The Holy Bible was written over a fifteen-hundred year span, by forty different authors from every walk of life. It was written by kings, servants, fishermen, poets, doctors, herdsmen and even a tax collector. It was written on three different continents, Europe, Asia and Africa in sixteen different countries and in three different languages, Hebrew, Aramaic and Greek. Throughout the books of the Bible from Genesis to Revelation we find unity in the message. Simply stated, God created the heavens and the earth and everything in it. God created man to have relationship with Him. Man broke his relationship with God through sin and God offers reconciliation to man through Jesus Christ.
How can we find a united theme in sixty-six books written over fifteen-hundred years, by forty diverse people? By understanding that the Bible is the inerrant, infallible Word of God who inspired each author to record what God wanted us to know through His Scriptures. There can be no other explanation. Without inspiration from God, this would be an impossible accomplishment for man.
Inerrancy: The idea that when all the facts are known, the Bible (in its autographs, that is, the original writings), properly interpreted in light of the culture and the means of communication that had developed by the time of its composition, is completely true in all that it affirms, to the degree of precision intended by the author’s purpose, in all matters relating to God and His creation.
Infallibility: The view that the Bible is incapable of error and cannot deceive or mislead. Some contemporary scholars want to apply the term infallible only to the message of the Bible to avoid the affirmation that the Bible is also truthful in matters relating to history, geography, and related matters. The meaning given to infallible is consistent with the classical meaning of the term, not with the revised meaning of some contemporary scholars.
Inspiration: The superintending influence of the Holy Spirit exerted on the Biblical writers, so that the accent and interpretation of God’s revelation have been recorded as God intended, so that the Bible is actually the Word of God.
Understanding and further defining the term “Inspiration” is vitally important. We read in Genesis 1:1 that “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.” Reading further we know that God created light and divided it from the darkness, God created the land and the water. God created the stars in the heavens and all living things on earth, the greenery, seeds, plants, the animals, creeping things, the birds in the air, the fishes in the sea, and then He created man in His image. Genesis 1:26 “Then God said; Let Us make man in Our own image, according to Our likeness.” (The Trinity defined right from the start!) God gave man dominion over all of His creation because God created it all for us. And when God created man in His image, God also did something that would set us apart from all other living things. Genesis 2:7 “Then the Lord God formed man of dust from the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living being.” God breathed life into us and I believe God’s breath became our very soul.
God also breathed life into something else. He breathed life into His Holy Scriptures. The term inspiration is a translation of the Greek word theopneustos which means “Divinely inspired” or “God breathed.” In the secular sense, we say that inspiration is synonymous with illumination, creativity or human genius. Throughout the Bible, the authors never looked for illumination or creativity to record the Scriptures, and they certainly did not rely on human genius. So their inspiration had to come from somewhere, from one source common to all of the authors. And that source was from God. God breathed life into man, and life into His Scriptures by the power of the Holy Spirit working through each and every author over the course of time. Instead of the word “inspiration” a preferable term might be “spiration” in order to emphasize the divine source and initiative, rather than human genius or creativity.
First, we must look at what the Bible says about itself.
In the Apostle Paul’s second letter written to Timothy 3:16-17 he says; “All scripture is inspired by God, and is profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness, so that the man of God may be adequate, equipped for every good work.” Therefore inspired God-breathed Scripture is profitable for teaching (what is right) for reproof (what is not right) for correction (how to get right) and for training in righteousness (how to stay right!) Clearly verse sixteen affirms God’s authorship of the Bible. In the first Epistle according to Peter, 2:20-21, Peter says; “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.” Once again we are told that it is God, through the Holy Spirit, who inspires men to speak God’s Word. Prophecies are surer than cleverly devised myths because they are based on God’s own Spirit, while myths are due to human impulse.
There is a duality of authorship in the books of the Bible. God is first and foremost, the main author of every book by His inspiration. And the writer of each book becomes the additional author. When the Holy Spirit inspired the writers, the Spirit did not erase the natural characteristics of the writers. God in His providence prepared the writers for the task of writing Scripture. Each writer, with his own style and vocabulary, recorded the Word of God. So when we read the Gospel of John for instance, we must identify God and John as the authors of the Book.
Although the Bible does not show us exactly how Scripture was inspired, those who have closely examined Scripture have proposed many theories.
Neo-Orthodox Theory: Neo-Orthodoxy holds that God is utterly Transcendent. That is, God is so completely different and set apart from us that we cannot comprehend him apart from his revelation(s). The issue appears when neo-orthodoxy is compared to Evangelicalism regarding the Word of God. Proponents of neo-orthodoxy claimed that the Bible is a witness to the Word of God or that it in some sense contains the Word of God. Thus, the Bible contains people's experiences of God, yet, because they are finite and can commit error, their writings contained paradoxes or errors. The main problem with this theory is that the Timothy passage tells us that Scripture was inspired by God, therefore it is God’s Word and not just a witness.
