01.B.1 Looking to Godly Examples: Inspiration of Scripture

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Looking to Godly Examples
Inspiration of Scripture

Key Passage: Second Timothy 3:10-17

Contents 1 Summary 2 Guided Reflection 3 Essential Truths Regarding Inspiration of Scripture 4 Core Issues 5 Common Errors 6 Connecting Points to 5Cs 7 Connecting Points to 4Ds 8 Essential Truths (Conclusion)

Summary

The Scriptures are “God-breathed,” providing complete directions for equipping the people of God. We are to lead fruitful lives of obedience to the Scriptures, as we follow the example of obedience seen in the lives those who have nurtured us in the Scriptures.

Guided Reflection

What would you think if you saw a person pushing a brand new luxury automobile along the street? You may infer that he failed to read the owner’s manual that came with the vehicle. He doesn’t know the proper way to start the engine and use the car, so he pushes it. Too often people live their Christian lives this way, never availing themselves of the rich resources and enablings God has revealed in the owner’s manual of Scripture.

If the poor uninformed person pushing his car down the street saw someone drive past, he may realize that there is a better way. The driver sitting comfortably behind the wheel demonstrates the intended use of an automobile and its many features. A life transformed by God’s power in accordance with His Word will demonstrate the great potential and provision of new life in Christ.

How then should we live as Christians? We are redeemed by faith in the blood of Jesus and His death on the cross. So now what? What does this redeemed life look like?

The Scriptures tell us how to live. They are given by God not only to tell us what God is like, but also to equip us and show us how to live. The Bible is not merely a book of rules which must be obeyed – or else! Rather, it is more of an owner’s manual that shows how to operate in the new life that God has given us with all its privileges and provisions. Those who look at the Bible as a book of rules, fail to benefit from the resources God has given us through which to experience life as God intended.

Moreover, the Scriptures do more than show us how to live; they actually connect us, through the Holy Spirit, with God’s transforming power. Thus, the Scriptures are more than a manual. When we interact with them, the Spirit is present to impart the life of God to us. It is as if the life and mind of the Designer are imparted so that the driver of the vehicle is able to make use of all the features and special equipment that are the Christian life. The Word of God is Spirit and Life, not just words of instruction (John 6:63; 20:31; Heb. 4:12).

Just as the Scriptures are given by inspiration of God, our lives are to be inspired by God. The Word of God breathed out through the lives of faithful believers will be an expression of what is breathed out in Scripture.

Essential Truths Regarding Inspiration of Scripture

Inspiration is the means by which God moved upon certain human authors, using their personality, background, character, and life experiences to produce the inerrant written record of the revelation that is universally authoritative and applicable.

“God-breathed” is the term used to describe the inspiration of Scripture. This description is found only once in the New Testament (2 Tim. 3:16). It is a single Greek word, theopneustos, compounded from theos (God) and pneustos (breath) and simply means that the Scriptures are God-breathed.

Core Issues

The study of inspiration deals with the meaning and means of inspiration: how the Spirit of God moved upon the writers so that the Scriptures were produced with the exact meaning God intended.

Dynamic Inspiration is the term used to describe the divine-human dynamic found in the writing of Scripture. God moved upon the human writers (2 Pet. 1:16-21), using their individuality to bring about the accurate record of the Scriptures. The 66 books of our Bible were written with the pens of about 40 unique human authors over a period of more than 2000 years under varying circumstances and conditions. God used who they were in His inspiration of what they wrote.

1. The human authors are shown in some cases to draw from previously written materials. Moses, in writing Genesis, used documents written thousands of years earlier (Gen. 5:1; 10:1; 11:10) and compiled a single cohesive book. Moses also wrote down with pen and ink what God had first etched in stone (Ex. 32:15-16). Luke included in the Book of Acts a document that had been written by leaders of the Church (Acts 15:23-29), as well as a legal document (Acts 23:22-33). The New Testament contains about 900 quotations from the Jewish Scriptures (Matt. 2:1-6; Mark 1:1-3) and other records (e.g., Jude 14). God directed the authors in their use of existing records so that the Scripture communicates the truth without error.

