Chapter 2, Section 1: The Doctrine of Inspiration
NOTE: Keep in mind that in all my writings, unless otherwise noted, all Bible quotations are from the King James Version.
Let us now explore the subject of the inspiration of the Bible. I should clarify at the outset that I am not talking about positions taken by people as to whether or not the Bible is true. I am talking about the positions that are taken among those who claim to believe in the inspiration of the Bible.
Among these positions—and these will not necessarily be in any order or priority—but we find the position that King James Bible is God’s infallible and inerrant word. By that, they mean that this English language version is God’s Word, which has been kept and preserved 100 percent intact from the time of the original manuscripts right down through history to the present day, and that it is without error in the English language.
This sounds like a preposterous position. I certainly believed it was preposterous when I first began my in-depth study many years ago. However, I will tell you now that I do not find it nearly so preposterous as when I first heard it.
Remember, “He that answereth a matter before he heareth it, it is folly and shame unto him.” (Proverbs 18:13) That might be a motto we all should consider adopting. I believe this Proverb defines Christian open-mindedness.
Those very few Christians who take this position have some very strong arguments for it, and it did become for me one of the most difficult of all areas in this study. That is one position. People that say the King James Version (KJV) is God’s inspired, infallible, and inerrant Word.
Then there is the position that the New International Version (NIV) is God’s inspired, infallible, and inerrant Word in English. Then there is the position that the New American Standard Bible (NASB, 1995 revision) is God’s inspired, infallible, and inerrant Word in English. And the position that the New King James (NKJ) is God’s inspired, infallible, and inerrant Word in English...
Actually, I am being a bit facetious there because I have not found anyone who has seriously proposed that any of those other versions are inspired, infallible, and inerrant in the English language. This claim is only true of the King James Version, and I find that a curious fact.
It is easy to say that those who believe that the KJV is inspired in the English language are generally uneducated old fundamentalists that are so ignorant and gullible that they believe such a preposterous claim. Jokes even circulate, and I have even said it myself about that position.
You have probably heard it, “Well, those folks that believe that, they believe every word, from cover to cover, including the covers.” Or, the other one that has circulated most recently, “Well, the King James has to be the inerrant Word of God. After all it is version that Jesus and the Apostles used.”
But again, I ask you to withhold judgment.
So what position do other Christians take who believe in the inspiration of the Bible? I have found basically only two other positions. First is the position that is summarized by a document called the Ligonier’s Statement, which follows. I will emphasize certain phrases (in bold text) as important in what we are studying:
QUOTE: We believe the Holy Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments to be the inspired and inerrant Word of God. We hold the Bible, as originally given through human agents of revelation, to be infallible, and see this as a crucial article of faith with implications for the entire life and practice of all Christian people.
With the great fathers of Christian history, we declare our confidence in the total trustworthiness of the Scriptures, urging that any view, which imputes to them a lesser degree inerrancy than total, is in conflict with the Bible’s self-testimony in general and with the teaching of Jesus Christ in particular. Out of obedience to the Lord of the Church, we submit ourselves unreservedly to His authoritative view of Holy Writ. END QUOTE
The other position comes from a document, which is of a very important historic significance, the Westminster Confession. It is a lengthy document, and, of course, had its origin in the Protestant Reformation. I am going to use only those excerpts that are pertinent to our subject matter. Again, I will emphasize certain phrases (in bold and / or italic text):
QUOTE: Afterwards it pleased God to put this entire revelation into writing so that the truth might be better preserved and transmitted and that the church might be more securely established and comforted.
Since God no longer reveals Himself to His people in those earlier ways, Holy Scripture is absolutely essential. We are completely persuaded and assured of the infallible truth and divine authority of the Bible, only by the inward working of the Holy Spirit who testifies by and with the Word in our hearts.
The whole purpose of God about everything pertaining to His own glory and to man’s salvation, faith, and life is either explicitly stated in the Bible or may be deduced as inevitably and logically following from it. Nothing is at any time to be added to the Bible, either from new revelations of the Spirit or from traditions of men.
