

            Rightly Dividing The Word Of Truth:
            **********************************

                 Inspiration of Scripture.
                 *************************


Introduction: 
============

The Bible is Unique; Not only in appearance( now however,
the Bible comes in a variety of colours and covers, as well
as shapes and sizes), extent of appeal and Distribution,
transforming influence,etc; But in its contents,
construction, Continuation (through the centuries), and
especially its com- mencement; how it originated. Its
remarkable uniqueness stems from its divine origin. Every
aspect of this Book proclaims unmistakably that it is not
merely of human composition. One comentator has written
(Dryden) of its unity and variety and deduced from this its
heavenly origin; " whence but from heaven could men,
unskilled in arts, in several ages born, in several parts,
write such agreeing truths."

The most significant name given by the Bible for itself is
"The Word Of God": Mark 7:13, Rom.10:17, 2 Cor.2:17, 1
Thess.2:13, Heb.4:12. It also calls itself " The Holy
Scriptures ": Rom.1:2, 2 Tim.3:15, sacred writings that are
holy - set apart, because they come from God Who alone is
Holy; and " Scripture of Truth " (Daniel 10:21) because the
God from whom they come is also true and His " word is truth
" (John17:17); and also " The Oracles Of God " (Rom.3:2,
Heb.5:12). "Oracle": From the Greek word LOGION, a
Diminitive of Logos, a word narrative, statement, Denotes a
Divine response or utterance...(Vine) But obviously these
divine communications came through human Penmen. How did
this Happen? We shall never comprehend in time the
mysteries behind this divine miracle; But it is the miracle
of " INSPIRATION "




Rightly Dividing The Word Of Truth...
*************************************

                   Inspiration of Scripture.
                   *************************


Introduction: 
============

The Bible is Unique; Not only in appearance( now however,
the Bible comes in a variety of colours and covers, as well
as shapes and sizes), extent of appeal and Distribution,
transforming influence,etc; But in its contents,
construction, Continuation (through the centuries), and
especially its com- mencement; how it originated. Its
remarkable uniqueness stems from its divine origin. Every
aspect of this Book proclaims unmistakably that it is not




                          PAGE 2    
                          


merely of human composition. One comentator has written
(Dryden) of its unity and variety and deduced from this its
heavenly origin; " whence but from heaven could men,
unskilled in arts, in several ages born, in several parts,
write such agreeing truths."

The most significant name given by the Bible for itself is
"The Word Of God": Mark 7:13, Rom.10:17, 2 Cor.2:17, 1
Thess.2:13, Heb.4:12. It also calls itself " The Holy
Scriptures ": Rom.1:2, 2 Tim.3:15, sacred writings that are
holy - set apart, because they come from God Who alone is
Holy; and " Scripture of Truth " (Daniel 10:21) because the
God from whom they come is also true and His " word is truth
" (John17:17); and also " The Oracles Of God " (Rom.3:2,
Heb.5:12). "Oracle": From the Greek word LOGION, a
Diminitive of Logos, a word narrative, statement, Denotes a
Divine response or utterance...(Vine) But obviously these
divine communications came through human Penmen. How did
this Happen? We shall never comprehend in time the
mysteries behind this divine miracle; But it is the miracle
of " INSPIRATION "



Revelation: 
==========

A large portion of the Bible is clearly information
available naturally to the human penman; For example,
historical events and facts, personal experiences
communicated by others, observations from nature, etc... But
alongside this, the human authors wrote frequently of things
beyond all human experience and or knowledge; For example,
the creation story; the nature and attributes of God;
Prophecy of future events; the existance and
characteristics of angels, demaons and Satan himself; events
in heaven - such as the conversation between God and Satan
in Job 1 and 2; etc...

How did all these come to be recorded? The only answer is
that God Revealed them to His servants. Also, repeatedly, we
are told the direct words of God Himself, prefaced by such
statements as: " The Lord spake unto Moses, saying..."; "
The word of the Lord came to Elijah..." and other prophets;
etc... Clearly, God has revealed Himself and His purposes
and messages to His creatures in the Bible; His Word.
Revelation has been defined as " that act of God by which He
directly communicates truth not known before to the human
mind ".( W. Evans: " The Book of Books " - The Moody Press,
Chicago, 1902 ) Of course, God reveals Himself in many ways;
in Creation, Providence, History, Christ...Here we are
considering His Revelation of Himself and His word and
purposes through the Scriptures....



