Summer in the Systematics – Bibliology (Part Two): The Inspiration of the Bible

Transcript

JRS 27
06/11/2023
Summer in the Systematics – Bibliology (Part Two): The Inspiration of Scripture
Selected Verses
Jesse Randolph

Alright, well, welcome everybody, to part two of year two of Summer in the Systematics . . . Our summer-long study of Bibliology, or the Doctrine of the Bible. I had a couple of people earlier this week let me know that they were going to be dropping out of our summertime study. They had their respective reasons and they articulated them respectfully. But what it seemed to boil down to was this:
1. This is a lot of material
2. This is over their heads.
3. I move too fast
In some ways, those are all fair critiques. Because what we’re doing this summer in this summer study, like last summer, does involve a different teaching methodology than what we’re used to on a Sunday morning or a Sunday evening. It does feel more like a classroom in these Sunday night settings. It is true that there is a large amount of information involved in this study, as I attempt to boil it down into a single hour or 50 minutes tonight, what could be studied over several weeks in a seminary classroom. I do go fast. I get it. But here are my words of encouragement to you, to press on with the study, if you’re on the fence about it. Because I do think it’s going to be a rich and profitable study throughout the summer.

First, instruction in systematic theology is going to make us, I’m convinced of this, a stronger, richer, deeper church. It just will. Of course, with an expository pulpit like we have, over the years we will be exposed to all manners of theology as the word is unleashed each and every week. But when we systematize it, as we’re going to be doing this summer and in these summer studies, what we’re doing, is we’re ensuring that we’re going to get exposed to all that God has said, over various subjects and topics that are addressed in the word. As much as I’d like to preach through all 66 books of the bible during the course of my ministry here. The likelihood is that the chances are slim that that’s actually going to happen. I mean, unless I live to be 135 or something like that and preach until I’m 135. The chances are even more slim that all of you will be here to see me get through 66 books of the bible. Let’s just get real. So, what the systematic study of theology allows us to do, is to get to these topics and subjects, that we may otherwise may not be able to address with any amount of depth, as we go through our normal expository studies.

Second, word of encouragement is that systematic theology shares common DNA with expository preaching. It’s fallacious to divorce systematic theology from biblical exposition; because both are rooted in biblical exegesis, the rigorous study of the scriptures. As we try to determine what God has said and to understand what He has said. So that we can live in light of what He has said.

Third, as to the speed with which this study is going. I don’t know that I can do much about that. Unless you want me to go until 9:30 on Sunday nights. But if you miss a verse or a quote here or there, that’s ok. Because the slides for each Sunday night will be available on the IHCC website. We just have to remember and find comfort in the fact that God’s word never returns void. So, if I’m up here rattling off a hundred verses, and you get ten of them, that’s good, that’s profitable. That will do its work in you, as you go about your week.

So, with that, let’s get into our study. You’ll recall that last week, we looked at this topic: The Authority of the Bible. As a part of that study, the authority of the bible, we looked into various sub-topics:
We looked at the bible as being revelation, as in how God has revealed Himself in both general and special ways and in our day, the bible being that chief aspect of His special revelation. We looked at the bible’s claims, meaning what the bible claims to be for itself. We looked at the bible’s constancy, where we say that, despite repeated attempts to stamp it out and destroy it throughout history, those efforts have always failed. It is indestructible. We looked at the bible’s continuity, which was a way of saying, with its diversity of authors, and the various centuries and languages in which it was written, the bible is unified in its themes and its messages. We looked at the bible’s insights, namely, its prophetic insights, and the various ways that it looks forward into the future. When those predictions and prophecies are fulfilled, that being a certification that it really is God’s word. We looked at the bible’s influence, where we considered the influence, the bible has had socially, politically in various ways. Linguistically on the world and the culture that we live in. Last we considered the bible’s impact, meaning the impact the bible has had on individual sinners like you and me, as it’s helped us, bring us face to face with the living God and helped us to see our need for a Savior, namely, the Lord Jesus Christ.
Each of those sub-topics that we looked at last week rolled under this main topic here, the authority of the bible. The bible is authoritative.

Now, this week, we’re moving into a new topic, which is:

The Inspiration of the Bible

Now, last week, as we looked at the subject of “revelation”, and by revelation I don’t mean the book of Revelation, I mean the subject of revelation. We were looking into a subject, revelation that is, that refers more broadly to the fact that God has made known truth to us. We see that in verses like this:
Galatians 1:12 – “For I neither received it from man, nor was I taught it, but I received it through a revelation of Jesus Christ.”
Ephesians 3:3 – “. . . by revelation there was made known to me the mystery . . .”
Now, while that term “revelation” refers to the objective fact that God makes known truth to us. “Inspiration”, or topic for tonight, is a narrower concept. “Inspiration” has to do with the process by which God delivered His truth, through humans, and in human language, in the words of scripture.

