Doctrine of Scripture - Part 2

There are 2 factors of why the early church accepted the Old Testament as being Divinely inspired.

DOCTRINE OF SCRIPTURE

II. Inspiration of Scripture

Nature of Inspiration

There are 2 factors of why the early church accepted the Old Testament as being Divinely inspired. It is that (1) throughout the text, Old Testament Scripture often says that “God spoke” or “God said”. Along with this, many of the Old Testament prophecies were fulfilled in Jesus and (2) plain and simply put, Jesus’ attitude toward it. Jesus always validated the Old Testament as being divine through the way he lived his life and the way He taught.

The New Testament writers understood the Old Testament as being divine by the use of words such as “It is written”, and “God said”. Descriptions such as these put the New Testament equal with the Old Testament for the simple fact that the inspiration of the New Testament was mainly through the Holy Spirit. As Christians, we see that the evidence of the New Testament is as plainly inspired as that of the Old Testament, making it the Word of God.

As time progressed to most recent centuries, the focus of God and inspiration moved from an objective view of God, to a subjective personal experience. This typically originated from a misuse of a specific biblical message, or the following of a “religious genius”. However, these views don’t affirm the Bible’s own view and origin of its inspiration. The New Testament clearly states that the Old Testament writers spoke according to the message that was given to them through the work of the Holy Spirit, making them the actual words of God. Also, it’s clearly described as the same Spirit in both New and Old Testament that compelled them to write. Paul puts it main and plain when he said all scripture is “God breathed” (2 Tim. 3:16). But it isn’t just “breathed on,” it is his very breath. This in turn would make it life in itself, thus calling the Bible the “Living Word of God”.

Paul gave a good definition of this when he said in 1 Corinthians 2:13, “which things we also speak, not in words taught by human wisdom, but in those taught by the Spirit” (N.A.S.B.). When using the term “breath”, the Bible is referring to God’s Spirit. The same breath described in the New Testament is the same breath used in the Old Testament. We can see this in the accounts of creation and even in prophecy. So, when God “breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living being”, it is the same breath that “God breathed” into scriptures, and created them with that same life. So, by the Holy Spirit being the sending force of God’s word being proclaimed, when the Bible says “the Holy Spirit said” or “Scriptures says,” it is referring to one and the same. It is inspiration that opens our understanding to this. However, theologians generally refer to this as “illumination” and base it off of the personal experience as described in the explaining of Revelation.

CONSEQUENCES OF THE BIBLICAL VIEW

There are a few normal by-products of adhering to this Biblical view. First, is that the Scriptures are complete, or whole, in itself. By definition, it is called plenary and is separated from the theory of illumination and far from “insight theory” which says inspiration is simply a natural activity. Secondly, inspiration is verbal. The Holy Spirit was concerned with the words of Scripture, therefore his active roll in it made the inspiration verbal communication. Now, not to confuse this with a mechanical influence, this is rather an influence that prompted man to use his own language under the Holy Spirit’s divine inspiration.

The actual process is ultimately indescribable. It’s like attempting to describe the whole nature of God within our limited understanding. So, we use the term “verbal”, not as a machinelike nature, but as a best way found to describe the Holy Spirit’s activity while allowing man to be part of a flawless outcome. You could call this “linking arms”. On one hand you have a distinct human author and on the other, you have a result of God’s creation. This is the partnering way God chose to bring forth His Word. Not by human wisdom, but by His divine wisdom inspiring the hearts and minds of His chosen people.

This is how we know that the Word of God is infallible. It is accredited by the way Jesus spoke “the Words of his Father”, the prophets spoke “God’s Word” and the New Testament spoke in “the name of Jesus Christ” and by the power and conviction of the Holy Spirit. God is the primary author while choosing to use humans to have an active role. Simply put… our language; His message: thus being, the Word of God.

All in all, this divine inspiration is what validates the Bible being the Word of God. Many evangelical Christians have observed this truth in the past, while we continue to do the same to this day.
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