The Bible is not another book we leave to collect dust on the shelf. It is categorically distinct, a level above every other book written since it is the only one written by God. When we read the Bible, we hear directly from the Lord of the universe. We see His great work through history and His magnificent grace given in the gospel. The Bible is God’s Word to us.
For more theological content, visit theologicaltouchpoints.com.
To learn more about Sword & Trumpet Ministries, visit the Sword & Trumpet Website.
Find us on Facebook.
Contact us at podcast@theologicaltouchpoints.com.
Thanks for listening!
The Bible is not another book we leave to collect dust on the shelf. It is categorically distinct, a level above every other book written since it is the only one written by God. When we read the Bible, we hear directly from the Lord of the universe. We see His great work through history and His magnificent grace given in the gospel. The Bible is God’s Word to us.
For more theological content, visit theologicaltouchpoints.com.
To learn more about Sword & Trumpet Ministries, visit the Sword & Trumpet Website.
Find us on Facebook.
Contact us at podcast@theologicaltouchpoints.com.
Thanks for listening!
Welcome to the Theological Touchpoints podcast. I'm Julian. The focus for this episode is Foundations Theology for the Everyday Anabaptist. Welcome to another episode on Scripture. This is the third on the inspiration of Scripture.
Speaker 1:So far we've been introduced to three basic ideas on the method of inspiration. We've talked about mechanical inspiration, the illumination theory and then dynamical inspiration, and last time we talked about four views on how much inspiration applies to the biblical content. Those four views are partial inspiration, degree inspiration, concept inspiration and what we've called Barthian inspiration, given that name by a notable theologian, carl Barth. Partial inspiration teaches that only sections of Scripture are inspired, and this takes different forms, whether it's the preference of the Gospels over the Epistles or vice versa, the Old Testament over the New or the New over the Old, or maybe saying that the historical and scientific sections are not necessarily inspired or not necessarily fully reliable, but maybe that the spiritual sections of Scripture are inspired. But, as 2 Timothy 3.16 tells us, all Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and so we believe partial inspiration is not consistent with what the Bible represents about itself. Degree inspiration similarly puts certain portions of Scripture above others. So degree inspiration would say all Scripture is inspired, but there are certain sections that are maybe more inspired, more from God than others, but any portion that is less inspired is not truly inspired at all. When we say the Bible's inspired, what we're saying is it comes from God, it's been spoken by Him, it comes from His mouth, and so it either is from God or it is not from God. There's no middle ground of less inspired Scriptures. There are more or less relevant texts We talked about that last time, we'll talk about it a little bit again this time More or less relevant texts that impact us personally in different levels, but all of it is from God, all of it comes from God. Speaks with His authority, speaks with His wisdom, speaks with His perfection. All Scripture comes from God, and so it is incorrect to say that some sections are more inspired than others. That's to imply that there are some sections that are not fully from God, that are not truly from God. But again, second Timothy 3.16, all Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and note the all.
Speaker 1:The third idea concept inspiration separates inspiration of the ideas from the individual words And essentially this says God gave concepts, god gave ideas to the writers, left it up to them to choose the right words to express those concepts, and so that explains why you have maybe seemingly contrasting doctrines, contradicting doctrines between the apostles or between different Scriptures, because the apostles are expressing those concepts in their own words, but, as we talked about last time, it's difficult to separate the concept from the words themselves. So if God inspired the concepts, how can inspired concepts be communicated through uninspired words but still be reliable to lead us to God, to lead us into relationship with Him? And so we believe inspiration must extend to each word, not just the ideas but actually the words that were chosen if the final truth are to remain intact, one of the things we'll see as we look at second Timothy 3.16 and 17, a little later on in this podcast. Scripture is a word that means writing, or the writings, or that which is written. And the word in second Timothy 3.16 and the word used throughout the New Testament, primarily to speak of the Old Testament, is the word Grafe, which simply means writings, the writings the Scripture was referred to, or the Bible is referred to as the writings, and front and center in that is this idea that Scripture is that which is written, that which God intends us to communicate is contained in the words. The words themselves are the words God wants us to have. The words are that which contain the truth, and so, yes, god inspired the concepts, but God also works such that the words themselves are the writings that He intends, and so all Scripture comes from the mouth of God, all Scriptures spoken by Him, and even the words, the individual words, are the words God intended to use to communicate divine truth.