So how does this work? How had God communicated His thoughts to men, through men? Well, there are a number of flawed and faulty explanations that have been given for how this all works. We’re going to work through those flawed and faulty explanations first. If you’re taking notes this evening, this is going to be our first heading:

1. The Perspectives on Inspiration
That’s heading number one on your note sheets there, the perspectives on inspiration. We’re going to work through a number of the wrong perspectives on inspiration, before we get to the right one, the biblical perspective. So, I’m going to go through these pretty rapid fire, and just make a few comments along the way. But our first flawed theory of inspiration is:
a. The Natural Theory of Inspiration
According to this theory, the bible was written by individuals who had a higher level of genius or creativity than the average human being. The way that Socrates or Michelangelo or Luther might have had heightened intellectual or creative capacities. But that’s the extent of it, according to this theory, natural inspiration. According to this natural theory of inspiration, the bible can be attributed entirely to natural explanations. That explanation is that the authors of scripture were brilliant and gifted and creative. Like Milton, or Shakespeare, or Confucius. But the bible is, nevertheless, a human document, and therefore, a document that’s subject to error. Because, we have to remember, the best of men, are men at best.

b. The Mystical Theory of Inspiration
This theory goes a step further than the natural theory. According to this theory, the mystical theory, the writers of scripture were inspired, but they weren’t inspired in the way that you and I might think about the term, inspiration. Rather, according to this view, the human authors of scripture were moved in the same way that any Holy Spirit-yielded person in our generation is moved today. For instance, when we prepare a bible lesson, or when we prepare or give bible teaching. According to this view, I’m inspired right now, according to this Mystical view. Because I have the Holy Spirit dwelling in me as a follower of Christ. I have the Holy Spirit directing my thoughts and my steps, as I explain to you, His word; and according to this view, I am just as inspired as the Apostle Paul was, or the Apostle John was, when they wrote the scriptures. You see a problem with that? I do. I counted this morning, some twenty or twenty-five flubs I made in the morning sermon. I’m certainly not, no man in inspired in our day. Well, here’s a quote from one of the adherents to this view, this mystical theory of inspiration. This is Alan Richardson, he says: “There is a wide range of Christian literature from the fifth to twentieth century which can with propriety by described as inspired by the Holy Spirit in precisely the same formal sense as were the books of the bible.” So, he would say, Anselm or Aquinas were just as inspired as the writers of scripture. Well, the problem with this view, of course, is that it fails to distinguish between the prophet who produced God’s word under divine inspiration, and the teacher or preacher who proclaims God’s word today, by reading it and studying it and reciting it and interpreting it and applying it to the needs of his listeners.

c. The Inspired Concept Theory of Inspiration
According to this view, God inspired only the concepts, not the particular words that each biblical author used as he was writing. I’ll say that again. According to this theory, God inspired the thoughts that the biblical authors had. But He didn’t inspire their words. Supposedly, what this allows for. Is an authoritative message to be given by God, in non-inspired words, which in certain instances, might contain errors. But this theory, ultimately, collapses upon itself. Because how else are thoughts expressed, but through words? Whether internal or external. Because each of our thoughts ultimately find expression in propositions, which require words to express those propositions; this view is actually non-sensical. To suppose that an author’s thoughts are inspired, but that their words are not, does violence not only to their words, but to the thoughts that underlie those words. If an author’s words are not inspired, as this theory would hold, neither can their thoughts be.

d. The Neoorthodox Theory of Inspiration
This position, which was promoted by men like Karl Barth, comprise really, a kickback against modernism. Modernism contended that the bible was a flawed product. It was not God’s word. And neoorthodoxy sort of kicked back against modernism and represented somewhat of a compromise position. Now, while neoorthodoxy recognized that the bible is revelation from God, it is revelation from God. That God does speak to us through the bible. This theory, neoorthodoxy ultimately rejected the notion that the bible is the objective and timeless and inerrant word of God. Rather, according to this view, neoorthodoxy, when the modern man encounters the scriptures, what happens is, they become the word of God to him. Did you catch that? The bible isn’t the word of God, according to neoorthodoxy, not in the sense of it being objective and inerrant as a record of God’s revelation to mankind. Rather, the bible “becomes” the word of God in a very personal way to each and every reader of the bible. There’s a moment that it “became” the word of God to me. There’s a moment that it “became” the word of God to you. It’s purely subjective. With the focus not being of God and His revelation, but rather the reader and his or her own experience with God’s revelation.

e. The Degrees Theory of Inspiration
This theory argues for levels or degrees of inspiration within scripture. According to this theory, all of the bible is inspired, but not to the same degree. Some parts of the bible are more inspired than other parts of the bible. In fact, here’s a quote from somebody who holds this view. A gentleman named Marcus Dods. He says: “Within this one great function of inspiration considerable variety exists. The inspiration of Isaiah or Paul is different from that of the compiler of Proverbs or the annalist who drew up Chronicles.” In response, of course, and we’ll get into this tonight, we would quote 2 Timothy 3:16, which says: “all scripture” is breathed out by God. It’s all inspired by God, and it’s inspired equally. There are no levels or tiers of authority within God’s word. So, the question for all of us, and the question for Christians in general is, which authority are you going to follow? Marcus Dods or what God Himself has revealed in His word?

