Biblical Apologetics 4

2023-09-14 Session 4 Biblical Apologetics 14 September 2023 1 1 Inspiration Distinguished From Revelation and Interpretation 2 14 September 2023 2 14 September 2023 3 3 1 2023-09-14 What is Revelation? 14 September 2023 4 4 Revelation is the Origin and Giving of Truth 1 Corinthians 2:10 Hebrew and Greek terms are similar: “uncover” and “unveil” (galah and apocalyptein). “removal of obstacles” “disclosure” rather than “discovery” When speaking of Scripture, it is Divine Disclosure. “. . . God gives the revelation or disclosure of truth; man can have an interpretation or discovery of that truth.” Norman L. Geisler and William E. Nix, A General Introduction to the Bible, Rev. and expanded. (Chicago: Moody Press, 1986), 40. 14 September 2023 5 5 Inspiration is Recorded Truth Men recorded what was revealed to them (2 Peter 1:2021) Revelation is the activity of God alone. Inspiration involves man, but man does not initiate inspiration. 14 September 2023 6 6 2 2023-09-14 Interpretation is about Understanding what is revealed and inspired “The natural person does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are folly to him, and he is not able to understand them because they are spiritually discerned. The spiritual person judges all things, but is himself to be judged by no one. “For who has understood the mind of the Lord so as to instruct him?” But we have the mind of Christ.” (1 Corinthians 2:14–16, ESV) 14 September 2023 7 7 Questions that Come Up 8 14 September 2023 8 What is inspired—the writer or his writings? Are autographs or copies inspired? “Only the autographs were actually inspired, good copies are accurate.” Even when the accuracy of a reading in the original text cannot be known with 100 percent accuracy, it is possible to be 100 percent certain of the truth preserved in the texts that survive How much of the Bible is inspired? How does inspiration operate? Dictation? 14 September 2023 9 9 3 2023-09-14 Norman L. Geisler and William E. Nix, A General Introduction to the Bible, Rev. and expanded. (Chicago: Moody Press, 1986), 47. 14 September 2023 Inspiration encompasses the mysterious process by which divine causality on the prophetic agency resulted in scriptural authority, the Bible. Revelation is the fact of divine communication, inspiration is the means by which that communication is brought to the written record, and interpretation is the understanding of that communication. The total process of inspiration includes both the writer and the writing, although the product of inspiration is the authoritative writing and not the man. It is only the autographs (original writings) that are actually inspired, although accurate copies or translations are doctrinally authoritative, inasmuch as they correctly reproduce the original. There are no degrees of inspiration; all the Bible is equally inspired, that is, equally authoritative and true. The means or process of inspiration is a mystery of the providence of God, but the result of this process is a verbal (the words), plenary (extending to all parts equally), inerrant (errorless), and authoritative record. 10 10 4