Perhaps you have never seen firsthand what misunderstanding the Bible doctrine of inspiration can do to decimate a person’s faith. I assure you - it can do just that.

If you’re among the many baby boomers who grew up in the 50’s and 60’s you probably remember Polio shots. Those of you who are younger just don’t know what you missed - long lines of fearful children waiting to get into the school multipurpose room so they could get their annual shot in the arm. As a kid I dreaded that day all year. I always hated shots and it seemed even worse when you had to show your fear right there in front of your classmates. When the oral vaccine finally replaced the shots, I cheered! No more dread. No more terror. Just swallow a sugar cube. Today you don’t even have to do that. The once-dreaded crippler of children is a conquered disease.

I guess one reason I didn’t like the vaccination was that I never saw the illness. Had I known someone with Polio I might have lined up for the prevention a little more eagerly.

That may be the case with you as I speak once more this morning on the subject, "The Bible: How Did God Inspire It?" Perhaps you have never seen firsthand what misunderstanding the Bible doctrine of inspiration can do to decimate a person’s faith. I assure you - it can do just that. In Part 1 of this two part lesson, after introducing you to that topic, I attempted to vaccinate you against five false views of Bible inspiration. I showed you that one of the major reasons we cannot simply set aside our differences with some other religious groups is this very thing. Today we'll look more specifically at the actual bible doctrine of inspiration.

1. Inspiration Isn’t…

I showed you first that Bible inspiration isn’t merely its authors writing under the influence of a high level of human genius. Some who say they believe the Bible is inspired actually credit inspiration to elevated human intellect. The writers of the Bible were "inspired," according to this view, in the same way as the authors of great literary works of mankind like Shakespeare, Milton, and Dante. This false view fosters a certain respect for the Bible and its authors, but denies that it is God’s word. The Bible is only the product of smart men, according to this view, and as such it is as full of the same kinds of human error as any great literary masterpiece. By citing what the Bible’s authors said about their own writings, I showed you that this view is to be rejected. It does not harmonize with what the Bible says of itself and it denies that the Bible came from God.

The second false view of inspiration I showed you was what is sometimes called concept inspiration. Those who hold it believe that God inspired the concepts of the Bible but not the actual words. According to this view, God gave the writers of the Bible certain enlightenment and general ideas, then allowed them to work it all out in their own minds – subject of course, to the limits of human ability. Consequently, those who hold this view believe that the Bible is full of inaccuracies and errors and cannot be trusted to mean exactly what it says. The Bible itself flatly contradicts this view.

Thirdly I described a false view that some hold that says that inspiration is nothing more than mechanical dictation. According to this faulty understanding, the Bible’s writers were nothing more than stenographers taking dictation from God. While the mechanical dictation view does maintain a high regard for the actual words of the Bible, it requires only that the authors be skilled secretaries, which leaves open the possibility of human error because secretaries make mistakes.

A fourth faulty view I showed you was what can be called partial inspiration. Those who hold this view believe that the Bible is inspired only in certain spots. Of course no two people can agree on which spots are and are not in inspired. I suggested facetiously that figuring out which passages are and aren’t inspired would itself take a miraculous level of inspiration from God. In reality, those who hold this view typically reject those passages that do not agree with their pet views or understanding.

Finally, I described a false view that has been called existential inspiration. This view alleges that though the Bible is full of all kinds of inaccuracies, contradictions, and errors, somehow God manages to "break through" the falsehood and confusion to inspire the reader with insight from God. According to this view, no one passage is inspired in and of itself. Neither is any one passage inspired at all times. It depends upon how the passage interacts with the reader and his or her unique makeup and experiences.

Having seen these five false views, any one of which, if it gets a foothold in your life, can cripple your faith, we can now turn our attention back to the question, "How did God inspire the Bible?"

2. Inspiration Is…

The best way to get the right view of Bible inspiration is to go to the Bible itself. Accordingly, I have chosen three of the most prominent passages on the subject to examine. If we had the time, we could consider more. We’ll begin in 2 Timothy 3:13-17.

In this chapter, Paul the Apostle is warning Timothy about the dangerous influence of false teachers on the church. After a lengthy description of their destructive influence, he says, beginning in verse 13…

This is one of the golden texts for Bible inspiration. Notice the bold claim that Paul makes: "All Scripture is inspired by God…." That word "inspired" is a translation of a compound Greek word that means literally, "God-breathed." In fact, the NIV translates the verse just this way: "All Scripture is God-breathed…."(1) The point is that all Scripture comes from God. It is His communication with man. We use the expression, "Don’t breathe a word of this." What we mean is, "Don’t communicate with anyone about this." God has breathed or communicated with man through Scripture. What I want you to see here is that the source of Scripture is God. This statement flies in the face of the false view that inspiration is merely the product of human genius. Scripture is "God breathed," that is, God communicating with man, not man communicating with man.