Nevertheless, we do recognize that the inward illumination of the Spirit of God is necessary for a saving understanding of the things, which are revealed in the Word. The Old Testament in Hebrew and the New Testament in Greek were directly inspired by God and have been kept uncontaminated throughout time by His special care and providence. They are, therefore, authentic and are to be the church’s ultimate source of appeal in every religious controversy. END QUOTE
Let us analyze those two or three positions that I have covered so far. Those holding a view with historic Protestantism, as represented by the Westminster Confession, believe that even though we no longer have the inspired original manuscripts that Moses (and others) actually wrote, God preserved His Word 100 percent intact in the manuscript copies of copies of copies, which were passed down and that these original manuscripts underlie our English Bibles today.
Those holding the view expressed in the Ligonier’s Statement believe that the original manuscripts were inspired and inerrant. Period. We would have to deduce by their omission and failure to address the issue any further, that they apparently believed either one of two things:
1) The Word of God once existed, but is gone now. God did not preserve His Word. Or,
2) Perhaps they believe the same as those who penned the Westminster Confession, that even though we no longer have the original manuscripts, the words on them were preserved faithfully and carried down through history to our day.
Then there are those, of course, who hold that the English version of the Bible, only in the King James Version, is how God preserved His Word 100 percent intact, infallible, and inerrant to this day. Now those are the three positions, but I am open to those who have seen any other of those people who believe in the inspiration of the Bible.
Let us go back to the Westminster Confession and the Ligonier’s Statement. I think we can combine them because they are basically the same. Here is why: They both hold that the original manuscripts were inerrant, but the Ligonier’s Statement stops there.
The Westminster Confession goes on to state that they believe God preserved His Word and kept it uncontaminated throughout time. The problem with both of those is that they do not state in which manuscripts or in which versions or in which languages God has preserved His Word down to today. Where is the Word of God today?
The way I see it, there are only two positions: Either the KJV is God’s Word, in English, and it is 100 percent accurate in the English language, or God’s Word was preserved in copies of the Greek and Hebrew manuscripts and is available to us today.
There is a lot more to be said on that, which we will get into later on. At this point, we are really just skimming across the surface at this early point in our studies.
How do we know that the Bible is inspired? There are a number of ways. One is its amazing unity and uniqueness. Did you know, for example, there were over 40 writers (some say over 40, but for simplicity sake, we shall use the number 40) who had a part in writing the Scriptures, and that these 40 writers were spread over a period of over 1500 years?
That in itself is unique. It is also a characteristic of its unity because it tells one consistent story from Genesis to Revelation. Those 40 authors included high government bureaucrats, like Daniel, and peasants, priests and prophets, fishermen and farmers, and Pharisees, military officers, and kings.
Each writer recorded his part of the Bible in his own distinct style and consistent with his human personality. There is even a pagan king who wrote a small portion of the Bible. Can you guess who? (We will reveal that later.) Yet the divine imprint and authorship is evident throughout.
The Bible claims to tell of the creation of the world, and from that distant past, it extends panoramically all the way to the eternal future, where God will be all in all. (1 Corinthians 15:28) What other book has that characteristic uniqueness to speak of that kind of cosmology?
Someone might say, “The Urantia Book, have you ever read it, James?” No, frankly I have not. I had a copy for decades; I began to read it, but I could not get through it. I eventually threw it in the trash. But then when a friend passed away and I inherited his library, therein was his copy—which we both had agreed was trash-worthy. So his copy, which I kept for just this purpose, is © 1990, tenth printing. If you do not know what it is, do not worry about it.
It deals with cosmology. It is sometimes called The Fifth Epochal Revelation. More recent editions have this subtitle: Discovering the Mysteries of God, the Universe, World History, Jesus, and Ourselves. It purports to give us the real story of the life, words, and meanings of Jesus’ life. Uh-huh. Right. Does that not sound like it is adding to or replacing the Bible? Yes, exactly.
