Inspiration: The Person of Truth

The inspiration of Scripture concerns its origin in God and its fundamental identity as a divine product – the Word of God.

Near the end of his life, the apostle Paul wrote a very personal letter to Timothy, his beloved son in the faith. We call it Second Timothy. He encouraged Timothy to endure the hardships of spiritual leadership and to persevere in his ministry. He reminded Timothy of a few principles that define the life and influence of the church. One of those principles is the divine origin of the Scripture and its centrality and priority in life and ministry. He wrote,

The phrase “inspired by God” is a familiar, but not very helpful, translation of one Greek word, “θέοπνέΰστος” (theopneustos). Theopneustos is a compound word, bringing together the terms for God, theos, and breath, pneustos. So its derivation is literally, “God-breathed.” That is how the New International Version translates it: “All Scripture is God-breathed….”

The point of Paul’s statement is that all Scripture is a divine product, proceeding from the very mouth of God (cf, Matt. 4:4). If we understand nothing else about inspiration, we must understand this! The Bible has its origin and identity in God. It is literally the Word of (from) God, spoken by Him through His prophets.

The Process of Inspiration

What do we know of the process by which God gave us His Word? The best biblical explanation comes through Peter, who said,

“Above all, you must understand that no prophecy of Scripture came about by the prophet’s own interpretation. For prophecy never had its origin in the will of man, but men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit.” (2 Peter 1:20-21)

The word for “carried along” was used by Luke in Acts 27:15 and 17 to describe a ship being driven along by the wind. Peter is describing a process whereby the human authors, while maintaining their unique personality, were carried along by the Holy Spirit to write the words that He wanted. The result is that the Scripture is the recorded words of the Holy Spirit, spoken through chosen prophets.

For example, what Jeremiah wrote, the Holy Spirit wrote through him. This is seen in Hebrews 10:15-17, where a passage from Jeremiah is attributed to the Holy Spirit:

And the Holy Spirit also testifies to us; for after saying,
"THIS IS THE COVENANT THAT I WILL MAKE WITH THEM AFTER THOSE DAYS, SAYS THE LORD:
I WILL PUT MY LAWS UPON THEIR HEART,
AND ON THEIR MIND I WILL WRITE THEM,"
He then says,
"AND THEIR SINS AND THEIR LAWLESS DEEDS
I WILL REMEMBER NO MORE."

And what David wrote in Scripture, the Holy Spirit spoke through him. This is illustrated in Acts 1:16-20, where Peter attributes the words of David in Psalm 109 to the Holy Spirit:

"Brethren, the Scripture had to be fulfilled, which the Holy Spirit foretold by the mouth of David concerning Judas, who became a guide to those who arrested Jesus. For he was counted among us and received his share in this ministry."
(Now this man acquired a field with the price of his wickedness, and falling headlong, he burst open in the middle and all his intestines gushed out.

And it became known to all who were living in Jerusalem; so that in their own language that field was called Hakeldama, that is, Field of Blood.)
"For it is written in the book of Psalms,
'LET HIS HOMESTEAD BE MADE DESOLATE,

The result of this process is a dual authorship of the Bible. But we must be careful about reducing this process to a mere mechanical dictation theory. God did not obliterate their unique personalities, style, and cultural conditioning. Quite the contrary, this process involved the freedom, spontaneity, and creativity of the human writers. Their writings in the Bible reflect their unique tendencies in vocabulary and style.

B. B. Warfield gently mocked the notion that, when God wanted to deliver Paul’s letters, “He was reduced to the necessity of going down to earth and painfully scrutinizing the men He found there, seeking anxiously for the one who, on the whole, promised best for His purpose; and then violently forcing the material He wished expressed through him, against the natural bent, and with as little loss from his recalcitrant characteristics as possible. Of course, nothing of the sort took place. If God wished to give His people a series of letters like Paul’s, He prepared a Paul to write them, and the Paul He brought to the task was a Paul who spontaneously would write just such letters.^¹

So the human authorship is genuine and dynamic, but sovereignly overseen by the Spirit of God.

