The Inspiration of Scripture

Introduction

Tonight we are going to begin looking at the individual doctrines about the Bible. The very first question we must ask is hat is this book. is it a collection of fairy tales like Greek mythology?

Is it a book of the written human wisdom passed down from generations?

Or is it a book from God?

The answer to that question will determine how we treat it. Some don’t value the words of scripture because they think flawed men wrote down their ideas expressing a flawed culture at the time. Unfortunately many Christians while professing to believe this book is God’s word, still treat it as just another book. If God were to personally hand you the rod of Aaron that budded, what would you do with it? I imagine it would be prominently placed and given attention every day and yet we have been given the words of God and we hardly pay any attention to it.

So tonight my hope is that by being reminded of the Inspiration of scripture it may just cause you to value it more. Both key passages we are going to look at tonight were written by Peter and Paul as they were getting ready to die. Paul famously said I have finished my race in the same book. Peter In 2 Peter 1:13–15 “Yea, I think it meet, as long as I am in this tabernacle, to stir you up by putting you in remembrance; Knowing that shortly I must put off this my tabernacle, even as our Lord Jesus Christ hath shewed me. Moreover I will endeavour that ye may be able after my decease to have these things always in remembrance.”

As both of these men were about to die they had one thing in mind: the continuity of the faith of those they left behind. They knew false teachers were going to come in after them so what would protect the faith of the believers? Their reliance would not be on experience or personal interpretation, it was not on geniously crafted stories but on the word of God. So if we are going to stand strong and continue in the faith, we must know what this book is.

What is Inspiration

We will begin in 2 Timothy 3:16 “All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness:” by asking what is inspiration? We are going to work backward through the first part of the text. The se one half of the verse we will cover when we get to the doctrine of the sufficiency of scripture.

The word we are going to focus on here is Inspired. In Greek it literally means God breathed. Inspired isn’t a bad translation as long as you understand what the Bible means by inspiration. when people today think of inspiration, they think of an artist who is inspired to paint picture by the beauty of a sunset. But that is not the idea of biblical inspiration. That would be like saying the authors of scripture saw some amazing things and decided to write good words about what they say. That would mean the words were just the words of good men. But inspiration means that God breathed. The implication is that God is actively involved in giving out those words. When we look at how the scriptures were inspired that breathing will make more sense.

Think about this: how does a person speak. Can you do it while holding your breathe? How about under water if you haven’t held a breathe? Without air you cannot speak. There is more to this breathe but it at a basic level refers to God speaking His words.

So inspiration is the act of God giving his words to mankind. They are Gods very words.

What was inspired

The next question is to ask what was inspired? Was it only the direct statements of God where he says “thus switch the Lord” or maybe it was just the law of Moses written by the fingers of God on stone tablets?

There are two ways we can look at inspiration. God inspired those who spoke on behalf of him. 2 Peter 1:21 “For the prophecy came not in old time by the will of man: but holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost.” Says that Holy men of God spake. Hebrews 1:1 “God, who at sundry times and in divers manners spake in time past unto the fathers by the prophets,” says God spake by the prophets. So certainly the spoken words were inspired. But in both Timothy and 2 Peter, the authors concern is not about the spoken word. Timothy could not hear Isaiah literally speak. Their focus was on the scripture. The literal Greek word for scripture is Graphe. Which should remind you of words like graph or graphite. The focus was on that which is written.

Just a couple verses back in 2 Peter we are told where this inspired prophecy can be found: in the scriptures.

Now when we talk about inspiration we are talking about an action. God did something at a specific point in time. So when we say that God inspired the scriptures we need to be even more clear. Inspiration was the act of God giving the scriptures to the original authors. That means technically only the original words given by God to the original authors were inspired.

Now let me ask you a question what language did God give those words in to Paul? What language were the writings in from the OT and the NT? The Bible was originally written in Greek and Hebrew, so the words that were inspired to be written were Greek and Hebrew words.

If w say that God inspired any other words, translation in any other language we are making an error. This is to believe in what is called double inspiration. It is a serious flaw because you would be saying that God was still inspiring new scripture hundreds of years after the Bible was written.

So to answer our question what did Gid inspire? The answer is the written words of God in the original languages that he gave them in to the original authors. God isn’t continuing to inspire today.

