Christian Basics

Inspiration

One of the most important matters of faith is a person’s view of the Bible.  I am indebted to Dr. Charles Ryrie, not only as one of my Seminary professor heroes, but also for being a great teacher of truth.  In his book Survey of Bible Doctrine (Moody Press, pp. 38-39; copyright 1972), he lists several misunderstanding of the “inspiratioin” of Scripture.  I am borrowing his categories, and offering an explanation for the trouble they invite. 

1-  Natural inspiration.  This leaves God out completely, and rests in the hope that mere men can know God apart from his help, and communicate truths about Him which we should trust.  Men, acting in nothing more than human capabilities, were able to convey God’s message.  That kind of message would be suspiciously unreliable.

2-  Mystical or illumination view:  The writers were somehow encouraged by the Spirit in their work, but no more so than a believer today may sense the leading of God in their heart to do a good deed.  This view fails to explain the protection of the thoughts and word choice of the authors down to the “jot and tittle” degree, and is more of an emotional experience.

3-  Dictation view: God announced the words He wanted in Scripture and the writers were simply stenographers who wrote the words down.  The writers were not authors at all, but were essentially passive in their participation other than moving pen across paper.  (Instructor’s question- There are obviously some passages of Scripture where the writers were told exactly what to say, but is that true for the whole body of their work?)  This leaves out the nuance of the personality of the writer.  Luke wrote the way a physician sees things.  Paul frequently used athletic images.  Obviously some of the words are clearly dictation, but not all, not even most.

4-  Partial inspiration:  The things that would have been otherwise unknowable, such as accounts of history (as in creation), or elements of prophecy . . . have been inspired by God.  Otherwise, the remainder of their work was human writing.  This is what I sometimes think of as the “half & half’ theory.  It says that part of the Scripture can be depended on to  be accurate, but part is merely human thought.  How do you decided which is which?  It opens the door for great questions about the reliability of the Bible.

5-  Conceptual inspiration:  “Conceptual inspiration holds that Scripture is inspired in some areas (salvation) but not necessarily in others (science, history, morality). For instance, this view suggests that when science or Scripture appear irreconcilable (as in the case of evolution), one should follow the findings of science over Scripture.” (This definition was given as an example of some people’s view of inspiration in the lecture notes and was taken directly from that resource.)  Since the Bible claims to be the inspired word, and completely reliable, infallible, and accurate . . . doesn’t it all rise and fall as one.  If there are scientific errors, doesn’t that negate the whole.  Once again, this position causes the reader to have to be the arbiter of what is accurate and what is erroneous.

6-  Neo-orthodox view of inspiration:  The Bible is the witness to the Word of God (Karl Barth, famous Neo-orthodox theologian of the 20th Century would submit “Jesus Christ is the Word of God”), but the testimony in the words of Scripture are subject to mistakes.  The Bible actually becomes the word of God (has authority) when it points to Christ, but otherwise is fallible.  This is the existentialists’ view, and the favorite of many post-modernists.  ( Post modern mantra- “That may be true for you, but it is not true for me.”) It allows the Bible to be true for one person and not for another. 

7-  Inspired purpose:  Though the Bible has factual errors, it has “doctrinal integrity.”  This is a step above the Neo-orthodox view, saying the Bible can be completely trusted to accurately reveal the one thing for which it was intended, to reveal that God’s purpose is to bring salvation to humanity through the redemption available in Christ.  Like unto many other arguments, some of the Scripture can be trusted, but other parts has errors . . . means that man has to be the one to decide.  While it is certainly true that one of the greatest purposes for the Bible was to reveal the way of salvation, that is not the only purpose.  It declares the glory of God, the wisdom of God, the majesty of God.  To say that He was unable to relate truth and protect His word from error diminishes tha God.

8-  Verbal-Plenary Inspiration: The very word of Scripture were accurately chosen through the assistance of the Holy Spirit, using the personality and experience of the human authors, revealing the completely reliable, inerrant, and infallible truth of God.  By God’s Spirit men were “borne along” and moved in order to communicate the revelation of God to men (2 Peter 1;21).  Though the Bible does not speak exhaustively about every subject, where it does speak, it is accurate and reliable.

Some have written that the Bible does not speak exhaustively about all subjects.  I agree.  But where it does speak, in matters of history, sociology, even science, it is completely truthful, accurate, and reliable.  Our understanding may be incomplete, but the Word is completely true.

This is the view that I personally subscribe to, and hold unapologetically.  It is the one presented and defended in the Scripture.  The writers were “borne along” means they were carried to their destination of revealing God’s truth by the work (breath) of the Spirit, like wind does a sailing vessel (2 Peter 1:21).  That is how we get the thought “theo-pneustos” = “God breathed.” It is the only view that preserves the integrity of the Scriptures as a whole.  2 Timothy 3:16 claims that all Scripture is in view, not portions, or specific topics.  the Bible rises and falls together.  From Genesis to Revelation, the combined whole, and every one of the parts of the original manuscripts are without flaw, error, or mistake.