Speaker 1:A whole different discussion could be had on the preservation of the text. How do we know whether or not we have the original translation of the text? how is the truth of the text preserved through translation and so forth? That's not necessarily the focus of what we're talking about right now, though we'll probably get into that eventually as we continue to talk about Scripture on this podcast. The main thing before us is the words themselves the Hebrew, greek and Aramaic words that Scripture is inspired in. Those words are the words God intended to use, and so the meaning is connected to the words is inseparable from the words themselves.
Speaker 1:All of these other theories trying to either provide room for seeming contradictions between texts or maybe to give a more palatable, accessible definition of what, the interpretation of what the inspiration of Scripture is about, all of them, and so doing, take away from what the Bible says about itself, that all of it, every word, comes from God. The fourth idea and we're going to talk about a fifth one, looking at two pertinent texts, and this fifth idea we did not talk about previously but is what does the Bible say about itself? But the fourth idea that we would say is probably at least extra biblical, if not anti-biblical but at least extra biblical, is this idea, barthian inspiration. This emphasizes that Jesus is the living word, jesus is the word, jesus is God's communication to us, and with that I say absolutely Jesus is God in the flesh, god taking on our nature, experiencing life alongside of us, communicating God's love, communicating God's grace, communicating God's perfection, even God's justice, god's righteousness, all embodied in Christ.
Speaker 1:But where Barthian inspiration fails is it leaves the written word as an accessory in our relationship with Christ. Where Scriptures, it's helpful, it's a good idea, but it's not necessarily essential. Relationship with Christ is what's essential. We are led to God in and through Christ. The Bible might help us know him, but it's not a central part of our relationship with him. But again, like all these other theories, it doesn't fit with what Scripture says about itself and it moves away from a commitment to the words of Scripture, the exact meanings of those words, and it opens a door for Other doctrines, other ideas that are antithetical to what Christianity has always been about.
Speaker 1:A God Intends us to know certain things about himself. He's communicated those things very clearly in his word and he's used specific words in his word, in Scripture, to communicate that truth to us. So separating relationship with Christ from the written word is not something that's compatible with historical Christianity And it doesn't even make sense of, rationally, logically, the presuppositions we have of who Christ is, what we understand about God, all of that comes from Scripture. So what you end up with is sure we'll take these base ideas, these fundamental ideas Who God is, and extract them from Scripture and then attempt to set Scripture aside and say Christ can be known without it. It simply doesn't work.
Speaker 1:Christ is known in and through Scripture. Christ is the living word because he is the culmination of everything in the written word. The written word points to Christ. Roman says Christ is in the end of the law. That is, the law Leads us to Christ. It tells us about what he did. It tells us about God's expectation of righteousness, which Christ met for us. The law leads us to Christ and and so there's not a division, there's not a separation. Rather, through the written word, through Scripture, we come to the living word, into relationship with him. But we do not know Christ outside of the Bible. We know him through the Bible. And while this relationship with Christ must certainly send to all of life, not just what goes on between our ears and our brains, in what we know, this relationship with Christ does begin when we rightly understand the written word, the truth of the written word, so the living word, christ, is known in and through the written word.
Speaker 1:We need to make sure we're not dividing those things. We do need to make sure we're not committing the error of of some of the Jews who saw, who studied the scriptures, thinking that in them they had life and did not come to Christ. Well, christ is saying there is not disregard scripture. He's saying your interpretation is all wrong. You're trying to keep the law, you're trying to be good enough by keeping the moral law and the commands. You're not coming to me and find your salvation and me, but Christ is not setting aside, disregarding scripture.
Speaker 1:We see, after his resurrection, on the road to Emmaus, he's walking with two disciples and he's teaching them about himself through Scripture, and so relationship with Christ comes in and through the word of Christ, the written word on the Bible. So each of these views partial inspiration, degree inspiration, concept inspiration, barthian inspiration. They are compelling in their own way. They help us maybe find our way through some other logical difficulties or historical or scientific difficulties in the text, but none of them really agree with the Bible's own definition of inspiration. So the question remains and this is really the central question we want to answer in this podcast What does the Bible teach about inspiration?
