The Authoritative, Inspired Word Of
God
In
the Old Testament, God’s mouthpieces would engage their audience
authoritatively through declarative statements such as “Thus says the Lord” (Exodus
4:22, 5:11,7:17; Numbers 14:28; Joshua 24:2; Judges 6:8; 1 Samuel 2:27, 15:2).
The New Testament also affirms God as speaking in this manner (Acts 15:18;
Romans 12:19, 14:11; 1 Corinthians 14:21; 2 Corinthians 6:17,18; Hebrews
8:8-10, 16; Revelation 1:8). After the Incarnation of Jesus Christ, the main
thrust of the New Testament writings would be guidance from the Holy Spirit. “However,
when the Spirit of truth comes, He will guide you into all truth” (John
16:13a). The revealed Christ becomes the focus of the text.
The
act of God self-disclosing or revealing himself to man would be accomplished
through a process of dual authorship, otherwise called the doctrine of inspiration.
It is a “concept of revelation according to which God’s biblical word comes to
his people first by live teaching, combined with divine leadership and
marvelous deeds, from which verbal communication and spiritual enlightenment
emanate and prompt these or other individuals to engage in literary activity,
and maybe even to receive divine dictation.”[4]
The apostle Peter attests to this in teaching about
the prophetic word of God: “But know this first of all, that no prophecy of
Scripture is a matter of one’s own interpretation, for no prophecy was ever
made by an act of human will, but men moved by the Holy Spirit spoke from God”
(2 Peter 1:20-21). The term “biblical inspiration” can also be defined as “the charism or special impulse of the Holy
Spirit given to particular authors to compose and preserve in writing certain
experiences of the event of divine revelation.”[5]
Essentially,
the doctrine of inspiration means God influenced
men to pen his sacred book. Farkasfalvy summarizes the process with the
following points[6]:
1. Scripture
has divine origin and authority.
2. Scripture
is the word of God and the work of the Holy Spirit.
3. Scripture
was written by men through whom God communicated his thought and will to his
people.
4. Scripture’s
central focus is the revelation of Jesus Christ.
In light of the Holy Spirit’s role in process of God’s
self-disclosure in Scripture, it is important to note that “the content of
Scripture was not conceived of as some abstract theoretical system of truth,
but as a spiritual reality reproduced in the minds and soul of the faithful
under the actual influence of the Holy Spirit. The preservation and the
interpretation of such is directly linked to all facets of sacramental
practices, ecclesiastical teaching and government and the spiritual experiences
of Christians at large.”[7]
The Bible & Divine Authorship
The Bible testifies of itself to be
the Word of God, therefore we can trust its veracity and faithfulness (2
Timothy 3:16; 1 Thessalonians 2:13; John 17:17; Titus 1:2). No other book can
truthfully make this claim. The all-powerful and wise God “employed many
persons to labor in distant ages, and in different departments, producing in
their various compositions a revelation of His will, complete in all its parts,
and distinguished by the most perfect unity, without the shadow of discrepancy
redundancy, or deficiency”[8].
It is of supernatural origin. Its claim to be authentic is one of inspiration,
inerrancy and infallibility. Not just part of the Bible is of divine origin,
but its entirety – “All Scripture is given by inspiration of God” (2 Timothy
3:16-17).
All Scripture is therefore “theopneustic.” From the Greek word theopneustia, the apostle Paul used this
term to describe “the mysterious power which the divine Spirit put forth on the
authors of the Old and New Testament in order to their composing these as they
have been received by the church of God at their hands.”[9] The biblical authors
affirm that the effort of their hands is from God. In the process of this dual
authorship, these men recited the mysteries of the past and those of the
future, shared the secrets of men’s hearts or the deep things of God, described
their own emotions, copied genealogies, made extracts from uninspired documents
and repeated contemporary narratives.[10]
Regardless
of the extent of their contribution, “it was always God who spoke, who relates,
who employs their different personalities in different measures, who
superintends, who employs and who guides them through the entire process.”[11] There is no question that
God himself “put his seal on all the facts and constituted himself the author
of all these commands; the revealer of these truths and so ordered to be given
to his church in order, measure and in the terms which he has deemed most
suitable to his heavenly purpose.”[12]
[1]. Denis
Farkasfalvy, Inspiration & Interpretation: A
Theological Introduction to Sacred Scripture, (Washington, D.C.: The
Catholic University of America Press, 2010), 52.
[2]. Topical index, Biblegateway.com,
accessed July 13, 2018, https://www.biblegateway.com/quicksearch/?quicksearch=scripture+says&qs_version=NASB
[10]. Ibid., 25.
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