This truth of the inspiration of God’s Word was a defining and driving conviction in the life and ministry of Martin Luther. This was reflected in the first edition of his complete translation of the Bible, where Lucas Cranach’s illustrations at the opening of the gospels showed the Holy Spirit, in the form of a dove, superintending the human authors. The illustration below introduced Mark’s Gospel.

The Scope of Inspiration

What is the locus, or location, of inspiration? Is it located in the author (meaning the author was inspired), in the ideas or concepts behind the text, or is it in the actual text that he wrote? And what is the reach, or scope, of it (meaning how much of it is inspired)? Does it reach every book? Every sentence? Every word?

Incorrect Views

Before addressing the biblical teaching on the scope of inspiration, we should first address four common errors.

Some people believe in a “Partial Inspiration” (and Limited Inerrancy). This view teaches that inspiration and its resultant inerrancy reach only matters of faith and doctrine, not matters of history or science. The response to this is that the Bible claims “all Scripture” is inspired and “all Scripture” is profitable for faith and practice. It does not restrict itself on what it speaks to truthfully.

A second error is called “Natural Inspiration.” This teaching suggests that the Biblical writers were inspired in the sense of some elevated human experience and expression, such as an exceptional performance in drama, literature, composition, etc. Such an experience may rightfully be attributed to Handel or Bach, but that is certainly not Paul’s point in 2 Timothy 3:16. Paul makes Scripture, that is the writing and not the author, the locus of inspiration. The Scripture is inspired, not the prophet.

A third errant approach to inspiration is called “Conceptual Inspiration.” This view is represented by J. B. Phillips, who said, “Any man who has sense as well as faith is bound to conclude that it is the truths which are inspired and not the words, which are merely vehicles of truth.”

Such a position is manifestly self-defeating. When truths are wrapped entirely and solely in words, the accurate communication of those truths will rise or fall with the accurate communication of the words. If the words falter or err, the truth they carry is marred with such error. In addition, the Greek word translated “Scripture” in 2 Timothy 3:16 is the word, γραφη (graphē), which in its common use means “writing.” Hence, Paul is clearly pointing to the written product, not the ideas behind it, as “inspired.”

A fourth misunderstanding of inspiration we will call “Barthian Inspiration.” Karl Barth (1886-1986), the Swiss theologian, has influenced many with his “encounter inspiration”. Barth taught that the Bible and the Bible alone uniquely reveals God to man. However, it does this, not in propositional statements, but in personal encounter with God. In this existential encounter, the meaningless inkblots become the Word of God to the individual at the “moment of meaning.” So he concluded that we cannot say the Bible is the Word of God, but we say it becomes the Word of God in personal encounter. Barth concluded that the Bible is a fallible, written word about the infallible Living Word.

The Bible, however, says the Scripture, not the encounter, is inspired. The Bible is the Word of God before any existential encounter. In fact, it is the Word of God even when it is rejected, as evidenced by Jesus’ rebuke of the Pharisees and scribes, “And by this you invalidate the word of God for the sake of your tradition” (Matt. 15:6).

Correct View

The correct view is that the written Scripture is inspired, and inspiration reaches every word, every inflection of a word, and every stroke of the pen in the text of Scripture.

But [Jesus] answered and said, "It is written, 'MAN SHALL NOT LIVE ON BREAD ALONE, BUT ON EVERY WORD THAT PROCEEDS OUT OF THE MOUTH OF GOD.'" (Matt. 4:4)

Elsewhere, Jesus defended His deity on the basis of one word (Matt. 22:41-46). Why? Because one word, indeed every word, from God’s Word is inspired and authoritative.

We call this “verbal, plenary inspiration;” verbal meaning “word”, and plenary meaning “all” or “every.” Every word is inspired, or God-breathed, and that to an equal degree.

Every inflection of a word

In Galatians 3, Paul is arguing that Jesus is the fulfillment of the promise to Abraham concerning his seed. Paul rests his argument on the difference between the singular “seed” and the plural “seeds” (Galatians 3:16; Gen. 12:7; 13:15; 24:7).

