Studying the world around us and the universe cannot tell us why we are different than the other creatures we see. Nature cannot tell us specifics about God or where we fit in the overall design of things. Are we just minor cogs in the great wheel of the universe or are we more - or less? Because looking at the cosmos cannot tell us the things we need to know about ourselves the Creator, God has used... special revelation.

I’m told that in some parts of our wonderful country we have become so urbanized and removed from the means of our food production that if you ask a child where milk comes from, he will say with full conviction, "The grocery store." Further, I’m told, that sometimes when children are taken out to a dairy farm to see for the first time that milk really comes from cows with big brown eyes, long slimy tongues, and puffy udders, they refuse to drink it anymore.

I was once told by a frustrated mother of teenagers that her kids took her so much for granted that she was sure they thought clean underwear just grew right out of the bottom of the drawer. Perhaps you might guess that my advice for her involved a washing machine, some laundry soap, and some motherly lessons in teenage do-it-yourself.

In the same way that urban youthful ignorance about milk production and missing teenage gratitude regarding clean clothes can be corrected by proper instruction, lack of understanding about the Bible can also be remedied with adequate teaching.

Where does milk come from? Cows!

Where does clean underwear come from? Someone has to do the wash!

Now, let me ask you another question: Where did the Bible come from? Don’t say "the bookstore!"

Where did the Bible come from? Did it just fall out of the sky? Was it given to us by the Catholic Church? Was it given to us by space aliens? Is it the product of the world’s greatest religious minds?

If you’re going to place your faith in an ancient book as the word of God as I encourage you to do each week when I stand up here, you’re going to need to connect the dots as to where this book came from and how it came to us. Some of us who would defend the Bible as the word of God with our very lives might not be able to give an adequate explanation of how we got it. Did God write the Bible? Actually He didn’t if we’re just talking about the mechanics of putting it down on some writing medium. It was written by men. "Well if it was written by men, why do we call it the word of God?"

So many questions!

This morning we continue in our series called God’s Word – the Bible, but we’re making a shift of focus with this message and the next few that follow. I called the first six messages "God’s Word – the Bible: A Most Remarkable Book." In those sermons I showed you my own personal reasons why I believe that this book is more than just another piece of ancient literature. I showed you what I believe are good reasons to conclude that this remarkable book is exactly what it claims to be – the inspired word of God. If you have doubts in that area, I encourage you to get the tapes and manuscripts of those six lessons and study them.

Beginning with this morning’s message, I want to explain to you where the bible came from and how it came to us living today. That will be an ambitious endeavor as you’ll soon see. It promises to take us through some things that some of you may be hearing for the first time. It’s a fascinating story though, so I hope you’ll give it your close attention.

There are seven critical links in the chain events that brought the Bible to us today. To understand where the Bible came from we need to know what each of them means. They are:

For now I’ll give you a brief explanation of each of these, then with what remains of our time today and in the coming weeks I’ll explain each one in more detail.

Revelation refers to God’s decision to reveal Himself to man. Since we cannot see God, He must take the initiative to explain Himself to us or we really cannot know Him.

Inspiration is the method God used to accurately transmit His message about Himself to man. He chose certain men called prophets and apostles and inspired them to write His message with 100% accuracy – so much so that though these men were the writers, what they wrote would be called the word of God.

Documentation refers to the actual writing of the original manuscripts of the 39 books of the Old Testament and the 27 books of the New Testament. For the greater portion of man’s history, he has depended upon the written word to know the specifics about God.

Circulation has to do with how the writings were utilized and circulated among God’s people down through history and how they were viewed as Holy Scripture.

Canonization refers to the process of discovering which books written during the period of inspiration should be included in the Bible and which should not. There were other books that came under consideration for inclusion in the Bible but were rejected for reasons we will talk about.

Replication deals with copying the inspired documents from ancient times down to us.

Translation has to do with rendering the inspired writings from their native languages (Hebrew, Aramaic, and Greek) into our own English language.

