God Breathed Scriptures Series

Theme: God-breathed Scriptures

Text: 2 Timothy 3:14-17

Introduction:

The Lord is good and his love endures forever. I would like to share with you this evening the God-breathed Scriptures as inspired scriptures, instructing scriptures, and involving scriptures.

Let me explain the word scripture:

Scriptures: There are many scriptures in the world. We are familiar with the Quran of Islam, Bhagavat Gita, Ramayana, Vedas and Upanishads of Hinduism, The Agamas of Jainism, Guru Granth Sahib of Sikhism, The Tipitaka of Buddhism, The Torah, of Judaism, the Kojiki of Shintoism, The Dao de Jing of Daoism, The Avesta of Zoroastrianism, the seven Valleys and Four Valleys of Baha’i (ref: google search).

God breathed Scriptures

Bible is the Holy book of the 2.4 billion people who follow Christianity in the world.

Bible has been written over 1400 years by more than 40 writers

There is no book like Bible, in its continuity and consistency. There is no book like it in its honesty, in its circulation, in its survival, in its influence, and life-changing power (according to Enduring Word).

However, “The authority, authorship, reliability, and trustworthiness of Scripture are regularly under attack.” (ref: redeemer Orthodox Presbyterian Church).

Voltaire, a French Enlightenment writer, historian, and philosopher said, ‘in 25 years Bible will be a forgotten book.’ Robert Ingersoll, a lawyer in the USA said, ‘in 25years, the Bible will be a forgotten book.’

They are no more but still, Bible exists.

1. Inspired Scriptures

All Scriptures are inspired means every passage of Scripture and every word in every passage and every stroke in the letter is inspired according to Matthew 5:18. No exceptions.

Holy Bible is authored by God. God-breathed (YLT) breathed out by God (ESV) divinely inspired (Darby) For the whole Scripture is given by inspiration of God (Geneva).

Moses wrote down everything that God has said (Exodus 24:4, Deuteronomy 31:9) the tablets and writings were of the Lord (Exodus 32:16),

Jeremiah wrote in a book, in a scroll all the words that God has spoken to him (Jeremiah 30:2, 36:2),

God told Habakkuk to write down the vision and send it through the herald to all (Habakkuk 2:2).

What does it mean whether it was dictated or remembered or collected as oration? How to understand and interpret the verse that the scriptures were inspired by God.

The word Divine inspiration is Theopneustic (theopneustos)=God-breathed, Theos = God + pneo = to breathe or blow, the product of the creative breath of God. God breathed, or God inspired means calling our attention to the divine source of the authority of the OT.

God has breathed the breath of God into the nostrils of man to give life and soul (Genesis 2:7) in the same manner God’s word inspired means has the soul and living capacity forever (Psalm 33:6). So, God breathed the life-giving truth into the Jewish scriptures and into the Holy Bible. So, it’s profitable for religious life and life on earth (Dictionary of the Bible).

Inspiration refers to direct dictation by God in some contexts, for example, the Ten Commandments. Inspiration refers to verbal, plenary, and dynamic activities on some occasions. However, it’s not mechanical, or literalistic because the phraseology varies among the gospels even within a gospel (Dictionary of the Bible).

Biblical inspiration is the supernatural influence of the Holy Spirit on the Bible’s writers, which guaranteed that what they wrote was accurate and trustworthy. Revelation means the communicating of truth to man by God; inspiration has to do with the recording of this communication in a way that is dependable. Whatever the Bible says about itself, man, God, life, death, history, science, and every other subject is true (Austin precept).

The rabbis taught that the Spirit of God rested on and, in the prophets, and spoke through them so that their words did not come from themselves, but from the very mouth of God (Austin Precept).

Hence, always NT writers wrote as ‘It is written, ‘it says,’ ‘God says,’ and ‘scriptures says’ authentication of the scriptures and their authority (Dictionary of the Bible).

Inspiration raises an important question about the arrangements of the books, such as history, poetry, epistles, and prophecy. The purpose of all these books is redemption.

So, the inspiration of the scriptures is explained as “Omnia ex Deo, Omnia ex hominibus - all things are from God; all things are from Men”. (Dictionary of the Bible).

2. Instructing Scriptures

“…is profitable for instruction, for conviction [of sin], for correction [of error and restoration to obedience], for training in righteousness [learning to live in conformity to God’s will, both publicly and privately—behaving honorably with personal integrity and moral courage]”(AMP),

“It will empower you by its instruction and correction, giving you the strength to take the right direction and lead you deeper into the path of godliness” (TPT).

Scriptures are profitable, useful, and beneficial to all (Romans 15:4). It is an instrument to lead people to God, and to salvation. Profitable means useful, profitable, serviceable, helpful, and beneficial and refers to that which yields advantageous returns or results. It provides something that one needs to attain a certain goal -- in the context to be a "man of God".