The Bible is called the “Word of God.” Therefore, did God choose every word or did the authors freely choose their words? Also, how divine is the revelation of Scripture if humans were included in the process? Through the centuries the church’s view of Scripture has remained fundamentally the same, with few exceptions. As early as A.D. 200, the early church father Origen affirmed, “the Scriptures were written by the Spirit of God.”2 Yet as Roger Olson points out, the Bible was not dropped out of heaven.3 Therefore, from the Old Testament to the New Testament the church as believed that Scriptures are both divinely inspired and written by human authors. Furthermore, Olson writes, “The consensual tradition of Christian thought and teaching has …show more content…
Yes, because of the human element of writing the text. Humans make errors, such as Paul’s grammatical errors mentioned above. A long held belief and still held by some today is that the Bible is inerrant—without error, in all of its words. The reason for this belief goes back to support the dictation theory or plenary verbal theory of inspiration. The Swiss theologian Emil Brunner claimed, “Scripture is not only inspired by God and authoritative for Christian faith and practice and infallible in communicating the will and way of God for salvation, but also literally, technically inerrant in everything upon which it touches, including matters of history and cosmology.”12 Yet scholars have revealed minor errors in some texts. Therefore, a better understanding of the perfection of Scripture would be to call it infallible, which according to Olson, “describes the power of Scripture never to fail in its main purpose, which is to teach people about God and transform them in encounter with him.”13 Therefore, Scripture’s main goal and purpose are held together without error in all matters of …show more content…
In fact, the writer of Hebrews says, “The word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart.”14 The Holy Spirit continues to work through the text of Scripture to inspire people and transform people into the likeness of God’s Son Jesus Christ. Olson comments, “Suffice it to say here that the consensus that Scripture has a divine origin and possesses divine authority because of its unique inspiration continues to unite faithful Christians of many traditions and denominations.”15 In other words, there is a timeless work of Scripture.
Also, Olson says, “In the ‘hands’ of the Spirit of God the Bible has always again and again become the unique instrument that shapes the identity of God’s people and transforms their lives.16 The Bible is truly God’s means of reveling himself to all of humanity as well as transforming the lives of his followers. The Scriptures were inspired through the Holy Spirit and the Holy Spirit continues working through these “living” words to form his
The Bible is read and interpreted by many people all over the world. Regardless, no one knows the absolute truth behind scripture. Walter Brueggemann, professor of Old Testament, wrote “Biblical Authority” to help people understand what he describes as six different parts that make up the foundation to ones understanding of scripture. He defines these six features as being: inherency, interpretation, imagination, ideology, inspiration, and importance. As Brueggemann explains each individual part, it is easy to see that they are all interconnected because no one can practice one facet without involuntarily practicing at least one other part.
The reasons for it being human is like Kuhn states in his title “The Bible as Conversation”, to have conversation there is a human component. Also there are human authors to the Bible, and each one puts forth the type of story they wanted to communicate. There is also divine intention, God has intentions for us to be his people, but as Kuhn emphasizes, “Divine intention is reversed by human intercession.” This meaning, God’s divine intention can be changed or intersected by human conversation. As in Exodus 33.17, “The Lord said to Moses, “I will do the very thing that you have asked; for you have found favor in my sight, and I know you by name.” This was after the Israelites had gone against God’s command about not setting other gods before him and not making an idol for themselves. And then, Moses had gone before God to stand up for the Israelites, to have God show his mercy on them. Conversely, an example of the Bible as divine would be 2 Peter 1:20-21, “First of all you must understand this, that no prophecy of scripture is a matter of one’s own interpretation, because no prophecy ever came by human will, but men and women moved by the Holy Spirit spoke from God.” Here what the Bible is mainly saying is we are to read the scriptures as God wrote them, and that it is all “God breathed.” I feel Kuhn has it right though, because to have divine intention by God there must also be a human component. This being,
I have always seen scripture as the Apostle Paul stated in his letter to Timothy, “All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness,” (2 Timothy 3:16 ESV). I see this statement of the Apostle Paul’s directed more to the OT, because the OT would have been readily available to most NT churches of that time period. The churches would have still been receiving portions of the NT scripture well after the Apostle Paul 's statement in 2 Timothy 3:16. For a person to truly understand the scripture we must be careful that our presuppositions do not hinder or distort the scripture and its original meaning. When studying scripture I always look to challenge my own personal
When looking at the common theme that Barth develops in God Here and Now, it becomes apparent for the need of congregation to justify, ratify, and promote the Bible as the living word of God. When and where the Bible constitutes its own authority and significance, it mediates the very presence of God through the congregation. Encountering this presence in the Church, among those whose lives presume living through the Bible’s power and meaning. Barth states that the Bible must become God's Word and this occurs only when God wills to address us in and through it. The Christ-event is God's definitive self-disclosure, while Scripture and preaching are made to correspond to him as a faithful witness becomes the perfect statement according to Barth (Barth, 2003, p. 61).
There is much debate over the accuracy and the inerrancy of Scripture. Pertaining to this debate there exists an underlying question as to whether or not the New Testament is considered part of the canon or for that matter if it is actually given by the inspiration of God. How did the books that are in the New Testament get there? Who decided which books should be added or taken out? Do we have all the books that we should have? Many ask these questions, but Christians are ill equipped to give an answer. For centuries, Christians have claimed that they have the absolute truth, are saved only by faith, and claim the Scriptures as inspired by God. In spite of these claims many Christians are not able to clarify the origins of what they place all of their faith upon. The questions asked above are profoundly significant since they have eternal consequences. They have consequences because in order to trust and obey God there must be certainty in the accuracy of God’s Word. This testament will attempt to answer the question: How Do We Know The New Testament is God’s Word?