While these seven points may seem like a lot for us to digest, I’ll do my best to keep my explanations as simple as possible because if you don’t understand each of these links in the chain, you’re really no better off in understanding where the Bible came from than the child who thinks that milk comes from the grocery store.

In this message we will deal with the first two links: Revelation and Inspiration.

Since we live in a physical world and God is not a physical being, we cannot fully know what He is like unless he reveals Himself to us. According to the Bible He has made Himself known in two ways. He has revealed Himself through general revelation and special revelation.

General revelation concerns what we can know about God by studying nature and the universe. It’s much like what we might know about an architect by studying the buildings he has designed.

A representative Bible passage for general revelation is Psalm 19:1: "The heavens are telling of the glory of God; And their expanse is declaring the work of His hands."

As we study the world around us and the universe, we can learn that since design always implies a designer, such a Great Designer must exist. We can learn by studying our surroundings that this Great Designer who made these things must be very powerful. We can learn that He must be very complex to have designed these things. We can learn that He must be orderly and logical as we see these characteristics in what He has made. Yet the world around us and the universe cannot tell us everything we need to know. It cannot tell us where we came from. It cannot tell us why we are here. Studying the world around us and the universe cannot tell us why we are different than the other creatures we see. Nature cannot tell us specifics about God or where we fit in the overall design of things. Are we just minor cogs in the great wheel of the universe or are we more - or less? Because looking at the cosmos cannot tell us the things we need to know about ourselves the Creator, God has used a second means to reveal Himself. He has used special revelation.

The Bible is God’s special revelation about Himself to man today. From the Bible we can learn that our Creator is a God who speaks to man. Hebrews 1:1-2 is a representative passage for special revelation. It says,

I suppose God could have put the knowledge of Himself into our consciences. Or He could have communicated by mental telepathy or through our feelings or by some other means. But the Bible tells us that He is a God who verbalizes. The phrases "word of God," "My word," "word of the Lord," "God spoke," "God said," and similar phrases appear all over the Bible.(1) He is a God who speaks.

But does God speak to all of us? Not according to the Bible. He never has spoken directly to all of mankind. He has only spoken to a relative few, but through these, according to the Bible, He speaks to all of us. The passage we just looked at in Hebrews 1 tells us that long ago God spoke through prophets. Prophets were God’s spokesmen, charged with carrying the words of His message to men. In the second half of the passage we read that "in these last days" God has spoken to us "in" or through His Son.

But Jesus lived 2000 years ago. The "fathers" of the Jewish people that the Hebrew writer referred to lived even before that. So how does God speak to us today? He speaks to us today through the written accounts of what He said through the prophets and through Jesus. The only written record we have of these things is this book, the Bible. So today He speaks to us through the Bible.

There are many other points we could make about special revelation. For instance, the time of special revelation was limited, meaning that the period for God revealing things to man had a specific beginning and an end. It began with Moses and ended with John. The method of special revelation was progressive, meaning that God didn’t reveal things to man about Himself all at once. Abraham knew far less about God than Elijah. Elijah knew less than Peter. Any one of these statements could launch us into an extensive study, which we don’t have time for here. For now, just remember that God’s means of revealing Himself is through speaking or through words. The Bible is His special, written revelation to us today. I’ll be referring more to this truth as we move through the seven links of the chain that brought the Bible to us.

That brings us naturally to the second link in the chain of events that brought the Bible to us today.

If God has spoken only to a relatively few men whose job it was to speak to the rest of mankind and those men have written what He wanted, and we have their words in the Bible, how do we know that what they wrote was what God wanted? What has God done to insure that His message to them would be His word and not theirs? That is where the concept of inspiration comes in.