2. The human authors also wrote down words which had been previously given orally, either by themselves or others. Many of the books of the Jewish prophets were given orally, and then written at a later time. The direct words of God are recorded (Gen. 1:3; Matt 3:17); the voice of the devil (Gen 3:4-5; Matt. 4:3) is also recorded. Whether the words spoken were truth or lies, the record is true, and the revelation of God in those words is communicated accurately.

3. The human authors made use of research and interviews of eye-witnesses. Luke was not present to witness the events described in his Gospel. Instead, he relied on the recollections of people who participated in the events, which he then recorded under the direction of the Holy Spirit.

4. Each author wrote from his unique viewpoint and perspective, reflecting his own background and style in his observations (1 Pet. 5:12; Heb. 13:22). The biblical authors are scholars and farmers, kings and slaves, rich men and paupers. The Holy Spirit used the particular history and individual character of each one to produce the accurate record of the revelation. The writers themselves recognized the uniqueness of other writers’ personalities and style (2 Pet. 3:15-16), yet recognized their writings as Scripture.

5. The authors used their own discrimination in what they included or omitted in their writings (John 19:35; 20:30-31; 21:24-25; 1 John 5:13; Luke 1:1-4; Acts 1:1-2). Consequently, we have four accounts of the life of Christ in the Gospels. As John does not record the same historical details as the other Gospel writers, so Paul’s letters do not address every possible moral issue, and the author of Genesis provides selected details of only a few figures from ancient times, primarily the patriarchal line of the nation of Israel.

The content of each author’s work was based on his specific purposes in writing and the makeup of the intended recipients (1 John 2:14, 21, 26). Whether the document was narrative or instruction, this choice-making procedure was initiated by the writers themselves, but under the Holy Spirit’s guidance, which may or may not have been evident to those writers.

6. The truth is revealed in all that was written: not only what is declared in direct statements (1 Tim. 3:16), but also in experiences described in the narrative (2 Cor. 3:1-3; 2 Tim. 3:10-14). Both positive and negative events and examples are provided (Rom. 15:4; 1 Cor. 10:6-11; 3 John).

We are not only to do those things taught by Paul, but also what is heard and seen in him (Phil. 4:9 cf. 3:17; 1 Cor. 11:1; 1 Thess. 1:6; 2:14; 4:1). Likewise, the practice of the early church is recorded not just as historical facts, but as a pattern to be followed in subsequent centuries. What happened on later occasions was accepted as valid because it matched what had taken place previously (Acts 11:15-18). The pattern, in contrast to a rule, includes the idea of growth and development of practice. Some practices, such as communal living, were not continued on a permanent basis in the early church (Acts 2:44-45 with 18:26). This practice of adapting and adjusting is part of the pattern we are to follow.

7. The writers’ own awareness of their inspiration varied. In some cases they knew that they were writing under the specific direction of the Holy Spirit, while in other cases they may have assumed that they were simply writing a personal letter, later recognized by all as inspired Scripture (e.g. the letter to Philemon).

Varied degrees of awareness are seen in the writings of John (Rev. 22:16-21; cf. 3 John 14). Paul knew his apostolic writings carried special authority (Eph 3:1-5; 2 Cor. 13:10; 2 Thess. 2:1-2), yet it seems he did not always know which ones were inspired Scripture. For example, he apparently assumed his letter to the Colossians carried similar weight as his letter to the church at Laodicea (Col. 4:16), which is not part of the Bible.

The special authority of the apostles’ writing was immediately recognized and respected among the churches. Early on, as the documents were circulated, leaders and readers accepted them and affirmed them as Scripture, placing them on the same level as the Old Testament (2 Pet. 3:16; 1 Thess. 2:13; Rom. 16:25-27; 1 Tim. 5:18). The inspiration of Scripture continues to be confirmed through our transformed lives as we believe and obey.