It is over 2,000 pages and claims to give us the true origin of the universe, and much more. It was first published in the mid-20th century and was the result of what is now called “channeling.” Channeling is the modern (New Age) term for what the Bible calls necromancy, which is attempting to contact spirits of the dead.
Of course, the dead are dead, and what the necromancers are actually contacting are evil spirits, demons, posing as the spirit of dead Uncle Bill or some other of your relatives. All that is to say, don’t waste your time or money on that garbage. And in any case, The Urantia Book does not hold a candle to the Bible in terms of unity and uniqueness, or in any other way. After all, God Himself tells us that His Word is the candle…
Psalm 119:105 Thy word is a lamp unto my feet, and a light unto my path.
Throughout the 66 books of the Protestant Bible it tells one continuous story, that of God’s plan for the salvation of man, from his fall in the Garden of Eden to his resurrection and restoration in the end of the age, and on into everlasting life with our Creator.
James Martin Gray, (1851–1935), who was a pastor in the Reformed Episcopal Church, was also a Bible scholar and the president of Moody Bible Institute, 1904-34, said this: “The more we think upon it, the more we must be convinced that men, unaided by the Spirit of God, could neither have conceived nor put together nor preserved in its integrity, that precious deposit known as the sacred oracles.”
The Bible is also unique in its immortality. All other books eventually die or fade away. The few that survive from antiquity have such a paltry influence as compared with the Bible that they hardly merit mentioning.
Someone might say, “Well, how about the Epic of Gilgamesh?” The Epic of Gilgamesh is a story from antiquity, but I think one of the reasons that it has garnered what fame it does have, outside of archaeological circles and the Ancient Aliens-type TV shows, is that it tells a story very similar to the Genesis account of Noah and the flood. Most other books eventually die. The Bible is immortal.
Isaiah 40:8 The grass withereth, the flower fadeth: but the word of our God shall stand for ever.
Another way we know the Bible is inspired is by fulfilled prophecy. This is what the Bible itself tells us is proof of its inspiration. It prophesies that a Savior would come, and it gave numerous details. Some scholars have calculated that over three hundred prophecies deal with the Savior who was to come. Moreover, when Christ came, He fulfilled every one of them perfectly.
Someone figured out the probability of all these prophecies converging in one person and being fulfilled perfectly, and the odds were astronomical. The Bible prophesied that God’s people would be carried into captivity in Babylon for seventy years, and it was fulfilled precisely.
There are hundreds of prophecies that we could explore to show that the Bible is accurate. However, this is not about prophecy, it is about inspiration so we will leave it at that. Nevertheless, I will give you one specific example at this juncture.
Jeremiah 28: 15 Then said the prophet Jeremiah unto Hananiah the prophet, Hear now, Hananiah; Yahweh hath not sent thee; but thou makest this people to trust in a lie.
16 Therefore thus saith the LORD [Yahweh]; Behold, I will cast thee from off the face of the earth: this year thou shalt die, because thou hast taught rebellion against Yahweh.
17 So Hananiah the prophet died the same year in the seventh month.
Another way we know that the Bible is inspired is that miracles have attested to the integrity and veracity of the Bible. We can go back at least as far as Moses appearing in Pharaoh’s court where Moses cast down his rod and it miraculously turned into a serpent and then back again. This and other miracles prove that Yahweh’s Word was and is true. Or, we could talk about Elijah and the prophets of Baal in 1 Kings 18.
That was a contest of who was the one true God, Yahweh, or Baal. Also implied in that is “Whose words were true,” Yahweh’s or the prophets of Baal who were speaking on behalf of the non-existent Baal. Yahweh performed the miracle of the fire coming down from heaven to prove that His words were true.
By the way, Daniel chapter 4 are the words reproduced by Daniel, but which were actually written by King Nebuchadnezzar himself, so it is not wrong to say that this pagan king, who there was extolling the King of all creation, had actually wrote a portion of the Bible.
(To be continued.)
~END~