Dictation Theory: Just as the name implies, theorists believe that God simply dictated what He wanted to be written down. Therefore, all the author did was write down as he was told from God and the end product was the Word of God. There is evidence in Scripture that God may have communicated a precise, word-for-word message to human authors, throughout all of Scripture He allowed writers to express their own personalities and styles as they wrote. Still, God’s intention was always accomplished through the Holy Spirit.
Limited Inspiration Theory: This view proposes that Scripture is inspired, yet it is limited to certain aspects. It affirms that God guided the writers, yet also allowed them the freedom to express their own thoughts regarding history and experiences they had. This allows the Bible to contain historical errors, yet, it is claimed that the Holy Spirit protected writers against any doctrinal error. Thus, the Bible may contain historical errors but it remains a reliable source of doctrine. If we believe the Bible to be inerrant and infallible, then this applies to the whole of Scripture. If there is one error, then we would potentially question all of the Scripture. The classic example is found in the Book of Jonah. Scripture tells us that Jonah was swallowed by a whale (a great fish) and spent three days and three nights in its belly. Jesus himself made mention of Jonah and Nineveh in the Gospel of Matthew. Yet, I have Pastor friends today who preach from the pulpit that Jonah is simply a parable or merely an illustration.
Plenary Verbal Inspiration Theory: The word plenary means "full" or "complete". Therefore, plenary verbal inspiration asserts that God inspired the complete texts of the Bible, from Genesis to Revelation, and including both historical and doctrinal details. The word verbal affirms the idea that inspiration extends to the very words the writers chose. The Holy Spirit guided the writers along with allowing them the freedom of their own personalities to produce the Bible we have today. This view recognizes both the human and divine element within Scripture. We hold this theory to be true. It assures us that the Bible is trustworthy, therefore inerrant and infallible. We can trust that all Scripture can provide insight into the history of God’s people, God’s plan for our lives and tells us how to become all God wants us to be. Plenary verbal inspiration also assures us that the Bible is authoritative. Because it is God’s Word, it speaks with God’s authority. Amen!
An important point needs to be addressed. Since the Bible is truly inspired by God and His Scripture is trustworthy and authoritative, inerrant and infallible, why do we find errors today?
Inspiration and inerrancy applies to the original writings and not to the copies. The originals were without error, and over time and translation, there have been copyist mistakes. Therefore, when critics of the Bible point out contradictions, what they are doing is either failing to understand the context of the passages they are examining, or they have encountered a scribal copying error. The fact is that there are indeed copyist errors in Biblical documents and they account for many alleged contradictions. We must keep in mind that the original writings are inspired and inerrant, not the copies. The copies we have now are copies of inspired documents.
The Scriptures are clearly inspired. How else can you justify scientific evidence of so many facts, written so long ago, by authors who did not have this specific knowledge at the time of their writing? The Bible is not a scientific book, but the Bible is scientifically accurate. A few examples:
The roundness of the earth: In the prophet Isaiah’s book, written 700 years before the birth of Jesus Christ, he recorded that the earth was round, long before science discovered it. Isaiah 40:22; “It is He (God) that sits above the circle of the earth…”
Gravity: In the book of Job, perhaps the oldest recorded book in the Bible, the author tells us in 26:7; “He stretches out the north over empty space and hangs the earth on nothing.”
The uncountable number of stars: The prophet Jeremiah wrote; “As the host (the Angels) of heaven cannot be counted, so I (God) will multiply the descendants of David my servant.”
I have found that the common thread that ties all of the books of the Bible together is God’s inspiration alone. There can be no other explanation for such a united theme throughout. The historical books are accurate, supported by scientific and archeological discovery, and the prophetic books are obviously inspired because of prophecies fulfilled. The apostles throughout the New Testament appealed to two areas of the life of Jesus to establish His Messiahship – the resurrection and fulfilled messianic prophecy.
Yes, the Bible, God’s Word is inspired, infallible and inerrant. The Bible is truly our guide for daily living. In a recent Barna Group survey, over 1000 adults nationwide were questioned regarding certain aspects of the Bible. Only 26% believe that the Bible should be taken literally, word for word. Therefore, 74% of adults nationwide believe that the Bible cannot be taken literally. Only 30% of the adult population believes that the Bible is the inspired Word of God with no errors. They also believe that some verses are meant to be symbolic. Therefore 70% of adults nationwide believe that the Word of God is not inspired and includes errors. And last, the Barna Group asked over 1000 adults nationwide if they believed the Bible, the Koran and the Book of Mormon shared the same spiritual truths. 43% agreed. Perhaps we need to spend more time reading our Bibles.