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                          PAGE 3


Inspiration: 
===========

As has been indicated in previous posts, not everything in
the word of God has been directly "revealed" to man: The
Bible contains, not only God's words, but the words of evil
men and even Satan. But all that is in the Bible is
inspired, and given under the guidance of the Holy Spirit.
What is " Inspiration "? The best way to discover this is to
study what the Bible itself says about it:

2 Timothy 3.16: " All Scripture Is Given By Inspiration Of
--------------   God ".  " All Scripture ": Without
exception. In the Previous verse(v-15), Paul reminds Timothy
that he has "known the holy Scriptures" since childhood:
Clearly this was the Old Testament, Because none of the New
Testament had probably been written then. However, when he
writes "all Scripture", he may well be including both Old
and New Testaments. Peter(2 Peter 3.15 to 16), who likely
wrote his 2nd. epistle about the same time a 2 Timothy,
wrote about Paul's writing and classed them with "the other
scriptures" of the Old Testament(2 Peter 3.16).

The English R.V., A.S.V., N.E.B.(but not the R.E.B.) and
other translations have "Every Scripture" instead of "All
Scripture". Is this an important dif- ference? Probably not.
E.J. Young comments: " A little explanation will make it
clear that the difference between the two is not, for our
present purpose, of great moment. If Paul means "every
scripture", he is looking at the various parts of the
Bible...considering Scripture Distributively...whatever
Scripture we consider, it is ispired of God. If he means
"All Scripture"... his reference is to the Scripture in it
entirety. In either case he is saying that whatever may be
called scripture is inspired of God. At the same time... we
believe that the King James rendering has more in its favour
that the R.V. The evidence tends to support the veiw that
Paul is here speaking of "all scripture" rather than "every
scripture". (E.J. Young: " The Word Is Truth " The Banner of
Truth Trust, London)"


The R.V. and the N.E.B., however, Translate: "Every
scripture inspired of God" and the R.E.B. has Perpetuated
this Misconseption. This is, at best a misleading
translation and "seems to leave open the possiblity that
Paul considered some Scriptures inspired and others not
inspired...Ther is not a particle of evidence to support
that Paul thought some Scripture uninspired." (Ibid)


The Phrase "given by inspiration of God" is the translation
of one Greek word, "theopneustos", meaning "God
Breathed"(breathed out from God through Human Pen) IE.
breathed from God: expiration or spiration rather
inspiration.(This is the only occurance in the New
Testament; the parallel Hebrew word for inspiration occurs
only once: in Job 32.8: "There is a spirit in man: and the
inspiration (breath) of the Almighty giveth them




                          PAGE 4


understanding.") Young says: "They were the product of the
creative breath of God."(Ibid) This is the truth expressed
by the Lord to Satan in quoting Deut. 8.3 "Every word that
proceedeth out of the mouth of God."(Matt. 4.4), and by the
Lord to Jeremiah(1.9): "I have put My word in thy mouth",
and even to Moses(Ex. 4.12): "I will be with thy Mouth."

The scriptures originated with God and were breathed out by
Him into human channels. This, of course, is totally
different from "inspiration" as it is commonly used - of a
poet, musician, or research scientist: Scriptures are not
the composition of men of genius in moments of
"inspiration". They came directly from the mouth of God.
Young continues: "Paul does not wish Timothy to understand
that the Scriptures are a body of human writings into which
something divine has been breathed. That is Precisely what
he does not wish Timothy to understand."(Ibid)


2 Peter 1.20 to 21: 
==================

This passage brings the human element into focus. " No
Prophecy Of Scripture Is Of Private(I.E. his own - only time
traslated "private") Interpretation. " I.E "the Sripture did
not come into being as the result of individual invest-
igating into matters and then writing down there findings.
The Scriptures are
 not the product of human investagation and
reasoning."(Ibid)

The prophets were not declaring their own message or giving
their own explan- ation of it. " Prophecy Came Not By The
Will Of Man ": negitively: i.e. not of human origin. " But
Men Spoke From God As They Were Moved By The Holy Spirit. "
: positively: i.e. divine origin. MEN spoke: the human
factor; but they were under the influence of "carried along
by"(NIV) - God, the Holy Spirit: the divine factor. They
were not, however, mere automations: passive, mechanical
instruments, nor even recording secretaries, writing by
dictation. Their own Personalities, abilities,
idiosyncrasies and sytles are impressed on their writings,
so we can distiguish Paul's writings from Peter's and
John's.

Yet, in writing, they were under the direct influence and
guidance of God, the Holy Spirit, so were preserved from
error in the very words they wrote. In this sense, we
believe in "Verbal Inspiration".  Thw writers were not left
absolutely to themselves in the choice of words. We believe
also in "Plenary Inspiration": Full, not partial, extending
to the whole Bible: All Scripture is equally inspired. The
Bible Does not just Contain the words of God, it is his word
in its entirety.



