The Origin of the Word

2 Peter 1:12-21

So I will always remind you of these things, even though you know them and are firmly established in the truth you now have. I think it is right to refresh your memory as long as I live in the tent of this body, because I know that I will soon put it aside, as our Lord Jesus Christ has made clear to me. And I will make every effort to see that after my departure you will always be able to remember these things.

We did not follow cleverly invented stories when we told you about the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but we were eyewitnesses of his majesty. For he received honour and glory from God the Father when the voice came to him from the Majestic Glory, saying, “This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased.” We ourselves heard this voice that came from heaven when we were with him on the sacred mountain.

And we have the word of the prophets made more certain, and you will do well to pay attention to it, as to a light shining in a dark place, until the day dawns and the morning star rises in your hearts. Above all, you must understand that no prophecy of Scripture came about by the prophet’s own interpretation. For prophecy never had its origin in the will of man, but men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit.

T

he story of how we received our Bible is a long and glorious tale. Properly told, that story begins in the Garden of Eden and continues to this present day. Attacked by kings and prelates, assaulted by scholars and critics, ignored by nobility and sages, this singular book yet stands as the perfect revelation of the mind of God to those willing to receive it as such. That this is the Word of God should not be doubted, since of all the writing of mankind this book stands alone in changing lives. Within the Book the weak find strength, the discouraged are encouraged, the weary are refreshed, and the timid draw renewed courage. Wicked men are made good through accepting the teachings of this Word, and destructive ideas crumble before its sound teaching. No other book has so influenced mankind for good, as has the Bible, despite the attacks and the assaults of the wise of this world.

How did we receive this Word? Though a study of the means by which it survived would no doubt prove instructive and exciting, more foundational still is how we received the Book. If it is the Word of God, can we demonstrate it to be of divine origin? If it is of divine origin, what is our responsibility to the One who gave the Book? These are not inconsequential questions; they merit our most careful consideration. Peter, writing the saints of those formative days of the churches of our Lord, addressed these very questions. A study of His words will encourage us who have received the Book as God’s Word, and such a study will challenge those among us who have yet to acknowledge the truths which the Word presents. Join me in study of this subject, then.

The Word is More Certain Than Experience– Peter refers to his personal knowledge of Christ’s glory. The particular incident to which he refers must be the transfiguration. Go back in your mind to the incident recorded in Matthew 17:1-13. The incident is also recorded in both Mark’s Gospel and in Luke’s Gospel, but Matthew presents a complete account of what occurred when Peter, James and John went up the mountain with Jesus.

These disciples appear to have been unaware of what was to transpire on that mountain before they ascended with Jesus. We cannot fully understand what happened, despite having the accounts provided by the three writers. The Word of God simply says that Jesus was transfigured before them [Matthew 17:2]. The explanation provided is that His face shone like the sun, and His clothes became as white as the light. Mark says that Jesus’ clothing became dazzling white, whiter than anyone in the world could bleach them [Mark 9:3]. Luke states that His clothes became as bright as a flash of lightning [Luke 9:29]. Additionally, we are informed that the appearance of His face changed [Luke 9:29], shining like the sun [Matthew 17:2]; but the three accounts are united in focusing on Jesus’ clothing. Matthew and Mark unite in speaking of this as a metamorphosis [metemorfwvqh] though Luke simply speaks of a change, or more literally that He became other [e{teron].

It is mere speculation to try to determine what it was about His face which was changed. Something outward was so different that, though the disciples knew Him, they didn’t understand what was occurring. They were astonished by the transformation of His clothing, however, since all three writers focus on that detail. Luke alone informs us that this change took place as He was praying [Luke 9:29].

In many respects, the appearance of the Risen Christ to His exiled Apostle, John, is like this transfiguration. Perhaps because he had witnessed this metamorphosis, John was able to provide a more detailed description of the Lord when He revealed Himself on the Isle of Patmos. I saw … someone “like a son of man,” dressed in a robe reaching down to his feet and with a golden sash around his chest. His head and hair were white like wool, as white as snow, and his eyes were like blazing fire. His feet were like bronze glowing in a furnace, and his voice was like the sound of rushing waters. In his right hand he held seven stars, and out of his mouth came a sharp double-edged sword. His face was like the sun shining in all its brilliance [Revelation 1:12-16].