Common Errors

1. Dictation (automatic writing)

This is a mocking caricature of the orthodox view of Scripture. The penmen are supposedly merely passive tools in the hands of God and mechanically recorded His very words. This has also been the approach of many well-meaning Christians who treat the Scripture like a treasure of divine words, with no regard for context or the writer’s intent.

a) While in some cases, the words of Scripture were in fact given by direct divine dictation (Jer. 36; Exodus 4:12; Rev. 1:10-11), other texts show that the writers deliberated and wrote what they thought needed to be written (Luke 1:3; Acts 15:19-20; Heb. 13:22; 1 Pet. 5:12; 2 Pet. 1:12-14; 2 John :12; 3 John :13; Jude :3).

b) Often the words of Scripture are quotations of the very words of God (Is. 1:2; Luke 3:22; John 12:28). But likewise the words of evil men, and the devil are found recorded in Scripture (Gen. 3:4-5; Rev. 13:4-6), as well as misguided words of well-meaning men such as Job’s friends (Job 4:6-7 cf. 1:1, 8). Consequently, it is inappropriate to think of the Bible as nothing but directly-dictated utterances of God.

c) Clearly a proper view of Inspiration accounts for the varied styles of the writers and how their own backgrounds and personalities enter into what they wrote. For example, in the four Gospels, God planned the writers’ choices of details so that a more vivid and complete picture would be provided.

d) If mechanical dictation was the process of Inspiration, then God could have used just one individual to write down the whole of Scripture. However, by using a wide selection of personalities and backgrounds in those who authored the Scripture, God provided a written revelation that communicates effectively with all humanity.

2. Intuition (religious genius)

This error alleges that some men have a greater propensity to religious thinking by which they produced the Scriptures. In this view, all great writings, including philosophical and metaphysical works of the world are “inspired” to a degree. Not only were Moses and Isaiah inspired, but so were Gandhi, Buddha, Plato, and Shakespeare . A sad result of this view is that Scripture is treated, not as an inerrant revelation, but merely enlightened ponderings about moral and spiritual ideas, with some ideas being wrong or outdated.

a) Scripture shows that natural man cannot know the things of the Spirit of God (1 Cor. 1:19-21; 2:14). Even the most devout religious holy men cannot attain to the mind of God or fathom the depths of His wisdom.

b) Furthermore, the biblical writers themselves made no claim of any special genius for spiritual things. On the contrary, they saw themselves and their people as stubborn rebels (Deut. 9:4-7). The writers recognized their own weaknesses and dependence on divine enabling (Gal. 1:1-15; 2:11-14; 1 Tim. 1:15).

3. Illumination (divine influence)

In this view, God merely intensified the writers’ perception of moral and spiritual truth. The words of Scripture then are enhanced human attempts to express divine thoughts. This view confuses inspiration with illumination, which is to be the experience of all believers.

a) Illumination, in its correct application, is the work of the Holy Spirit enabling people to perceive truth that has already been revealed (2 Cor. 4:3-6; Eph. 3:16-20).

b) Throughout the Scriptures, it is often declared that not just the thoughts and ideas, but the very words are what God directed (Matt. 24:35; John 5:47), even to the letter and stroke of the pen, or whether or not a word is plural (Matt. 5:18; Gal. 3:16).

c) The writers were inspired, but not always “illumined.” Those who delivered God’s words sometimes lacked an understanding of what they were saying. Rather than being enlightened in mind, they were actually perplexed by the words they were declaring (1 Pet. 1:9-12; Dan. 12:5-9; Job 42:1-6; Mark 9:31-32).

d) While the writers often had thoughts that were insightful and from God, it is plainly stated that they spoke “as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit” (2 Pet. 1:20-21).

Connecting Points to 5Cs

Connecting Points to 4Ds

List the four profitable usages of Scripture (2 Tim. 3:16) and think of a biblical text emphasizing each of the four. How does the particular truth of each text work to equip (v. 17)? Think of individuals whose lives exemplify the truths you have just noted.

Communal living is not a rule for church practice. Under what circumstances might this be appropriate? Why do you think it was not carried on as a permanent practice of the Christian community?

Essential Truths (Conclusion)

1. The Scriptures are breathed out by God, who used the personal style, history and perspective of the human authors. The result is the inerrant record that God uses to save, equip, and transform His people.

2. One of the many reasons to hold to the Bible as the Word of God is the fact that its words have the power to change lives. As we look for examples to follow, let us seek to emulate only those who are themselves undergoing transformation by the Spirit through the Scriptures. Similarly, we ourselves should seek to be changed by the Word, so that we can be examples to others of the power of the Word of God.