f. The Partial Theory of Inspiration
According to this theory, some parts of the bible are inspired, but others are not. Now, what we just looked at, the degrees theory of inspiration, says that all of scripture is inspired, but just with different levels of inspiration. The partial theory of inspiration is distinct and different, because it says that some parts of the scriptures are not inspired at all. The usual claim that’s made here, is that only the so-called moral or spiritual portions of the scripture are inspired. Such as material related to the gospel. While other material, such as what the bible teaches about historical or scientific matters is not inspired. Of course, this just begs the question for all of us, who gets to draw that line? Who gets to draw the line between what is deemed moral and spiritual and therefore inspired, verses what is historical and scientific, and therefore non-inspired? It’s all subjective. Lines are drawn purely subjectively. Inevitably, since we now live in a time and a culture in which Darwinian evolutionary theory and moral relativism rule the day, those lines are going to be drawn in such a way that will allow for the earth to be seven billion years old. Will allow for the notion of a marriage between one man and one woman, as being dismissed as some old relic of antiquity. It will allow for the tossing of the story of Jonah and the fish as a fable. It will allow for the dismissal of the account of Sodom and Gomorrah as being some myth that we can just sweep under the rug. See, there are many other responses that one could give to this partial theory of inspiration. I’ll just limit myself to one here. If the bible is non-inspired, in any sense, and therefore could potentially contain errors . . . in matters that others are deeming unimportant. For instance, in scientific and historical matters. If we’re saying those matters, non-inspired, don’t worry about it, don’t need to trust it. How in the world then, can this book be trusted in matters that relate to eternal significance? I agree with Wayne Grudem here, who says: “It is better to say the whole purpose of Scripture is to say everything it does say, on whatever subject. Every one of God’s words in scripture was deemed by Him to be important for us, whether or not we understand all of that importance at any one time.” Then, also Herman Bavinck says: “Word and fact, the religious and historical dimensions, that which was spoken by God and that which was spoken by human beings, [are] so tightly interwoven and intertwined that separation is impossible. The historical parts of scripture are also a revelation of God.” Putting it maybe in more modern terms for us, it’s not only the red letters of the scriptures that are inspired, it’s all of them. Red, black, purple, green, whatever color your bible is printed in. Divine inspiration, as we’re going to see, is plenary. Meaning, it extends to each part of the bible to equal degree. All parts of the scripture are uniformly and divinely inspired.

g. The Dictation Theory of Inspiration
This view of inspiration holds that the biblical authors were completely passive in the process of inspiration. They were like stenographers, or secretaries as they mechanically took down all that God was dictating to them. Now, what’s interesting is that those who oppose the position that we would hold to, not this dictation theory, but the view that the bible is inspired, and therefore inerrant. They will somewhat pejoratively accuse us of believing in this dictation theory. They’ll accuse us of believing that Moses or Malachi or Paul or Peter or whomever, was in some sort of mindless, trance-like state. Where his eyes rolled in the back of his head, he shut off his brain, he shut off his personality. He shut off his education and his experience and his background and just mindlessly dictated whatever God was revealing to him. Well, J.I. Packer had it right when he said: “The dictation theory is a man of straw. It is safe to say that no Protestant theologian, from the Reformation till now, has ever held it, and certainly modern Evangelicals do not hold it.” Now, while it’s true that in certain places in the scripture, we do see God giving instruction and dictating certain portions of scripture like here: Exodus 34:1 – “Now the Lord said to Moses, ‘Cut out for yourself two stone tablets like the former ones, and I will write on the tablets the words that were on the former tablets which you shattered’.” Jeremiah 30:1-2 – “The word which came to Jeremiah from the Lord, saying, ‘Thus says the Lord, the God of Israel. “Write all the words which I have spoken to you in a book’”. There are instances in which God is dictating what needs to be said, or what needs to be written. But what the dictation theory fails to account for, is that the Holy Spirit prepared God’s chosen human authors for the work. He incorporated the Holy Spirit did, into this inscripturation process. Their unique literary styles. Their unique vocabulary. Their individuality. Their intelligence. Their temperament. Their personality. In producing through them the very words of God. Think about it. I mean, that makes sense for any reader of scripture. When we read the bible, when we go Old to New. When we go between Moses and Nahum. Between Joshua and Peter. Between James and Luke. It comes off the page. The distinct ways in which these men communicated. That’s the fruit of inspiration. God using these uniquely wired men, who thought and spoke in different ways, to deliver His timeless word. So, those are the wrong theories of inspiration. The Natural Theory. The Mystical Theory. The Inspired Concept Theory. The Degrees Theory. The Partial Theory. The Dictation Theory. There are actually several others, but that gives you sort of a taste of what’s out there.

That now, brings us to the true theory of inspiration of the bible. This brings us to:

The Bible’s Teaching on Inspiration
The bible’s teaching of inspiration is captured with great simplicity and clarity in a verse that I’m sure many of us are quite familiar with, this one.
II Timothy 3:16 – “All scripture is inspired by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness.” Now, that word “inspired” there, is theopneustos; and the word doesn’t refer to something being “inspiring.” Like a painting or a love poem or a story of a soldier’s bravery on the battlefield. No, this word means, as it says here, “God-breathed”, theopneustos, God breathed. B.B. Warfield, in his book, The Inspiration and Authority of Scriptures says: “The Greek term . . . [he’s referring to that term there, in II Timothy 3:16] has nothing to say of inspiring or of inspiration; it speaks only of ‘spiring’ or ‘spiration.’ What it says of scripture is, not that it is ‘breathed into by God’ or is the product of Divine ‘inbreathing’ into his human authors, but that it is breathed out by God, ‘God-breathed,’ The product of the creative breath of God.” The scriptures are “God-breathed.” “Inspiration,” then, is referring to the fact that those who were tasked with communicating God’s words through scripture, were acted and moved upon and directed by the Spirit; as God Himself breathed out His truth, through them, in human language. Here are a few other helpful definitions of this term we’re studying tonight, “inspiration.”: Harold Lindsell, this is from “The Battle for the Bible”, he says: “Inspiration may be defined as the inward work of the Holy Spirit in the hearts and minds of chosen men who then wrote the scriptures so that God got written what He wanted.” B.B. Warfield, again: “Inspiration is . . . a supernatural influence exerted on the sacred writers by the Spirit of God, by virtue of which their writings are given Divine trustworthiness.” Louis Berkhof: “By inspiration we understand that supernatural influence exerted on the sacred writers by the Holy Spirit by virtue of which their writings are given divine truthfulness and constitute an infallible rule of faith and practice.”