Speaker 1:in Answering that, we want to look at two texts. The first is 2nd Timothy 3, 16 and 17, and then secondly in 2nd Peter, chapter 1, verse 21, and there are more verses there in 2nd Peter we could look at, but we're gonna really hone in on On verse 21 of chapter 1 there. But first of all 2nd Timothy 3, 16 and 17. We're returning here again and again And we're going to continue coming back to this text as we go forward. In later podcasts we're gonna talk about sufficiency of scripture and here in 2nd Timothy 3 We have where it says the word of God is profitable for doctrine and reproof, correction and instruction and righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, thoroughly equipped for every good work, and the sufficiency of scripture very clearly taught in this text. But what's of interest to us right now is what's at the very beginning.
Speaker 1:All scripture is given by inspiration Of God and we've talked about this text some already. We talked about it two episodes ago, the first episode in this series on the inspiration of scripture. All scripture is given by inspiration of God. The word inspiration means to breathe out or breathe into. 2nd Peter that we're gonna look at here in a bit speaks of men being Moved by the Holy Spirit, carried along by the Holy Spirit, so they're filled with the Holy Spirit's power for writing. So there's that breathing into that is communicated in this idea of inspiration. It's probably more accurate, based on the Greek, to say scripture is Breathed out by God. Inspiration carries more the idea of the writers being filled up. But the main idea here in 2nd Timothy is not so much the breathing into the writers as Scripture itself, the words of scripture being God Speaking. Scripture comes from the mouth of God. We've talked about that And I think that's the best definition of inspiration. We say the Bible is inspired. We say it comes from the mouth of God. When scripture speaks, god speaks, so scripture comes from God, from his mouth. scripture is spoken by God. But several words in this sentence are are helpful for us and thinking about this. First, i want to look at this word scripture.
Speaker 1:All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and the Greek word here, grafé, means of writing or writings, and its etymology is similar to the word that translates it in the English, and that is scripture. Grafé in its most basic form means any and all writing. It's just that which is written. From this we get autograph. That's self writing. Literally, it's the writing that I make, that is unique to myself. That is my name autograph, my writing. Grafé is the root word for the graph. We also have a graph of drawing something or laying something out in writing.
Speaker 1:But Grafé Was used so extensively to refer to the Old Testament writings that it became a shorthand Reference to the holy writings or to the Jewish scriptures. We now call the Old Testament. So good off. I just means writing, but they would have used this to speak of the writings. You know, bring me the writings, speaking of the writings as the ultimate, the writing that's above all other writings, that is more valuable, more precious, more helpful than all other writings. And so the holy writings, or just the writings, these are the Jewish scriptures that to them were precious, were holy, were special, that they valued because it taught them about God, revealed to them what God wanted and led them to him. So Grafé means writings, but I think all but one of the uses in the New Testament, grafé is speaking specifically of the Old Testament writings, which would be all of the writings from their standpoint in scripture, all of the writings that were the holy writings. When the apostles were writing They were looking back at the Old Testament, but they would have considered that to be the sum total of God's revelation to that point. And then, as the New Testament was written, it was added to that. But using Grafé to refer to the Old Testament is not to distinguish it from the New Testament, rather it's just shorthand for all of the writings, all of that which God has revealed to us in writing in the holy book, in the holy writings, in the Jewish scriptures.
Speaker 1:Scripture the English word scripture, like Grafé, originally meant writings of any kind. It literally means that which has been written. But it's religious use to speak of God's holy book. The writings of God superseded all of the usage. So now we use the word scripture exclusively in reference to the Bible, but again, in this notice the emphasis on the writing, on the words themselves, being that which is central in this term. And so we talk about bringing me A writing. Bring me that writing, bring me that book. When we say scripture, we're saying bring me the writing that is above all other writings, bring me the writing that is supreme, bring me the writing, the one that leads me to God, the one that tells me the truth. And we have the same kind of thing in the Bible. The word the Bible literally means the book. It is the book above any other book. It is categorically distinct because it is the only book written by God. So when the Apostle Paul is speaking here in 2 Timothy about scripture, he has this in view. He says all graffit, pos graffit, all of the writings of the Old Testament have this characteristic and they are given by inspiration of God. So when the New Testament writers used this word, they were referencing the entire known and accepted word of God.
