Inspiration: Its Importance

One of the most troubling controversies within the Church is the battle over Scripture’s reliability, infallibility, and/or inerrancy. There are views as extreme as the ‘King James Only’ to those that think the Bible is a book of men’s invention. Most within the Church today fall somewhere between those two extremes. The argument seems to center around these words: reliability, infallibility, and/or inerrant-and it seems to matter for many how you define these terms. I don’t think the Bible makes any claim to these terms, though it is important that we believe some of these things to be true. That the Bible is ‘reliable’ in what the authors were trying to convey is an important issue. ‘Infallible’ in its relation to doctrine and teachings are essential, it would seem. Even ‘inerrant’, depending on how you define it, is an attribute that we hold our Holy Book to, at least most of us do. I know there are some that argue the inerrancy issue, accusing others of not believing in the Bible’s inerrancy-at least the version of inerrancy they hold to. I am not one to argue or even demand that one holds to these ‘standards’ to be orthodox. I think the more important issue, the one that the Bible does claim, is inspiration.

Inspiration is a Biblical doctrine, and this is the one that I think is important in matters of orthodoxy. Inspiration is defined by the Bible in two places; 2 Timothy 3:16, which reads, (HCSB) “All Scripture is inspired by God and is profitable for teaching, for rebuking, for correcting, for training in righteousness,” and 2 Peter 1:20-21 (ASV) “knowing this first, that no prophecy of scripture is of private interpretation. 21 For no prophecy ever came by the will of man: but men spake from God, being moved by the Holy Spirit.” In The Great Doctrines of the Bible by William Evans (Database © 2013 WORDsearch) he states, “Inspiration… is the strong, conscious inbreathing of God into men, qualifying them to give utterance to truth.” This is significant as the word Paul uses, “inspired” (Greek Word: θεόπνευστος -Transliteration: theopneustos), is our key word. This word, in the Greek, is used only this one time and is thought to mean “divinely breathed” (Strong's Talking Greek & Hebrew Dictionary). The second verse, in 2 Peter, is significant in that it explains the how: “men spake from God, being moved by the Holy Spirit.”

Inspiration does not mean mechanical transmission, that God always ‘mechanically’ gave the exact words to pen (though there are instances-for example the Ten Commandments-where God gives the very words, yes). It also doesn’t mean that God couldn’t use someone’s personality, quirks, and personal style to give us the book we have today, called the Bible. If God choose to give us a book, a sacred collection, He could choose to do it however He wanted. God wrote with His very finger, Exodus 31:18 (KJV) “And he gave unto Moses, when he had made an end of communing with him upon mount Sinai, two tables of testimony, tables of stone, written with the finger of God.” There is nothing preventing God from doing this with all Scripture, but as 2 Peter 1:21 clearly teaches, God used men. This is where I draw the line in the sand. I think ‘inspiration’ can account for some things that are hard to reconcile with our minds, if inspiration of Scripture was not true. I want to look at a few examples of individual books of the Bible, passages, and verses that are stumbling blocks for some, in light of inspiration.

MOSES AND THE GENESIS ACCOUNT OF CREATION

If we believe Adam and Eve were real people, as the Bible seems to claim, how did Moses know about their creation, or the beginning of the world, for that matter. It is possible Moses lived 2500 years or more after Adam and Eve, so he could not have spoken to them. I think the answer is found in the first encounter Moses had with God. We find this account, Exodus 3:4 (NLT) “When the LORD saw Moses coming to take a closer look, God called to him from the middle of the bush, “Moses! Moses!” “Here I am!” Moses replied.” According to Moses’ account (he is the writer of the Book of Exodus) God spoke directly to him. Why is it so hard to believe God talked to Moses about the creation of the Universe (including Adam and Eve) if we believe He spoke from a burning bush? It is not such a leap of faith to imagine God explaining the Creation account, giving Moses details only God would know (like for example satan’s plan). The doctrine of Inspiration would include the idea of God directly giving the writers of a particular book information. I don’t think that this is always the case, or even the rule, but the exception that proves the rule, if you will.