Now note, Inspiration is divine. It is an activity of the Holy Spirit whereby He enabled certain people to receive God’s special revelation and to speak and write it without error or omission in their own language and style as the very words of God. That’s all captured here in II Peter 1:21 – “. . . for no prophecy was ever made by an act of human will, but men moved by the Holy Spirit spoke from God.” They spoke from God, inspiration is divine. Inspiration, here’s another key word you need to know for this study, is plenary. Meaning, each and every part of the 66 canonical books of the bible was the product of divine inspiration, and to an equal degree. II Timothy 3:16 – “All scripture is inspired by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness.”

Here’s another thing, and another term we need to know. Inspiration is verbal. Meaning, inspiration extended to the very words of the scriptures, to their very particular grammatical forms. We see an example of this here in Galatians 3:16. Look at how grammatically precise Paul is being here. He says, “Now the promises were spoken to Abraham and to his seed. He does not say, ‘And to seeds,’ as referring to many, but rather to one, ‘And to your seed,’ that is, Christ.”
I bring that example in, just to highlight how grammatical each particular word, “every jot and title”, like Christ would say, plenary, verbal inspiration touches. The biblical view of inspiration is, plenary, meaning full, verbal inspiration. Here’s Lindsell again: “Inspiration extends to all parts of the written word of God, and it includes the guiding hand of the Holy Spirit even in the selection of the words of scripture. Moreover, the bible was written by human and divine agencies; that is, it was the product of God and chosen men.” He continues by saying: “The authors of scripture retained their own style of writing, and the Holy Spirit, operating within this human context, so superintended the writing of the word of God that the end product was God’s. Just as Jesus had a human and a divine nature, one of which was truly human and the other truly divine, so the written word of God is a product that bears the marks of what is truly human and truly divine.” In other words, the writers produced a product, which, while it was their own, was in every respect the word of the living God.

Now, a just a couple of stray thoughts on this topic of the perspectives on inspiration.
First, is this, and we just have to, we’ll get to this later, when we get to textual criticism. It’s a truth, that plenary verbal inspiration, what we’ve just outlined, extends only to the original autographs of the biblical authors. Meaning, the actual parchment that they put the pen on, however many centuries ago. So, those original texts are inspired. We don’t have those original texts anymore. So, what we do have, though, is a mountain of evidence that points us back to what actually would have been in those original autographs. Those original texts. And that’s why textural criticism, we’ll do a whole lesson on that, is so important and critical to our understanding of what the scriptures actually say.

Second, here’s the other thing. This idea of plenary verbal inspiration applies to the scriptures. It doesn’t apply to everything that every other biblical author wrote at any other time. You know, Paul said other things. He wrote other letters. The prophets had other conversations other than what they had to the people that they were ministering to. Paul’s grocery list is not inspired. Only the scriptures are inspired.

With that, we turn to our second heading for this evening, and the second main point on your worksheet there. Which is:

2. The Proofs of Inspiration
We’ve looked at the perspectives of inspiration, now we’ll look at the proofs. Meaning, the biblical evidences of inspiration. We’re going to spend most of the rest of our time here. Reviewing the scriptural evidence. The biblical witness for the bible’s own inspiration. In other words, we’re going to let God show us, through His word, why this is a truly God-breathed book. Before we get there, here’s another important quote from Herman Bavinck:“. . . inspiration is a fact taught by that very scripture. Jesus and the apostles have given us their witness concerning scripture. Scripture contains teaching also about itself. Aside from all the dogmatic or scholastic development of this teaching, the question is simply whether or not scripture deserves credence at this point of self-testimony.” Basically, can the scripture speak for itself, as to what it claims to be? The answer to that is, “yes.” As Ryrie says: “The doctrine of inspiration is not something theologians have forced on the bible. Rather it is a teaching of the bible itself, a conclusion derived from the data contained in it. Whatever one may think of the bible, it, like any other witness, has the right to testify on its own behalf.” With that, we’ll take a look at some of these biblical categories of evidence for inspiration. We’ll start with this:
a. The Old Testament’s Witness to Its Own Inspiration
What does the Old Testament say about its own inspiration? Well, the Old Testament is replete with statements, and indications of, its own inspiration. We’ll start here in Exodus 6:1 – “Then the Lord said to Moses.” We see multiple statements like this, “the Lord saying to Moses”, all throughout Exodus and the Pentateuch. Here’s some other examples: “Then the Lord said to Moses, ‘Write this in a book.” Exodus 17:14 “Moses wrote down all the words of the Lord . . .” Exodus 24:4 or even the Ten Commandments here. “Now the Lord said to Moses, [this is a reference to the Ten Commandments] ‘Come up to Me on the mountain and remain there, and I will give you the stone tablets with the law and the commandment which I have written for their instruction’.” Exodus 24:12 “When He had finished speaking with Him upon Mount Sinai, He gave Moses the two tablets of the testimony, tablets of stone, written by the finger of God.” Exodus 31:18. So, the law references its own inspiration. That’s the point here.

