Inspired by God

The Bible

Inspired by God

Given to men

Communicated to human beings
Communicated in a way that humans will understand (metaphors, anthromorphisms, etc.)

Two extremes:

Denying or diminishing its divine characteristics while affirming its human traits.

Liberals

Denying or diminishing its human traits while affirming its diving characteristics.

Fundamentalists

Arianism – denied the divinity of Christ

Docetism – denied the humanity of Christ

Bible is both Divine and human

The Human Characteristics of the Bible (Geisler, Systematic Theology, Vol. 1, 254-257)

The Bible has human authors.
The Bible has written in human languages.
The Bible has human literary styles.
The Bible uses different human literary forms.
The Bible reflects different human perspectives.
The Bible reflects different human thought patterns.
The Bible reveals human emotions.
The Bible manifests specific human interests.
The Bible expresses human culture.
The Bible utilizes other written human sources.

Metaphors and Anthromorphisms

The Bible is like milk that nourishes us.

1 Peter 2:2

…like newborn babies, long for the pure milk of the word, so that by it you may grow in respect to salvation,

The bible is like meat (solid food) that satisfies us.

Hebrews 5:13-14 (KJV)

13For every one that useth milk is unskilful in the word of righteousness: for he is a babe. 14But strong meat belongeth to them that are of full age, even those who by reason of use have their senses exercised to discern both good and evil.

The Bible is like water that washes us.

Ephesians 5:25-27

25Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ also loved the church and gave Himself up for her,26so that He might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word,27that He might present to Himself the church in all her glory, having no spot or wrinkle or any such thing; but that she would be holy and blameless.

The Bible is like a fire that cleanses us.

Jeremiah 23:29 (KJV)

Is not my word like as a fire? saith the Lord; and like a hammer that breaketh the rock in pieces?

The Bible is like a hammer that shatters us.

Jeremiah 23:29 (KJV)

Is not my word like as a fire? saith the Lord; and like a hammer that breaketh the rock in pieces?

The Bible is like a sword that cuts deeply into us.

Hebrews 4:13

For the word of God is living and active and sharper than any two-edged sword, and piercing as far as the division of soul and spirit, of both joints and marrow, and able to judge the thoughts and intentions of the heart.

The Bible is like is like a mirror to reflect ourselves to us.

James 1:23-25

23For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man who looks at his natural face in a mirror;24for once he has looked at himself and gone away, he has immediately forgotten what kind of person he was.25But one who looks intently at the perfect law, the law of liberty, and abides by it, not having become a forgetful hearer but an effectual doer, this man will be blessed in what he does.

The Bible is like is like a lamp to our feet

Psalm 119:105

Your word is a lamp to my feetand a light to my path.

A Case study: Various Confessions

Confession #1:

“God has a personal spirit body (Dan. 7:9-14; 10:5-19); shape (John 5:37); form (Phil. 2:5-7); image and likeness of a man (Gen. 1:26; 9:6; Ezek. 1:26-28; 1 Cor. 11:7; Jas. 3:9); He has bodily parts such as, back parts (Ex. 33:23), heart (Gen. 6:6; 8:21), hands and fingers (Ps. 8:3-6; Heb. 1:10; Rev. 5:1-7), mouth (Num. 12:8), lips and tongue (Isa. 30:27), feet (Ezek. 1:27; Ex. 24:10), eyes (Ps. 11:4; 18:24; 33:18), ears (Ps. 18:6), hair, head, face, arms (Dan. 7:9-14; 10:5-19; Rev. 5:1-7; 22:4-6), and other bodily parts.”

Confession #2:

Paragraph 1. The Lord our God is but one only living and true God;1 whose subsistence is in and of Himself,2 infinite in being and perfection; whose essence cannot be comprehended by any but Himself;3 a most pure spirit,4 invisible, without body, parts, or passions, who only hath immortality, dwelling in the light which no man can approach unto;5 who is immutable,6 immense,7 eternal,8 incomprehensible, almighty,9 every way infinite, most holy,10 most wise, most free, most absolute; working all things according to the counsel of His own immutable and most righteous will,11 for His own glory;12 most loving, gracious, merciful, long-suffering, abundant in goodness and truth, forgiving iniquity, transgression, and sin; the rewarder of them that diligently seek Him,13 and withal most just and terrible in His judgments,14 hating all sin,15 and who will by no means clear the guilty.16

The Doctrine of Inerrancy

Inerrancy – what is without error; wholly true

Inspiration is that inexplicable power which the Divine Spirit put forth of old on the authors of the Holy Scripture in order to give them guidance even in the employment of the words they used, and to preserve them alike from all error and from all omission.

