The Doctrine of Inspiration

The Bible & Divine Authorship

The Bible testifies of itself to be the Word of God, therefore we can trust its veracity and faithfulness (2 Timothy 3:16; 1 Thessalonians 2:13; John 17:17; Titus 1:2). No other book can truthfully make this claim. The all-powerful and wise God “employed many persons to labor in distant ages, and in different departments, producing in their various compositions a revelation of His will, complete in all its parts, and distinguished by the most perfect unity, without the shadow of discrepancy redundancy, or deficiency”^[8]. It is of supernatural origin. Its claim to be authentic is one of inspiration, inerrancy, and infallibility. Not just part of the Bible is of divine origin, but its entirety – “All Scripture is given by inspiration of God” (2 Timothy 3:16-17).

 All Scripture is therefore “theopneustic.” From the Greek word theopneustia, the apostle Paul used this term to describe “the mysterious power which the divine Spirit put forth on the authors of the Old and New Testament in order to their composing these as they have been received by the church of God at their hands.”[9] The biblical authors affirm that the effort of their hands is from God. In the process of this dual authorship, these men recited the mysteries of the past and those of the future, shared the secrets of men’s hearts or the deep things of God, described their own emotions, copied genealogies, made extracts from uninspired documents and repeated contemporary narratives.[10]

Regardless of the extent of their contribution, “it was always God who spoke, who relates, who employs their different personalities in different measures, who superintends, who employs and who guides them through the entire process.”[11] There is no question that God himself “put his seal on all the facts and constituted himself the author of all these commands; the revealer of these truths and so ordered to be given to his church in order, measure and in the terms which he has deemed most suitable to his heavenly purpose.”[12]

References:

[1]. Denis Farkasfalvy,  Inspiration & Interpretation: A Theological Introduction to Sacred Scripture, (Washington, D.C.: The Catholic University of America Press, 2010), 52.    

[2]. Topical index, Biblegateway.com, accessed July 13, 2018,  https://www.biblegateway.com/quicksearch/?quicksearch=scripture+says&qs_version=NASB

[3].  Denis Farkasfalvy, Inspiration & Interpretation, 52.

[4]. Ibid., 55.       

[5]. Philip Moller, “What Should They Say?”, 607.

[6].  Denis Farkasfalvy, Inspiration & Interpretation, 57-58.   

[7]. Ibid., 140. 

[8]. Robert Haldane, Books Of The Old And New Testaments: Proved To Be Canonical, And Their Verbal Inspiration Maintained And Established; With An Account Of The Introduction And Character Of The Apocrypha, (Edinburgh, England: William Whyte & CO., 2018), 16.

[9]. Louis Gaussen, Divine Inspiration Of The Bible, (Grand  Rapids, MI: Kregel Publications, 1979), 23. 

[10]. Ibid., 25.  

[11]. Ibid.   

[12]. Ibid.  

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Written by Dr. Kevin A. Hall (Tuesday, July 17, 2018).