That appearance of the Son of Man to John is not unlike the appearance of the Ancient of Days whom Daniel saw over four hundred years earlier.

As I looked,

“thrones were set in place,

and the Ancient of Days took his seat.

His clothing was as white as snow;

the hair of his head was white like wool.

His throne was flaming with fire,

and its wheels were all ablaze.

10 A river of fire was flowing,

coming out from before him.

Thousands upon thousands attended him;

ten thousand times ten thousand stood before him.

The court was seated,

and the books were opened

[Daniel 7:9,10].

This is not the “gentle Jesus, meek and mild”. This is God revealed in awesome power.

Peter says he was an eyewitness of this revelation of Jesus. Further, he says that he, together with other writers of Scripture, heard the voice of God the Father. That voice stated, This is My Son, whom I love; with Him I am well pleased. What Peter does not add is that the voice of the Father continued with the admonition to Listen to [the Son] [Matthew 17:5]. Perhaps Peter remembers this voice and the precise statement so exactly because it appears to have been in response to Peter’s impetuous suggestion when he had finally recovered his senses. After recovering his presence of mind Peter had finally blurted out a suggestion that the disciples make three booths – one for Moses, one for Elijah, and one for Jesus. The suggestion placed Jesus on a plane with Moses and Elijah. The voice of the Father exposed that suggestion as the foolishness that it was.

At the sound of the voice of God, the disciples fell facedown, hiding their face lest they might see the face of God [Matthew 17:6]. Matthew reveals their feeling at that moment by adding the detail that they were terrified. Jesus walked over to where they were frozen in fear, touched them gently and comforted them, saying, Get up. Don’t be afraid. Hearing His voice and feeling His touch, they looked up from their prone positions, and when they looked up, they saw no one except Jesus [Matthew 17:8].

Peter could have said that they not only saw this transfiguration and heard the voice of the Father, but that each of those three disciples felt their emotions stirred. Their senses and their emotions and even their intellects were stirred to the utmost. Were this to have been your experience, would you be willing to risk your faith on what you saw, heard and felt? Yet, Peter says he is not depending upon his experience; he laid claim to something far more certain than anything he may have seen, heard or felt. Peter states that what is written down as Scripture is more certain than anything he ever experienced.

Which is greater in your estimate – experience or revelation? Millions of people base their faith on an experience. As a young Christian, I heard the testimony of multiplied numbers of people in the south-western United States who spoke of why they believed. Some spoke of being struck by what felt like lightning. Others spoke of something like a fireball coming down out of the heavens and smashing into them. Yet others spoke of a warm glow, or a tingling in the spine, or a sense of dread. Would you be surprised that many of those who thus spoke were soon inactive in pursuit of their faith? The reason for their failure to continue in the Faith despite their professed experiences is that they had based their faith on experience.

You may multiply the failure of those good country people here in our own sophisticated environment. Here, religious societies flourish and for a while appear to prosper as adherents demand an experience. Whether the experience is speaking in tongues, seeing a vision, hearing a voice, obtaining a particular feeling, or as one cult expects, feeling a “burning in the breast,” such experiences will fail when faith is challenged. Only one thing stands the test of time, and that is the revealed Word of God. Thus, Peter says, we have the word of the prophets made more certain.

When experience sits in judgement of the Word, we are always losers. When we submit our experiences to the Word, permitting the Word to judge what we have seen, heard or felt we will always honour God. God honours those who honour His Word. As your pastor, I cannot, if I will be true to the Word, encourage you to seek an experience. Rather, when you come to me with an experience, I must always urge you to submit that experience to the revealed mind of God. Let the Word judge your experience, and you will not err gravely.

