Revelation and Inspiration

  • Through creation and man’s conscience, God reveals His existence. This is general revelation.  
  • The Bible is special revelation, the specific uncovering of truth about life’s ultimate questions: God, sin, salvation, eternity, etc. 
  • Inspiration is the process by which God directed the human authors in such a way that what they wrote is reliable and free from error.
  • The Bible has divine-human authorship. It is God’s Word through the words of humans. This is part of what makes Scripture so remarkable. We can relate to the temptations, struggles, and emotions of the authors.

Key Verses on Inspiration

  • 2 Timothy 3:16, “All Scripture is given by inspiration of God and is profitable…”
  • The word used for inspiration is theopneustos in the original Greek, meaning God-breathed. The Bible is a divine product. 
  • 2 Peter 1:20-21, “…holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost.”
  • The word used for moved is pheromenoi in the Greek, meaning carried along. It was often used to describe a ship’s sails controlled by the wind.

Biblical Inerrancy

  • Inerrancy means that “the Bible, in the original Hebrew and Greek manuscripts, says exactly what God wants it to say and has not been corrupted by human mistakes.”
  • In Matthew 22:31-32, Christ bases His teaching on the verb tense of a single word in the Old Testament. In Matthew 22:41-46, He argues from the O.T. use of the pronoun “my.”
  • Jesus was confident in the accuracy of the Old Testament, down to the smallest details. 
  • The Bible is “without error or fault in all its teaching.” No discovery has ever refuted a Biblical statement.​

The Canon

  • The canon refers to the sixty-six books of the Bible which Protestants recognize as inspired.
  • The Old Testament canon was passed down by the Jews. The O.T. is self-declaring. It has over 3,000 messages attributed directly to God, often expressed simply as, “Then the Lord spoke…”
  • One main criteria for N.T. books is authorship. Most of the N.T. was written by eye-witnesses of Christ’s resurrection or men directly connected to the apostles.
  • To gain acceptance, these writings could not disagree with or contradict previous Scripture and had to gain widespread acceptance and use by the churches.
  • The early church strongly rebuked false writings such as the Gnostic gospels which form the basis for modern fiction like The Da Vinci Code.

Bible Translation

  • Originally, the O.T. was written in Hebrew and the N.T. was written in Greek.
  • Translation is nothing more than transferring the message of one language into another. Bible translations are not inspired.
  • John Wycliffe (1320-1384) completed the first English translation. He faced persecution for advocating the Bible in the common language.
  • Mistakes made by people copying the manuscripts or translating the original languages “lie outside the parameter of ‘God-breathed.’”​

Philosophies of Bible Translation

Because languages are very different, scholars disagree about the best way to translate the Hebrew/Greek texts. There are two main approaches: Formal (“literal” or “word-for-word”) and functional (“thought-for-thought”). If a translation was fully formal, it would be unreadable. If it was fully functional, it would read like a paraphrase. 

“Literal” does not necessarily mean “more accurate,” but we should prefer a formal approach so that we do not distort the original meaning.  The KJV, NASB, and ESV are more formal; the NLT and CEV are more functional. NIV claims a middle ground. There are no significant differences in doctrine among the Bible translations available; however, the serious Bible reader should be familiar with study tools which help clarify the meaning of the original language.

Textual Criticism

  • In this context, criticism means analysis and judgment of the ancient manuscripts to recreate the autograph--the original text.
  • The number of existing Biblical manuscripts is far greater than any other ancient literature. By comparing text with text, we can confidently determine the original, inspired writing.
  • In 1947, the Dead Sea Scrolls (Old Testament manuscripts dating from 200-100 B.C.) were discovered. There were no notable differences from the manuscripts on which we base our current Old Testament translations!
  • We have over 5,000 Greek N.T. manuscripts. Only 0.01% of the original content is in question, none of which affects doctrine.​

Other Key Points

  • The Bible is God’s self-disclosure. It reveals who God is and how deeply He cares for us. It invites us to find forgiveness and enter into a personal relationship with our Savior. 
  • God will judge us by the Bible. We will be held accountable for reading and obeying its truth. “Inspiration gives the Bible the same authority over us as if the words came directly from the mouth of God.”
  • Because the Bible is God’s Word, it will never be outdated or irrelevant. It must be studied carefully while relying on God’s guidance. ​

How Should We Read the Bible?

  • Step 1: Observation. Read each passage carefully. Set aside what you “think you know.” Do not try to determine the meaning at this stage. Look for key words, figurative language, etc. Look, look, and look again.
  • Step 2: Interpretation. In a sentence or two, summarize what you think that the passage meant to the Biblical audience. Give first priority to the literary and historical context. If your interpretation would not have made sense to the Biblical audience, it is incorrect.. 
  • Step 3: Application. Look for the underlying principle and how it applies to your life. Make sure that your application is compatible with the rest of the Bible.
  • Step 4: Actualization. Make it a reality in your life. Obey His commandments. "Pray the Bible," asking God to transform your character according to His Word.