Matthew records that Jesus, while speaking to the Sadducees, rested his argument for the resurrection on the present tense of the verb, “I am” (Matt. 22:31-32).

These significant points of theology are allowed to hang on the mere inflection of a word that distinguishes singular and plural in a noun, or present and past tense in a verb.

Every letter and stroke of a pen

In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus taught, “For verily I say unto you, Till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the Law, till all be fulfilled.” (Matt. 5:18; AV)

A modern reader might well ask, “What is a jot or a tittle?” Actually, the answer is fascinating. Let’s begin with the jot. Dr. Charles Ryrie explains, “The jot is the Hebrew letter yodh. It is the smallest of all the letters in the Hebrew alphabet. It would occupy proportionately about the same amount of space that an English apostrophe takes up in a line of English type.”^² Actually, the Hebrew letter, yodh (י), looks very much like an English apostrophe. The point is that Jesus describes the authority and indestructibility of God’s Word as reaching even the smallest letter of its alphabet.^³ And if the smallest letter is authoritative and indestructible, surely the larger ones are as well.

Now let’s consider the tittle. A tittle is even smaller than a jot. Whereas a jot is a whole letter, a tittle is only part of a letter. Actually it is the smallest distinguishable mark of the Hebrew alphabet. That is why it is translated “stroke” (NASB) or “least stroke of a pen” (NIV). Dr. Ryrie illustrates, “The Hebrew letter beth looks like this ב. The letter kaph looks like this כ. Obviously they appear to be very similar. The only difference between the two letters is that the bottom horizontal line on the beth extends slightly to the right of the vertical line, whereas no extension appears on the kaph. That extension … is a tittle.”^⁴ In English, we call this a serif. Another example is the difference between these two Hebrew letters: ד, dalet, and ר, resh. The small stroke extending right from the top of the vertical line of the dalet is what distinguishes these two letters. That small stroke is a tittle.

Jesus is saying that every letter –even the smallest, the yodh - and every stroke of a letter – even the smallest stroke, the tittle - in the Hebrew Scripture (the only Scripture at that time) is authoritative and indestructible. Inasmuch as authority is the result of inspiration, we conclude that inspiration reaches every letter and stroke of the text that came from the original writers.^⁵

It is fashionable in some academic circles to deny the divine inspiration and consequent absolute inerrancy and authority of all Scripture. Often such a denial is defended on the grounds of human authorship. My response to this argument is twofold:

First, such an argument is based on faulty logic. To suggest that human participation in the writing of Holy Scripture necessarily defiles it involves some wrong assumptions about humanness.

The English (and non-biblical) proverb “to err is human” has its limits. Let me illustrate. First, I will be in heaven some day. I will still be human. But I will not be erring. Second, I am presently human, but I am not always erring. Sometimes (my wife says only occasionally) I actually do some things right. If a student scores 100 on an exam, that student, though human, has not erred in that endeavor. Third, Christ was the product of the Holy Spirit, conceived in Mary. Indeed Mary was human (and often erred like the rest of us), but her participation in the process did not defile Jesus in any sense. He was born “the holy one” (Luke 1:35), without sin, in spite of Mary’s participation. To argue that He was flawed by Mary’s participation is to deny the perfect holiness of “the Holy One,” which is blasphemous.

My second response is that such an argument sets one on a dangerous path. J. C. Ryle once said, “We corrupt the Word of God most dangerously, when we throw any doubt on the plenary inspiration of any part of Holy Scripture. This is not merely corrupting the bucket of living water, which we profess to be presenting to our people, but poisoning the whole well. Once wrong on this point, the whole substance of our religion is in danger. It is a flaw in the foundation. It is a worm at the root of our theology. Once allow the worm to gnaw the root, and we must not be surprised if the branches, the leaves, and the fruit, little by little, decay.”^⁶

How does all of this affect my life? What are the practical implications of the doctrine of inspiration? I believe there are seven relevant conclusions for us to draw about a God-breathed Scripture.