God Inspired the Writers of Scripture by His Spirit – The superiority of the Word in any confrontation with our experience arises from the fact that the Word has been given by God’s Spirit. In the twenty-first verse of our text Peter makes this fact clear when he writes that men spoke from God … by the Holy Spirit. The prophets and the Apostles did not suddenly decide they would write Scripture; they were inspired by the Spirit of God. Scripture, whether Old Testament Scripture or New Testament Scripture, is not the result of a prophet simply releasing what was inside; they wrote at the direction of the Spirit of God. This verse is speaking of the source of the Word of God, which is God Himself.

Paul, writing Timothy, the young theologue and pastor of the church in Ephesus, said: all Scripture is God-breathed [2 Timothy 3:16]. In one sense it is wrong to speak of Scripture as inspired. Inspire refers to breathing in, but in this verse he says Scripture is qeovpneusto" – breathed out by God. The Scripture to which Paul referred at that point were the Old Testament books. Peter embraces the New Testament Gospels as Scripture and extends the same honour to the Epistles when he speaks of Paul’s writings in 2 Peter 3:16. He says that Paul’s letters contain some things that are hard to understand, which ignorant and untable people distort, as they do the other Scriptures… In that verse Peter equates Paul’s letters to Old Testament Scripture, and in this verse of our text he speaks of the Gospel accounts as Scripture in the same league with Old Testament writings.

Underscore in your mind this one great truth: the Bible is given by God Himself. How else would we know of the events leading up to the creation of our first parents were it not for the eyewitness account of the One who called all things into being? Either the first two chapters of Genesis are a tawdry copy of the specious speculations of men desperately seeking an explanation of their existence, or they are what they claim, the revelation of God. Either we accept the account of the flood as accurate, or we place ourselves in judgement of the Word of God. Either the Bible is the Word of God, or it is not. Either the Bible is accurate and trustworthy, or it is errant and untrustworthy. Someone has said that one leak in a submarine is too many, and one error in the Bible is too many. Either the Spirit of God was the source of all Scripture, or He was responsible for none.

Who but God would dare provide prophecies centuries before they were fulfilled? Modern prophets abound, and their track record is dismal. God set a standard by which to judge prophecies and prophets. A prophet need but be one hundred percent accurate to be accredited, and the prophecies delivered need but agree with that which God has already revealed in His Word. In Deuteronomy 18:21,22, God, through Moses, addressed the first of these criteria for prophecies. You may say to yourselves, “How can we know when a message has not been spoken by the LORD?” If what a prophet proclaims in the name of the LORD does not take place or come true, that is a message the LORD has not spoken. That prophet has spoken presumptuously. Do not be afraid of him.

In Deuteronomy 13:1-4 God provides the second criterion for prophets: If a prophet, or one who foretells by dreams, appears among you and announces to you a miraculous sign or wonder, and if the sign or wonder of which he has spoken takes place, and he says, “Let us follow other gods” (gods you have not known) “and let us worship them,” you must not listen to the words of that prophet or dreamer. The LORD your God is testing you to find out whether you love him with all your heart and with all your soul. It is the LORD your God you must follow, and him you must revere. Keep his commands and obey him; serve him and hold fast to him.

What sort of prophecies does the Bible provide? He foretold precisely how His people would be carried into captivity, the length of their captivity, and the means by which they would be restored to the land [cf. Deuteronomy 28:15-68]. The later Diaspora of the Jews to all the nations of the world was prophesied long before it occurred [Deuteronomy 30:1-6]. Jesus, quoted in Matthew 24:34,35, states that Israel cannot be destroyed. The outline of world history is given in the Word of God [Daniel 2:37-44].

My former pastor, Dr. W. A. Criswell, wrote a book entitled, Why I Preach That the Bible is Literally True. In that book, Dr. Criswell writes:

The marvellous portrait of Jesus to be found in the Old Testament is a miracle of the omniscient God. Who could draw a picture of a man not yet born? Surely God and God alone. Nobody knew a thousand years ago that Milton was going to be born or five hundred years ago that Washington was to be born or two hundred years ago that Churchill was to be born. Yet here in the Bible we have the most striking and unmistakable likeness of a man portrayed, not by one, but by twenty or twenty-five artists, none of whom had ever seen the man they were painting. The man was Jesus, the Christ. The painters were the Bible writers. The canvas is the Bible.[1]

Dr. Criswell then gives some of the amazing prophecies concerning Jesus the Messiah.

