*** SHOW NOTES (not a transcript) ***

Lead:

What did Jesus think about the Bible? What does it mean that it’s “inspired?”

Intro:

If you take nothing else away from today, get this: Jesus affirmed the Old Testament and promised the Divine authority of the New Testament. One verse we read yesterday…

But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, he will teach you all things and bring to your remembrance all that I have said to you. Jn 14:26, ESV

…and one we’ll read today…

When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth. Jn 16:13a, ESV

…and all this is basically in one extended section of red words that we’ll finish up today.

This is a big deal.

Today and tomorrow we will wrap up the book of John, and in our All Our Minds Segment we’ll look at what the word “inspiration” means when it comes to the Bible.

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Bible Segment:

Passage: John 16-18
Translation: ESV (English Standard Version)
Verses: 99
Words: ~2127

All Our Minds Segment:

What does it mean that the Bible is “inspired?” What follows we will cover over two days.

As we get rolling, one little historical factoid:

Before the middle of the 19th century, the church was unanimous in its view of inspiration: God gave the actual words of Scripture to its human authors so as to perpetuate unerringly his special self-disclosure.(1)

It’s not uncommon to question the Bible now, sometimes even in churches. So let’s look at what this means so we can be more discerning when in dialogue with others. Note, all bold emphases are mine.

INSPIRATION OF SCRIPTURE
“All Scripture is inspired by God” (2 Tim. 3:16 HCSB)….Paul’s point, then, is not that Scripture is inspiring to read (it is that), or that the authors were inspired (they were), but that Scripture’s origin means it is the very Word of God… For Paul and the writers of the Bible, the Scriptures are “the spoken words of God…” When Scripture speaks, God speaks…
Theories of Inspiration
Historically, biblical inspiration has been reckoned in four ways.
1) The Bible is only inspired like other good books with human authors. This is neither what Scripture says nor what the church has believed.
2) The Bible is only partially inspired by God. Proponents hold that only the theological (not the scientific or historical) portions of Scripture are inspired, or that Scripture is just a record of God’s saving historical acts, or that the Bible contains the word of God rather than being that word. But inspiration ensures that Scripture itself is the revealed word of God, not only testifying of God’s redemptive work but also interpreting it.
3) The Bible is divinely inspired without use of human authors. Mechanical dictation theory renders Scripture analogous to myths regarding the origins of the Koran or Book of Mormon, and runs contrary to what the Bible says of its origins.
4) The Bible is divinely inspired because God concurrently worked with human authors to produce the very written message He desired. This classical view teaches the Holy Spirit superintended more than 40 authors from widely divergent backgrounds (shepherds, kings, prophets, fishermen, etc.), spanning a period of approximately a millennium and a half, to produce with supernatural congruity not just the thoughts but the very words of God to mankind.
Mode of Inspiration
The Chicago Statement on Biblical Inerrancy (1978) confesses that the “mode of divine inspiration remains largely a mystery to us.” But certain inferences can be drawn. For instance, the authors were divinely prepared to write God’s word in much the same way as the prophets were made ready to speak His word. ...Peter referred to the writings of Paul as Scripture…
God Himself wrote the Decalogue..., and the writers of Scripture occasionally wrote what God dictated... But normally God used His chosen writers’ personalities, theological meditations, and literary styles. Inspiration was not always continuous in the writers’ minds.... The divine inscripturated message often surpassed the author’s understanding.... Biblical authors were not always aware that divine inspiration was at work in them (Luke 1:3, Luke’s historical research). The apostles could write divinely inspired letters in responding to questions and by stating their opinions... The Holy Spirit saw to it that each biblical book actually has two authors, one human and one divine. Thus the divine superintendence of Scripture guarantees its inerrancy.
Inerrancy
P. D. Feinberg defined inerrancy as “the view that when all the facts become known, they will demonstrate that the Bible in its original manuscripts and correctly interpreted is entirely true and never false in all it affirms, whether that relates to doctrine or ethics or to the social, physical, or life sciences” (Evangelical Dictionary of Theology).
Inerrancy extends only to the original biblical writings, the autographa... Compared to a later copyist or translator, the author of the original text had a supernatural task for which the total superintendence of the Holy Spirit was needed. Only once for all time the text was written. Should the autograph be corrupted by errors, the following copies and translations of it would never be able to arrive at God’s revealed truth. Therefore, the evangelical who emphasizes the inerrancy of the original manuscript does not undermine copies or translations, rather the undermining is done by those who deny the inerrancy of the autographa. The obvious order of transmission is from the original to copy to translation….
Jesus’ Attitude Toward Scripture
Some today attempt to pit Christ as God’s supreme revelation against scriptural revelation. Jesus reproved those in His day who searched the Scriptures but did not recognize that they bear witness to Him…. But He did not reprove them for searching the Scriptures; after all, the Scriptures alone testify of Christ. There is no other way to know Him…
The disciple’s attitude should not be other than his Master’s toward Scripture: Scripture is final and authoritative...because it is the inspired Word of God. His reverence for and confidence in the OT was stunning....

The bottom line

Jesus affirmed the Original Testament, and as we saw at the beginning of the program, He promised us the New Testament. Put another way, if God could create the cosmos out of nothing and send His Son on a rescue mission for us, could he not make sure that we have communication from Him that we can trust?

Wisdom Segment:

Passage: Psalm 85
Translation: ESV (English Standard Version)
Verses: 13
Words: ~213

Love you!

-R

ForTheHope is a daily audio Bible + apologetics podcast and blog. We’ve got a passion for just keepin’ it real, having conversations like normal people, and living out the love of Jesus better every single day.

Roger Courville, CSP is a globally-recognized expert in digitally-extended communication and connection, an award-winning speaker, award-winning author, and a passionately bad guitarist. Follow him on Twitter -- @RogerCourville and @JoinForTheHope – or his blog: www.forthehope.org.

Sources and resources:

If you use the affiliate links below, thank you! Your support of the ministry is appreciated!

(1) H. D. McDonald, “Bible, Inspiration of The,” Baker Encyclopedia of the Bible (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Book House, 1988), 306. Purchase something similar on Amazon.

(2) Ted Cabal, “Inspiration of Scripture,” ed. Chad Brand et al., Holman Illustrated Bible Dictionary (Nashville, TN: Holman Bible Publishers, 2003), 824–826. Purchase on Amazon.

#890: John 16-18 | Inspiration | Psalm 85