How much of the Bible is Inspired

Ou doctrinal statement says we believe in the plenary inspiration of scripture. Plenary just means all or entire. Back in our text it tells us how much of scripture is inspired: all.

There are some who believe in partial inspiration or the idea that some of it is inspired but not all. They usually hold this belief because they don’t trust the science or the history of the Bible. But if you hold such a position, you end up arbitrarily chopping up the Bible. How do you know what is and what isn’t inspired. This isn’t how Jesus or the authors of the NT looked at their Bible. We saw in a previous message that Jesus used all of scripture to show himself to the disciples in the road to Emmaus.

NT authors made arguments that depended on believing that every word and even the spellings were inspired. Consider two arguments found in the NT.

The authors of scripture made arguments that hinged on specific words Galatians 3:16 “Now to Abraham and his seed were the promises made. He saith not, And to seeds, as of many; but as of one, And to thy seed, which is Christ.” Paul here was arguing on the fact that a word was singular in Hebrew and not plural. He had to have believed that that word was correct and inspired by God if he was going to make this argument. Paul didn’t sit their thinking maybe God didn’t inspire that verse, maybe it was just a mistake. He based his theology on the very words of scripture.

Jesus made arguments that depended on a specific spelling Matthew 22:44–45 “The Lord said unto my Lord, Sit thou on my right hand, till I make thine enemies thy footstool? If David then call him Lord, how is he his son?” Th word my is just on letter that if the stem were extended just a little bit it would read “his lord” and if extended even longer would read “your lord” the argument would fall apart if even the spelling were not inspired. In other passages Jesus promised that nothing a single jot or tittle would pass from the law till all was fulfilled. In Hebrew especially every little spelling mark makes a difference in meaning. Jesus didn’t question whether the line was long enough, he believed that spelling was inspired.

How was the Bible Inspired

The next passage we are going to focus on is important because it tells us how God inspired his word. 2 Peter 1:20–21 “Knowing this first, that no prophecy of the scripture is of any private interpretation. For the prophecy came not in old time by the will of man: but holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost.”

Not created by human intuition- it was not a product of man’s ingenuity. It isn’t just a book written by smart holy men of the past like AW Tozer or CH Spurgeon.

Not created by bypassing the human instrument- men of God spake- that word spake is important because some people think of inspiration as if God put men into a trance and took over their bodies and spoke through them. The men who God used to write scripture were involved in the process.

3. Created by the Spirit moving the men- this verse says they were moved by the Holy Spirit. I like to think of this like a sail boat. A sail boat only moves on the water when the wind blows the sail. Well, the Spirit was the wind or breathe in the sails of the men who wrote the scriptures. They still wrote, they still consciously took part in the process so that their knowledge, skills, grammar abilities show up in scripture but the Holy Spirit moved them to write what they write,

4. That which is produced is both the words of the human author and the very words that God desired to be written. So the scriptures bear the fingerprints of the human authors but the words they write are the very words of God.

There are many different views of how God inspired the scriptures:

There is the naturalistic method where men were just inspired like an artist, but the Bible is still just a human product.

There is the Barthian, neo-orthodox method that says the Bible is just a product of man’s ingenuity but becomes the word only when the Spirit uses it in my life.

Concept inspiration- this is the view that only the ideas of scripture are inspired not the words. 1 Corinthians 2:13 “Which things also we speak, not in the words which man’s wisdom teacheth, but which the Holy Ghost teacheth; comparing spiritual things with spiritual.” claims that Paul spoke the very words which the Holy Spirit taught not just the thoughts or ideas.

There is the mechanical dictation method held by John R Rice and honestly by many who have not thought it through in detail which says that God out the men into a trance and dictate word for word what to write. There is a major problem with this view: the books of the Bible differ in writing style depending on who wrote them. If God dictated every word you wouldn’t have these differences from one book to the next. Some authors used improper grammar because like Peter they weren’t as skilled as someone like Paul. Luke clearly tells us that he researched what he wrote which flies in the face of the mechanical dictation theory.

Organic inspiration- taking into account everything we have seen from 2 Timothy and 2 Peter, the best view of the inspiration of sculpture is the organic view which says that God moved the men by His Spirit using their backgrounds, knowledge, education, and skills to write the words of scripture in such a way that in the end-result they are both the words of the author and God’s words.