9 October 2007

INSPIRATION

INTRODUCTION

I just heard a little joke that illustrates what I will be attempting to do on these pages in the coming weeks and months.

A young mother looked out the kitchen window to see her four year old son pour a cup of water on her two year old son. The four year old then shoved his brother into hole in the back yard. She ran outside and screamed, "Billy! Why did you do that to your brother?"

"I was baptizing him."

"What!"

"I poured water on him, just like the preacher did. It was in the Name of the Father and of the Son and in the hole he goes."

Kid obviously wasn't Baptist!

There are probably a thousand jokes like this which illustrate a child’s incomplete understanding of Scripture. There could probably be a thousand more to illustrate the adult’s incomplete understanding of Scripture, as well!

Most of us will claim that we understand that the Scripture is inspired of God. Most of us know the word "inspiration." But, too often we have no real idea what that word means. I can tell you that gravity holds us onto the earth. If I were asked just what gravity is, I’d have to say that it is that which holds us onto the earth. That isn’t an explanation of gravity; that is simply a restatement of the same word in a different sentence.

Most of us are in the same "boat" when it comes to inspiration. We will say that we believe that the Bible is inspired of God. When pressed as to what that means we will simply say that it means that God inspired the Bible.

How?

What does that word, inspiration, mean? What does the concept of inspiration include? Did God tap on the shoulders of the writers like I’m doing on this keyboard so that the Words came via the medium of the men but that they had nothing to do with that transmission? Did God put those men in a trance and say, "Isaiah, take a memo?"

My intention is to provide an answer to this question of just what inspiration means. The following is the general outline which I intend to follow in presenting these studies.

Historical Views

Position of Churches

Old Testament

New Testament

Theories of Inspiration

Evidences of Inspiration

The Word of God Given to Man

This work is being produced from notes I used while teaching over WGPA-TV, in Galesburg, IL, back in the 1990s. As this was presented to a general population audience, this study will attempt to be comprehensive while being very easy to understand. Technical concepts may be explained but, for the most part, technical words will not be used in those explanations!

My intent is to write about three to five pages per week. This may seem slow. But the realization that so many people today have been trained by television is not lost on me. To write the entire manuscript, and then to post it in one "lump," would be pointless. Few would bother to read that bulk of work. By keeping each session short and easily digestible I would hope that no one would be intimidated by the length.

I do plan on leaving all sessions on this web page. These may be moved to a secondary page on this site so as to keep the shorter, current, format in view. At some point I plan to include the entire bibliography so the reader is able to see just what books were used to shape this study.

It might be good to mention that without inspiration there would really be no Christian faith as we know it. The fact is that God created the universe. This simply means that He stands outside our observed frames of time and physicality. Man could not produce a Book such as the Bible because man can have no frame of reference to understand the spiritual and eternal.

My granddaughter has just begun kindergarten. She is learning to write her numbers. She has no conception of calculus. She has no conception that such a discipline as calculus even exists. As she continues on her trek through school she will be introduced to math in an ever increasing depth of instruction.

That word "instruction" is an important thing. Without this instruction she could never begin to understand all that exists in the world of the numbers she is now learning. It is that, to an infinite degree, which is our understanding of God. Without some instruction we could never begin to understand a percentage of either His existence or His grandeur. That instruction about the things of spirit and eternity must come from outside the universe of time and physicality.

Therefore it is a fact that man could not have written the Bible. It would have been an impossibility for man to write about that which he does not know.

Jesus told Nicodemus, "Verily, verily, I say unto thee, We speak that we do know, and testify that we have seen: and ye receive not our witness. If I have told you earthy things, and ye believe not, how shall ye believe, if I tell you of heavenly things? And no man hath ascended up to heaven, but he that come down from heaven, even the Son of man which is in heaven." (John 3:11 - 13)

The point here is that humans can only tell us that about which they are able to observe. For a Book of Spirituality to be legitimate, it must be authored by Someone Who is able to have experienced this Spirituality. For a Book of Eternity to be legitimate, it must be authored by Someone Who has experienced eternity. Therefore, the Bible is either inspired by the breath of God or it is simply a book of science fiction.

We will see that God is the Ultimate Author of the Scripture. This makes the Bible a supernatural Book. Were the Bible not supernatural It would not be either true or authoritative.

