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The Verbal Inspiration of Scripture
A belief in a
wholly-inspired Bible is the very foundation principle of
the Christian faith. The verbal inspiration of Scripture
is a doctrine of fundamental importance; for if the
writing of the Bible was not Divinely (and therefore
infallibly) guided, then the source of what we know of
God and His dealings with men would be unreliable. If we
could not, with absolute confidence as to its Divine
origin and production, turn to the Bible as the
authoritative Word of God in all its parts, then we would
be quite unable to make any certain progress towards true
enlightenment in spiritual things and in matters related
to salvation.
The key aspects of
Biblical inspiration are as follows:
1. The Bible was produced
by the 'outbreathing' of God through His Spirit:
- 2 Timothy 3:16 -
"All Scripture is given by inspiration
of God" (where the italicised words are a
single Greek word, theopneustos, meaning,
literally, 'God-breathed [out]'). (There are no
really sound linguistic grounds for weakening the
sense of Paul's words, as the NEB and the RV do,
by translating it as "Every Scripture
inspired of God is also . . ."; the RV
margin, the NIV, the Jerusalem Bible and many
other modern translations give the proper sense
required by the Greek sentence construction.)
2. The Spirit of God
'carried men along' to write His Word:
- 2 Peter 1:20,21 -
". . . 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 [Gk. phero, 'to
be carried (along)'] by the Holy Spirit".
3. The inspired writers of
the Bible wrote with the Divine authority of God Himself,
and their words are binding on God's people:
- 1 Corinthians 2:12,13
- "Now we have received . . . the spirit which
is of God; that we might know the things that are
freely given to us of God. Which things also we
speak, not in the words which man's wisdom
teacheth, but which the Holy Spirit
teacheth".
- 1 Corinthians 14:37 -
". . . the things that I [the Apostle Paul] write
unto you are the commandments of the Lord".
-
- John 10:35 -
According to Jesus, "the scripture cannot be broken".
4. The inspiration of the
Bible involved the Divine control or superintendence of
the very words used:
- Numbers 22:38; 23:3,5
- "And Balaam said . . . the word that God
putteth in my mouth, that shall I speak . . . and whatsoever
He sheweth me I will tell . . . And the Lord put
a word in Balaam's mouth".
-
- 2 Samuel 23:1-3 -
"Now these be the last words of David. David
the son of Jesse said . . . The Spirit of the
Lord spake by me, and His word was in my tongue.
The God of Israel said . . .".
-
- Jeremiah 1:7,9 -
"But the Lord said unto me [Jeremiah] . . . whatsoever
I command thee thou shalt speak . . . Behold, I have
put My words in thy mouth".
-
- John 14:10,24 -
". . . the words that I [Jesus] speak unto
you I speak not of myself . . . the word which ye
hear is not mine, but the Father's Which sent
me".
5. Because the words
themselves were Divinely inspired (as well as the
writers), the possibility of the original Scriptures
containing errors is excluded:
- Psalm 12:6 -
"The words of the Lord are pure words: as silver
tried in a furnace of earth, purified seven
times".
6. The power of God's
Spirit to enlighten, to convert, and to save is in the
Scriptures themselves, and the benefit of their Divine origin
is conveyed to us in their words, which do not require
the additional operation of the Holy Spirit to make them
intelligible:
- 2 Timothy 3:15 -
". . . the holy scriptures . . . are able
[Gk. dunamai, 'have power'] to make thee wise
unto salvation".
-
- John 6:63 - ". .
. the words that I [Jesus] speak unto you, they are
spirit, and they are life".
-
- Acts 20:32 - "I
[Paul] commend you to God, and to the word of His
grace, which is able to build you up, and to give
you an inheritance among all them which are
sanctified".
-
- Romans 10:17 -
"So then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing
by the word of God".
-
- Isaiah 55:11 -
"My word . . . that goeth forth out of My
[God's] mouth . . . shall not return unto Me
void, but it shall accomplish that which I
please, and it shall prosper in the thing whereto
I sent it".
The Bible is our light and
life as much today as when fresh from the hands of its
Author. As we value our life, let us stand with indomitable
resolution against all doctrines that would detract from
the authority or importance of the Scriptures.
Source:
The Testimony Magazine
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