First, because the Bible is God-breathed, it is from God. Paul wrote to the Thessalonian believers, “And for this reason we also constantly thank God that when you received from us the word of God’s message, you accepted it not as the word of men, but for what it really is, the word of God, which also performs its work in you who believe.” (1 Thess. 2:13)

The Scripture is God’s Word. As stated earlier, if we understand nothing else about inspiration, we must understand this! The Bible has its origin and identity in God. It is literally the Word of (from) God, spoken by Him through His prophets.

I need to clarify something at this point. Some people are hesitant to say that the Bible is inerrant in all matters, but they will say that it is infallible, meaning it will not lead us astray in matters of faith and practice. They make a strong categorical distinction between “matters of faith and practice” and “matters of science and history.” The response to this is to say the Bible claims “all Scripture” is inspired and “all Scripture” is therefore inerrant. It does not restrict itself on what it speaks to truthfully. “All Scripture” means that which addresses matters of faith and practice, as well as that which addresses matters of science and history. “All Scripture” is God-breathed and flawless.

Jesus compared His death and resurrection to the narrative of Jonah. He equated His three days and three nights of death to Jonah’s three days and three nights in the belly of the huge fish (Matt. 12:39-41). If Jonah is a fable, what does that mean about the historicity of Christ’s resurrection?

An outstanding statement on Biblical inerrancy is that of the International Council on Biblical Inerrancy:

“Being wholly and verbally God-given, Scripture is without error or fault in all its teachings, no less in what it states about God’s acts in creation and the events of world history, and about its own literary origins under God, than in its witness of God’s saving grace in individual lives.”

“The words of the LORD are flawless;
like silver refined in a furnace of clay,

"God is not a man, that He should lie,
Nor a son of man, that He should repent;
Has He said, and will He not do it?
Or has He spoken, and will He not make it good?”

“In the same way God, desiring even more to show to the heirs of the promise the unchangeableness of His purpose, interposed with an oath, so that by two unchangeable things in which it is impossible for God to lie, we who have taken refuge would have strong encouragement to take hold of the hope set before us.”

These Scriptures, and the sum of the rest, testify that God speaks absolute truth. That is why Charles Wesley concluded, “If there be any mistakes in the Bible, there may as well be a thousand. If there be one falsehood in that book, it did not come from the God of truth.”

Third, because the Bible is God-breathed, it is authoritative. At this point we need to consider the competing standards of authority within professing Christendom.

One group defends the authority of reason over Scripture. Herein is liberal theology. It involves an ambiguous and errant often authority – human reason; really the authority of self. This person stands in judgment over the Word of God, either permitting or assaulting its authority, rather than sitting under its authority.

A second group defends the authority of scripture plus tradition. Roman Catholicism is an example. It has multiple authorities: (1) church councils; (2) the pope speaking ex cathedra; and (3) the Scripture. And generally, Catholicism defines the authority of the Scripture in terms of the church’s interpretation of it.

Jesus condemned the Pharisees, “You nullify the Word of God for the sake of your tradition” (Matt. 15:6). All too often the result of multiple authorities is to “nullify the Word of God,” like the Pharisees.

Often it is argued that the authority of the church is greater than the authority of the Scripture. Warfield responded to this claim, saying,

“Still less does the authority of the Scriptures rest on the authority of the Church. The Church may bear witness to what she received from the apostles as law, but this is not giving authority to that law but humbly recognizing the authority which rightfully belongs to it whether the Church recognizes it or not. The puzzle which some people fall into here is something like mistaking the relative "authority" of the guide-post and the road; the guide-post may point us to the right road but it does not give its rightness to the road. It has not "determined" the road--it is the road that has "determined" the guide-post; and unless the road goes of itself to its destination the guide-post has no power to determine its direction. So the Church does not "determine" the Scriptures, but the Scriptures [determine] the Church.”^⁷

A third group defends the authority of Scripture plus other written revelation. This group includes Mormonism.^⁸ It too has multiple authorities. Mormons give three other “revealed texts” the same status as the Bible – The Book of Mormon, The Pearl of Great Price, and Doctrines and Covenants.

