The Bible: Inspired And Inerrant

THE HOLY BIBLE
Inspired And Inerrant

“In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth” (Gen. 1:1 KJV ). The very first verse of the Bible establishes the truth of inspiration. As no one but God was present to witness the initial creation, then only God Himself could reveal the truth of it to men. Also, whereas the evidence of a Creator is obvious to any honest observer, only God could reveal the sequence of creation prior to the appearing of Adam on the sixth day. It is little wonder, therefore, that from Exodus to Deuteronomy, words like “the Lord spake unto Moses” appear with auspicious regularity.

Again we say that the Bible reader is challenged with the truth of inspiration on the first page. This also means that the Scriptures are truly the Word of God as every word has passed through the mouth of God. Likewise, as God cannot lie, we must concede that the Word of God is infallibly truthful and consistently inerrant to the very last jot and tittle. However, to ensure the latter, we must also recognize that God preserved infallible accuracy by controlling the minds and hands of its human authors.

Verbal Inspiration
This principle is commonly termed “verbal inspiration,” meaning that God did not merely convey thoughts but presented them with His own words. This process excludes human contamination, for “every word of God is pure” (Prov. 30:5), and “the words of the Lord are pure words: as silver tried in a furnace of earth, purified seven times” (Ps. 12:6). This means that every word went through the infinite process of divine scrutiny “seven times” before the pen touched the page.

However, we must be careful to distinguish between the human authors and the scribes who later copied their revelations. While the latter were not inspired, their human errors have been offset by the fact that all the “words” of God have been preserved. This means that even if any one manuscript does not contain all of the exact original, all the extant authorities together contain every word of the original text. And by divine providence, the variations involve non-doctrinal shades of meaning. In other words, these manuscript glosses have not compromised any truth necessary for salvation. More to the point, the corruptions of Holy Writ have arisen from willful mis-translations where the original meaning has been distorted to accommodate some cherished idea or intractable heresy.

All-Sufficiency Of The Bible
Verbal inspiration is established from texts such as, “all Scripture is given by inspiration of God” (2 Tim. 3:16), and “prophecy came not in old time by the will of man: but holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost” (2 Pet. 1:21). Let’s not overlook the all-sufficiency of the Bible, for Paul adds “that the man of God may be perfect, thoroughly furnished unto all good works” (2 Tim. 3:17). When Paul was preaching salvation to the Jews, the apostle claimed that he was saying “none other things than those which the prophets and Moses did say should come” (Acts 26:22). About three thousand men were saved the day of Pentecost through believing the promise of the prophet Joel, as later the Ethiopian was saved through believing what Isaiah 53 said about the Lamb of God.

God-Breathed
By way of definition, 2 Timothy 3:16 means what it says: “All Scripture” is God-breathed. We are reminded of the Lord’s appearing to the disciples when “he breathed on them” (Jn. 20:22). And so Jesus, during His temptation, could speak “of every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God” (Mt. 4:4). This means, of course, that the Word of God is breathed out (expired) rather than breathed in (inspired), but this technicality does not invalidate the living inerrancy of God’s utterances. There is also the fact that God’s Word lives and gives life, whereas man’s breath is death. The word of the Lord is oxygen to the soul and imparts eternal life to those who receive it as from the living God.

Secular Citations
That which comes from the mouth of God is the Word of God. Likewise, only that which comes from the mouth of God has the seal of truth upon it. This means that before Paul quoted from a pagan poet on Mars Hill saying, “For we are also his offspring” (Acts 17:28), this saying was only an interesting observation. But having received inspired endorsement, it is now a spiritual reality. This also means that the Bible should not be rejected when it judiciously cites secular literature. God is willing to give honor when due even to unbelievers, such as the endorsed proverb which says that “the things which are seen are temporal; but the things which are not seen are eternal” (2 Cor. 4:18). And, of course, the word of God is infallibly accurate even when recording lies such as when the covetous Gehazi told the prophet Elisha, “Thy servant went no whither” (2 Ki. 5:25).