Also note that word, "all." All Scripture is inspired - not just some of it. God doesn’t hide His inspired truth in various spots of the Bible, leaving man to guess which is and which isn’t inspired. All of it is inspired. Those who hold that the Bible is only partially inspired have a deficit in their understanding. They don’t recognize the "whole counsel of God."(2) Likewise, this word "all" extends to every word of Scripture, not just the general concepts.

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. That is the correct view.

Finally, before leaving this passage, look also at that word "Scripture." The word in Greek is graphe and it means "writing" or "writings." You might recognize the similarity between graphe and our English word "graphite," which is the active component of pencils. We write with pencils.

All of the writings are inspired and since they are communicated or "breathed" from the mouth of the perfect God, we can also expect them to be inerrant, that is, "without errors." (Whenever you hear of someone debating the issue of "inerrancy," a debate that has taken place in several major denominational conventions, this is what it is about. They are disputing whether or not the Bible has errors.)

So does this word "Scripture" extend to all of the writings of the inspired Bible writers? Does it mean that when one of God’s prophets sat down to write a shopping list, it was inspired by God? No. Paul wasn’t talking about shopping lists or notes and drawings for building a house. A look back at the context of this verse makes that clear. Verse 15 says, "that from childhood you have known the sacred writings which are able to give you wisdom that leads to salvation…." Paul had in mind the "sacred writings," those writings recognized by God’s people as the word of God.

"But Dave, you don’t understand. Paul was only referring to the Old Testament Scriptures here. Much of the New Testament wasn’t written yet, so this couldn’t apply to those writings that came after Jesus established His New Covenant.

It is true that much of the New Testament was not complete when Paul penned these words to Timothy. However, I can see no indication that Paul put such a limit upon his statement. This could easily mean, "all Scripture, present, past, and future, is inspired by God." In fact, what Paul said elsewhere indicates that He had no intention of imposing such an "Old Testament only" limitation on inspiration. In 1 Corinthians 14:37, we find a statement from Paul about his own writings. There he said, "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." Paul considered his own New Testament writings as equivalent to the Lord’s commandment. In other words, they were inspired, too. God was communicating through him.

Peter concurred with this view in 2 Peter 3:15-16 when he referred to Paul’s writing as "Scriptures." In that passage we read,

An additional point we should probably make here is that while the Scriptures written by inspired men were infallible, the lives of the writers were not infallible. They were not perfect men. I recall that place in Galatians 2:11-13 where Paul rebuked Peter and said he "stood condemned" for his hypocrisy in refusing to eat with Gentile Christians.(3)

So what do we have so far? We have plenary (extending to all the Scriptures), verbal (extending to every word), inerrant (without mistakes), Scripture. That is the Biblical meaning of inspiration.

Let’s go now to 2 Peter 1:16-21. This is another golden text for Bible inspiration.

Peter is saying that he and the other Apostles didn’t make up the things they wrote about the majesty and glory of Christ. They didn’t resort to "cleverly devised tales." They actually saw Him in His glory with their own eyes.

When did Peter witness the majesty and glory of Christ? He tells us in the next verses.

Peter, James, and John witnessed Jesus in His glory and majesty on the mountain of transfiguration where God spoke and said, "This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased…."(4) What was the benefit of this eyewitness experience? The next verse tells us…

The "prophetic word," a reference to the Scripture, was "made more sure" (proven) by what Peter experienced on the mountain of transfiguration with James and John.

Because the prophetic word is sure, we should all pay close attention to it. It has been my observation that as people’s view of the inspiration of the Bible declines, so does their interest in carefully studying it. (And shouldn’t it be that way? If it is only the word of men and not God, why put forth the effort it takes to study it? Perhaps that is what is really at the root of some of the apathy around us.)

The scripture isn’t just a collection of the prophets’ interpretations of God. The NIV translates it the verse this way: "… no prophecy of Scripture came about by the prophet's own interpretation." The Bible isn’t the result of the best efforts of limited humans at guessing what God might want them to speak and write. In fact, the NAS translates it emphatically: "No prophecy of Scripture is a matter of one’s own interpretation." Not a single one! That harmonizes perfectly with what Paul said in 2 Timothy 3:16: "All Scripture is inspired by God…." Men inspired none of it. God inspired all of it. (Again we see the plenary, verbal aspect we mentioned earlier.)

There it is again. "No prophecy [of Scripture] was ever made by an act of human will…" Not a single one! The Bible is not a collection of men’s interpretations of God. In fact, it does not contain even one such aspect. It is not man’s speculations, or best guesses, or existential shivers of insight about God. This is the crux of inspiration. All of the Scripture is the result of God’s Spirit moving certain men to speak and write "from God."