Tied in with this concept of a supernatural Book which explains the spiritual and eternal to humanity, must be the concept of the preservation of the Scripture. If the Scripture has not been preserved there can not be a case made for inspiration. God is eternal; therefore His Words must also be eternal. If His Words have been lost in time, they are not His words. Inspiration is an exercise in foolishness if there is no preservation. God is not foolish.

It is my intention to update this page weekly (weakly?). I will not say "every Tuesday," although that is my intention. But, I should have a new session completed each week. Time, circumstance and present duties may make the additions late from time to time. I will, however, strive for Tuesday updates.

16 October 2007

INSPIRATION (Historical)

The Bible, all sixty six Books contained therein, is inspired. This is a very simple statement. But, as with most simple statements, there is a world of meaning therein.

By accepting the concept of the inspiration of Scripture, we accept the concept that this Book is more than simply another book on the store shelves. It is a Book of supernatural origin. It is also a Book that is authoritative when It speaks of spiritual realities in a way that no humanly authored Book could ever possibly be.

At one time I was a pizza delivery driver in this very city. Yesterday I had the pleasure (?) of riding a VFW van which was taking several elderly men, I being one of these "old fogies," to the Iowa City Veteran’s Medical Center.

Since I live fairly close to the VFW, I was the first one to be picked up. At 5:00 in the morning even the driver can be a little slow in reacting to his schedule. He wasn’t this day. But, he did ask me how to find one of the addresses since I had been employed in a profession which made it important for me to know my way around the town.

I gave him the directions. As it turned out, I gave him the wrong directions. Why was this. Wasn’t I supposed to be an "authority" in knowing the streets in this town? The problem was that I had not been in the "pizza delivery profession" for several years; I had forgotten what I had once known because of not reinforcing this information night after night.

However, when God tells us of spiritual realities, in His Word, He is speaking from a position of both eternity and perfect intellect. He sees our "then" as if it were "now" because it is so to Him from eternal perspective. Then, of course, God is The Authority on spirituality. His pronouncements come from His Own mind and are always correct because He does not make, or even think, mistakes.

Brunner (Our Faith) has noted the relationship of the Scripture to the Christian churches.

"One might make the statement: there are Bibles because there are Christians. Primarily the reverse is true: there are Christians because of the Bible. ...[Without the Bible] we should know nothing of Jesus Christ..."

Brunner’s seems to be saying that the Bible is the fountain head from which the Christian churches have sprung. That case could be made for our churches of this day. After all, nearly every Christian church group will have a "statement of faith" in which they outline the purpose of their existence and the fundamental belief’s for which they stand. Most of these statements are very dull to the average reader because the statements appeal, time and again, to the Scripture in footnotes reference after footnoted reference.

But, it must be acknowledged that the first churches were assembled before the New Testament canon was complete. These "original," if you will, churches were founded under the energizing power of the Holy Spirit.

That same Spirit of God permeates the sacred pages of the Scripture. The Scripture is not just called, "The Word of God," the Scripture IS the Words of God spoken to the world’s peoples. As such, as the very Words of God, the Scripture is a Book which is of the spiritual, rather than the time centric, frame. The Words contained therein are timeless and able to energize those today who would accept them as a guide for this life and a guide in the quest for the next life.

Brunner also addresses this problem. He notes the primary problem of Scripture. "It [the Bible] is noteworthy, if for no other reason, in that so many people possess this Book and so few people read it."

Brunner could have added that few Christian people read The Book. So often we tend to only read the Scripture in small portions which are placed in our Sunday School quarterlies. That is a sad, but true fact! Even far too many "busy pastor’s" will fail in their daily reading schedules. To be honest, if we have a "schedule" from which we read the Scripture, we are already headed down to wrong lane! I don’t have a "schedule" to see my grandchildren. I see them every opportunity I can find!

Isn’t part of our problem in reading Scripture that we are not "Heavenly Minded" enough. There is an old charge cast upon certain seminary students that they are "too Heavenly minded to be of any earthly good." This charge fails to take into account the fact that Heaven is of eternity. Earth is of a short duration. We should be so mindful of Heaven that we are anxious to learn all we can of that subject so that we can relate the priorities of Heaven to our earthly existence. The primary priority is that we search out, as did Jesus (see Luke 19:10) the lost with the Biblical message that Jesus Christ died in time so that others could live in eternity.

I am at the age where I read the newspaper obituaries every night. I want to know if an old friend has entered eternity. I want to know if an old friend’s family member has entered eternity. Shouldn’t my curiosity about temporal things be at least equaled by my curiosity about spiritual things? That is where most of us fail. We are too earthly minded to be Heavenly guided!