The Bible has no errors of any kind.

1. God is Perfect.

2. Everything that God gives is perfect.

3. God gave the Bible.

4. The Bible is perfect.

Three objections to inerrancy

Inerrancy is not taught in the Bible (“inerrancy does not appear in the Bible”).
Inerrancy is a late invention.

Augustine (354-430)

“When they write that He has taught and said, it should not be asserted that He did not write it, since the members only put down what they had come to know at the dictation of the Head. …whatever He wanted us to read concerning His words and deeds, He commanded His disciples, His hands, to write. Hence, one cannot but receive what he reads in the Gospels, though written by the disciples, as though it were written by the very hand of the Lord Himself.”

“I have learned to yield this respect and honour only to the canonical books of Scripture: of these alone do I most firmly believe that the authors were completely free from error.”

Thomas Aquinas (1225-1274)

"Only those books of Scripture which are called canonical have I learned to hold in such honor as to believe their authors have not erred in any way in writing them” (Summa Theologica, “The Nature and Extent of Sacred Doctrine”).

John Calvin (1509-1564)

Scripture is “the certain and unerring rule” (Calvin’s Commentaries, Psalm 5:11).

“For it we reflect how prone the human mind is to lapse into forgetfulness of God, how readily inclined to every kind of error, how bent every now and then on devising new and fictitious religions, it will be easy to understand how necessary it was to make such a despository of doctrine as would secure it from either perishing by the neglect, vanishing away amid the errors, or being corrupted by the presumptuous audacity of men.”

Martin Luther (1483-1546)

And whoever is so bold that he ventures to accuse God of fraud and deception in a single word and does so willfully again and again after he has been warned and instructed once or twice will likewise certainly venture to accuse God of fraud and deception in all His words. Therefore, it is true absolutely and without exception, that everything is believed or nothing is believed. The Holy Ghost does not suffer Himself to be separated or divided so that He should teach and cause to be believed one doctrine rightly and another falsely.

The logical argument:

1. The Bible contains the words of humans.

2. Humans err.

3. Therefore, the Bible errs.

Fallacy: Humans do not always err.

1. Humans can err.

2. The Bible is a human book.

3. Therefore, the Bible can err.

Fallacy: Fails to show that the Bible actually errs.

What Jesus taught about God’s Word

Jesus affirmed its divine authority.

Jesus’ use of “It is written”

Matthew 4:4, 7, 10

4But He answered and said, “It is written, ‘Man shall not live on bread alone, but on every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God.’”

7 Jesus said to him, “On the other hand, it is written, ‘You shall not put the Lord your God to the test.’”

10Then Jesus said to him, “Go, Satan! For it is written, ‘You shall worship the Lord your God, andserve Him only.’”

Jesus’ submission to the Scriptures

Matthew 5:17

“Do not think that I came to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I did not come to abolish but to fulfill.

Jesus affirmed its imperishability.

Matthew 5:17-18

17“Do not think that I came to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I did not come to abolish but to fulfill.18For truly I say to you, until heaven and earth pass away, not the smallest letter or stroke shall pass from the Law until all is accomplished.

Jesus asserted its un-breakability.

John 10:34-36 (KJV)

34Jesus answered them, Is it not written in your law, I said, Ye are gods? 35If he called them gods, unto whom the word of God came, and the scripture cannot be broken; 36say ye of him, whom the Father hath sanctified, and sent into the world, Thou blasphemest; because I said, I am the Son of God?

Jesus declared its ultimate supremacy.

Matthew 15:3, 6

3 And He answered and said to them, “Why do you yourselves transgress the commandment of God for the sake of your tradition?

6he is not to honor his father or his mother.’ And by this you invalidated the word of God for the sake of your tradition.

Jesus affirmed its factual inerrancy.

Matthew 22:29 (KJV)

Jesus answered and said unto them, Ye do err, not knowing the scriptures, nor the power of God.

John 17:17

Sanctify them in the truth; Your word is truth.

Jesus insisted on its historical reliability.

Matthew 24:37-39

37For the coming of the Son of Man will be just like the days of Noah.38For as in those days before the flood they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noah entered the ark,39and they did not understand until the flood came and took them all away; so will the coming of the Son of Man be.

Matthew 10:15

Truly I say to you, it will be more tolerable for the land of Sodom and Gomorrah in the day of judgment than for that city.

Matthew 12:42

The Queen of the South will rise up with this generation at the judgment and will condemn it, because she came from the ends of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon; and behold, something greater than Solomon is here.