1. Genesis 3:15 says he is to be born the seed of the woman.

2. Isaiah 7:14; 49:1; Micah 5:3 tell us he is to be born of a virgin.

3. Genesis 9:18,27 says he is to be a descendant of Shem.

4. Genesis 12:3; 18:18; 22:18 tell us he is to be a descendant of Abraham.

5. Genesis 17:19; 21:12; 26:4 tell us he is to be a descendant of Isaac.

6. Genesis 28:4-14; Numbers 24:17; Isaiah 49:3 tell us he is to be a descendant of Israel, that is, of Jacob.

7. Genesis 29:9-10; 1 Chronicles 5:2; Micah 5:2 tell us he is to be born of the tribe of Judah.

8. 2 Samuel 7:12-14; 23:1-5, and other passages too numerous to mention, tell us he is to be born of the house of David.

9. Micah 5:2 tells us that he is to be born in Bethlehem, the City of David.

10. The passages in the Bible that describe the characteristics of his life and work are too numerous even to mention.

11. Isaiah 62:11 and Zechariah 9:9 describe his triumphal entry into Jerusalem.

12. Psalm 41:9 and Zechariah 11:12-13 describe his betrayal by a friend and disciple even at the cost of thirty pieces of silver.

13. Genesis 3:15; Psalm 22:1-21; Isaiah 50:5; 53:1-12; and Zechariah 13:7 describe his sufferings on the cross and his death for our sins.

14. Psalm 22:16 and Zechariah 13:6-7 describe the piercing of his hands and feet.

15. Psalm 22:16 and Isaiah 53:8-12 describe his death on the cross.

16. Psalm 22:18 describes the lots cast for his vesture.

17. Psalm 15:10 and Isaiah 53:9 describe his being embalmed and his being entombed.

18. Psalm 16:10; 17:15; and Jonah 1:17 portray his resurrection on the third day.

19. Psalm 8:5-6 and 110:1 describe his ascension into heaven.[2]

In addition to the prophecies named by Dr. Criswell, I would add the information that God, in the Word, also provided the exact date of Messiah’s birth [cf. Daniel 9:24-26]. Who but the Spirit of God would speak with such accuracy?

If the Bible has such accuracy on events we can verify, should we not be cautious before rejecting those prophecies which speak of the second return of the Messiah, not to bring salvation, but to judge the world? Should we not give credence to the pleas to believe Him now in this day of grace? Surely the events which are spoken of as being yet future – the rapture of the church, the great tribulation, the return of Jesus, the judgement of the nations, the millennial reign of Christ the Lord, and the destruction of the earth and the heavens – shall come to pass as certainly as those which have already been verified! For our purposes, it is vital to remember that the prophets and apostles spoke from God.

The Writers of Scripture Wrote as the Spirit Carried Them Along – The Bible finds its origin in God Himself, but here we are informed that the prophets and apostles spoke God’s Word as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit. This is an interesting word which is translated carried along. The same word is used in Acts 27:15 and 17 of the sails of the ship caught in the storm. The word is a maritime word which speaks of sails hoisted to catch the wind. In effect, Peter is saying that the prophets raised their sails in obedience to God and the Holy Spirit filled them and carried their craft along in the direction He wanted to go. Men spoke: God spoke. The Holy Spirit did not use instruments; He used men. Whenever a Spirit filled prophet spoke, God spoke.

Have you ever noted the repeated claim of divine origin found in the Word of God? It is more than mere formulae when the prophets say The Word of the Lord came, or when they say Thus saith the Lord, or when they claim that God spoke. These formulae occur hundreds of times throughout the Old Testament and similar claims are frequently made in the New Testament. They are confirmations of Peter’s presentation in our text.