Then there are the prophets, who also testified to having a divine source. That source being inspiration of what they were charged to write. Isaiah says at the beginning of his prophecy – “Hear the word of the Lord . . . give ear to the instruction of our God.” Isaiah 1:10
Jeremiah – “. . . the words of Jeremiah . . . to whom the Lord came . . .” Jeremiah 1:1-2
Ezekiel – “. . . the word of the Lord came to me.” Ezekiel 3:16
Hosea – “The word of the Lord which came to Hosea . . .” Hosea 1:1
Joel – “The word of the Lord that came to Joel.” Joel 1:1
Jonah – “The word of the Lord that came to Jonah.” Jonah 1:1
Micah – “The word of the Lord which came to Micah.” Micah 1:1
Zephaniah – “The word of the Lord which came to Zephaniah.” Zephaniah 1:1
Haggai – “. . . the word of the Lord that came by the prophet Haggai . . .” Haggai 1:1
Zechariah – “. . . the word of the Lord which came to Zechariah the prophet . . .” Zechariah 1:1
What each of these indicates is that God was about to speak through each man, or to each man and through that man. To communicate His divine message. Like Moses with the Law, the prophets also made repeated mention, of the divine message, the divine command that had been given to them, to “write” out the revelation they had received from God. Here’s some examples of that, these are the prophets now, being instructed by God to take down what He’s revealing to them, as revelation. Isaiah 30:8 – “Now go, write it on a tablet before them and inscribe it on a scroll, that it may serve in the time to come as a witness forever.” Jeremiah 30:2 – “Thus says the Lord, the God of Israel, ‘Write all the words which I have spoken to you in a book’.” Habakkuk 2:2 – “Then the Lord answered me and said, ‘Record the vision and inscribe it on tablets, that the one who reads it may run’.” The last point on this one. The human authors of the Old Testament. They regarded the three major divisions of the Old Testament, which we went through last week. The Law, the Prophets, the Writings. Equally as being inspired by God. I’m just going to give you a survey here of cross references, the Law, the Writings and the Prophets. Here’s a reference within the Old Testament to the Law. This is the in 1 Kings, the author of Kings, referencing back to the Law of Moses, 1 Kings 2:3. Here’s Daniel, in Daniel 9:2, referencing a prophet, Jeremiah. The author of Kings, referencing Solomon’s proverbial wisdom, which we know would later be codified in the book of Proverbs, 1 Kings 4:29-32.

So, that’s a bit about the Old Testament’s witness to its own inspiration. Next, we’re going to get into:
b. Jesus’ Witness to the Inspiration of the Old Testament.
As we’re about to see, Jesus, the eternal Son of God, the infallible God-Man, He testified repeatedly and regularly to the inspiration of the Old Testament. For starters, during His earthly ministry, our Lord displayed remarkable familiarity with the Old Testament. He demonstrated great reverence and respect for the Old Testament. Being omniscient, He not only had knowledge of all that had been recorded for us in the Old Testament. But He took it a step further by regularly quoting and making allusions to, and affirming what was in the Old Testament. For instance, when He called out the money changers in the temple, he did so by quoting the Old Testament here in Matthew 21:13, this is a quote that He’s drawing here from Isaiah 56:7 and Jeremiah 7:11. In that same scene, Jesus scolded the chief priests and the scribes for their ignorance of God’s revelation through the scriptures. He says here in Matthew 21:16 – “Have you never read[?]” Then to that same group, a little bit later in the account, he says – “Did you never read in the scriptures?” Referring, of course, back to the Old Testament scriptures. In another episode, Jesus resolved that riddle that had been put to Him by the Sadducees about the woman with multiple husbands. He turns the tables on them, you’ll remember, and says to them: “You are mistaken, not understanding the scriptures nor the power of God.” Matthew 22:29. In a different scene, Jesus would rebuke the Scribes and the Pharisees for their rigid adherence to tradition, saying that they were – “. . . invalidating the word of God by your tradition which you have handed down . . .” Mark 7:13. And of course, we can’t forget how Jesus overcame Satan’s multiple attempts to tempt Him, in places like Luke 4:4, where multiple times He says – “It is written.” Referring back to the Old Testament scriptures. And note, that from His own recorded statements, we see that Jesus did not believe, to use these other theories that we’ve just gone through, in partial inspiration or degrees of inspiration. Rather, He attributed absolute and full and total authority to the entirety of the Old Testament. He made no distinctions in the levels or degrees of authority in the Old Testament. Rather, Matthew 5:18 He says, “For truly I say to you, until heaven and earth pass away, not the smallest letter or stroke shall pass from the Law until all is accomplished.” Not only that, or Lord recognized the entirety of the Old Testament as being authoritatively from God. John 5:39 – “You search the scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life, it is these [meaning the scriptures] that testify about Me.” Luke 24:44, on the road to Emmaus, He said something similar and look at the scope of what He’s referring to, it says – “Now He said to them, ‘These are My words which I spoke to you while I was still with you, that all things which are written about Me in the Law of Moses and the Prophets and the Psalms [there’s that threefold division again] must be fulfilled’.” I just want to make mention of one other series or categories of which Jesus testified, going back to the Old Testament. Jesus, we know and crosschecking the Old Testament, referred to at least 14 Old Testament books, in His earthly ministry as recorded.
He referred to:
Genesis – Mark 10:6-8
Exodus – Luke 18:20
Numbers – John 3:14
Leviticus – Luke 10:28
Deuteronomy – Luke 10:27
1 Samuel – Mark 2:25
1 Kings – Matthew 12:42
Psalms – Mark 12:10
Isaiah – Luke 4:17-21
Daniel – Matthew 24:15
Hosea – Matthew 9:13
Jonah – Matthew 12:40
Zechariah – Matthew 26:31
Malachi – Matthew 11:10
However, not only that, though, Jesus quoted from each of those books as authoritative. And those are clear in the Gospel accounts. He also openly validated the historicity of various Old Testament figures, people like:
Abel – Luke 11:51
Noah – Matthew 24:37-39
Moses – John 3:14
David – Luke 20:41
Jonah – Matthew 12:40
Daniel – Matthew 24:15
Another way Jesus testified to the historicity of the entirety of the Old Testament revelation, was His open acceptance of the Old Testament’s record of various miracles that were performed during those times.
The Creation of Adam and Eve – Matthew 19:3-6
The Flood of Noah’s Day, supernatural events – Luke 17:26-27
The Destruction of Sodom, the judgment on Lot’s wife – Luke 17:28-29
The Burning Bush – Luke 20:37
The Famine in Elijah’s Day – Luke 4:25
Naaman’s Healing – Luke 4:27
The Bronze Serpent – John 3:14
Jonah and the Fish – Matthew 12:40
Nineveh’s Conversion – Matthew 12:41
Jesus alluded to and referred to each of them as true historical events. That’s why E.J. Young here says: “When Christ thus set the seal of His approval upon the Jewish Scriptures of His day, it meant that He considered those Scriptures to be divinely inspired.”
It wasn’t just Christ though; it was the Apostles. That’s the next heading.