This quote by Gene Nowlin in his book The Paraphrased Perversion of the Bible summarizes the composition of the Bible. Throughout life, Christians grasp tightly to these words of God in hopes to inherit the Kingdom of God one day. In order to do this, they must study the Bible closely and apply it to their lives daily. Without the proper Bible, this may become a difficult task to accomplish. Although the various translations of the Christian Bible are exceptionally similar in their message, some have quite a few differences and perversions that set them apart from one another. Many of them even leave out several potentially important verses in their revision. These variations contribute to the justification of one translation being more reliable and accurate than the other versions.
When the Bible was written the concomitant influence was from God and the Holy Spirit. This view of the origins of Bibli...
In my Christian tradition, the interpretation of scripture is approached literally, historically and spiritually. My Pastor usually gives background history of the scripture before explaining the context. Similar to most of the ministers in my church he will mention that he received inspiration from God while studying a particular text. As a result, I believe God is the true interpreter of Scripture. Specifically no two individuals get the same meaning from the same scripture. I believe that Scriptural interpretation is inspired by God. Therefore, each person’s approach to interpretation is tailored by God to the individual’s needs. As I consider the early Christian and Medieval methods of interpretation, many of methods are in use today. I believe different methods of interpretation are necessary to accommodate individual approaches to God.
Scripture,” the idea that the Bible is God’s perfect word, the clearest expression of God’s plan
The Bible student, laymen, or pastor will find the principles presented by Fee and Stuart helpful despite the weaknesses presented. The author’s contribution on how to interpret each of the different genres is especially beneficial. The Bible Student will have more knowledge of how to interpret God’s Word when finished with the work. Fee and Stuart achieve their goal helping the reader not only with interpretation, but with application.
Even though humans wrote the text, translating it and passing it down from generations to generations, God’s truth is unchanging. Debates of the inerrancy of the bible cannot usurp God as the King of grace. Instead of focusing on the inerrancy of the Bible, individuals who wish to seek a life of faith should focus on the inspiration God is showing them in his word. These revelations should move them into applicable, daily life changing implications from what they have learned. God shows revelations of himself through the Bible, and his character is revealed time and time again throughout scripture. Any faulty facts or discrepancies in grammar or data, should not take away from the value that scripture holds. When we read scripture we bring new meaning of interpretations of the truths God shows us, since new eras and environmental factors will be influential on how we process information. The bible is not just a fact book, telling humans stories of the past, but instead the bible is inspired instructions for how we can deal with spiritual and ethical encounters we
Authority of Scripture reconciles the community with God and can transform our lives. To participate in the fuller blessing of understanding, it is important to view Scripture with historical and literary sensitivity, interpret theocentrically, ecclesially, and contextually. I realize each of these can be overwhelming to the average person who is seeking direction for a specific concern in their life. Therefore, Migliore reminds us, interpreting Scripture is practical engagement in the living of Christian faith, love, and hope in a still redeemed world. When we listen carefully to the voices of the past, from a worldwide culture, and guided by the Holy Spirit, we will open ourselves to those transformational opportunities.
The purpose of this paper is to discuss the importance of theories of inspiration and the Bible as God’s-breathed word. Owing to one of the most specific, the illumination theory in the inspiration of doctrine is what created the content of Scripture. It indicates the divine activity bringing scripture to the real life (Erickson, 2001). Generally, illumination of inspiration shows us the role of God in the overall life process. Moreover, the idea of inspiration stresses on the place where everyone stands in adherence to the Holy Spirit. Nowadays, Biblical illumination has become one of the most disputable topics of the modern theological field (McDowell, 1999). The objective of this work is to explore the illumination theory’s development. Current field of study claims for research that is more investigational in the future (Denbski & Licona, 2012).
The nature of Scripture and the authority of Scripture are two characteristics carefully entwined in such a way that creates an impossibility for them to not affect each other. They directly influence each other. Evangelicalism, Liberalism, and Neo-Orthodoxy all have differing views of the nature and authority of Scripture. Evangelicalism takes up the view that the Bible, Scripture, is infallible (Lane, 2006, p. 255). Scripture is God’s word and is therefore fully truth (Lane, 2006, p. 256). People under Evangelicalism equate Scripture with God’s spoken word, and they believe that though God and humans are both authors, the human author was divinely prepared by God to write out His word (Lane, 2006, p. 257). They believe that “the Bible is the supreme authority for faith and practice” (Bingham, 2002, p. 162). Liberalism takes a different view on the Scripture. In Liberalism, religion is “nothing but feeling and experience” (Lane, 2006, p. 238). This reduces the authority and value of Scripture. Scripture is not seen as God’s word or His revelation but as a written record of the experiences of humans, which takes away from its divinity and authority (Lane, 2006, p. 239). Schleiermacher, the father of Liber...
With the advent of the printing press and the protestant reformation in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, the Word of God became available to the common believer. Now, in the twenty first century, people all over the world, can read for themselves the scriptures in their own languages. Consider the Bible studies going on in any given country on any given evening, where people are encouraged to interact with the sacred scriptures. As encouraging as this may be, it may present a problem. Could discussions of what a scripture ‘means to me’ cloud out what the scripture originally meant? Is it even possible to know the author’s intent? Even if we could understand a first century text as its author intended, can we also grasp what it’s supposed to mean to us?