Human Pens In The Divine Hand
To maintain inerrancy, men became as pens in the hand of God. However, God did not destroy the personalities of His writers, but wrote in their style as He also deployed their several gifts. A simple analogy: a human writer using a fine-point pen will produce fine characters. The writer’s handwriting will identify the writer, but likewise the character of the pen will be equally unmistakable. Therefore John’s fine eye for detail shines through the gospel attributed to him. He is precise about times, distances, names and numbers. His word-for-word accounts of the Lord’s pre-Calvary ministry confirm the “never man spake like this man” principle (Jn. 7:46). Similarly, Paul’s superior reasoning will astonish his readers as he argues the case by stating what the Scripture says, and then reveals the reason why it says it. But whether it be John or Paul, the invisible Author is identified by the handwriting of the eternal Spirit.

The Canon Of Scripture And The Power To Save
The superiority of the Word of God has set it apart from its apocryphal contenders. Men may indulge their fancies with “cunningly devised fables” (2 Pet. 1:16) but the book which outshines all other books is the Bible. Indeed the Bible is the book which will judge the world. But that which convicts of sin is also that which justifies repentant sinners. Because the Bible is the Word of God, the Lord is able to speak through it to convict and convert lost souls.

Augustine, in the fourth century, and Luther, in the sixteenth century, are prime examples. These troubled men believed God on the singular basis of a divine utterance. Providentially, in both cases, it was a text from Romans which effected deciding grace. When Augustine read, “Put ye on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make not provision for the flesh, to fulfill the lusts thereof” (Rom. 13:14), he knew that he must repent of his sin and renounce his lover. When Luther read, “The just shall live by faith” (Rom. 1:17), he realized that there was no salvation through rites, rituals, or good works. In both cases there was simple belief in what God was saying. The newfound faith of these two men was not based upon signs from heaven or brilliant argument; by way of the Word of God they heard the voice of God in their own souls and responded in faith.

The Immortal And Life-Giving Word
Because the Holy Spirit wrote the Bible, He can speak through His Word which lives and abides for ever. We may therefore conclude that the God-breathed word continues to breathe and give life as in the beginning “the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul” (Gen. 2:7). This means that the natural man can become a new creation in Christ (2 Cor. 5:17; Gal. 6:15). Additionally, the Scriptures teach both resurrection and new birth through the power of the living Word. So Paul writes: “You, being dead in your sins and the uncircumcision of your flesh, hath He quickened together with Him, having forgiven you all trespasses” (Col. 2:13). Likewise, Peter writes of Christians who are “born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by the word of God, which liveth and abideth forever” (1 Pet. 1:23). The Bible is therefore a living miracle, which shall endure forever. And let it be realized that we can never be saved without belief in miracles. Skeptics who rationalize the Word of God are living in the shadow of death.

The Equality Of The Two Testaments
The Bible is one as God is one, and it cannot be accepted in part. This means that the two Testaments comprise one Holy Bible equally inspired to the last jot and tittle and from the same God who cannot lie. There is no doubt that “Jesus made a surety of a better testament” (Heb. 7:22) or that “He is the mediator of a better covenant, which was established upon better promises” (Heb. 8.6). Consequently, the New Testament is not the “better” in letter but in the “exceeding great and precious promises” it contains (2 Pet. 1:4). The equality of text does not vary from Genesis to Revelation, but “the law made nothing perfect, but the bringing in of a better hope did; by the which we draw nigh unto God” (Heb. 7:19).

The coming of Christ and His sacrificial work on the cross made animal sacrifice redundant. But over against this we cannot avoid the truth that the Old Testament was aware of the Law’s limitations and so spoke of a better Sacrifice. “Wherefore, when He cometh into the world, He saith, ‘Sacrifice and offering Thou wouldest not, but a body hast Thou prepared Me’” (Heb. 10:5; Ps. 40:6). This bears upon the common property of both testaments to foretell events in fine detail thousands of years before their occurrence.

Validity Of Translation
This New Testament quotation from the Old Testament is a timely reminder that God accepts His word in translation. The three original languages of the Bible are Hebrew, Aramaic and Greek. Prior to the New Testament, 70 Jewish scholars translated the Old Testament into Greek. This version, known as the LXX, was used widely among the scattered Jews of the post-Babylonian Diaspora. When the Holy Spirit gave us the New Testament in Greek, He used the text of the LXX when quoting from the Old. By this means, God validated the accurate translation of the Bible into the many languages of the world.

Obeying The Word
There is no point in confessing the Bible as infallible and inerrant if we do not obey it. Let us, therefore, not be as “them which stumble at the Word, being disobedient” (1 Pet. 2:8). As the Master Himself says, “He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches” (Rev. 2:7)

By Tom Summerhill