Salem Kirban (The Salem Kirban Bible) has noted an important part of Scripture that many fail to keep in mind. "Inspiration does not change a lie into a truth. The Bible faithfully records the events as they happened ... Satan’s deception, Israel’s sins, man’s failings and God’s eternal promise."

The Bible speaks of man as he is. The picture of man is not dramatized in the Scripture. Man is not seen as special, in many ways. Man is not presented as the being with all of the answers to humanities problems. Man is, often, not shown as a very noble creature. Hence, we tend to go to novels, or other forms of literature, which will make us feel good about ourselves.

This is a balm with turns into a bomb. A balm is that which we put over a sore, or cut, so that it might heal more easily. A bomb is that which breaks things and destroys lives. Such is the outcome when we fail to consider the Bible message. Other literature may make us feel good about ourselves. But, in so doing we are only covering that which is a cancer. We need to see the Great Physician and have the cancer removed.

The inspired Words of God point out our spiritual problems and offer eternal solutions. Our distaste, as natural beings, with being shown our faults should be tempered by our spiritual joy with being shown the glory of God. As this is done He will guide us to be better humans, even in time, as we more closely approach Him and His great purpose for our lives.

Strong (Systematic Theology) notes that, "Each of these writings, whether early or late, has represented moral and religious ideas greatly in advance of the age in which it has appeared..." This is just one of the "proofs" of inspiration. Ridiculed by many as a "Book out of touch with the modern world," the Bible is, in actuality, a Book which is so modern that it is ahead of the curve. There are subjects discussed in the Bible that should have been, actually were, unknown to humanity in the days in which inspiration penned them. Since the Bible is inspired, and thus a Living Word, the ability is there for the Scripture to speak to us of this day, and to the problems of this day.

I almost wrote "Living Word" instead of simply Living Word in that last paragraph. The reason for the change is that the Bible actually is a Living Word. The Bible is the very Words of God to us as we read It’s pages. Inspiration has made it so.

In our next session we will look at the concept of the writers, and The Writer, of the Holy Scriptures.

23 October 2007

INSPIRATION (Historical)

When one first begins to read the Scripture he must be struck by the uniqueness of this Book. The book gives a single narrative. Yet the Book, humanly speaking, has many writers of various personal outlooks.

There are very few of us who would attempt to read the Scripture in the languages in which the various sections were written. Therefore, for the most part we are reading translations. A large part of the unity of the Scriptural message, to the reader’s ear at least, is the result of the translator’s art. Even those who tried their very best to give an accurate translation of copies of the original documents, such at the King James - or Authorized, Bible were moving the originally inspired Words of God into their own native tongue. The translator’s of the Authorized Version went so far as to place the words which they added for clarities sake into their translated text, so anxious were they to simply give the Words which God had originally inspired to those who could not read that language. In doing this transference of the Words of God into the language of English, even these were forced to use their own linguistic nuances which gives the translation more of a "sameness" than might have been viewed in the original documents.

Others, such as the translating committee of the New International Version, were less careful to keep a fidelity to original words; they simply gave a "thought for thought" transference without regard to the Word for Word importance of God’s thoughts.

Still, even considering the leavening influence of the translator’s art, we must be struck with the great unity of The Book. I’ve been reading a blog on the "net" in which Christian questions are being asked. The question has come up several times, "Can you explain Revelation?" Unless one is versed in the entire Scriptural record, one can never begin to understand John’s Book of Revelations. The Book of Revelation draws heavily upon the symbolism of Ezekiel and Daniel. Portions of Matthew and the Psalms must also be kept in mind. Allusions are made to many other of the Books in the Scriptural library.

This concept holds true throughout the Scripture. One portion will expand on another and must be considered in light of other passages which give further illumination to the point. God’s purpose was not to give us a necessarily easily understood Book. His purpose was to give us a complete, as far as we need to know, revelation of Himself and His Work in His creation.

This is why Christianity is not a religion for the weak minded and lazy. All, of course, can benefit from the Divine Record. But, all must be prepared to use the best of their God given skills as they look at The Book. The Holy Spirit of God, of course, stands with us to illumine and explain that which we need to know. But, it is our duty to read the Scripture with an eye to understanding all we are able to learn about God.