Dr. Benjamin Breckinridge Warfield was a great defender of the Faith who taught at Princeton Theological Seminary before it slipped from the moorings established by the founders. Dr. Warfield wrote a book entitled The Inspiration and Authority of the Bible which is still a classic for study of this precious doctrine of the infallibility of the Bible. In that book, Warfield writes of the means by which God insured that what we received was infallible and inerrant. At one point he focuses on the very passage we have before us, providing insight from the point of view of one who invested long years in study both of the Word and of the language in which the New Testament was written.

…They were under the divine control. This control is represented as complete and compelling, so that, under it, the prophet becomes not the “mover,” but the “moved” in the formation of his message. The apostle Peter very purely reflects the prophetic consciousness in his well-known declaration: ‘No prophecy of Scripture came about by the prophet’s own interpretation. For prophecy never had its origin in the will of man, but men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit’ (2 Pet. i. 20.21).

What this language of Peter emphasises – and what it emphasised in the whole account which the prophets give of their own consciousness – is, to speak plainly, the passivity of the prophets with respect to the revelation given through them. This is the significance of the phrase: ‘men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit.’ To be “carried along” (fevrein…) is not the same as to be led (a[gein…), much less to be guided or directed (@odhgei'n…): he that is “carried along” contributes nothing to the movement induced, but is the object to be moved. The term “passivity” is, perhaps, however, liable to some misapprehension, and should not be overstrained. It is not intended to deny that the intelligence of the prophets was active in the reception of their message; it was by means of their active intelligence that their message was received: their intelligence was the instrument of revelation. It is intended to deny only that their intelligence was active in the production of their message: that it was creatively as distinguished from receptively active. For reception itself is a kind of activity. What the prophets are solicitous that their readers shall understand is that they are in no sense co-authors with God of their messages. Their messages are given them, given them entire, and given them precisely as they are given out by them. God speaks through the: they are not merely His messengers, but “His mouth.” But at the same time their intelligence is active in the reception, retention and announcing of their messages, contributing nothing to them but presenting fit instruments for the communication of them – instruments capable of understanding, responding profoundly to and zealously proclaiming them.[3]

So no one should miss the point that Warfield has made in reviewing Peter’s bold assertion I iterate, the Spirit of God so guided the writers of Scripture that what they wrote was precisely what God intended should be written. The product of their writing, our Bible, is a perfect treasure revealing the mind of God to anyone reading this Word. The Spirit of God did not inspire the thoughts of those who wrote Holy Writ; rather He insured that the very words were exactly what God intended should be written. Though this is odious to the modern mind (it was equally odious to the ancient mind), this is the clear declaration of the Apostle as he speaks of the manner in which God gave the Word.

There is a corollary to this which applies in contemporary preaching. When the preacher delivers a sound doctrinal exposition of the Word of God, it is as though the congregation were hearing the very voice of God. It is not that the messenger is anything nor even that the delivery is of any consequence; but the message, echoing the written Word of God permits the congregation listening to hear the voice of God. God used men, but especially were they denoted to be holy men, dedicated and pledged to His service. They were carried along in full obedience to the guidance of the Spirit.

Nor is this the only place where such is taught, although it is the fullest statement of the means by which God communicated His Word. In Exodus 24:3-8 we are informed that Moses … wrote down everything the Lord had said. Likewise, Isaiah wrote the very word of God according to what is revealed in Isaiah 51:16. When God had reached out His hand to touch the mouth of Jeremiah, He said, Now I have put My words in your mouth [Jeremiah 1:9]. Throughout that prophetic book the same information is repeatedly provided [Jeremiah 30:1-4; 36:1- 4]. Similar affirmations are provided concerning the prophecies of Ezekiel [Ezekiel 2:7; 3:27]. The Apostles also understood that David wrote the very words of God. Seeking an apostle to replace the fallen Judas, Peter said: Brothers, the Scripture had to be fulfilled which the Holy Spirit spoke long ago through the mouth of David … [Acts 1:16]. These disciples no doubt learned this from David’s own words. In 2 Samuel 23:2, David affirms that the Spirit of the Lord spoke through him.