c. The Apostolic Witness to the Inspiration of the Old Testament
Along with Christ, the apostles of the New Testament era affirmed the Old Testament as being divinely inspired by God. They would refer the Old Testament scriptures as “scriptures.” Like we see here in Acts 17:11 – “Now these [in Berea] were more noble-minded than those in Thessalonica, for they received the word with great eagerness, examining the Scriptures daily to see whether these things were so.” Romans 1:1-2 – “Paul, a bondservant of Christ Jesus, called as an apostle, set apart for the gospel of God, which He promised beforehand through His prophets in the holy scriptures.” Not only that, but we also know that the apostles, like Paul, asserted that the scriptures were “inspired”, 2 Timothy 3:15 again, “All scripture is inspired by God, and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness.” And they referred to, like Jesus, and like the Old Testament prophets before them, the apostles referred to all three divisions of the Old Testament word, the Old Testament scriptures. Including the Law, here’s Paul referring to Moses, that’s a reference to the Law – Romans 10:5; The Prophets, here’s Paul referring to Hosea, a prophet – Romans 9:25-26; the Writings, here’s Luke recording Peter, referring back to a Psalm, that’s a writing of David – Acts 1:15-17

The New Testament apostles appealed to the Old Testament in their own proclamation of the gospel, “. . . Christ died for our sins according to [what?] the scriptures.” 1 Corinthians 15:3
They appealed to the Old Testament to amplify and to illustrate what Christian life ought to look like. For instance, Paul, in Romans 12:19, here as he’s counseling believers against taking vengeance, he brings in Deuteronomy 32:35 and Psalm 94:1 when he says, “Never take your own revenge, beloved, but leave room for the wrath of God, for it is written, “Vengeance is Mine, [he’s referring back to the Old Testament here] I will repay, ‘ says the Lord.” But it wasn’t just Paul; Peter, as he’s calling for the holiness of individual believers, that he’s writing to, goes back to Leviticus 11:44, and bringing out that concept of God’s people being holy as He is holy. Then there’s this, the New Testament authors assumed that Old Testament prophecy amounted to promises from God; and that being so, those promises were sure to be fulfilled by God. They were anticipating that these promises would be fulfilled. We see that even in the selection of Judas’ replacement, in Acts 1:16, it says, “the scripture had to be fulfilled, which the Holy Spirit foretold by the mouth of David concerning Judas, who became a guide to those who arrested Jesus.” So that’s the Old Testament. The divine stamp of the inspiration of the Old Testament was recognized not only by the Old Testament authors themselves. Not only by Jesus our Lord. But by the apostles of the New Testament era.