MOSES’ DEATH

We read at the end of the Pentateuch (the first 5 books of the Bible) the death of Moses, Deuteronomy 34:5 (HCSB) “So Moses the servant of the LORD died there in the land of Moab, as the LORD had said.” This is a favorite of skeptics, within or out of the Faith, claiming at least some of the books traditionally attributed to Moses were possible written by someone else. I would again appeal to the same argument that I proposed in the previous point, God could have told Moses what his death would be like. It does not seem far-fetched for a man who spoke to a bush, speaking to God, would have God give him the details of his death-creepy, yes, but far-fetched, no. God is quite capable of knowing Moses’ day and manner of death. Any who doubts this possibility, and I’m not saying it is the only, is really doubting the type of God described in the Bible as omniscient.

GOSPEL ACCOUNTS

Interestingly enough, Paul’s writings, at least a large majority of them, are considered authentic and early by skeptic and conservative Bible scholars alike. Very little dispute is lodged that Paul didn’t pen the epistles that we have in our modern Bible. The majority of critics, from the most liberal to the most conservative, are going to stumble on the Gospel accounts, we call Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. I am convinced that the names we attribute to these accounts are the authors of the books that have their names attached to them. I do believe the strongest case is for Luke’s authorship, though John seems fairly obvious (and probably the least disputed authorship) to be his account of the events. Most skeptics point to Matthew and Mark as anonymous accounts, and there is no internal evidence to dispute that. The Church early on recognized Matthew and Mark as the authors of these accounts, and I hold to the very conservative position on this. It seems in light of the topic at hand, the issue most critics have with the Gospel accounts were; how did they know certain episodes, such as Jesus alone praying in the garden of Gethsemane? This seems less about what was said, or penned, than what actually happened. Well known Christian skeptic and New Testament scholar, Bart Ehrman has written numerous books discounting the possibility that the Gospel accounts are reliable.

Ehrman writes, “When it comes to knowing about the Gospels and about the historical Jesus himself, it is all about memory. And all about frail memory. And faulty memory. And fake memory.” (Ehrman, B. D. (pg. 4). Jesus before the Gospels: How the earliest Christians remembered, changed, and invented their stories of the Savior). And I think that scholars like him, and even many ‘conservative’ scholars negate the inspiration factor. This seems to me to be an important argument, maybe not apologetically or historically, but an explanation for the Bible’s authenticity. Ehrman and other scholars base their notions on human weakness, yet the Bible speaks to this, too, 2 Corinthians 4:7 (KJV) “But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellency of the power may be of God, and not of us.” That God would use multiple authors, in various languages, and in numerous geographical areas, lends to the credibility and inspiration of scripture.

CONCLUSION

I think the idea of inspiration is vital to our Christian Faith. If we are creating a ‘religion’ based on men’s ideas, we are on shaky ground at the least. If God has not spoken, on what basis do we claim any authority? Norman Geisler explains issues many have with the Bible and the doctrine of inspiration, “the Bible cannot err, but critics can and have. There is no error in God’s revelation, but there are errors in our understanding of it. Hence, when approaching Bible difficulties, the wisdom of St. Augustine is best: “If we are perplexed by any apparent contradiction in Scripture, it is not allowable to say, The author of this book is mistaken; but either [1] the manuscript is faulty, or [2] the translation is wrong, or [3] you have not understood.” (Augustine, City of God 11.5)” (Geisler, Norman L. ‘Are there errors in the Bible?’ http://normangeisler.com/are-there-any-errors-in-the-bible/)

We must start with inspiration, and sometimes it is hard to get to that point. I understand apologetics deals with pointing people to the truth of the Christian worldview as valid, often showing the Bible’s reliability in what it addresses. Yet, it seems incredulous to ignore the claims of Scripture themselves. If the Bible is inspired, then we have heard from God, and we can base all our beliefs on this ancient document of infinite importance. If it is a collection of fanciful writings, from ages gone by, maybe it is only useful for academic pursuits of ancient languages and culture? I believe it is much more, and I believe it is of inestimable value. Knowing the Bible is inspired makes it valid as our guide to rules and practices, this cannot be overemphasized. It makes it the mind of God revealed, in at least the things by which He wants to reveal Himself.

#inspiration #bible