Systematic Theology I1
Fall 2015
BIBLIOLOGY—Lesson 3:Revelation and Inspiration
“Those heretics who pretend that the laity need not know God’s law but that the knowledge which priests have had imparted to them by word of mouth is sufficient, do not deserve to be listened to.For Holy Scripture is the faith of the Church.” - John Wycliffe
R.C. Sproul:Inspiration and Authority of Scripture (24 min, lecture from Foundations)
1.Introduction
The purpose of this study is to find out what the Bible teaches about itself.The claim of the Bible is that it is the perfect product of God, in every stage of its formation from its source in the mind of God until it reaches the hearts of people with its message.
2.A Work of Preparation: God prepared the writers
A.Why were human writers important?
B.God prepared the writers generally
Galatians 1:15 But when he who had set me apart before I was born, and who called me by his grace,
Jeremiah 1:4 Now the word of the LORD came to me, saying
C.God prepared the writers in particular
Moses, David, Solomon, Daniel, Paul, John
“Each of the biblical writers had his own unique combination of distinctives. Each was conditioned by factors distinctive of his time and place. Each had distinctively heredity and environment…level of education and training…interests and emphases…vocabulary and writing style. Each reflects a distinctive cluster of natural and spiritual gifts. We can minimize the differences no more than the similarities.” – Gordon R. Lewis, Inerrancy, Ch. 8
3.A Work of Revelation: God revealed the material
Our knowledge of God arises from His condescension in communicating Himself and His will with us.
A.Immediate writing of God
Exodus 31:18 And he gave to Moses, when he had finished speaking with him on Mount Sinai, the two tablets of the testimony, tablets of stone, written with the finger of God.
B.Direct voice of God
Exodus 33:11 Thus the LORD used to speak to Moses face to face, as a man speaks to his friend. When Moses turned again into the camp, his assistant Joshua the son of Nun, a young man, would not depart from the tent.
C.Dreams and interpretations (see Joseph in Genesis 40-41)
D.Objective visions
Ezekiel 1:1 In the thirtieth year, in the fourth month, on the fifth day of the month, as I was among the exiles by the Chebar canal, the heavens were opened, and I saw visions of God.
E.The natural world
Romans 1:20-21 For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse. For although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened.
F.Spiritual life and experience (see Psalm 51)
G.Historical events
1 Corinthians 10:6, 11Now these things took place as examples for us, that we might not desire evil as they did….Now these things happened to them as an example, but they were written down for our instruction, on whom the end of the ages has come.
Steve Lawson:fulfilled prophecy examples (video, 4:44)
H.Control of the Holy Spirit
2 Peter 1:21 For no prophecy was ever produced by the will of man, but men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit.
I.Jesus Christ
Hebrews 1:1 Long ago, at many times and in many ways, God spoke to our fathers by the prophets
“The antithesis of ‘person-revelation’ and ‘proposition-revelation’ can only result in an equally unscriptural contrast of personal faith with doctrinal belief.It is now often said that belief in Christ is something wholly different from belief in truths or propositions.But to lose intelligible revelation spells inescapable loss of any supernatural authorized doctrinal assertions concerning God.” - Carl Henry, God, Revelation and Authority
4.A Work of Inspiration: God inspired the writing of His special revelation into sacred scripture.
It was God’s purpose that by means of a written record He would reveal Himself to all nations and ages.
As light that passes through the colored glass of a cathedral window, we are told, is light from heaven, but is stained by the tints of the glass through which it passes; so any word of God which is passed through the mind and soul of a man must come out discolored by the personality through which it is given, and just to that degree ceases to be the pure word of God. But what if this personality has itself been formed by God into precisely the personality it is, for the express purpose of communicating to the word given through it just the coloring which it gives it?...When we think of God the Lord giving by His Spirit a body of authoritative Scriptures to His people, we must remember that He is the God of providence and of grace as well as of revelation and inspiration, and that He holds all the lines of preparation as fully under His direction as He does the specific operation which we call technically, in the narrow sense, by the name of “inspiration.” – B.B. Warfield
John Stevenson: Who Wrote the Bible? The Doctrine of Inspiration
A.Revelation is not enough because…
1)It must be distinguished from non-revelation
2)It must be recorded accurately
2 Peter 1:21 For no prophecy was ever produced by the will of man, but men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit.
Formula “It is written” appears over 60 times in the Bible
Matt 4:4 But he answered, “It is written, ‘Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.’” (Deut 8:3)
Dutch theologian Abraham Kuyper notes four advantages of a written record.