Well, what about the New Testament? Is there anything in scripture which itself testifies to the New Testament, being inspired by God? You bet there is! We’re going to first, talk about Jesus’ witness to the inspiration of the New Testament. Kind of an interesting phrase, when you think about it. Because there was no New Testament when Jesus ministered during His earthly ministry, there in Galilee and later in Jerusalem. But in many ways, the Lord pre-authenticated the New Testament. What I mean by that is that the inspired, God-breathed, nature of the books of the New Testament, rests upon the authority which Christ gave and delegated to His apostles. The authority, the apostolic authority, of the men who God later revealed Himself through the scriptures, that authority first came through Christ. Christ came, and He spoke. Here’s John the Baptist speaking of Christ, John 3:34 – “For He whom God has sent speaks the words of God.” Christ spoke. John 12:49-50, here’s our Lord’s words himself – “For I did not speak on My own initiative, but the Father Himself who sent Me has given Me a commandment as to what to say and what to speak . . . therefore the things I speak, I speak just as the Father has told Me.” So, He spoke during His earthly ministry. But even then, during His earthly ministry, our Lord didn’t speak everything that He would ultimately reveal to His apostles. Instead, He indicated in John 16:12-13 that there was more He would one day reveal to them. When He left this world, when He ascended and sent His Holy Spirit. John 16:12-13 – “I have many more things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now. But when He, the Spirit of truth, comes, He will guide you into all the truth . . .” He said to them earlier, to His apostles, John 15:26-27 – “when the Helper comes, whom I will send to you from the Father . . . He will testify about Me, and you will testify also, because you have been with Me from the beginning.” Well, as our Lord prepared for His ascension to the Father. As the time of His witness-bearing here on earth came to a close, He reiterated His intentions to the disciples, telling them that they would be divinely commissioned to spread His message to the ends of the earth. Acts 1:8 – “. . . but you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be My witnesses [the Lord says] both in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and even to the remotest part of the earth.” So, part of this commission that we see here, would have been to have Jesus testify verbally to what they had seen and heard of Him. But part of that commission would be to have them put down in writing what they had seen and heard. What they put down in writing, later would become the New Testament scriptures. We see this in places like:
John 19:35 – “And he who has seen [this is John speaking] testified, and his testimony is true; and he knows that he is telling the truth.” Because he had received this apostolic revelation from Christ. John 21:24 – “This is the disciple who is testifying to these things and wrote these things, and we know that his testimony is true.” II Peter 1:16, Peter would say something similar – “For we did not follow cleverly devised tales when we made known to you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but we were eyewitnesses of His majesty.” I John 1:1 – “What was from the beginning, what we have heard, what we have seen with our eyes, what we have looked at and touched with our hands, concerning the Word of Life.” So, they would later receive this revelation from Christ, and then with their apostolic authority, communicate that to us, through the word. The apostles, they understood themselves as being appointees of God. I Corinthians 14:37 – “If anyone thinks he is a prophet or spiritual, let him recognize that the things which I [that’s Paul] write to you are the Lord’s commandment.” II Corinthians 5:20, we often appropriate this, but this is speaking of apostolic authority here, “Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God were making an appeal through us . . .”Then, Christ’s apostles, they regarded the message they had received as being from God. Galatians 1”11-12 – “For I would have you know, brethren, that the gospel which was preached by me is not according to man. For I neither received it from man, nor was I taught it, but I received it through a revelation of Jesus Christ.” They considered their message to be the word of God.
1 Peter 1:24-25 – “For, ‘all flesh is like grass, and all its glory like the flower of the grass. The grass withers, and the flower falls off, but the word of the Lord endures forever.’ [we all know that verse and look what he says] This is the word which was preached to you.”

We’ve just looked at Jesus’ witness to the inspiration of the New Testament. Now, we’re going to look at the apostolic witness to the inspiration of the New Testament. This is the last one under heading two. I’ll go quick with it.

d. The Apostolic Witness to the Inspiration of the New Testament
The New Testament authors repeatedly certified, through their own words. That what they were writing. Was not ordinary writing. But instead, had divine origin. For instance, John 21:24, we just saw this – “This is the disciple who is testifying to these things and wrote these things, [he’s talking about himself here] and we know that his testimony is true.” Paul,
I Thessalonians 4:15 – “For this we say to you by the word of the Lord . .” Or II Corinthians 2:17 – “For we are not like many, peddling the word of God, but as from sincerity, but as from God, we speak in Christ in the sight of God. Peter, something similar, II Peter 3:1-2 – “This is now, beloved, the second letter I am writing to you in which I am stirring up your sincere mind by way of reminder, that you should remember the words spoken beforehand by the holy prophets and the commandment of the Lord and Savior spoken by your apostles.” He’s lumping himself in with those last few words. He’s one of those apostles. Then, we get these interesting examples of the apostles cross-referencing the writings of other New Testament writers. Certifying them and affirming them as being scripture. Like here, II Peter 3:14-16 – “Therefore, beloved, since you look for these things, be diligent to be found by Him in peace, spotless and blameless, and regard the patience of our Lord as salvation; just as also our beloved brother Paul, according to the wisdom given him, wrote to you, [and he keeps on going] as also in all his letters, speaking in them of these things, in which are some things hard to understand, which the untaught and unstable distort, as they do also the rest of the scriptures, to their own destruction.” As Kenneth Gangel notes: “The fact that Peter referred to Paul’s letters and then to ‘the other scriptures’ indicates that Paul’s writings were then considered authoritative scripture.” Peter doesn’t just mention Paul’s writings, he defines them, lumps them together with the other scriptures, therefore, certifying Paul’s writings as scripture. Paul does something similar, in I Timothy 5:18, he says – “For the scripture says, ‘You shall not muzzle the ox while he is threshing,’ and ‘The laborer is worthy of his wages’.” In this context, he’s making a point about pastoral compensation, renumeration, when he says this. As he’s doing so, he’s quoting Deuteronomy 5:24, when he says, “You shall not muzzle the ox while he is threshing.” Great, so he’s setting Old Testament there. But then here, where he says, “the laborer is worthy of his wages”, he’s actually quoting Luke, Luke 10:7. Again, what he’s doing, like Peter did with Paul’s writing, is indicating that both texts, Paul’s text and Luke’s text, are scripture.

