By Pastor Dave Farmer
Summary
Do you know anyone who is perfect? Has there ever been anyone who batted a thousand? Of course not. God took an imperfect man and gave him a perfect revelation and in the process of communication protected its writing by having the Holy Spirit oversee the entire operation. This is about the "Demand for Inspiration."
The belief in an inerrant Scripture is under assault. The major objection is due to the nature of man. Man is imperfect. The question most often asked is, “How is it possible to have a perfect Bible when it is written by imperfect men?” They state the problem correctly, but the Bible is not just a book written by men. If God had to depend entirely on man to write His Word, the record could not stand up as infallible and inerrant. In this, we agree with the critics.
If God is going to give His truth through man, He must do something about the weak link in the process. In fact, He did! It is called inspiration. Through the ministry of the Holy Spirit, He supervised the whole operation. If I told you a story like, “Dave and Pat had a dog, and the dog chewed up Dave's slipper, so Dave beat the dog.” Well, after about twenty people, we could end up with a different version of this story, “Dave came home and found Pat chewing his slipper and so Dave beat Pat with the dog!” Man's sinful nature and fallible human tendencies made it necessary for God to protect His revelation. So, God the Holy Spirit moved in the minds of men to compensate for man's shortcomings. This is the purpose of inspiration. It is how God kept His truth free from error.
For those who might bulk, I offer this comment. If God is God, if God can create ex- nihilo, everything out of nothing, it is rather foolish to think He cannot protect His truth from human imperfections. God is Omnipotent - nothing is impossible with Him. He can give His word to fallible men and so cause those fallible men to record His word infallibly. If this were an impossible task, He would have written it Himself. God is Omniscient - He possesses all-knowledge. He knows of the weaknesses of the writers as well as all their strengths. He knows when they are in fellowship – a time for them to write, and out of fellowship – a time for them not to write. God is Omnipresent - He was with the writers while they wrote. We believe God's word to be infallible simply because God is infallible.
Inspiration is the work of God and it gives us the assurance of an error-free record, but it does not explain how God does this work. Dr. Chafer wrote:
"As to how divine revelation was given to the human author, none other than God or the elect man could know. Here the devout student will hesitate and the prudent will at least respect the silence of God. The Scriptures give abundant teaching as to the fact of inspiration but do not offer explanation of this phenomenon. The how of every miracle is wanting and inspiration is a miracle. This and all miracles, man is called upon to believe and not to elucidate." 1
Christ called attention to man's limitations when He said, “The wind blows where it wishes, and you hear the sound of it, but do not know where it comes from and where it is going; so is everyone who is born of the Spirit.” (John 3:8) "If having experienced the miracle of regeneration, men are not able to comprehend it's mystery, how could they discern the workings of the Spirit in the realms into which they have never entered?" 2
God does not tell us how He did it. What He does tell us is the result of what He did. He secured for us through inspiration an accurate record of all that He wanted us to know. The Apostle Peter explains inspiration in this way:
How the Scriptures did not originate – verse 20.
But know this first of all, that no prophecy of Scripture is a matter of one’s own interpretation, (2 Peter 1:20)
A private interpretation means they were not writing on their own. They did not give us their own thoughts or ideas. The Holy Spirit is involved whenever Scripture is written.
How the Scriptures did originate – verse 21
for no prophecy was ever made by an act of human will, but men moved 3 by the Holy Spirit spoke from God. (2 Peter 1:21)
Scripture begins with God. It originates by means of the Holy Spirit. God the Holy Spirit so acted in, through, and upon the minds of men that without changing their personality, their vocabulary, their background or any other human factor, God's complete and connected thought toward man was recorded. He superintended the entire process. The Bible claims over 3000 times by the different writers, “The Lord spoke, the Lord said, thus saith the Lord."
The Apostle Paul explains inspiration in this way:
All Scripture is inspired by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness; (2 Timothy 3:16)
The word “inspired” means literally “God-breathed.” Just as God forced His breath into the body of Adam and man became a living soul, so He caused His word to actually come forth by the breath of the Holy Spirit acting upon the minds of men. When you breathe, you do two things – you inhale, and you exhale. When you only do one you stop breathing. You can't inhale and stop; you have to exhale after you inhale. When you inhale, you take in air, and when you exhale, you expel the air. Inhale part is the Holy Spirit communicating to the human writer exactly what is to be written. In the Exhale part, the human writer so writes Scripture without waiving his human intelligence, his vocabulary, or his personality. You see, the writers didn't suddenly go blind, dumb, or blank. He didn't waive his feelings, or his personality, or his individuality. He wrote, controlled by the Holy Spirit so that God's complete and coherent message would be permanently recorded with perfect accuracy in the original writings.
Our Lord Jesus Christ explained inspiration in this way:
For truly I say to you, until heaven and earth pass away, not the smallest letter or stroke shall pass from the Law until all is accomplished. (Matthew 5:18)
The law contains a prophecy of the coming of a Redeemer. Jesus is the promised Messiah for Israel and the Savior of the whole world. The promise is based upon writing. The promise was given in words. The words are made of letters, and even the letters are made up of small strokes called titles. The titles forms letters, the letters form words, and the words combine to communicate the promises of God. Every promise will be fulfilled as it was spelled out by God. Inspiration extends not only to the words for our Lord says, “every jot and title.” The very parts of the letters have absolute integrity. Our Heavenly Father did not give inspired concepts to the writers of Scripture and allowed them to express those ideas in their own way. Rather, the Holy Spirit directed the choice of every word of Scripture and did so without destroying the writer's characteristics, style or vocabulary.
Inspiration is the work of the Holy Spirit, and it is His power directing, superintending, and guiding the very material and words employed and preventing the authors from error and omission. Peter's and Paul's writings are different. Paul’s is doctrinal and theological whereas Peter's style is pastoral. That is the miracle! How God could use man, but keep the weaknesses and limitations of humanity from interfering with what He revealed. The Bible is a product of man. The Bible is a product of God. Both facts are taught side by side in Scripture because there is dual authorship when Scripture is written. Inspiration is what makes the Bible so unique.
ENDNOTES
1 Chafer, Lewis Sperry, Systematic Theology, Dallas: Dallas Theological Seminary, Vol. 1, p.82, 1947.
2 Ibid.
3 The verb PHERO which is translated "moved" is a present passive participle. The passive voice means that the subject receives the action of the verb. It adds greater emphasis to the fact that the Holy Spirit acts upon the writer. The active voice would paint a different picture. The writer would be acting by himself. He would produce the action of the verb. The present tense is the customary present. Whenever the prophet or apostle is writing Scripture, the Holy Spirit is leading and guiding.