Speaker 1:As we discussed earlier in the series of episodes on the canon of scripture, there were other writings in the New Testament period that were added to the holy writings, to the scriptures as God inspired them in the New Testament age, and so it's natural for us to extend this statement in 2 Timothy, the statement that all scriptures are given by inspiration of God, to include the New Testament as well. Peter speaks of Paul's writings and calls them scripture. There's also a case where the Apostle Paul references Luke's writings and calls them scripture, and so the Apostles understood what was going on here when they were writing scripture. And we could look at John, chapter 13, 14, 15, 16, where Jesus is giving final instructions to his disciples before he is crucified And he speaks to them of this revelation that is going to come by the work of the Holy Spirit. So the Apostles knew what they were doing, at least in part, when they were writing scripture, and these New Testament writings were added to the collection of holy writings and gained the title of scripture.
Speaker 1:So again, when Paul here speaks under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, about inspiration, and says all scriptures given by inspiration of God, this truth applies not only to the Old Testament writings but also to the New Testament writings, such that this text refers to the entire word of God, to both testaments Old and New Testament This characteristic is true. So the first thing we learned from 2 Timothy 3, 16 is that whatever inspiration is, it applies to all of the Bible. It says all scripture is given by inspiration of God. So whatever inspiration is, it applies to all of the Bible. All scripture has this characteristic. All of the Bible is equally inspired, is fully inspired. Each Psalm, each historical account, each prophecy, each gospel, each epistle is God breathed. And so there's a term theologians use, called plenary inspiration, that's used to convey this truth. The word plenary just means entire, total, complete. Plenary inspiration means all of the Bible, genesis to Revelation, all the 66 books, the entire canon, is inspired by God. All of it bears our attention, all of it is given for our benefit And ultimately, all of it speaks for God and from Him. And again, all of scripture is from the mouth of God. All Scripture is God breathed.
Speaker 1:So I want to clarify two things as we think about this together. First, remember that inspiration and relevance are not the same. The fact that some portions are more life-changing doesn't mean those portions are more inspired. When we're speaking of inspiration, we're specifically saying which portions come from God, or we're speaking of that attribute of Scripture, that is, that Scripture comes from the mouth of God. Scripture is not an ordinary book, it's not just a collection of human wisdom. It is in fact God speaking. And now we talked previously about different aspects of that, where some of that information came through oral accounts, some of it's through research, some of it's through tradition.
Speaker 1:But in all of those processes, and some of it is direct revelation, but in all of that God is at work such that the final writing can rightly be called the writing of God or it can rightly be considered to be from God himself. So all Scripture is inspired. All Scripture comes from God, speaks with his authority, speaks with his truth, is consistent with his character. That doesn't mean that every aspect of Scripture is equally relevant or equally impactful. The Gospel of John and the writings of Nahum will not impact us equally. That doesn't mean God was any less involved in Nahum's writings than he was in John's Religion. Just means that God directed the process to make sure all of what we now hold is exactly what he wanted it to be. And it does come from him, and so we understand all of Scripture as from him.
Speaker 1:It's given for our instruction, given for our learning, for our benefit. Certain texts present greater truths. Certain texts are more comforting, more helpful, more encouraging for us. There's differences in terms of relevance, but in terms of inspiration, all Scripture is equally inspired. It is written by God. Another distinction is we think about inspiration. Inspiration is not the same as truthfulness, and so we read the book of Job and some of Job's friends give faulty perspectives on God.
Speaker 1:Genesis records Satan's lies. The Gospels record a number of cases where the Jews distort Christ's person and ministry, and what's recorded about them is not true about Christ. Rather, it is a true and accurate account of what they said. It is therefore our learning and our instruction. So the fact that there are things recorded that are not themselves true the statements are true does not take away from the inspiration of Scripture. It is a true and accurate record of what was said. Inspiration means that the words are recorded accurately, but not necessarily that every word is true. And again, what I have in mind here is those things said by Job's friends where they're speaking about God and telling Job you know, you're experiencing this because you were unfaithful. God blesses those who are faithful And if you're suffering it's because you've been unfaithful. Kind of the prosperity gospel of the 20 and 21st century was present in Job as well. You know, if you do what God wants you to do, then you're going to have a good life. If you have a bad life, it's because you haven't been obedient to God. Some of Job's friends give untrue perspectives, make untrue statements about God. That doesn't mean the text is not inspired. Rather, it means. Inspiration in this instance means we have an accurate record, an accurate account of what they said, and then we have God's later commentary on what they said and where he corrects some of their errant ideas in some of the closing chapters of Job. That's similarly. Genesis records Satan's lives. It is an accurate account of his deception.