Finally, I’m just going to mention on this one, there are instances where the apostles are testifying to their own authority. There is not just Peter, talking about Paul’s authority. Paul talking about Luke’s authority. But here we have them testifying to their own authority. And it’s significance. Here’s Paul talking about his own authority, in 1 Corinthians 14:37 – “If anyone thinks he is a prophet or spiritual, let him recognize that the things which I write to you are the Lord’s commandment.” The implication here is that if somebody ignored Paul’s apostolic authority, they were ignoring the Lord’s authority. II Thessalonians 3:14 – “If anyone does not obey our instruction in this letter, take special note of that person and do not associate with him, so that he will be put to shame.” Why? Because of the authority with which Paul wrote, and the significance of disobeying what he wrote, as he wrote God’s words. I Corinthians 2:12-13 – “Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, so that we may know the things freely given to us by God, which things we also speak, not in words taught by human wisdom, but in those taught by the Spirit, combining spiritual thoughts with spiritual words. It wasn’t just Paul though. John was similar. In Revelation, at the very end of the book, he warns those who would dare tamper with his prophecy. Revelation 22:19 – “. . . if anyone takes away from the words of the book of this prophecy, God will take away his part from the tree of life and from the holy city, which are written in this book.”
Last one, point three, it’s a short one.

3. The Process of Inspiration
The go to text for the process of inspiration, is this one. II Peter 1:20-21 – “But know this first of all, [says Peter] that no prophecy of Scripture is a matter of one’s own interpretation, for no prophecy was ever made by an act of human will, but men moved by the Holy Spirit spoke from God.” Just a couple of observations here. First, Peter says, “no prophecy of Scripture is a matter of one’s own interpretation, for no prophecy was ever made by an act of human will.” That’s to say, what we understand and recognize as being the biblical text. Wasn’t birthed or originated in the mind of the human writer. No, like MacArthur and Mayhue say here: “What was written was not produced by the singular effort or ‘will of man.’ Rather, God’s will is the ultimate cause of these writings, and he brought them into being through the Holy Spirit’s direct influence on those He chose as His instruments to reveal His knowledge.”

In other words, the human authors were not the originators of divine revelation. They did not write independent of God. Instead, Peter says, “men [were] moved by the Holy Spirit [as they] spoke from God.” So, the prophetic word didn’t come from some form of human impulse. Rather, it came from God Himself. It was the Holy Spirit who then moved in the hearts and the minds of men to accomplish His purposes. Men carried along by the Holy Spirit, as they spoke for God, were moved along by God. That’s why Paul here in I Thessalonians 2:13 can say what he says, “For this reason we constantly thank God that when you received the word of God which you received from us, you accepted it not as the word of men, but for what it really is, the word of God, which also performs its work in you who believe.”

I’m just going to make a few comments here, on this whole process of inspiration, as we get ready to close. Just to remind you, that the process of inspiration looked different for different biblical authors. God gave Moses, we know from Exodus 34:27, specific words to write. Some of David’s Psalms were written in very unique contexts, as he was reflecting on his own experiences, like Psalm 51. Jeremiah dictated to his scribe, Baruch. Paul sometimes used a secretary, an amanuensis, but sometimes he didn’t. Solomon searched out and collected many proverbial sayings, like we see in Ecclesiastes 12:9. And many of those and many others, ended up in the book of Proverbs. Luke, a medical doctor, complied the Gospel of Luke and complied the book of Acts through his really diligent research. In all of it though, we’re told by God Himself. Through the pen of Peter. II Peter 1:21, that “men moved by the Holy Spirit spoke from God.”

So, we’ve covered the topic of The Inspiration of the Bible, in less than an hour tonight. We’ve looked at the Perspectives on Inspiration. We’ve looked at The Proofs of Inspiration. We’ve looked very briefly at The Process of Inspiration. One last thought. The inspiration of the bible implies, and it guarantees the inerrancy of the bible. God cannot lie. We know that from Hebrews 6:18 – “. . . it is impossible for God to lie . . .” And therefore, whatever He says, is true. This means that His word, His inerrant word, is truth. John 17:17 – “Sanctify them in the truth; [our Lord says] Your word is truth. We’ll get into that topic, the inerrancy of scripture, the next time we do one of these Summer Studies.

Let’s pray. God, thank You, again, for the chance to be together this evening, and this morning. Thank You, for our time in the word today. Thank You for our gathering of beloved fellow believers. Thank You for what You’re doing, as You continue to build and grow and advance Your church, as the gospel is proclaimed. As the word is taught. Thank You, for breathing out Your word, God, so that we could have a sure and a right guide for life in this fallen world. Thank You, that we, who have the Holy Spirit, can understand the word. And apply the word to our lives, as we seek to honor Christ. And to have Christ formed in us. Thank You, for the church. The gathering of believers. The community of redeemed people who can come together and fellowship and encourage each other, and it under the teaching and preaching of Your word. I ask for everybody here, that this week would be a fruitful week in the Lord. A week where there is an earnest desire to honor You in all that we do. A week in which we are continually going back to the scriptures, realizing what a gift they are. Seeking to grow in our understanding of the word and grow in godliness and response to the word. These things we pray Lord God, in Jesus’ name. Amen