                  Continued On Next Page





                          PAGE 5


Definition: 
==========

"inspiration is a superintendence of God the Holy Spirit
over the writers of the Scriptures, as a result of which
these Scriptures possess divine author- ity and
trustworthiness and, possessing such Divine authority and
trustworth- iness, are free from error".(Young - Ibid)

"In the literal biblical terminology, inspiration is the
process by which Spirit moved writers recorded God-Breathed
writings." "That mysterious by which divine authority
causality worked through the human prophets without
destroying their individual personalities and styles, to
produce divinely authoritative writings."( N.L. Geisler and
W.E. Nix: "A General Introduction to the Bible" - The Moody
Press, Chicago, 1968)



1 Peter 1. 10 to 12: 
===================

Peter again writes of the human and divine aspects of the
Old Testament: " The Prophets ": human penmen; " The Spirit
of Christ Which Was In Them ": the divine author; " The
Sufferings of Christ and The Glory That Should Follow ": the
divine revelation re the divine subject: The prophetic
message. The prophets, guided by the Spirit did not
themselves understand what they were writing: " Have
Enquired and Searched Diligently ": " Searched Intently and
With Great Care "(NIV) to find out what the Spirit was
revealing through them. It was revealed to them that they
were not writing for themselves or their own time, but for
others at a future time(v. 12): that is, for use in this
age, who have heard the Gospel of Christ. As in the Person
of Christ we can discern both the divine and the human; so,
in scripture: divine origin, human penmen. "The gold was
His; the mould was theirs."(W.Evans, op cit.)


Let us now move on to the Authority of The Lord Jesus in
reference to "The Inspiration of Scripture."


Christ's Statements on The Origin of The Scriptures:
===================================================

We have already noted the Lord's response to Satan when he
tried to tempt Jesus to change stones to bread: "It is
written 'Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every
word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God'"(Matt.4.4).
It is evident that the Lord reverenced the Old Testament
Scriptures. He refered repeatedly to them: it has been
calculated that 1870 verses in the Gospels record His words:
of these, 180 - nearly 10% - are direct quotations or clear
allusions to the Old Testament. He refered to all parts of
the Old Testament and placed His Authoritative stamp on





                          PAGE 6


parts that are discredited in some cirles to-day:e.g.
creation, the flood, Jonah and the whale, Daniel, etc...He
recog- nized the human Authorship of the Scriptures,
mentioning Moses, David, Isaiah, and Daniel specifically.
But He also declared clearly their divine origin. In JOHN
10.34 to 35, Quoting from the psalms(82.6), He spoke of
"your law" and "the Scriptures" as " The Word Of God ",
affirming its inerrancy and infalli- bility: "The Scripture
cannot be broken." In MATT.19.4 to 5, He attributes the
words of Scripture to the Divine Creator: "He who made them
at the beginning said: 'For this cause shall a man leave his
father and mother and shall cleave to his wife and they
twain shall be one flesh'."

Note that He was quoting from Gen.2.24, written by Moses and
not attributed directly to God> He thus affirmed that God
spoke this Scripture. "To Him the God of the Old Testament
was the living God and its teaching the teaching of the
living God. To Him, what Scripture said, God said."(J.W.
Wenham: in "Inerrancy", edited by N.L Geisler, -Zondervan,
Grand Rapids, Mi)

This same feature - attributing the words of the Old
Testament writers to God Himself - can be seen several times
in the New Testament: See Matt.1:22 to 23 (cf. Is.7.14);
Matt.2:15(cf. hos.11:1); Matt.22:43 to 44(Psm.110:1);
Heb.1.8
 (cf. Psm.45:6); Heb.1:10 to 12(cf. Psm.102.25 to 27);
Heb.3.7 to 11(cf. Psm.95. 7 to 11). The Lord Also Asserted
the absolute veacity of the Holy Scriptures in (John 17:17);
Their Performance (Matt.5.18), Spiritual Neccesity (Matt.
4.4), and their sufficiency for life after death (Luke
16.31)


Questions About Inspiration: 
===========================

1)What is inspired: the Writer or the Writings?

A) "BOTH" 2 Timothy 3.16 asserts that the writings - "all
Scripture" - is God Breathed; 2 Peter 1.21: that the writers
were "moved -Carried along - by the Holy Spirit."

2)Are the words Inspired? A) "YES" Words are the necessary
medium for the communication of truth. " The Bible literally
abounds with the assertion that God gave the VERY WORDS of
the prophets. Moses was told, 'I will be with your mouth and
teach you what you shall speak'(Ex4.12). God charged Ezekiel
saying, 'And you shall speak My words to them'(Ezek.2.7). Of
the Decalogue it is said, 'And God spoke all these
words'(Ex.20.1). Paul claimed to speak 'inword...taught by
the spirit'(1 Cor. 2.13). These references serve to
illustrate the idea of the claim that the very words of the
Bible were God-given. " (N.L Geisler and W.E Nix, op cit.35)


                  Continued On Next Page





                          PAGE 7


3)Does Inspiration apply to the original manuscripts or to
the copies and translations?