We have already considered some of the evidence for inspiration, that is, proof that what they wrote came from a source much greater than man. Remember the things I spoke of in the previous sermons? We looked at the Bible’s:

a. Unity of message though written by more than 40 men over 1600 years.

b. Fulfilled prophecy

c. Astronomic accuracy

d. Medical accuracy

e. Earth science accuracy
f. Lack of contradictions

Our point in presenting these proofs was that the writings of the Bible show evidence of guidance by Someone much greater than man. The way the Bible explains this is through the concept of inspiration. While there are many passages that can figure into our understanding of Biblical inspiration, there are a few that speak of it succinctly. The first is what Paul wrote to Timothy in 2 Timothy 3:16-17:

By "all scripture" in verse 16, Paul didn’t mean the "scriptures" of the other religions of the world. (And that’s a good thing, because remember the inaccuracies and mistakes I pointed out to you in the non-biblical ancient writings of the world’s religions?) Paul was referring to those "sacred writings" written by the Jewish prophets. This was the "scripture" that Timothy grew up with. Verse 15 "…from childhood you have known the sacred writings which are able to give you the wisdom that leads to salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus." The word "scripture" comes from the Greek word graphe. We get our English word "graphite" from it. We make pencils from graphite. The word "scripture" means "writing." Paul was talking here about those writings which make up what we call today the "Old Testament." But the concept of inspiration of the scriptures isn’t limited to just the Old Testament. Peter would later state that Paul’s writings in the New Testament age were on the same inspired footing as the "the rest of the scriptures."(2) Jesus endorsed Peter’s authority to "bind and loose" teaching on earth, so we know that his writings, including this statement about Paul’s letters, also are inspired.(3) Jesus told His apostles that the Holy Spirit would "teach them all things" and "bring to their remembrance" the things He had taught them,(4) so we can add their writings to the inspired writings also. This was necessary for their foundational role(5) as apostles in the church then and now. Their teaching and writing became the standard of faith and practice for the church. That’s why the early church "continued steadfastly in the apostles teaching,"(6) which was considered the word of God.(7)

The word "inspired" means literally, "God breathed." It does not come from man. It comes from God. That’s what Paul believed and taught. And since Peter endorsed Paul, that is also what Peter believed. And since Jesus endorsed Peter, that is what Jesus believed. And since God endorsed Jesus, that is what God believed. So if someone says he doesn’t believe that the writings of Paul or Peter are inspired, his argument is really with God.

Paul’s words, "All scripture" mean just that – all Scripture. Not just some of it. Not just parts of it. Not just the thoughts but not the words. All of it is inspired. Paul wrote in 1 Corinthians 2:12-13: "Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, that we might know the things freely given to us by God, which things we also speak, not in words taught by human wisdom, but in those taught by the Spirit, combining spiritual thoughts with spiritual words."

Conservative theologians refer to this "all" concept as plenary inspiration. "Plenary" means that inspiration extends to the entirety of Scripture. They also speak of verbal inspiration, which means that inspiration extends to the very words of the Bible and not just the concepts. Whenever this issue is discussed in scholarly circles, you will hear the words, plenary verbal inspiration. This is the Biblical view.

Note also that these words of Paul say that it is the Scripture that is inspired, not the writers of Scripture. No, I’m not saying that the writers weren’t inspired. I’m just pointing out what it says. Not everything the writers of Scripture wrote was inspired by God. For instance, if one of the writers of Scripture wrote a shopping list or a note to his wife, that wasn’t inspired. God superintended the writing of those things that He would want kept as Holy Scripture. The Scriptures are inspired.

Let’s go now to a second important passage on inspiration. In 2 Peter 1:19-21 Peter says,

Notice first that Peter uses the phrase "prophetic word" in verse 19 in regard to the Scripture. Scripture is the word of God spoken through His chosen prophets. God inspired their writing. It is the "prophetic word" of God.

Notice secondly that Peter says we should pay attention to this prophetic word "as to a lamp shining in a dark place." A single lamp in a dark room attracts the attention of everyone in the room.

Notice thirdly that Peter tells us how this prophetic word or Scripture came to us. He says, "…no prophecy of Scripture is a matter of one’s own interpretation." He isn’t referring here to our ability to understand the Scripture and interpret it here. He’s referring to the ability of the prophet who writes Scripture to understand and reveal God’s will, as is evident in the next phrase. Scripture isn’t man sitting down and writing what he thinks God is like or what he thinks God has said or ought to say.