God’s Word, quite simply, is so simple that even the least of humanity can find the message of salvation and communion with God. God’s Word is also so deep that even the most learned minds can spend their entire life time’s plumbing the depths of wisdom and knowledge and never find all that God has prepared for those that love Him. I might be able to teach a college level course for four, or five, or more years and not be tempted to repeat myself. Only the Scripture can find the wisdom of the wisest men of the past millennia and still be able to provide new delights and nuggets of truth to those that seek a communion with The Eternal.

The writers of Scripture were many and varied in their outlooks and passions of life. There were mystics who sought to look out the mysteries of life. There were kings and high government officials who were looking at absolute truth from which to administer God’s ways to God’s people. There were farmers and fishermen who understood the concept of sowing and reaping, and of casting and drawing. Some were even religious "professionals" who would spend their life looking for the face of the Divine.

Most of these people had no contact with the others. They may have known that the others existed but they had not met to compare notes. Yet, even with centuries, sometimes, between the various classes of penmen, they produced a unified whole. There were many, and disparate, persons who put pen and ink to velum and paper; yet they produced a seamless narrative with intricate interconnectaveness. Many people with many different life styles and interests combined to produce One Book as they were moved upon by the Breath of God.

These, even the mystical among them, were practical people. They were not writing to produce a "good story," or a "moving narrative." They were not simply writing down the yearnings of the ancients as they sought to understand their place in this vast word. They were men who were energized to their task by the inspiration of God. The sought only to convey His Message to humanity.

The New Life Study Testament makes the point that there were over forty people, writing for over 1500 years, who worked as a single unit in producing God’s Book. Over a long period of time, in many different places, God choose many men, of many different types - most who never met any of the others - to, humanly speaking, write His Bible. "God used me as men, not as machines. The writings that were written down all agree with each other and show that they came from the same Person. That Person was God."

I’m going to forewarn you, our next session will be significantly longer. In our session this week we have looked, in a very surface manner, at the fact of the human instrument in the writing of the Scripture. In our next session we will look at the evidence that the Ultimate Author of Scripture is God.

We will examine some of the evidences that God is, indeed, the True Author of Scripture. Again, this will be a somewhat "surface" examination. This is to lay a groundwork for future sessions as we examine the fact of the inspiration of the Holy Scripture.

30 October 2007

HISTORICAL (Continued)

When we speak of the Scripture as being inspired, we are speaking of a Book with a supernatural origin. As a corollary thought, extrapolated from the fact that the Scripture is of supernatural origin, we must consider that the Book is not simply an ordinary Book. The Scripture cannot be critiqued as would be another, simply humanly written, Book.

This, the idea that the Scripture should be looked at from a critical viewpoint as simply another book from antiquity, is a premise to which I was introduced during my early years at a "Bible College." A professor in one of my early classes made the point that we must treat the Scripture, from a standpoint of criticism and study of transmission, as we would any other book.

For several years thereafter I accepted this assessment.

I was wrong!

This was, however, apparently the prevailing view at this "Bible College." I watch over the years as this school, actually founded at a "Bible Institute" first the word "Bible" from their name. Then they dropped the name of their denominational affiliation. Finally, they seemed to drop all pretense of being a school founded for the sole purpose of training people for the ministry. They still have some "Bible," and "Ministry," in their outreach but this seems more of a sidelight. They are no longer the school I first attended. Nor, it seems, is that their intention.

Why do I bring this up? It is because when we first begin to treat the Scripture as simply another book, rather than The Book, we begin a slide from a close adherence to the things of God as we deem merely interesting what He has deemed important. Thereby do we grieve the Holy Spirit (Ephesians 4:30).

The Bible is God’s Message to humanity. The Bible is that which reveals the nature of The Most High to the creature of His special creation. The Bible is the only Roadmap from eternity which tells mankind how to return to the Creator from which he has strayed in sin. The Bible is the only Book which tells man of the bondage in which he labors under sin, or how to escape from that bondage. The Bible is God’s Eternal Spiritual Word to man who is under the illusion of time and physicality. The Bible, simply put, is God’s Word; we need to accept this as fact for fact, it is!

The question might be asked as to why we should accept this position. Weiss (Our Guide the Bible) gives us five simple reasons to accept that the Bible is not only the Word of God, the Bible is also the Word from God. Of the Bible, Weiss says:

"It [the Bible] claims to be the Word of God."

"...The Christian church historically has claimed it as the Word of God..."

"...It is different from all other books..."

"...It is the world’s number one seller..."

"...It is altogether likely that such a revelation from God should be expected."

