· Bibliology ·

Lecture Ten:  Inspiration and Authority II

TH330 Systematic Theology I · Moody Bible Institute · Dr. Richard M. Weber

I. God’s Method of Producing an Inspired Text

A. One Incorrect View of God’s Process of Producing the Text

1. The Bible Did Not Come About By Dictation

2. Nonetheless, Some Texts Appear To Have Been Dictated

Rev 2:1.  “To the angel of the church in Ephesus write:  These are the words of him who holds the seven stars in his right hand and walks among the seven golden lampstands…”

Rev 2:8.  To the angel of the church of Smyrna write:  These are the words of him who is the First and Last, who died and came to life again…”  (cf. Rev 2:12)

Isa 38:4-6.  “Then the word of the Lord came to Isaiah:  ‘Go and tell Hezekiah, “This is what the Lord, the God of your father David, says:  I have heard your prayer and seen your tears; I will add fifteen years to your life…”

B. How the Inspired Text Came to Be

1. Prophetic Material

2. Material That Came Directly From the Hand of God

Deut 9:10.  “The Lord gave [Moses] two stone tablets inscribed by the finger of God.  On them were all the commandments the Lord proclaimed to [the Israelites] on the mountain out of the fire, on the day of the assembly.”

3. Researched Material

Luke 1:1-4.  “Many have undertaken to draw up an account of the things that have been fulfilled among us, just as they were handed down to us by those who from the first were eyewitnesses and servants of the word.  Therefore, since I myself have carefully investigated everything from the beginning, it seemed good also to me to write an orderly account for you, most excellent Theophilus, so that you may know the certainty of the things you have been taught.”

4. Historical Material

5. Other Material

II. Implications of the Doctrine of Inspiration

A. The Authority of Scripture

1. The Meaning of Authority

“The authority of Scripture means that all the words in Scripture are God’s words in such a way that to disbelieve or disobey any word of Scripture is to disbelieve or disobey God.”  (Wayne Grudem, Systematic Theology, 73)

“We must continually remember that we have in the Bible God’s very words, and we must not try to ‘improve’ on them in some way, for this cannot be done.  Rather, we should seek to understand them and then trust them and obey them with our whole heart.”  (Wayne Grudem, Systematic Theology, 85)

2. The Implication of Authority

Zech 7:12.  “They made their hearts as hard as flint and would not listen to the law or to the words that the Lord Almighty had sent by his Spirit through the earlier prophets.  So the Lord Almighty was very angry.”

Luke 24:25.  “[Jesus] said to them, ‘How foolish you are, and how slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken!’”

2 Thess 3:14.  “If anyone does not obey our instruction in this letter, take special note of him.  Do not associate with him, in order that he may feel ashamed.”(Cf. 2 Cor 13:2-3)

B. The Truthfulness of Scripture

Titus 1:2.  “…God, who does not lie, promised [these things] before the beginning of time.”

Heb 6:18.  “[I]t is impossible for God to lie…”

2 Sam 7:28.  “O Sovereign Lord, you are God!  You words are trustworthy…”

Ps 12:6.  “[T]he words of the Lord are flawless, lie silver refined in a furnace of clay, purified seven times.”

C. The Purpose of Scripture

1. 2 Tim 3:16-17.  “All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work”

“The entire Bible came from God in order to show us how to live.”  (Charles C. Ryrie, Basic Theology, 78)

2. Rom 15:$.  “For everything that was written in the past was written to teach us, so that through endurance and the encouragement of the Scriptures we might have hope”

III. Defections From the Doctrine of Inspiration

A. Natural Inspiration

“ they were genius’ “ they were so smart they didn’t need inspiration.

“[T]he line of demarcation between it [the Bible] and other religious writings … is not so sharp and final as to establish a qualitative difference between all other writings and every part of the canonical Scriptures.”  (Cecil J. Cadoux, A Pilgrim’s Further Progress, London:  Religious Book Club, 1945.  p. 11)

B. Dynamic (or Mystical) Inspiration

LIKE OTHER CHRISTIAN BOOKS, HYBELS, ETC…

“The inspiration of the books of the Bible does not imply for us the view that they were produced or written in any manner generically different from that of the writing of other great Christian books.  … There is a wide range of Christian literature from the fifth to the twentieth century which can with propriety be described as inspired by the Holy Spirit in precisely the same formal sense as were the books of the Bible.”  (Alan Richardson, Christian Apologetics, New York, Harper, 1948; p. 207)

C. Degree Inspiration

Things are more inspired than others…romans more than job, etc. not widely held today if held at all.

“Within this one great function of inspiration considerable variety exists.  The inspiration of Isaiah or Paul is different from that of the compiler of Proverbs or the annalist who drew up Chronicles.”  (Marcus Dods, The Bible, New York: Scribners, 1905; p. 127)

D. Partial Inspiration

“I confess the infallibility and inerrancy of the Scriptures in accomplishing God’s purpose for them – to give man the revelation of God in His redemptive love through Jesus Christ.”  (Ray Summers, “How God Said It,” The Baptist Standard, 4 Feb 1970, 12)

E. Concept Inspiration

THE CONCEPTS ARE INSPIRED, NOT THE WORDS. AN IDEA WAS IMPLANTED, BUT THE WORDS THEY USE MAY CONTAIN ERRORS. There fore, we don’t have any reliability in the scriptures, because we have no way of knowing If they wrote it correctly.

F. Barthain Inspiration

1. Karl Barth (1886-1968) on the Word of God

They were writing human words, the Bible was a human product.

God can take those fallible human words, and make it point to THE Word, Jesus. Barth learned a lot from exeteialism.

“[Inspiration is] the act of revelation in which the prophets and apostles in their humanity became what they were, and in which alone they in their humanity can also become for us what they are.”  (Karl Barth, Church Dogmatics, I:2:563)

2. Karl Barth on the Authority of Scripture

The bible does not have inherent authority, but it has subjective authority. When you come into an encounter with Christ, you know it.

IV. Application of the Doctrine of Inspiration

“Throughout the history of the church the greatest preachers have been those who have recognized that they have no authority in themselves and have seen their task as being to explain the words of Scripture and apply them clearly to the lives of their hearers.”  (Wayne Grudem, Systematic Theology, 82)

“God’s providential oversight and direction of the life of each author was such that their personalities, their backgrounds and training, their abilities to evaluate events in the world around them, their access to historical data, their judgment with regard to the accuracy of information, and their individual circumstances when they wrote, were all exactly what God wanted them to be, so that when they actually came to the point of putting pen to paper, the words were fully their own but also fully the words that God wanted them to write, words that God would also claim as his own.” (Wayne Grudem, Systematic Theology, 81)