"…For no prophecy [that is, no written word of a prophet of Scripture] was ever made by and act of human will," Peter says. Human will was not involved in the writing of the Scripture. Human hands were involved, but not human will. "…Men moved by the Holy Spirit," Peter says, "spoke from God."

Again, you don’t agree with that? OK. Then Peter was either lying or mistaken. But remember, Jesus endorsed Peter, so if you’re going to reject Peter’s words, you also must reject the truthfulness or knowledge of Jesus Christ. But remember again, that God endorsed Jesus in Scripture, so if you’re going to reject the things that Jesus said, you’ll have to reject the God of the Bible. So to sum it up, if you reject the Bible’s writings as inspired, you reject the God of the Bible.

So did the writers of the Bible know that God was inspiring their writings and that what they wrote was the word of God and not their own word or is this something people thought up later? They most certainly did know.

According to Peter, the Old Testament prophets knew that God was speaking through them. Peter said in 1 Peter 1:10-11 that they made careful search and inquiry "seeking to know what person or time the Spirit of Christ within them was indicating as He predicted the sufferings of Christ and the glories to follow." They would not have been making such inquiry had they not known that the Spirit was speaking through them.

King David knew that God was speaking through him. He was the man responsible for many of the Psalms from the Old Testament era. He wrote these words in 2 Samuel 23:2: "The Spirit of the Lord spoke by me and His word was on my tongue."

The Apostle Paul knew that God spoke through him. He was the man responsible for nearly half of the books of the New Testament. He wrote these words in 1 Corinthians 14:37-38: "If anyone thinks he is a prophet or spiritual, let him recognize that the things which I write to you are the Lord's commandment. But if anyone does not recognize this, he is not recognized."

In 1 Timothy 4:1-3 Paul said that "the spirit explicitly" spoke through Him.

Peter knew that the things the apostles wrote were the word of God. Here is what He said in 2 Peter 3:15-16 about Paul’s letters:

The Bible’s prophets and apostles knew they were writing the word of God. This is not something that was made up by church leaders later.

Let’s sum up what we have covered.

Trying to figure out what God is like simply by learning about His creation (called general revelation) can teach us a few things about God but it doesn’t answer the questions most important to us. We need more than that. We need special revelation. To fill that need God has spoken during a 1600 year period of revelation from about 1500 years before Christ until about 100 A.D. But He did not speak to everyone. He spoke to certain Holy men called "prophets." To insure the accuracy of what He said to these men He inspired their speaking and writing so that it would accurately reveal His word. These men did not speak and write their own opinions about God. They were moved by God’s Holy Spirit so that what they wrote was the word of God.

In our next message we’ll look at the next several links in the chain of events that tell us how we got our Bible.

Do you believe that the Bible is the word of God? It is very important that you do. But just believing it is not enough. He gave it to us so that we would read it, learn about Him, and make our peace with Him.

Have you done that?

Footnotes: Please use your back button to return to your place.

1. The phrase "word of God" appears 47 times in the New American Standard version of the Bible. The phrase "my word" appears 20 times in the same. The phrase "word of the Lord" appears 256 times in the NASV. The phrase "God spoke" appears 12 times. The phrase "God said" appears 46 times. And these are not all the phrases that reflect the idea of God speaking.
2. 2 Peter 3:15-16
3. Matthew 16:19b
4. John 14:26
5. Ephesians 2:19-20
6. Acts 2:42
7. 1 Corinthians 14:37

Dave Redick is Minister of the Hwy 20 Church of Christ in Sweet Home, Oregon and Editor of The Preacher's Study. He may be reached at pstudysupport@comcast.net.

Copyright © 1996-2008 by The Preacher's Study. Permission is granted to subscribers to use this document in total or in sermon preparation in the context of the local congregation only. Publishing it in a book, on the Internet, or anyplace beyond the local congregation is prohibited.

All Scripture quotations and references are from the New American Standard Version unless otherwise stated.

[Archive]    [Home]   [Comments]   [Search]