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Tuesday, July 17, 2018

The Doctrine of Inspiration


The Authoritative, Inspired Word Of God
          
  From the inception of the church, converts of Christ’s Way came to know their God through the holy writings of Scripture. There were no available New Testament Scriptures. The early church relied on the writings of Judaism and “further developed the faith that the Jews had in their Scriptures.”[1] The earliest texts of the New Testament canon would contain the same formulas of quotation and reference as found in the Jewish texts. Example, “For it is written,” (thirty-one times) and “Scripture says,” (seven times).[2] These formulas of quotation and references attest to the doctrine of inspiration and is “conclusive proof sealed by divine authority and which, consequently, is to be accepted with faith and reverence.”[3]
            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

[4]. Ibid., 55.       
[6].  Denis Farkasfalvy, Inspiration & Interpretation, 57-58.   
[7]. Ibid., 140. 
[10]. Ibid., 25.  
[11]. Ibid.   
[12]. Ibid.  
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Written by Kevin A. Hall.


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