Speaker 1:There are many Old Testament accounts that record behaviors that are sinful, that record events that happen that maybe we don't understand or we're not sure how things could work out the way they did. Just strange things that happened in those cases. It's not necessarily providing a framework for us to follow, as much as it is providing an accurate record of what happened, and from it we learn something about God and the way God works in the world, and so there's benefit for us in studying it, understanding it. Just because the Bible records something in Israel I did, doesn't mean it's condoning his behavior. It simply tells us exactly what happened. So the fact that the kings many of the kings were polygamous does not mean that the Bible teaches polygamy is okay or is a good thing. It was tolerated and it is what happened.
Speaker 1:But as we look back in Deuteronomy, god was very clear that kings are not to multiply wives for themselves. And so if we have that framework, we come into the record of the kings in Kings and First and Second Chronicles and we understand from that that they are sinning in what they're doing. It's not condoning his behavior in multiplying wives and multiplying horses, relying on other nations. If the Bible just sins the kings committed, it is simply telling us this is what happened, and the Bible is a true and accurate account of what is said and done. It is true and it comes with God's divine stamp, god's verification. What is said here is an accurate and true account of what actually happened. And then we also see God's work in that and what God has done in redeeming or in judging in those kinds of situations, and we learn something about God from that.
Speaker 1:In all matters, scripture speaks that which God intends us to know, and so it's all there for our learning, it's all there for our instruction And we must eagerly accept all the Bible as truth unless the context clearly indicates otherwise. So we depend on Scripture to lead us to the truth, to lead us to God as a reliable witness to the truth. But we need to recognize along the way there are passages especially to isolate them, that seem to say things that are inconsistent or contradictory. But some of the time at least, the accurate record of what was said does not necessarily mean that what is said is gospel truth. So again, thinking about Job, i've heard people isolate things from Job that sound really good, but if you go look at the context, they're actually speaking against God and, rightly interpreted, we see those statements as actually being antithetical to truth about God. It needs to be understood that way. We see man trying to figure out God without divine revelation and then God coming and giving his perspective and bringing divine clarity in the end of Job.
Speaker 1:Returning again to 2 Timothy, the third word that deserves our attention we've already given it some attention is the anus da. So I think I've talked previously about this, but the translation that we have in the New King James all scripture is given by inspiration of God is only three words in the Greek pas grafe, the anus, das Pas is all grafe writing. The anus das God breathed. Now, literal translation is God breathed. It's a compound word the anus das. Theotheology Theos is used to refer to God in the New Testament. Theos is what is typically translated God new stas speaking pneumonia or pneumatic having to do with air or breath. God breathed. This is really the core of the doctrine of inspiration. God breathed out scripture, god spoke scripture. So, yes, there are writers involved, there are records of men, there's the history and the research and the perspectives of humans, but ultimately, scripture is not man's work. Scripture is from God. He exhaled it, he wrote it.
Speaker 1:It is correct to say that scripture, the writings we called the Bible, was spoken by God Or, to use the definition we've used more than once, it is from the mouth of God. So the Bible is not another book to leave to collect dust on the shelf, though many have done that. It is categorically distinct. It is a level above every other book written, since it is the only one written by God. When we read the Bible, we hear directly from the Lord of the universe. We see His great work through history and His magnificent grace given in the Gospel. The Bible is God's word to us.