The biblical position we will call Sola Scriptura, meaning “Scripture alone.” This is the heritage of the Reformation. In later chapters you will read of many reformers who were martyred in the effort to return the church to the authority of “Scripture alone.” They believed the Bible alone speaks with God’s authority. In the Reformation illustration that follows, notice how the Word of God alone has more weight than the Word encumbered with papal authority (tiara), tradition, and councils (scholar).

Fourth, because the Bible is God-breathed, it is sufficient. Peter wrote, “Seeing that His divine power has granted to us everything pertaining to life and godliness, through the true knowledge of Him who called us by His own glory and excellence. For by these He has granted to us His precious and magnificent promises, so that by them you may become partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world by lust” (2 Peter 1:3-4).

Every truth I need to know to relate to God (“life”) or to imitate Him (“godliness”) is found in “His precious and magnificent promises,” a beautiful figure of speech for His Word.

Paul wrote, “All Scripture is inspired by God … so that the man of God may be adequate (or complete), equipped for every good work” (2 Tim. 3:16). If God’s Word is designed to make you “complete”, then how can it be insufficient? The Scripture is complete enough to make you complete, sufficient enough to make you sufficient for all that God has called you to do.

“I have made a covenant with God that he sends me neither visions, dreams, nor even angels. I am well satisfied with the gift of the Holy Scriptures, which give me abundant instruction and all that I need to know both for this life and for that which is to come.” … Martin Luther

Fifth, because the Bible is God-breathed, it is living. The author of Hebrews described the scripture, saying, “For the word of God is living and active and sharper than any two-edged sword, and piercing as far as the division of soul and spirit, of both joints and marrow, and able to judge the thoughts and intentions of the heart.” (Heb. 4:12)

God is a living being. In Him is life (John 1:4). And when He breathes, life proceeds (Gen. 2:7). That includes the Scripture. It is alive. And it is dynamic in its activity toward us.

Being alive, the Scripture seems to grow with us. In the truest sense the Scripture never changes, but it has a quality about it that supersedes our ability to exhaust it. That is why Charles Spurgeon once said, “Many books in my library are now behind and beneath me. They were good in their way once, and so were the clothes I wore when I was ten years old; but I have outgrown them. Nobody ever outgrows Scripture; the book widens and deepens with our years.”^⁹

Indestructible

Sixth, because the Scripture is God-breathed, it is indestructible. God is eternal and indestructible. That which He breathes bears His likeness as indestructible. Peter spoke of the indestructible nature of God’s Word, when he wrote, in 1 Peter 1 :23-25,

“for you have been born again not of seed which is perishable but imperishable, that is, through the living and enduring word of God. For,
‘ALL FLESH IS LIKE GRASS,
AND ALL ITS GLORY LIKE THE FLOWER OF GRASS.
THE GRASS WITHERS AND THE FLOWER FALLS OFF,
BUT THE WORD OF THE LORD ENDURES FOREVER.’
And this is the word which was preached to you.”

Skeptics have often been tireless in their assaults on the Bible. They point to alleged internal contradictions. They argue historical inconsistencies. They scream about the lack of archaeological support for persons and events in the Bible. But there are strong answers to their cries. And every new archaeological discovery that has any bearing on the Scripture supports the biblical record.

“A thousand times over, the death knell of the Bible has been sounded, the funeral procession formed, the inscription cut on the tombstone, and the committal read. But somehow the corpse never stays put.”

And while the Bible survives its attempted burial, it is its critics that disappear. Take one eighteenth century French, atheistic philosopher as an example. His name was Francois Marie Arouet. But, there are very few people who recognize him by that name. His pen name was Voltaire. He was born in 1694 and he died in 1778. He is considered by many to be France’s greatest writer and philosopher. He once said, "It took centuries to build up Christianity, but, I’ll show how one Frenchman can destroy it within 50 years." Then, as one author wrote, "He took his pen, dipped it into the ink of unbelief and wrote against God." In his later years (1759) Voltaire purchased an estate called "Ferney" near the French-Swiss border where he lived and wrote his anti-God, anti-Christ, anti-Scripture material.

