Just how inspired is the Bible?

Totally.

 

"In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God "
Doesn't get much more "inspired" than that!

 

webdog- that reference "the Word" is talking about Jesus- not the Scriptures:

"And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth." -John 1:14


Nevertheless, All Scripture is God-breathed and useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting, and training in righteousness so that the man of God will be thoroughly equipped for every good work.

 

Hamricba, you are partly right. Word in the greek, Λογος (Logos), which signifies a word spoken, speech, eloquence, doctrine, reason, or the faculty of reasoning, is very properly applied to Jesus. But the Word (Logos) became flesh (Jesus). The Word, according to Logos, is the scriptures, also.

 

Wazamatta, you guys, "totally" didn't work?

 

1. God cannot err.
2. The bible is the word of God.
3. Therefore, the bible cannot err.

If you deny #3, then you must deny one of the first two. If you hold to the first two, you must accept #3.

Since the Father is the God of truth, His word is truth. Since the Son is the Truth, His word is true. Since the Holy Spirit is the Spirit of truth, the Bible is true. The bible is not just true, it is necessarily true (i.e., it MUST be true, due to the reasons above).

How inspired is it? Totally.

 

The Bible is God's mind on printed page!!! The Bible is Jesus talking!!!

Totally---as Sister Helen says!! Thank you, Sister!!!

 

Hamricba, you are partly right. Word in the greek, Λογος (Logos), which signifies a word spoken, speech, eloquence, doctrine, reason, or the faculty of reasoning, is very properly applied to Jesus. But the Word (Logos) became flesh (Jesus). The Word, according to Logos, is the scriptures, also. </font>[/QUOTE]Logos CAN refer to the biblical text in some contexts, but it doesn't refer to it in every context.

In this context, the clear meaning is that logos =Jesus.

If in this context, logos = biblical text, then that would mean that the words of the bible are God. I refuse to go down that road.

 

Ive tried, but I cannot think of any of Scripture that I would "take with a grain of salt."

It is all historically, scientifically, and spiritually accurate and inspired by God. So yeah, I'd agree with Helen, too.

Totally.

 

The Bible is completely inspired in every aspect.

But I like to say this a lot:

Even though the text is inerrant, our interpretations are not.

 

Gods word is absolute truth ! That which is true

FOR ALL PEOPLE, FOR ALL TIMES, FOR ALL PLACES

2 TIM 3;16 and 2 PET. 1:20

 

The Bible is God's mind on printed page!!! The Bible is Jesus talking!!!

Totally---as Sister Helen says!! Thank you, Sister!!! </font>[/QUOTE]Amen! The last words from Jesus spoken directly to a man was on Damascus Road, those words from our Glorified Lord Jesus Christ, and it was on the subject of our salvation. We should take heed.

Some few years later an angel gave the Revelation of Jesus Christ to John, which book is not sealed, as was the book of Daniel. We read the Epistles of Paul for our salvation today, and Revelation to understand that God is again dealing with His people as the Angles are again involved, and are back into prophecy, to let all know "payback" time will be short and bloody and terrible, but all Israel will be saved, and He will be their God.

The Bible is of the "giver or gifts" the Holy Spirit. We can say things about God the Father our Savior, and about our Lord Jesus Christ, but we must be very careful about what we say is of the Holy Spirit, or what is not of the Holy Spirit.

We are on solid ground here. Christian faith, ituttut

 

I agree with what hamricba posted. The Bible is inspired by God, but it isn't God made ink the way Jesus is God made flesh. 2 Timothy 3:16-17 is a good summary of what the Bible is and what it's good for. 2 Peter 1:19-21 reveals how the prophecies within Scripture came about.

I do not think that all Scripture is God's word in the same way. A simple example:

"The Spirit of the LORD spoke by me,
And His word was on my tongue.
The God of Israel said,
The Rock of Israel spoke to me,
'He who rules over men righteously,
Who rules in the fear of God,
Is as the light of the morning when the sun rises,
A morning without clouds,
When the tender grass springs out of the earth,
Through sunshine after rain.' " (2 Samuel 23:2-4, NASB)

Now, my contention is that while the entire passage is inspired by God and is part of God's word, the last six lines are God's word in a special way that the first four lines are not. Why do I think that? Because David himself declares it to be the case.

The same principle applies in many other instances. All of Exodus 3 is God's word, but God's words to Moses are God's word in a special way that Moses' words to God aren't. The oracles given to a prophet are God's word in a different way than the narration that describes the deliverance of those oracles. Jesus' recorded words in the gospels are God's word in a different way than Eliphaz's speeches in the book of Job.

Here's a more controversial example:

"Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days you shall labor and do all your work, but the seventh day is a sabbath of the LORD your God; in it you shall not do any work, you or your son or your daughter, your male or your female servant or your cattle or your sojourner who stays with you. For in six days the LORD made the heavens and the earth, the sea and all that is in them, and rested on the seventh day; therefore the LORD blessed the sabbath day and made it holy." (Exodus 20:8-11, NASB)

Now, I think that the last sentence is God's word in a different way than the rest. Why? Because I think the last verse is Moses' inspired commentary on the command that God gave. The command was written by God on the tablets, while the last verse, if one assumes inerrancy, was not. This is because in Deuteronomy 5, which also recounts the words God wrote on two tablets of stone, this last sentence is not found. The command is the same, but the commentary is different (Deuteronomy 5:12-15). If one takes verse 22 seriously and literally when it says that God "added no more", that rules out Exodus 20:11 also being written in stone by God.