Though the concept may be offensive to modern minds, honesty compels us to acknowledge that which is plainly before us – Peter declares that the Spirit of God pushed men along, insuring that they would provide us the very words of God. This is a humbling thought, and one which should cause us to stand in awe of our God. How great is His love, that He should so oversee the process of providing us His Word! How awesome our responsibility to treat this Word as it truly is, the Word of the Living God!

We Are Responsible to the Author of the Word – You will do well to pay attention to it. Even in this admonition Peter is but echoing the word he heard the Father speak on the Mount of Transfiguration: Listen to Him [Matthew 17:5]. If God has spoken, let us determine to heed what He has said. We would neither wish to disobey nor incur His wrath. Has God spoken? We are responsible to hear Him and to heed Him.

Go into many homes in our nation today, and there will be a Bible displayed somewhere in that home. Oftentimes the Bible on display is a large table volume. Look closely and you can frequently see dust settled on the cover. I remember entering a home on one occasion and seeing just such a Bible sitting on the coffee table. The lady had graciously consented to permit me to use her phone to make a call. As I dialled the number, I casually remarked, “I know the Author of that Book.”

The woman was obviously startled, and she replied: “What did you say?”

“I know the Author of that Book,” I responded a second time.

By that point I had made my connection and made arrangements for Lynda to come get me. So, having hung up the phone, I asked her if she was acquainted with the Author of the Book. Clearly intrigued, the lady replied that she was uncertain what I was speaking about. It gave me opportunity to tell her of the glorious Saviour, the Lord who gave His Word that we might be saved. She listened, and as I recall had confessed Christ soon after.

Do you know the Author of the Book? Have you heeded His call to believe? His call is that each might know of His grace while there is time to respond. I tell you the truth, said Jesus, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life and will not be condemned; he has crossed over from death to life [John 5:24]. He issues this offer of rest: Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light [Matthew 11:28-30]. Will you receive His rest? Will you cease from your labour to be acceptable to God and find rest in Him?

That rest is found in trusting Him, in believing that He is who He claimed to be and that He will do what He claimed He would do. This is the call of the Word of God. If you confess with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you confess and are saved. As the Scripture says, “Anyone who trusts in him will never be put to shame.” For there is no difference between Jew and Gentile—the same Lord is Lord of all and richly blesses all who call on him, for, “Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved” [Romans 10:9-13].

You who name the Name of the Lord Christ, are you obedient to His Word? Are you investing time in discovering His will, reading the revelation He has provided? You know He is Lord, but do your actions reveal that you treat Him as Lord? When I visited the Oyen family, Brother Oyen frequently shows me a letter he received from Jean Chretien, our Prime Minister. He also has a letter from the Queen. He did not receive those missives and toss them aside to be read on another day; he quickly read the greetings and reads them again from time-to-time.

Should we do any less with the Word of the Living God, the Sovereign Lord of Glory? As those who know Him, should not our lives reveal our knowledge of Him through familiarity with His Word and through obedience to His will? Perhaps we need to encourage ourselves that this is the Word of God and resolve today that we will discover what He has said in this Word. Amen.

My former pastor, Dr. W. A. Criswell, wrote a book entitled, Why I Preach that the Bible is Literally True. In that book, Dr. Criswell writes:

The marvellous portrait of Jesus to be found in the Old Testament is a miracle of the omniscient God. Who could draw a picture of a man not yet born? Surely God and God alone. Nobody knew a thousand years ago that Milton was going to be born or five hundred years ago that Washington was to be born or two hundred years ago that Churchill was to be born. Yet here in the Bible we have the most striking and unmistakable likeness of a man portrayed, not by one, but by twenty or twenty-five artists, none of whom had ever seen the man they were painting. The man was Jesus, the Christ. The painters were the Bible writers. The canvas is the Bible.[4]

Dr. Criswell then gives some of the amazing prophecies concerning Jesus the Messiah.