Voltaire is famous for his prediction that “Another century and there will not be a Bible on earth!” Was he correct? No! Twenty years after his death the Geneva Bible Society bought his former home and used it for printing Bibles. It later became an office for the British and Foreign Bible Society. One hundred years after his death, the Bible had a greater presence on earth than ever before. It was Voltaire who was no longer on the face of the earth! Critics come, and critics go, but “the Word of the Lord endures forever.”

Last eve I paused before a blacksmith’s door
and heard the anvil ring the vesper chime.
And looking in, I saw old hammers on the floor,
Worn by the beating years of time.

“How many anvils have you had,” said I,
“To wear and batter all these hammers so?”
“Just one,” said he, then with a twinkle in his eyes,
“The anvil wears the hammers out you know.”

And so I thought, the anvil of God’s word,
For ages skeptic blows have beat upon.
Yet though the noise of falling blows was heard
The anvil is unharmed—the hammers gone!

Precious

When David considered the effects of the Scripture on us (revival, wisdom and joy), he described God’s Word as,

The Word of God is sweeter than honey and more precious than much fine gold. John Piper observed,

“If you have a choice between the Word of God and GOLD, choose the Word of God. If you have a choice between the Word of God and MUCH gold, choose the Word of God. If you have choice between the Word of God and much FINE gold, choose the Word of God. The point is plain. The benefits of knowing and doing the Word of God are greater than all that money can buy.

“So if you are tempted to read the stock page before you read the Bible in the morning, remind yourself that this is not shrewd behavior. It's like the child who chooses the penny over the dime because it's bigger. Adults look on and shake their heads and try to teach children how to see what is really more valuable. That is no doubt the way the angels in heaven look down at childish businessmen who study the stock page before they study the Bible. There is a difference however: the benefits of the Word of God over the benefits of gold are far greater than 10 to one.”^¹⁰

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

The prophet Jeremiah reflected on his own experience of God’s Word, saying, “Your words were found and I ate them, And Your words became for me a joy and the delight of my heart; For I have been called by Your name, O LORD God of hosts.” (Jer. 15:16)

These testimonies of David, Job and Jeremiah should be our own testimonies. Each of us should celebrate the sweetness and precious effect of God’s Word. We should treasure His Word more than our necessary food.

A man in Kansas City was severely injured in an explosion. Evangelist Robert L. Sumner tells about him in his book The Wonders of the Word of God. The victim’s face was badly disfigured, and he lost his eyesight as well as both hands. He was just a new Christian, and one of his greatest disappointments was that he could no longer read the Bible.

Then he heard about a lady in England who read Braille with her lips. Hoping to do the same, he sent for some books of the Bible in Braille. Much to his dismay, however, he discovered that the nerve endings in his lips had been destroyed by the explosion. One day, as he brought one of the Braille pages to his lips, his tongue happened to touch a few of the raised characters and he could feel them. Like a flash he thought, “I can read the Bible using my tongue.” At the time Robert Sumner wrote his book, the man had read through the entire Bible four times, using only his tongue.^¹¹

5 Inerrancy applies to the autographa, or original writings, not to later copies or translations of Scripture. This qualification is made because we realize that occasionally errors have crept into the text during the transmission/translation process. However, this is not an appeal to a “Bible which no one has ever seen or can see.” Such a charge fails to take into account the abundance of ancient manuscripts we have, the progress of textual criticism, and the resultant very high degree of certainty we possess concerning the original text of Scripture.

7 Warfield, The Authority & Inspiration of the Scriptures

8 I am not putting Mormonism under the banner of orthodox Christianity. I only include it here as a segment of “professing Christianity.” Their profession is actually of another Christ, which makes them a cult.

9 Spurgeon, excerpted from “The Talking Book,” a sermon on Proverbs 6:22 in 1871 (MTP, 17:598).

The Person of Inspiration

The Process of Inspiration

The Scope of Inspiration

Incorrect Views

Correct View

Every inflection of a word

Every letter and stroke of a pen

Indestructible

Precious