I’d like to briefly comment on each of these ideas. First, "It [The Bible] claims to be the Word of God." We would have no reason to expect any book, the Bible included, as being a message from God if it did not make the claim to be such a message.

Over and over in the Old Testament Scriptures the phrase, "The Word of the Lord came unto me saying...," or some such phrase, is cited by the human writer.

As to the New Testament, we see instance after instance where the human instrument makes an appeal to the Old Testament Scripture. One cannot even begin to understand the imagery of the Revelation unless he first consults the Old Testament books. The prophecies of the Old Testament are used to confirm the Messiahship of Jesus.

Of the New Testament, Peter speaks of the writings of Paul. "And account that the longsuffering of our Lord is salvation; even as our beloved brother Paul also according to the wisdom given unto him hath written unto you; As also in all his epistles, speaking in them of these things; in which are some things hard to be understood, which they that are unlearned and unstable wrest, as they do also the other scriptures, unto their own destruction." (II Peter 3:15 - 16)

We will spend more time on both of the Testaments at a later time; however, it is interesting to note that Peter, led by the Spirit, was able to consider that the writings of Paul were on the level of Scripture.

Second, "...The Christian church historically has claimed it [The Scripture] as the Word of God..."

Unlike we are often told no church council ever established a canon of Scripture by fiat. Those councils simply codified that into which the Spirit had led the churches, and the Christians of those churches, to accept as the Words of God.

Third, "...It [The Scripture] is different from all other books..."

No other book has such a volume of attestation from antiquity. While there might be a handful of manuscripts from other ancient books, the Bible can claim over five thousand partial and complete copies from antiquity - plus the great multitude of writings from the early "Church Fathers" give evidence to the preservation of this Book.

The Bible speaks on a multitude of subjects in a completely reasonable manner. Even the miraculous, such as the great flood of Noah, is reported in a much more restrained manner than are the other "flood traditions" from other cultures.

The Bible tells the faults of those who are some of the main characters of It’s narrative. Jonah, for example, is never completely convinced that God had chosen the correct path. Yet, we see that ministry of Jonah yield eternal results simply because he did, finally, accept the Words of God as his mission despite his own misgivings about them.

Fourth, "...It [The Scripture] is the world’s number one seller..."

I will admit that I considered leaving this one out. After all, the fact that a book is a "best seller" does not equate with the fact that the book would be of God. I could bring up any number of books which have been best sellers. Why would the Bible be any different from any of them in its place on a best seller list.

I think the reason has to do with the longevity of the place on the best seller list. Several years ago the radio personality Rush Limbaugh had a book reach the top of the best seller lists. The book, even though it held its position for some time, was soon off that list. Today one finds that same book at back yard sales for five cents a copy. The fact is that Mr. Limbaugh’s fans quickly bought his book to find what they wanted to hear. Some of his critics bought the book to find passages to point out errors of his thinking.

But, in the long term there is no real passion for the writings of Mr. Limbaugh. He fills a need that some have; but, the hole is quickly filled in. This is not so with the Scripture. The Scripture fills a hole in the psyche of humanity. We were created to be a worshiping being. We have a longing for a "God consciousness" within our being. Even the critics will find things with which they might disagree, or even hate, but they find the old Book fascinating.

From what other book could one teach from a ten page research (approximating the size of the project) paper twice on Sunday and again on Wednesday night? Then they continue this same schedule for forty years, or more! Meanwhile the people who are hearing all of this are subscribing to magazine and book club, they are watching television and radio program, they are spending time in their own studies, all with reference to this same Book. And the saturation point is never reached!

The great popularity of the Book attests to the fact that it is of God.

Fifth, "...It is altogether likely that such a revelation from God should be expected."

When we consider that God is the Creator of humanity, it stands to reason that He would wish to communicate, for their own good, with that same humanity. God did not create us for destruction. He created us to have communion with Him. It is only logical to assume that, this being the case, He would furnish us a "road map" of discourse and how to find Him.

It would be necessary that this discourse be precise as He would be speaking of things which were beyond the capability of time centric humanity to understand. This presupposes a written record. This record, in order to be as precise as needful, would have to be Authored by Someone Who understands both time and eternity, both the spiritual and the physical realities. This "Someone" could only be God, Himself.

We know the Bible is inspired because we know, from the Bible’s own pages to be sure, that God is Love. He would not leave His created beings without a map back to His presence.

We will continue this same theme in our next session.

Bible Questions Ministries