Inspiration others [1932 ]

A major portion of the following lecture is adapted from chapters 2 & 3 of A General Introduction to the Bible, Norman L. Geisler and William E. Nix, Moody Press, 1968. I have read several books on this subject, and I find this book MOST helpful.

Theories of inspiration from our On-Line Text Book

GOD'S CAUSALITY God is the prime mover in the process. God revealed and man recorded. The Bible originates with God and is authorized by God even thought men articulated the words.

The PROPHETIC AGENCY The prophet or writer was the means through which God spoke. God being the efficient cause and the prophet or writer the instrumental cause, allow for a text which has characteristics of the various writers and still reveal God's intentions.

The final product is SCRIPTURAL AUTHORITY

"Inspiration is that mysterious process by which the divine causality worked through the human prophets without destroying their individual personalities and styles, to produce divinely authoritative writings." [Geisler & Nix, 29]

DEFINE TERMS

Augustus H. Strong
"Inspiration is that influence of the Spirit of God upon the minds of the Scripture writers which made their writing the record of a progressive divine revelation, sufficient, when taken together and interpreted by the same Holy Spirit who inspired them, to leas every honest inquirer to Christ and to Salvation." [Garrett V.1, 110]
Millard Erickson
"That supernatural influence of the Holy Spirit upon the Scriptrure writers which rendered their writing an accurate record of the revelation or which resulted in what they wrote actually being the Word of God." [Erickson, 199]

As we examine inspiration keep the following three terms in mind. Understanding the difference will help you communicate your understanding about inspiration. Example: you interpretation (illumination) of what God said, in no way effects the inspiration. God has inspired a book and we are responsible to understand it correctly.

Far too often, our interpretations become almost divinely inspired. When, as it often happens, our interpretation takes on a different flavor or changes completely, the person who accepted out illumination as authoritative will reject the actually authority. They made a false one-to-one relationship between INSPIRATION and ILLUMINATION.

Inspiration
the fact of divine communication. God's "out-breathing:
Revelation
the means of divine communication. God's objective disclosure.
Illumination
gift of apprehension understanding that divine communication. See Interpretation
 

THEORIES OF INSPIRATION & REVELATION

To summarize Geisler and Nix:

Liberal - The Bible contains the Word of God

Left Wing - The writers were inspired from time to time when their natural insight and instinct were "deepened and heightened" to discover divine truths in their day.

Right wing - The Illumination View holds that God allowed pious men of old deep religious insight. They recorded as religious lore their insight or inspiration. Revelation can be found from place to place in the Bible.

Neo-orthodox - The Bible becomes the word of God

Left Wing - The real truth in the Bible can be separated from the mythology in the Bible by the principle of "demythology." "The Bible must be stripped of culture in order to get to the real message." They look beyond the historical to the "super-historical/"

Right Wing - The Bible, even the autographs, contain many human errors and imperfections. " The Bible becomes the Word of God when He chooses to use this imperfect channel to confront man with His perfect word." God communicates through this "personal encounter" between the Bible and the Word of God.

Conservative View - The Bible is the Word of God.

Left Wing - In order to explain the varies grammar, vocabulary and literary techniques seen it the Bible, the Left Wing Conservative believes that God gave the thoughts or ideas to the writer and they were "free" to record it "in his own words." Sometimes called "dynamic inspiration."

Right Wing - Verbal Dictation View or Mechanical Dictation. Leaves out any human aspects. The author, writer, prophet was only a "typewriter."

THE BASIC BIBLICAL VIEW - Verbal, Plenary Inspiration

Verbal - the words which are written are God-breathed (inspired).

Plenary - God gave full expression to His thoughts in the words of the biblical record

"He guided in the very choice of words used within the personality and the cultural complex of the writers so that, in some inscrutable manner, the Bible is the word of God while being the words of men." [Geisler & Nix, 46]

"Finally, the true biblical position is not an either/or issue as it is a both/and position: God directed the expression of the writers' thoughts without disturbing the free exercise of the writers' personalities. The end product is as authoritative as if it were mechanically dictated, but as writer-orientated as if it were humanly created. The means is dynamic and the end result is authoritative and canonical Scripture." [Geisler & Nix, 47]

 

MORE STUDY

Millard Erickson, Christian Theology, Chapter 9.

James. Leo Garret has an excellent, scholarly study on this subject, Chapter 8.

 

End of form
24 February 2000