The final passage I want you to see is Hebrews 1:1-2 and 2:3-4.

These verses contain more claims of inspiration along with what we might call the extent of inspiration. From them we learn who was and was not inspired. As I read through them, notice that the Hebrew writer refers to both Old Testament and New Testament inspiration.

That’s inspiration in the Old Testament – God speaking through the Jewish prophets (the "fathers) in many ways. That would include men like Moses and Isaiah and Daniel and Malachi. God spoke to these Old Testament prophets in many portions and many ways – such as burning bushes, talking donkeys, tablets of stone, dreams, and other ways.

Note also that in the Old Testament, God didn’t speak through every person. He has never spoken directly through or to every person. Those who claim that God speaks directly to them today hold a view that isn’t supportable by Scripture. The message of God has always come through inspired prophets.

Even in the New Testament (here referred to as "these last days") God has not spoken directly to or through every person. He has spoken to us through His Son.

Now drop down to chapter 2.

This is a repeat of what the writer of Hebrews said in verse 2 of the first chapter. The word of God pertaining to New Testament salvation was first spoken through Christ.

The message of the Son was taken up, confirmed, and carried forth into the world by those close men who heard Him. This is a reference to the Apostles of Christ.(5) God bore witness to their words by providing signs, wonders, miracles, and gifts of the Holy Spirit.(6)

So, these statements of God’s communication through inspired men encompass both the Old and New Testament. Among those Peter refers to who heard Jesus firsthand would be Matthew, Peter, and John, three of the twelve apostles. Two of these wrote "gospels" (biographies of Christ). Mark, who also wrote a "gospel," though not an Apostle, but was an associate of Peter who was. With Peter’s help, Mark most likely conveyed "The Gospel According to Peter" in the book we refer to as "Mark." Paul’s case, while different, is not without validation. Paul wasn’t one of the twelve, yet he did received "eyewitness" experience from Jesus directly.(7) Also, as I mentioned earlier, Peter, in his inspired letter that we call Second Peter, referred to Paul’s writing as "Scripture." Luke, who also wrote a "gospel" was not an Apostle either, but was the traveling companion of Paul and probably had the assistance of Paul in his writing. It is also likely that Mark and Luke, though not Apostles, had received the miraculous gift of prophecy(8) through laying on of the Apostles’ hands so that they, too, could write the word of God accurately. They filled the position of New Testament prophets.(9)

There is no indication in Scripture that inspiration was to continue indefinitely. In fact, passages from the later New Testament books indicate that the period of inspiration and special revelation stopped near the close of the first century with the death of those God had inspired (the Apostles and those on whom they imparted the gift of prophecy.) That is why we look backward to the writings of the Bible and not to so-called "latter day revelations" as Scripture.(10)

A man in Kansas City was severely injured in an explosion. Robert L. Sumner tells about him in his book, The Wonder of the Word of God. The victim's face was badly disfigured, and he lost his eyesight as well as both hands. The man was just a new Christian, and one of his greatest disappointments was that he could no longer read the Bible.

Then he heard about a lady in England who read Braille with her lips. Hoping to do the same, he sent for some books of the Bible in Braille. To his dismay, however, he discovered that the explosion had also destroyed the nerve endings in his lips. Then one day, as he brought one of the Braille pages to his lips, his tongue happened to touch a few of the raised characters and he could feel them. In a flash he thought, "I can read the Bible using my tongue!" At the time Robert Sumner wrote his book, the man had "read" through the entire Bible four times.

Is such dedication wasted on a book that is the product of nothing more than human wisdom, only partially inspired, and that only in its concepts but not its words? I don’t believe so. Do you?

This book, this Bible, all of it, every book it contains, every word, is the inspired Word of God. Commit your life to learning it, knowing that you reading the most important book in the entire history of man. You are reading communication from the God who created you and all you see around you. Commit your life to this book and the God who inspired it. It is the wisest choice you will ever make.

Footnotes: Use your "back" button to return to your place.

1. 2 Tim 3:16, NIV
2. Acts 20:27
3. Gal 2:11-13: "But when Cephas came to Antioch, I opposed him to his face, because he stood condemned. For prior to the coming of certain men from James, he used to eat with the Gentiles; but when they came, he began to withdraw and hold himself aloof, fearing the party of the circumcision. And the rest of the Jews joined him in hypocrisy, with the result that even Barnabas was carried away by their hypocrisy."
4. Matthew 17:1-8
5. 2 Peter 3:2
6. Acts 2:43; 4:33
7. Acts 22:14
8. 1 Corinthians 12:10
9. Ephesians 2:19-20
10. Passages such as Jude 3 make it clear that we look back to "the faith which was once delivered to the saints" and not to subsequent or "latter day revelations."

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.

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