20. Genesis 3:15 says he is to be born the seed of the woman.

21. Isaiah 7:14; 49:1; Micah 5:3 tell us he is to be born of a virgin.

22. Genesis 9:18,27 says he is to be a descendant of Shem.

23. Genesis 12:3; 18:18; 22:18 tell us he is to be a descendant of Abraham.

24. Genesis 17:19; 21:12; 26:4 tell us he is to be a descendant of Isaac.

25. Genesis 28:4-14; Numbers 24:17; Isaiah 49:3 tell us he is to be a descendant of Israel, that is, of Jacob.

26. Genesis 29:9-10; 1 Chronicles 5:2; Micah 5:2 tell us he is to be born of the tribe of Judah.

27. 2 Samuel 7:12-14; 23:1-5, and other passages too numerous to mention, tell us he is to be born of the house of David.

28. Micah 5:2 tells us that he is to be born in Bethlehem, the City of David.

29. The passages in the Bible that describe the characteristics of his life and work are too numerous even to mention.

30. Isaiah 62:11 and Zechariah 9:9 describe his triumphal entry into Jerusalem.

31. Psalm 41:9 and Zechariah 11:12-13 describes his betrayal by a friend and disciple even at the cost of thirty pieces of silver.

32. Genesis 3:15; Psalm 22:1-21; Isaiah 50:5; 53:1-12; and Zechariah 13:7 describe his sufferings on the cross and his death for our sins.

33. Psalm 22:16 and Zechariah 13:6-7 describes the piercing of his hands and feet.

34. Psalm 22:16 and Isaiah 53:8-12 describes his death on the cross.

35. Psalm 22:18 describes the lots cast for his vesture.

36. Psalm 15:10 and Isaiah 53:9 describe his being embalmed and his being entombed.

37. Psalm 16:10; 17:15; and Jonah 1:17 portray his resurrection on the third day.

38. Psalm 8:5-6 and 110:1 describe his ascension into heaven.[5]

Dr. Benjamin Breckinridge Warfield was a great defender of the Faith who taught at Princeton Theological Seminary before it slipped from the moorings established by the founders. Dr. Warfield wrote a book entitled The Inspiration and Authority of the Bible which is still a classic for study of this precious doctrine of the infallibility of the Bible. In that book, Warfield writes of the means by which God insured that what we received was infallible and inerrant. At one point he focuses on the very passage we have before us, providing insight from the point of view of one who invested long years in study both of the Word and of the language in which the New Testament was written.

…They were under the divine control. This control is represented as complete and compelling, so that, under it, the prophet becomes not the “mover,” but the “moved” in the formation of his message. The apostle Peter very purely reflects the prophetic consciousness in his well-known declaration: ‘No prophecy of Scripture came about by the prophet’s own interpretation. For prophecy never had its origin in the will of man, but men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit’ (2 Pet. i. 20.21).

What this language of Peter emphasises – and what it emphasised in the whole account which the prophets give of their own consciousness – is, to speak plainly, the passivity of the prophets with respect to the revelation given through them. This is the significance of the phrase: ‘men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit.’ To be “carried along” (fevrein…) is not the same as to be led (a[gein…), much less to be guided or directed (@odhgei'n…): he that is “carried along” contributes nothing to the movement induced, but is the object to be moved. The term “passivity” is, perhaps, however, liable to some misapprehension, and should not be overstrained. It is not intended to deny that the intelligence of the prophets was active in the reception of their message; it was by means of their active intelligence that their message was received: their intelligence was the instrument of revelation. It is intended to deny only that their intelligence was active in the production of their message: that it was creatively as distinguished from receptively active. For reception itself is a kind of activity. What the prophets are solicitous that their readers shall understand is that they are in no sense co-authors with God of their messages. Their messages are given them, given them entire, and given them precisely as they are given out by them. God speaks through the: they are not merely His messengers, but “His mouth.” But at the same time their intelligence is active in the reception, retention and announcing of their messages, contributing nothing to them but presenting fit instruments for the communication of them – instruments capable of understanding, responding profoundly to and zealously proclaiming them.[6]

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[2] ibid., pp. 34-35

[5] ibid., pp. 34-35