1. It achieves durability. Errors of memory, deliberate or accidental corruptions over a long period are minimized.
2. It can be universally disseminated through translation and reproduction.
3. It has the attributes of fixedness and purity.
4. It is given a finality and formativeness which other forms of communication cannot attain.
(Milne, Know the Truth, page 40)
Question:What is the difference between revelation and inspiration?
“Now, Revelation is that act of God by which He directly communicates truth not known before to the human mind. Revelation discovers new truth, while Inspiration superintends the communicating of that truth.All that is in the Bible has not been "directly revealed" to man. It contains history, and the language of men, even of wicked men. But there is absolutely no part of the Bible record that is not inspired. The history recorded in the Bible is true. The sacred writers were so directed and influenced by the Spirit that they were preserved, in writing, from every error of fact and doctrine. The history remains history. Things not sanctioned by God, recorded in the Bible, are to be shunned (2 Tim 3:16). Nevertheless, all these things were written under the guidance of the Holy Spirit. This is inspiration.”–William Evans, Great Doctrines of the Bible
Revelation / InspirationGod has revealed Himself / God in-breathed the Scriptures
Involves both general as well as special revelation / Confined to the Bible
B. The term “inspiration” describes this work
2 Timothy 3:16 All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness
Jeremiah 1:5“Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, and before you were born I consecrated you; I appointed you a prophet to the nations.”
Jeremiah 1:9 Then the LORD put out his hand and touched my mouth. And the LORD said to me,“Behold, I have put my words in your mouth.
1.Definition:Inspiration – “The process in which God controlled the writing of the Bible through men in such a way that the original documents were a perfect recording of the exact message which God desired to give to man in every word in every part while permitting them to exercise their own personalities.”(Source unknown)
Inspiration refers to the way in which God spoke to the human writers of scripture with the affect that what they wrote was His Word.It implies that God was directly involved in the writing of the Bible.
Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary:Inspiration (2:15)
2.False Theories of Inspiration
a.Natural Inspiration: The writers were men of unusual ability who wrote in the same way Shakespeare wrote his plays.
b.Dictation: God dictated the words and the men passively recorded them.
c.Partial Inspiration: Only the parts of the Bible related to faith and practice were inspired by God.
d.Inspired Thoughts: Only the concepts or ideas are inspired, but not the words.
e.Neo-Orthodox Opinion: The Bible becomes the Word of God as the individual subjectively encounters God through it.
Video: Incorrect views of the inspiration of Scripture (2:16)
C. Inspiration has to do with the record rather than the act of revelation
The biblical doctrine of inspiration asserts that the perfect God used imperfect people to record a perfect truth.The Bible is a miracle of God that contains much mystery.
D. Inspiration guarantees that all the words in the Bible are God’s words
“Since God always speaks the truth, it follows that the Scriptures are without error. Jesus treated them this way, even basing his point in an argument with the Pharisees on the tense of a single word (Matt 22:31-32; see alsoGal 3:16where Paul does this as well) and stating ‘the Scripture cannot be broken’ (John 10:35). This is called the doctrine of verbal, plenary inspiration, which means that the very words (verbal) of the Bible were all (plenary) God-breathed.” – John Piper
1.This is what the Bible claims for itself.
a.Grudem comments:In the Old Testament, this is frequently seen in the introductory phrase, “Thus says the LORD,” which appears hundreds of times.In the world of the Old Testament, this phrase would have been recognized as identical in form to the phrase, “Thus says king…,” which was used to preface the edict of a king to his subjects, an edict that could not be challenged or questioned, but that simply had to be obeyed.Thus, when the prophets say, “Thus says the Lord,” they are claiming to be messengers from the Sovereign king of Israel, namely, God himself, and they are claiming that their words are the absolutely authoritative words of God.(page 74-75)
b.God is said to speak “through” the prophets.
1 Kings 14:18 And all Israel buried him and mourned for him, according to the word of the LORD, which he spoke by his servant Ahijah the prophet.
2 Kings 9:36a When they came back and told him, he said, “This is the word of the LORD, which he spoke by his servant Elijah the Tishbite
c.The New Testament claims this for the Old Testament.
2 Timothy 3:16 All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness
(In this passage the term “Scripture” [graphe] must refer to the Old Testament written Scripture since that is what the term refers to in the fifty-one occurrences in the New Testament.)
Matthew 1:22-23 All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had spoken by the prophet: “Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and they shall call his name Immanuel” (which means, God with us).
Acts 1:16 “Brothers, the Scripture had to be fulfilled, which the Holy Spirit spoke beforehand by the mouth of David concerning Judas, who became a guide to those who arrested Jesus.
