
the authority to claim the inspiration and inerracy of the Bible (Matthew
21:13, Luke 4:27, John 14:24, 16:12,13).
Both Jesus and the apostles proclaimed that the Bible is the inspired
word of God. It is important to keep in
mind that the Scripture is of Divine origin, written through man. Although the authors were free to use their own style and expression in the writing, God superintended so that the final
product is inerrant. The entire
Scripture is inspired by God, not just partially or in degree. Although most of the Scripture were verbally
conveyed to Gods people through the prophets and apostles, only the Autographs
are inspired. And because the Bible is
inspired, it alone has the final authority. Bookmark This Page Send This Page To A Friend Place Your Ad Here For As Little As $1 Per Day About Us | Add URL | Advertise with Us | Auction | Awards | Contact Us | Discussion Forum | Links | Search This Site | Send This Page | Shop | Top Ten Sites Copyright 2000 Yutopian, All Rights Reserved |
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