Speaker 1:So we looked at 2 Timothy 3, 16, really the beginning of verse 16, and that really emphasizes God's work in breathing out Scripture, speaking Scripture, speaking the truth. And if we only had that passage we might be led to think the Bible was simply appended by God. What we talked about previously mechanical dictation Well, all Scripture comes from the mouth of God, spoken by God, and so it's just God writing things down. But when we look at the actual composition of Scripture, that doesn't quite make sense. And so there's more going on here, as we've talked about. Ultimately, it's what God wants communicated to us. It comes with God's stamp of approval. God's at work in the entire process, in preserving the truth, even through these means of history and research and oral accounts and all of that. God is at work to make sure the truth is preserved, the truth is accurately recorded for our benefit.
Speaker 1:2 Peter 1, verse 21, kind of gives us a little bit of a different angle on this, still very much with the emphasis of God being at work, but it also brings in the involvement, the participation of the individual human writers. The verse reads Prophecy never came by the will of man. But holy men of God spoke as they were moved by the Holy Spirit. This in the broader context of Revelation of Scripture, scripture given to us, and how did that happen? And the prophecy that is, speaking of the truth of Scripture, all of Scripture never came by the will of man. It's not a product of man finding truth about God, discovering it, reasoning out truth, but rather God moved these men by the Holy Spirit to speak. But in this text we do have the emphasis holy men of God spoke Specific people mentioned here or people specifically mentioned here. Holy men of God spoke They themselves, with their personalities, their experiences, their perspectives. They spoke the truth. So Scripture bears some marks of man's participation.
Speaker 1:As we read different of the biblical books, we get different experiences, different perspectives. They speak based on their education. Luke, being highly educated and being a physician, looks at things very differently than some of the other writers. Even the difference between Matthew being a Jew writing to Jews and Luke being a Greek writing to Greeks Changes how they interpret things, changes how they emphasize things, changes how they describe what happens. Mark consolidates events because his gospel is very concise, very to the point, moves through the events very rapidly, and so there's consolidation of events that are dealt with in more detail in some of the other gospels.
Speaker 1:So there are differences between the gospels, not necessarily contradictions, just differences based on different personalities, different perspectives, different experiences, different ways of expressing similar truths, and so that shapes what they said, what they emphasize and how they said it. So they spoke as whole beings. they wrote as whole beings, enabled, moved by the Holy Spirit, protected from error, led in the truth, at times God preserving the truth, at times God revealing new truth to them. That they wrote and we have it recorded for our learning, for our benefit. So these writers were not passive pen men. They spoke as persons, with their own personalities, their own perspectives. Even in this they spoke by the power of God, god being at work in and through them.
Speaker 1:And again, 2 Peter says they were moved by the Holy Spirit. This word moved by the Holy Spirit, or some translations say carried along by the Holy Spirit, is the same verb used in Acts 27, verse 15, when Paul is on a ship headed to Rome and they were wrecked on the island of Malta. Before they were wrecked, they ran into a fierce storm And the storm drove. The ship carried the ship along, so they finally had to let the wind. The sailors had to let the wind take the ship wherever it blew, and so the sailors were active in doing everything they could on deck to keep the ship afloat and headed the right direction. Ultimately, the force guiding them the entire way was God working through the weather. They were carried along by the wind, and God directed and moved in the composition of scripture, god directed and moved the human writers. He used to produce the books of the Bible. Now, though, the wind moved the ship along.
Speaker 1:In Acts, the sailors were not asleep and inactive, and similarly, the Holy Spirit is the guiding force. He's working in and through the writers and directs them and instructs them and leads them and equips them. But nevertheless, each writer played his own part in writing scripture. The holy men of God spoke, but God is at work in and through it all. The product is trustworthy. The product is what God intends us to know. The product is God's truth. So much so, again, it can be said scripture is from the mouth of God, scripture is God breathed. And so we have this the divine aspect and the human aspect.
Speaker 1:Peter lays these side by side here, in verse 21. He says men spoke. Holy men of God spoke, but the Holy Spirit moved. We have this cooperation God's power, god's enablement, god's equipping, god's directing, god's revelation. But the men speaking out of their own understanding, their own experience, speaking and writing, and yet God, even in that, preserving them from error and directing them in the truth, so that the Bible, as we have it, is reliable to teach us the truth. So when the Bible says something, we know that's the truth, because God cannot lie.