Acts 2:16-17a But this is what was uttered through the prophet Joel:“‘And in the last days it shall be, God declares, that I will pour out my Spirit on all flesh
d.The New Testament claims this for the New Testament.
2 Peter 3:15-16 And count the patience of our Lord as salvation, just as our beloved brother Paul also wrote to you according to the wisdom given him, as he does in all his letters when he speaks in them of these matters. There are some things in them that are hard to understand, which the ignorant and unstable twist to their own destruction, as they do the other Scriptures.
1 Timothy 5:18 For the Scripture says, “You shall not muzzle an ox when it treads out the grain,” and, “The laborer deserves his wages.”(see Luke 10:7)
2.We are convinced of the Bible’s claims to be God’s Words as we read it.
1Corinthians 2:13-14And we impart this in words not taught by human wisdom but taught by the Spirit, interpreting spiritual truths to those who are spiritual. 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.
John 10:27My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me.
Revelation 22:18-19I warn everyone who hears the words of the prophecy of this book: if anyone adds to them, God will add to him the plagues described in this book, and if anyone takes away from the words of the book of this prophecy, God will take away his share in the tree of life and in the holy city, which are described in this book.
The Bible’s claim to be God’s word could not be made more unambiguously or emphatically.
Grudem comments:“It is important to remember that this conviction that the words of Scripture are the words of God does not come apart from the words of Scripture. …It is…as people read Scripture that they hear their Creator’s voice speaking to them in the words of Scripture and realize that the book they are reading is unlike any other book, that it is indeed a book of God’s own words speaking to their hearts.”(page 77-78)
3.The Words of Scripture are self-attesting.
Grudem notes: [The Scriptures] cannot be “proved” to be God’s words by appeal to any higher authority.For if an appeal to some higher authority (say, historical accuracy or logical consistency) were used to prove that the Bible is God’s Word, then the Bible itself would not be our highest or absolute authority: it would be subordinate in authority to the thing to which we appealed to prove it to be God’s Word. (page 78)
Question:What did you think of Grudem’s answer to those who claim that this argument is an example of circular reasoning?(page 78-79)
5.A Work of Preservation: God preserves the record
“And while I surely believe God has preserved His Word, the means by which He has done so is fully consistent with the manner of the revelation itself. We dare not apply modern standards derived from computer transfer protocols and digital recording algorithms to the ancient context for one simple reason: by doing so we are precluding God’s revelation and activity until the past few generations! What arrogance on our part! We must allow God to reveal Himself as He sees fit, when He sees fit, and we must derive our understanding of His means of safeguarding His revelation from the reality of the historical situation, not our modern hubris.” – James White
A.Why is this important?
B.The Bible speaks of this
Deuteronomy 10:5 Then I turned and came down from the mountain and put the tablets in the ark that I had made. And there they are, as the LORD commanded me.”
Jeremiah 36:27-32 Now after the king had burned the scroll with the words that Baruch wrote at Jeremiah's dictation, the word of the LORD came to Jeremiah: “Take another scroll and write on it all the former words that were in the first scroll, which Jehoiakim the king of Judah has burned. And concerning Jehoiakim king of Judah you shall say, ‘Thus says the LORD, You have burned this scroll, saying, “Why have you written in it that the king of Babylon will certainly come and destroy this land, and will cut off from it man and beast?” Therefore thus says the LORD concerning Jehoiakim king of Judah: He shall have none to sit on the throne of David, and his dead body shall be cast out to the heat by day and the frost by night. And I will punish him and his offspring and his servants for their iniquity. I will bring upon them and upon the inhabitants of Jerusalem and upon the people of Judah all the disaster that I have pronounced against them, but they would not hear.’”
Then Jeremiah took another scroll and gave it to Baruch the scribe, the son of Neriah, who wrote on it at the dictation of Jeremiah all the words of the scroll that Jehoiakim king of Judah had burned in the fire. And many similar words were added to them.
Romans 3:1-2 Then what advantage has the Jew? Or what is the value of circumcision? Much in every way. To begin with, the Jews were entrusted with the oracles of God.
C.There are two problems associated with preservation
1)Which books belong in the Bible?(canonicity)
2)Which copies of those books do we follow when there is disagreement?(textual criticism)
Concluding applications:
1. We need the scriptures if we are to be born again.
2 Timothy 3:15 and how from childhood you have been acquainted with the sacred writings, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus.
2. We need to labor over the scriptures since God has labored to deliver the scriptures to us.
3. We need to preach and teach the scriptures.
4. We need to obey God’s Word.