The Inspiration of Scripture

I do believe that the Scriptures are inspired by God. Usually, when this subject comes up in conversation with nonbelievers, they are quick to try and point out the “teeming contradictions” that evidently abound within the Bible. Like most people I have met, they are unable to make the case specifically apart from the general and vague comment that “The Bible is full of contradictions.” I do not say this to be derogatory, but it goes to show how the idea of scriptural inerrancy is certainly under attack and not readily accepted in our day. I think the biggest reason this is so is due to the reigning paradigm of our day which is not friendly to the idea of authority or to absolute truth. If the Bible speaks to me, then that is all well and good, but if it doesn’t speak to someone else, then that is “ok” also.

We have hit upon two of the most significant ideas which under gird the inspiration of Scripture: authority and absolute truth. When I assert the inspiration of Scripture, I assert first and foremost that Scripture is the final authority. The quintessential “buck” stops here. If there is some conflict between the assertions of Scripture, and the assertions of some other person, discipline or field of study, then Scripture has the final and uncontested say.

This is not to say that we should unthinkingly follow what Scripture dictates. As it does indeed come from God, then it will also be reasonable to follow what it teaches. I have often heard people quip that God has given us minds and therefore our minds are trustworthy – but very often I also hear that said to justify doing or believing something that we think is true or good in our minds, but that is declared not to be so within Scripture.

Why is this so? The reason we ought to give final say to Scripture is because it is inspired. Ultimately it is inspired because it comes from God and is His will regarding how we are to lead our lives. This divine authorship is also what lends the Scripture its final authority. God is the final authority whether we follow Him in our hearts or not. His will for us has been written down and made known to the nations, and as we ought to follow God we ought also to follow what His word teaches.

Yet God has made other things that can discern the will of God, such as (occasionally) the human mind. Why Scripture, and scripture alone? In a word: sin. The effects of sin include an influence over our thoughts, beliefs and even the imagination. This is why, I think, Archbishop William Temple called worship the “cleansing of imagination by His holiness.” This is why Socrates thought that once we knew what the morally right thing to do was, we could not fail to do it, because we naturally seek the good. Socrates was wrong on one point – we do not naturally seek the good. Indeed, we naturally seek the evil. As Paul wrote, “The good that I want to do – that I do not do. The evil I do not want to do – that I keep on doing. Who will rescue me from this body of death?”

The Scriptures, unlike our thoughts, are caused and authored by God Himself. Some parts were indeed penned by His own hand, such as the writing on the original stone tablets that Moses smashed upon descending Mount Sinai. However, I also attest that the Scriptures were written by human hands. This does not necessarily dilute the authorship of God, nor does it immediately make them suspect because those human authors were also sinful. Yes we are all sinful, and because of sin we make mistakes of the mind and heart, not just of action and deed. Yet we must not forget that while sin and evil pervade our will, and we are all caught up in it, that God is not. The same God who “caused light to shine out of darkness, has caused his light to shine in our hearts, to give to us the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ (2 Corinthians 4:6).”

Therefore God, being good and all-powerful, can select certain persons and work through their deepest most abiding sins and bring about a true and authoritative account of His will and His history with mankind. Indeed, God may even use certain persons because of their perceptions of certain things to make His message cut all the more deeply into our hearts and bring us the conviction of His Holy Spirit. Thus, God wanted Isaiah specifically for the book of the same name. God wanted Luke specifically to write his version of the Gospel and also the Acts of the Apostles. God wanted Matthew and John specifically to write their specific Gospels. This does not mean that God needed them to write those books because God needs nothing apart from Himself, but rather God can use all the nuances of their personhood and personality to create an authoritative account of His message for all of creation. Down to the very choice of each, original and smallest word God was active and involved in the recording of His will.

I do think that only the original autographs were inspired, however. While I was writing this response, I had been avoiding touching upon that statement. I do not want to hedge myself into a theological corner of the implications that God only spoke once because I do not want to believe that God is not active anymore. Yet He most surely is all the same. As to why only the originals were inspired, I can now say that I think an analogy to human death may shed some light on the subject. While God has overcome death through the work of Jesus Christ, all of us will still die a physical death although not a spiritual one. Similarly, while God brought about His Scriptures despite the sinful natures of its authors, He has only appointed the originals to be inspired because of the entropic-like effect of sin. That is not to say this is indeed the reason, nor that it can be the only reason – I don’t presume to know the mind of God. But it is the best I can understand this part of the inerrancy of Scripture.

To summarize then, I think that to say the Scriptures are inspired is to say that they are inerrant and authoritative because they come from God Himself, who alone can triumph over fallible, sinful and limited human beings.