Of course, that's no reason to deny what that verse says. It remains Scripture, it is still part of God's word to us, and can't merely be pushed to the side. But, neither should the verse be elevated to a status higher than the rest of the Bible, as if it were written directly by God's finger in a way most of the rest of the Bible is not.

Personally, I think that discussions about inspiration are a red herring when it comes to the creation debates mentioned in the opening post. At least in this forum, those who are arguing the different positions all believe that all Scripture is inspired by God. But, some seem to stress the Bible's inspiration as a way to claim that they can't possibly be mistaken about their interpretation. For instance, when Martin Luther was combating the idea that the earth revolves around the sun, he stated of Copernicus that "This fool wishes to reverse the entire science of astronomy; but sacred Scripture tells us that Joshua commanded the sun to stand still, and not the earth." Because Luther knew that the book of Joshua was inspired, sacred Scripture, he thought that he couldn't possibly be wrong about what it meant, since after all he was only claiming that the plain, literal meaning of the text was the total truth, including in what it said to Luther and many others about the relation of the sun to the earth.

When inspiration is used this way, it ceases to be useful. Such an approach can lead to a very cavalier attitude when reading the Bible, since one may think that one cannot possibly be wrong about what a passage means, and that no amount of study could possibly overturn the plainly evident meaning that first strikes a 21st-century reader. Instead of cultivating humility and deference in how one approaches Scripture, it can lead to a careless attitude that expects Scripture to speak quickly to whatever issue one is curious about.

 

MATT. 5:18

" For truly I say to you , until Heaven and Earth pass away, not the smallest
LETTER or STROKE shall pass away from the Law, until it is all accomplished."

 

Mercury,

I think I understand what you are saying, though I don't know that I would have ever thought of it the way the end of your post describes.

I guess Ive always thought of its inspiration as being separate from my understanding of it. I mean, the Bible is inspired, not my grasp of its teachings.......

 

The Chicago Statement on Biblical Inerrancy expands somewhat on Helen’s brief but accurate statement but does it well.

“The authority of Scripture is a key issue for the Christian church in this and every age. Those who profess faith in Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior are called to show the reality of their discipleship by humbly and faithfully obeying God's written Word. To stray from Scripture in faith or conduct is disloyalty to our Master. Recognition of the total truth and trustworthiness of Holy Scripture is essential to a full grasp and adequate confession of its authority. 

The following Statement affirms this inerrancy of Scripture afresh, making clear our understanding of it and warning against its denial. We are persuaded that to deny it is to set aside the witness of Jesus Christ and of the Holy Spirit and to refuse that submission to the claims of God's own Word which marks true Christian faith. We see it as our timely duty to make this affirmation in the face of current lapses from the truth of inerrancy among our fellow Christians and misunderstanding of this doctrine in the world at large. 

This Statement consists of three parts: a Summary Statement, Articles of Affirmation and Denial, and an accompanying Exposition.


SHORT STATEMENT

1. God, who is himself truth and speaks truth only, has inspired Holy Scripture in order thereby to reveal himself to lost mankind through Jesus Christ as Creator and Lord, Redeemer and Judge. Holy Scripture is God's witness to himself.

2. Holy Scripture, being God's own Word, written by men prepared and superintended by his Spirit, is of infallible divine authority in all matters upon which it touches: it is to be believed, as God's instruction, in all that it affirms; obeyed, as God's command, in all that it requires; embraced, as God's pledge, in all that it promises.

3. The Holy Spirit, Scripture's divine author, both authenticates it to us by his inward witness and opens our minds to understand its meaning.

4. Being wholly and verbally God-given, Scripture is without error or fault in all its teaching, no less in what it states about God's acts in creation, about the events of world history, and about its own literary origins under God, than in its witness to God's saving grace in individual lives.

5. The authority of Scripture is inescapably impaired if this total divine inerrancy is in any way limited or disregarded, or made relative to a view of truth contrary to the Bible's own; and such lapses bring serious loss to both the individual and the church. “

http://www.baptiststart.com/print/chicago_statement.html

 

All scripture is 100% inspired. The lies of Satan that are recorded there are lies, but the text is inspired. Do not confuse the accuracy of the statement with the inspiration of the text.

So saying "it's not all God's word in the same way" can be misleading. In reality, it's all God's word, and it's all God's word in the same way. But God's word records lies of satan, and opinions of pharasees, etc. But every word of the Bible is inspired to the same degree. Don't confuse inspiration with accuracy or interpretation.

 

Was just the original hand inspired, or were the redactions afterward inspired also? Scribal updates of names and places, are they inspired, too? What about the changes in grammar and such that occurred when the ancient Semitic script was replaced with the Aramaic after the Babylonian Captivity?

[ September 13, 2005, 11:26 PM: Message edited by: Bluefalcon ]

 

That's good!

That's what I think too.

Scripture claims that certain parts are God's word in special ways. The recorded words of Eliphaz and Jesus are not God's word in the same way, though both are part of God's word.