Speaker 1:The Bible speaks for God, from God, and so it is reliable, it is true And it bears God's attributes. It speaks with his authority, speaks with his perfection, speaks with his truth, speaks with his righteousness and speaks with his omniscience. All of that is true of scripture. So the Bible is trustworthy because it's from God, it's authoritative because it's from God. But, as we've talked about previously, it's more than just God dictating the truth. It was composed in real-life time and space and history written by men. It is relatable because it's written by men, speaks from human perspective, with human experience, human emotions. We think of the Psalms. But all of that, god is working, god is preserving, god is protecting, god is bringing and scripture together for our benefit. That's another discussion there in 2 Timothy.
Speaker 1:But the purpose of all of this, the purpose of God's revelation, is that we be who he intends us to be, that we be complete, that we be thoroughly equipped for every good work. And even as we look at the doctrine, correction, reproof, instruction and righteousness those components in the passage it leads us in the truth. It tells us how to live. Doctrine, instruction and righteousness, reproof having to do with turning us away from what's wrong. A correction having to do with leading us toward what is right. And so scripture, given by God for a purpose that we be who he wants us to be, that we be led into a relationship with him. We find salvation in the gospel, that we be equipped for Christian living. So God's purpose there in inspiration is not that it just be a book that sits on the shelf, but it is to be a book that transforms our lives, as he ministers the truth of the gospel to our hearts through the Holy Spirit.
Speaker 1:The Bible is the Word of God. Everything is exactly as he intended it to be, all that is from him. We see in it the various textures of humanity, but we also see God's divine thread woven throughout Our humble acceptance of the entire Bible as God's Word is important, it has everything to do with who's in charge, who gets to define the truth and who is the ultimate authority. So the question of the inspiration of Scripture is directly connected to the authority of Scripture, the fact that Scripture gets to define reality, gets to define the truth, define the gospel, define doctrine, define what biblical obedience looks like, define what discipleship looks like, define how we are to live as Christians, how the church is to be composed. All of that is because it comes from God And so it speaks with God's authority. And God as Creator, god as Sustainer, god as the one who owns all, gets to tell us what is and what is not and define reality for us. And so God is the authority. We accept His Word If we allow any compromise to the integrity of Scripture. Some of these other explanations of the inspiration of Scripture who becomes the authority?
Speaker 1:Several of the other views we looked at, especially partial inspiration and Barthian inspiration, question whether or not all Scripture is inspired and leave the reader to discern what does and does not qualify as Scripture. But when that happens, god and His Word are no longer viewed as being the ultimate authority, rather the reader, rather the human. The person becomes the ultimate authority. They get to pick and choose from Scripture what is true and what is not true. So it puts the reader above the Bible rather than being subject to it, and we get to determine if this is our view of the inspiration of Scripture. We determine what is and is not inspired. Anything we don't like, anything we don't understand, anything we don't want to accept can be casually set aside. And in that case, who's acting as God? We choose where God is right and where He is wrong. We choose what is true and what's a lie, and so there's a crucial switch when the plenary inspiration of Scripture is compromised, we become the authority and not God in His Word.
Speaker 1:So one of the reasons why this doctrine is important is it adds everything to do with who gets to define reality, who gets to define the truth?
Speaker 1:who do we look to to define reality? do we look to ourselves? do we use God's Word to help us understand reality, or do we allow God's Word to define reality and submit ourselves to that? Orthodox inspiration holds that God knows what He's talking about, even when it doesn't fit with what we think or understand. It believes that, whether or not it seems to make sense, the Bible is always right, whether we're dealing with science or history or anything else. The biblical view of inspiration says that since Scripture is from God and God does not, it cannot lie. The Bible will always be right.
Speaker 1:The biblical view of inspiration says Scripture comes from God and it speaks for God. It speaks with His authority. So it leaves God in His Word and authority and we choose to bow to Him, submit ourselves to His Word, willingly receive the truth, willingly bow to the truth, accept the truth and seek to live according to it. Thank you for joining us for this episode of Theological Touchpoints Podcast. This podcast is a production of Sword and Trumpet Ministries. For more information, visit wwwswordandtrumpetorg. If you have thoughts or questions, you can contact us at wwwpodcastatheologicaltouchpointscom. Now may the God of Peace Himself sanctify you completely and may your whole spirit, soul and body be preserved, blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. He who calls you is faithful, who also will do it.