A Topical Study: INSPIRATION OF THE BIBLE

from: A Self-Study Guide -Acts
Irvine L. Jensen
The Moody Bible Institution of Chicago
copyright © 1969
Used by permission.

"Well spake the Holy Ghost by Esaias [Isaiah] the prophet unto our fathers." (Acts 28:25).

The inspiration of the original text of the books of the Bible has been defined as the work of the Holy Spirit by which, through the instrumentality of the personality and literary talents of its human authors, He constituted the words of the Bible in all of its several parts as His written word to men and therefore of divine authority and without error in the autographs.*

Theories of biblical inspiration concern any of the fol­lowing: source, method, time and end product. The Bible's own testimony to its inspiration speaks only of the first and last of those four. The exact method and time of inspiration are not developed in the Scriptures.

The main things taught by the Bible concerning its inspiration are summarized as follows:

1. THE WRITERS WERE INSPIRED. "carried along"

   "Holy men from God spoke as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit" (II Peter 1:21, Berkeley). Read also Mark 12:36. The method of inspiration was not dictation, but a mutual interworking of the divine Spirit and the human mind. The details of the method are not described, just as the details of other miraculous works of God are not described (indeed, cannot be described).

2. THE WRITINGS WERE INSPIRED. "God-breathed"

   "Every Scripture is God-breathed" (II Tim. 3:16, Ampli­fied) . This verse teaches that the Bible is a divine product.

3. EXTENT OF INSPIRATION.

   All Scriptures were inspired (II Tim. 3:16). This is the plenary view, which applies inspiration to all parts of the Bible, non-religious subjects (e.g., history, science) as well as religious subjects. Inspiration applied to the very words of the originals (verbal inspiration). The net result was inerrancy and infallibility of all the very words of the autographs. (Read Matt. 5:17-19; Luke 16:17; 24:25; John 10:34-35).

4. ABSOLUTE AUTHORITY OF THE BIBLE.

   The Bible's main emphasis in its witness concerning itself is its absolute authority. A key phrase appearing through­out the Old Testament is "Thus saith the Lord." Read the following passages: Psalm 19:7-14; 119:89, 97, 113, 160; Zechariah 7:12; Matthew 5:17-19; Luke 4:4, 8, 10; 16:17; John 10:34-35; I Thessalonians 2:13; Romans 9:15; Gala­tians 3:8.

5. SOME OTHER WITNESSES OF DIVINE INSPIRATION.
   1. Christ's use of the Old Testament.
   2. Fulfilled prophecies.
   3. Unity of the book.
   4. Inexhaustible depths.
   5. Influence of the book.
   6. Witness of the indwelling Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit within the believer makes it very clear whose voice is speaking through the words of this blessed Book.

*Kenneth S. Kantzer, "Inspiration," Merrill C. Tenney (ed.l, The Zondervan Pictorial Bible Dictionary (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1963), p. 380.