A) Only the Autographs were inspired. In the wisdom of God,
These have been preserved. Evidently they are not necessary
in God's purpose. Perhaps God foresaw that men would worship
them as they did the Brazen serpent(2 kings 18.4) (Evans, op
cit.43)

4)Can we not then consider the King James Version( or any
other Bible we may use) as the inspired word of God?

A)This  question will be considered in a subsequent study.
Meantime, it can be stated that "a good copy or translation
of the autograph is For All Practical Purposes the inspired
word of God."(Geisler and Nix, op cit., 33)

5)How much of the Autograph is inspired?

A)All Scripture may not be equally "inspiring", but is
certainly equally inspired. As previously stated, we believe
in the PLENARY(complete, full) ISPIRATION of SCRIPTURE.

6)How did Inspiration operate?

A)We Do Not Know! This is one of the mysteries of the Bible.
As Kenneth Kantzer wrote, "The mechanics of inspiration are
left unexplained."( K. Kantzer, quoter by Geisler at Nix, op
cit.35). Just as we cannot understand with our finite minds
the Deity and Humanity of Christ(though Scripture does
present it clearly - we can not fully comprehend it), so we
believe but can- not fully explain that the Scriptures were
given by God through human author: their words are both
divine and human in nature. We do not completely under-
stand how God spoke His words to Moses, David, The prophets
who wrote the pro- phetical books of the Old Testament, or
the Apostles who wrote the New Test- ament; nor can we
comprehend how the Spirit quided them in their recording of
facts that were known to them: for example concerning the
life and teachings of the Lord Jesus. We do know that the
Holy Spirit, The Comforter, Brought all things to their
rememberance (John14.26)


Unsatisfactory Theories Of Inspiration:
======================================

Not all who say they "believe in the 'Inspiration' of the
Bible" believe in the inspiration of which the Bible speaks.
Many Different views are held. (W. Evans, op. cit, 22 to 24.
 and N.L Geisler and W.E. Nix, op. cit., 37 to 47) For
Example:

Natural Inspiration: They believe that the Bible is inspired
*******************  the same way as the writings of
Shakespeare, Milton - or Mahomet or Confucius: men of piety
and genius wrote their insights and ideas for the benifit of
mankind. As has been shown, this view is completely contrary
to the claims the Bible makes for itself.




                          Page 8


Universal Christian Inspiration(Illumination): The
*********************************************  inspiration
of the Bible writers is no different from that of Christ-
ians of every age, including to-day: "the ordinary Christian
of to-day is in- spired as much as was the apostle Paul."
This view too puts the Bible in the same class as any other
Christian literature, not as "God-Breathed" writings by men
who were "moved by the Holy Spirit."

Neo-orthodox View: The Bible Becomes The Word Of God:(Ibid,
****************************************************  40)
Karl Barth, faced with the Problem of how the Bible could be
God's perfect word and have so many (supposed) errors and
Imperfections, answered that "the Bible and the Bible alone
uniquely reveals God to man - not in PROPOSITIONS about God,
but as a means of PERSON ENCOUNTER by God with men in an act
of revelation." Even though containing (supposed) error, "
the Bible can transmit the word of God through its imper-
fect record." We believe that the Bible - in the original
manuscripts - is without error; that it is - not just
"becomes" - God's word. God speaks to us in it whether we
listen or not.


Mechanical Dictation View Of Inspiration: Verbatim
****************************************   Reporting robs
the writers of their individuality and makes them mere
machines and robots. Even a casual reader - much more, a
careful student - of the Bible can really discern the
distint and characteristic styles of the various writers:
Even their vocabularies differ.

Dynamic View Of Inspiration: The concepts or thoughts of
***************************   men were given by Inspira-
tion. In otherwords, they were free to express them in there
own words. This would lead to the possiblity of the writers
incorrectly expressing the ideas communicated to them,
leading to errors. "How can the final product be infallible
or authoritative if there was no divine control over the
actual composition?" (Ibid, 45)


Conclusion: The Bible is a unique divine-human composition.
**********   It comes to us Divine Creator through  human
creatures whom He used to express in human terms His eternal
word. He Superintended the Writings to guard it from error
so that the Bible is the Inerrant, infallible word of God.
Because it is God's word, it is trustworthy and authorita-
tive: We Should Trust and Obey It.



Compiled By Dennis MacIntyre...Feburary 1994 


Special thanks To Dr. James Naismith for his notes and
lectures on this subject...




