BIBLE-INSPIRATION
In the Bible
itself, the two authors, human and divine, do not simply stand side by side.
Rather, each points to the other and affirms the presence and operation of the
other… God Himself points out the importance of the human authors… God Himself
requires us to interpret the words of Scripture against the background of what
we know about the human author. We cannot simply ignore the human author, when
we concentrate on what God is saying… (The human author) is not just any human
author. He is the one through whom God speaks. His own intentions are that we
should reckon with this. It is not a denial of human authorship, but an
affirmation of it, when we pay attention to God speaking… Hence there is a
unity of meaning and a unity of application.
The Right Doctrine from the Wrong Texts, ed.
G. K. Beale, Baker, 1994, p. 96, 97.
If I did not
believe in the infallibility of this book, I would rather be without it. If I
am to judge the book, it is no judge of me. If I am to sift it, and lay this
aside and only accept that, according to my own judgment, then I have no
guidance whatever, unless I have conceit enough to trust my own heart. The new
theory denies infallibility to the words of God, but practically imputes it to
the judgments of men. At least, this is all the infallibility which they can
get at. I protest that I will rather
risk my soul with a guide inspired from heaven, than with the differing leaders
who arise from the earth at the call of “modern thought.”
Sermons, 35.257.
Without
previous thinking, planning, imagining...the apostles will receive directly
from God just what to utter. It will come into their minds just as it is
needed, and thus they will utter it aloud. The apostles, indeed, make
utterance, and yet they do not, for their act is due to the Holy Spirit, so
that most properly He is the one who does this uttering. Everything that
is mechanical, magical, unpsychological is shut
out. The apostles will not be like the demoniacs – their organs of speech
and their very wills being violated by a demon. Absolutely the contrary:
mind, heart, will operate freely, consciously, in joyful, trustful dependence
on the Spirit’s giving, who enables them to find just what to say and how to
say it down to the last word, with no mistake or even a wrong word due to
faulty memory or disturbed emotions occurring. This, of course, is
Inspiration, Verbal Inspiration.
R.C.H. Lenski
Augsburg Publishing
The idea is
not so much that God breathed into the Scriptures, but that the
Scriptures are the product of His breathing out.
Feed My Sheep, ed. Don Kistler,
Soli Deo Gloria Ministries, 2002, p. 63.
Give me the
plenary, verbal theory of biblical inspiration with all its difficulties,
rather than the doubt. I accept the difficulties and humbly wait for their
solution. But while I wait, I am standing on the rock.
Among the
many arguments to prove the penmen of the Scripture inspired by the Spirit of
God, this is not the last and least- that the penmen of Holy Writ do record
their own faults and the faults of their dearest and nearest relatives. For
instance hereof, how coarsely doth David speak of himself: “So foolish was I,
and ignorant; I was as a beast before Thee.” And do you think that the face of
St. Paul did look the more foul by being drawn with his own pencil, when he
says, “I was a murderer, a persecuter, the greatest
of sinners,” etc?... Moses sets down the sin and punishment of his own sister,
the idolatry and superstition of Aaron his brother, and his own fault in his
preposterous striking the rock.
A Puritan Golden Treasury, compiled by I.D.E. Thomas, by permission of Banner of Truth, Carlisle, PA. 2000, p. 35.
[Inspiration
is] God superintending human authors so that using their own individual
personalities, experiences, thought processes and vocabulary they composed and
recorded without error His revelation in the original copies of Scripture.
Doctrine of Scripture, Sermon, 1997.
Theologians
speak of inspiration as the mysterious process by which God worked through the
authors of Scripture to produce inerrant and divinely authoritative writings…
The Spirit moved on the Biblical writers to produce the Word of God in the
language of men.
Drawing Near, Crossway, 1993, October 13.
The
particularity of each New Testament author was in no way smothered by the
unique process of inspiration. On the contrary, the Holy Spirit first prepared,
and then used, their individuality of upbringing, experience, temperament and
personality, in order to convey through each some distinctive and appropriate
truth.
The dual
authorship of Scripture is an important truth to be carefully guarded. On the
one hand, God spoke, revealing the truth and preserving the human authors from
error, yet without violating their personality. On the other hand, men spoke,
using their own faculties freely, yet without distorting the divine message.
Their words were truly their own words. But they were (and still are) also
God’s words, so that what Scripture says, God says.
The Bible was
written by ordinary men. They had their own thoughts, ideas, and opinions which
they recorded in both the Old and New Testaments. God did not reach down and
take hold of their pens, causing them to write things which they would have
never thought to write. And except for the instances where His audible words
were recorded, God did not dictate the words of Scripture. Rather, He worked in
these men, through their unique personalities, experiences, emotions, and
intellects, causing them to record His words.
Daryl Wingerd
The
Bible is God's Special Revelation, Christian Communicators Worldwide, www.CCWtoday.org. Used by Permission.
All
who claim a supernatural inspiration must stand prepared to prove it by
supernatural works.
The Public Preaching of Women, October 1879.
So it is with
reference to the writers of the Scriptures. They were carried along, borne
along, under the control and direction of the Holy Spirit of God. They wrote as
the Spirit directed them to write. They were borne along by Him so that what
they wrote was exactly that which the Holy Spirit intended should be there.
What they wrote was, in a very real sense, not their words; it was the very
Word of God.
Thomas A. Thomas
The
Doctrine of the Word of God, P&R, 1972, p. 8-9. Used by Permission.
God has
communicated to man, the infinite to the finite. The One who made man capable of language in
the first place has communicated to man in language about both spiritual
reality and physical reality, about the nature of God and the nature of man.
Inspiration...[is] the related process whereby God preserved the
biblical authors from error when communicating, whether by His voice or in
writing, that which He had shown them. The Holy Spirit superintended the writing
of Scripture, that is to say, He acted to insure that what the human authors
intended by their words is equivalent to what God intended... The Spirit thus
brought the free and spontaneous thoughts of the human author into coincidence
with the thoughts of God.
Sam Storms
Special Revelation I, November 8, 2006, www.enjoyinggodministries.com.
Used by Permission.
The
inspiration and authority of the Bible is the bedrock upon which our faith is
built. Without it, we are doomed to uncertainty, doubt, and a hopeless groping
in the darkness of human speculation.
Sam Storms
Special Revelation I, November 8, 2006, www.enjoyinggodministries.com. Used
by Permission.