How the Bible Came to Us

The Bible as the Word of God

Key Proposition

• The Bible is the authoritative, revealed Word of God and as such is wholly truth without error in the original autographs.– “The Bible encompasses the whole of human

history, from the beginning of creation (Gen. 1-2) to the destruction of the world and the creation of a new heaven and earth (Rev. 21-22). It claims to be the very Word of God (Jer. 1:1-2; Hos. 1:1; 2 Tim. 3:16), written so we can know what God expects from us” (Wegner, The Journey from Texts to Translations, p. 13).

Key Texts on the Inspiration of Scripture

• All Scripture is inspired by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness; that the man of God may be adequate, equipped for every good work (2 Tim 3:16-17).– “God-breathed”; all scripture is the direct

result of the activity of God.– “Profitable”, i.e., the Word of God is to

shape our thinking so that we might live lives pleasing to God.

Key Texts on the Inspiration of Scripture

• But know this first of all, 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 (2 Pet 1:20-21).– “Prophecy” here includes all of scripture. – “Carried along” is the picture of wind filling the

sails of a ship.– Men did not write their own opinions or

understandings, but wrote what God wanted recorded.

The Bible is a Divine Book• It is “God-breathed” and therefore comes

directly from God. It is His Word!• Because God cannot lie, His Word cannot lie.

God’s Word is Truth!• While the Bible is not a textbook on science,

history, medicine, geography, etc., when it speaks on matters which fall within these spheres of knowledge, what it says is Truth and not Error.

• It is the writings that are inspired and infallible, not the men who recorded them.

The Bible is a Human Book

• All 66 books of the Bible were written by men.• God did not mechanically dictate what was

written, nor did He override the education, experience, or personality of the writers.

• The human writers were not passive in the process; they were instruments of God.– They used research (Luke 1:1-4).– They expressed intense personal feeling (Rom

9:1-3).– Their varying styles, vocabularies, and

personalities clearly come through in their writings.• But God insured that what they wrote was

what He wanted written, down to the very word.

The Self-Attesting Witness of the Word

• God’s Word is self-attesting; what it says about itself must be used to determine what it is!– “The appeal to Scripture to validate the

authority of Scripture is an appeal to an objective content that is God-breathed” [James Grier, “The Apologetical Value of the Self-Witness of Scripture” GTJ 1:1 (Spring 1980) 75].

Biblical Metaphors for God’s Word

• Silver (Ps 12:6) and Gold (Ps 19:10)• A Lamp (Ps 119:105)• A Mirror (Jas 1:22-25) • Milk (1 Pet 2:1-3; 1 Cor 3:2)• Bread (Dt 8:3; Matt 4:4)• Honey (Ps 19:10)• Water (Eph 5:25-27)• “I have not departed from the command

of His lips; I have treasured the words of His mouth more than my necessary food” (Job 23:12).

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The Birth of the Bible