Matthew 19:4-6

4And He answered and said, “Have you not read that He who created them from the beginning made them male and female,5and said, ‘For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, andthe two shall become one flesh’?6So they are no longer two, but one flesh. What therefore God has joined together, let no man separate.”

Jesus affirmed its scientific accuracy.

Mark 13:19

For those days will be a time of tribulation such as has not occurred since the beginning of the creation which God created until now, and never will.

Matthew 19:4-6

John 3:12

If I told you earthly things and you do not believe, how will you believe if I tell you heavenly things?

The Bible and Science

Jesus on creation

Mark 13:19

For those days will be a time of tribulation such as has not occurred since the beginning of the creation which God created until now, and never will.

Matthew 19:4-6

John 3:12

If I told you earthly things and you do not believe, how will you believe if I tell you heavenly things?

Jesus and the flood

Matthew 24:37-39

Jesus and Jonah

Matthew 12:40

…for just as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the sea monster, so will the Son of Man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth.

The Old Testament

Isaiah

Critics believe that there were at least two authors of Isaiah

Two main sections
1-39: Pre-Destruction Judah
40-66: Post-Destruction Judah

Jesus stated that Isaiah wrote both

Quoted Isaiah 61:1-2

The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me,because the Lord has anointed me
to bring good news to the afflicted;He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted,to proclaim liberty to captives and freedom to prisoners; 2To proclaim the favorable year of the Lord and the day of vengeance of our God; to comfort all who mourn…

Luke 4:17-20

17And the book of the prophet Isaiah was handed to Him. And He opened the book and found the place where it was written,18“The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me,Because He anointed Me to preach the gospel to the poor.He has sent Me to proclaim release to the captives,And recovery of sight to the blind,To set free those who are oppressed,
19To proclaim the favorable year of the Lord.”20And He closed the book, gave it back to the attendant and sat down; and the eyes of all in the synagogue were fixed on Him.

Quoted Isaiah 29:13

Then the Lord said,“Because this people draw near with their words and honor Me with their lip service, but they remove their hearts far from Me, and their reverence for Me consists of tradition learned by rote…

Mark 7:6

And He said to them, “Rightly did Isaiah prophesy of you hypocrites, as it is written:‘This people honors Me with their lips,But their heart is far away from Me.

Jesus’ Disciple

Quotes Isaiah 6:10 and Isaiah 53:1 (John 12:37-41)

Isaiah 6:10

“Render the hearts of this people insensitive,their ears dull,and their eyes dim, otherwise they might see with their eyes,hear with their ears,understand with their hearts,and return and be healed.”

Isaiah 53:1

Who has believed our message?
And to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed?

John 12:37-41

37But though He had performed so many signs before them, yet they were not believing in Him.38This was to fulfill the word of Isaiah the prophet which he spoke: “Lord, who has believed our report? And to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed?”39For this reason they could not believe, for Isaiah said again,40“He has blinded their eyes and Hehardened their heart, so that they would not see with their eyes and perceive with their heart, andbe converted and I heal them.”41These things Isaiah said because he saw His glory, and he spoke of Him.

Psalms

Were written by David

Psalm 110:1; Matthew 22:43-45

Psalm 110:1

The Lord says to my Lord:“Sit at My right handuntil I make Your enemies a footstool for Your feet.”

Matthew 22:43-45

43He said to them, “Then how does David in the Spirit call Him ‘Lord,’ saying,44‘The Lord said to my Lord,“Sit at My right hand,Until I put Your enemies beneath Your feet”’?45If David then calls Him ‘Lord,’ how is He his son?”

Infallibility

The Scriptures are infallible (incapable of error) in matters of Theology. They may, though, contains errors in history and in science.

Inerrancy is different from Infallibility

Catholicism

We believe that the Scriptures are infallible, but we also believe that they are inerrant as well.

Inspiration

Defined:

That extraordinary or supernatural divine influence vouchsafed to those who wrote the Holy Scriptures, rendering their writings infallible.
The supernatural action of the Holy Spirit on the mind of the sacred writers whereby the Scriptures were not merely their own but the word of God. Scripture not merely contains but is the word of God.
The actions of God leading to the writing, preservation, and collection of His words to His people into the Bible.

***Theopneustos – breathed out by God or “God-breathed” (2 Tim. 3:16)

Other considerations:

More than human intuition and insight
The inspiredness of the biblical writing is not to be equated with the inspiredness of great literature, not even when (as is often true) the biblical writing is in fact great literature. The biblical idea of inspiration relates not to the literary quality of what is written, but to its character as divine revelation in writing.

–J. I. Packer, “The Origin of the Bible”, p. 35-36