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The Bible makes it clear that God has specially revealed himself in a manner that is understandable by humans when they are made spiritually alive in Christ. The books of Scripture are such a perfect record of that revelation that they are called canon. But how did they get that way? How perfect are they? The transformation of God's special revelation into written form is a process we call "inspiration."

Uses of the Term "Inspired"
Words often have many meanings. A finite number of them must be used within any given language to represent the many ideas we humans desire to express to one another. God made our minds rich with thoughts that often require us to coin new words or add new meanings to old ones.

Some confusion occurs because the already defined and common English word "inspiration" was used to express a special biblical idea. This familiar word often brings its ordinary meanings with it when we say the Bible is the inspired word of God.

Commonly people use the word "inspired" to describe a mere heightened sensitivity that leads to a more profound expression or perception. We say writers or artists are inspired when they artfully craft ways to express the most inward and profound human thoughts and experiences.

The American College Dictionary includes these among its entries for the verb, "to inspire:"
"to infuse an animating, quickening or exalting influence into"
"to produce or arouse a feeling, thought, etc."
"to affect with a special feeling, thought etc."
"to influence or impel"
"to animate as an influence"

In this general sense we say that a poem or other form of human expression is "inspired," or that someone or something is "inspiring" to us. This use is different in quality from what we mean when we talk about the Bible as inspired. Purely human expressions do not involve direct special revelation.

The American College Dictionary continues with entries closer to the way we use this term in christian theology ...
"to communicate or suggest by a divine or supernatural influence",
"to guide or control by divine influence."

Views of the Inspiration of the Bible
In an attempt to explain how the biblical books came to be written under God's influence, various systems have been offered.

Some of these constructions do not present a Bible that is free from error. They speak of an inspiration that is no more than a special sensitivity to spiritual things granted by God as the books of Scripture were written. Such views leave us with a Bible likely to include errors of fact and interpretation. Other constructions present an infallible, error-free Bible.

Of those that preserve a fully authoritative and inerrant Bible, one is the DICTATION VIEW. It claims that the Bible was written by a mechanical superintendence of the human writer so that he produced the exact words given by God. This imagines that God totally by-passes the human personalities of the writers making them more machines than authors.

The problem with this mechanical dictation view is that the personal characteristics of the individual writers are often obvious in the Bible. Luke, a physician, used technical medical terms. John used a vocabulary that often reflects his background as a fisherman. The style of each writer varies with his personality, background, the age in which he lived, the circumstances of his writings, the political and cultural setting in which he wrote, etc.

The ORGANIC VIEW says the Bible came into being by a superintendence of the human faculties to the degree that God rendered the writings inerrant yet retained the personalities of the individual writers. This view is the one presented in the Westminster Standards, and in the writings of such reformed scholars as A. A. Hodge, Charles Hodge, L. Berkhof, B. M. Palmer, W. G. T. Shedd, B. B. Warfield, and C. VanTil. It is also found in the works of conservative non-reformed scholars such as L. S. Chafer and H. C. Thiessen.

Dr. Allen MacRae stated it this way in his lectures on prolegomena; "Inspiration is a special act of the Holy Spirit by which he guided the writers of the books of the Scriptures so that their words should convey the thought he wished conveyed, should bear a proper relationship to the thought of the other inspired books, and should be kept free from errors of fact, of doctrine or of judgment."

Only the organic view does justice to the direct claims of Scripture while also accounting for obvious differences of expression and style. The other approaches sacrifice something of the Bible's claims about itself to accommodate human ideas and presumptions. They either endanger the concept of biblical infallibility, inerrancy, and full divine authority, or they deny the idea of a true analogical correspondence to absolute truth in God's revelation.

Scriptural use of the term "Inspired"
The Bible describes the inscripturation of God's truth as a direct supernatural act. It is more than mere supernatural guidance. It works directly upon the human writer. It is a special act of the Holy Spirit. And it involves prior special revelation.

Biblical inspiration suppresses the fallible element in the writers. God kept the writers from engaging in their own speculations and interpretations as they wrote. God guarded them from including the erroneous teachings or beliefs of their day as if they were truth.

This does not rule out that God moved the writers to quote at times from or refer to non-inspired sources to illustrate what he wanted them to say. Such references are not endorsements that the work quoted from is in itself authoritative. What is quoted merely helps the author communicate what God wanted him to convey to his readers. God protected each writer of the Bible from recording anything as fact that was a factual or interpretive error.

Inspiration does not occur in degrees as if it takes place more in one passage and less in another. All the inspired books are completely God's infallible word. No portions are more inspired than others. Either a given writing is, or is not, inspired. There can be no middle ground. All portions of the inspired books are infallible and error free. No received books of the canon are uninspired. Not one word of any original writing of Scripture is excluded from that supernatural oversight and protection. Inspiration extends to every word chosen. Technically we say the inspiration of the Bible is plenary (complete) and verbal (extending to the words themselves).

Inspiration refers directly to only the autographa (the original manuscripts). The inspired Scriptures are God's pure, perfect, complete, inerrant and therefore fully authoritative word.

The Bible is our only source for data supporting this view. When collecting the facts upon which to build a theological statement of what is true about the inspiration of the Bible, the Scriptures alone must be our source. The theological student must always guard against introducing elements into his constructions that do not come from explicit or necessarily implied statements of the canonical books.

The biblical facts fully support this understanding of Scriptural inspiration which the following texts illustrate.

2 Timothy 3:15-16 "and that from childhood you have known the sacred writings which are able to give you the wisdom that leads to salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus. All Scripture is inspired by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness;"

The terms used in 2 Timothy 3:15-16 present the foundation of the biblical teaching concerning inspiration. The term "Scripture" is "graphae". In 3:15 the term "The Sacred Writings" is "ta hiera grammata". These expressions refer to the books of the Old Testament that were known by Timothy as a child. These terms were consistently and commonly used by the Rabbis to refer to the whole Canon of the Hebrew Scriptures much as we use the word "Bible" today.

The word "inspired" ("theopneustos") literally means "God-Breathed". Scripture originated as if it was breathed out of God's mouth! More exactly the word means "to expire", to breathe out. Speech is the result of the expiration of air through the larynx. Scripture is to be viewed as if it was breathed out of the mouth of God as to its authority. For obvious reasons it would have confused the issue if we said that all Scripture is "expired." People would probably not think of the exhaled word. They would be mislead into thinking that it had become outdated and was no longer binding or valuable like food in a package where the guarantee of purity had expired by a certain date.

2 Timothy 3:16 has been translated in two different ways. "All Scripture is inspired by God and profitable ..." or "Every Scripture which is God inspired and profitable ..."

Technically the difference is whether a particular term is understood as a predicate or attributive adjective. Both are grammatically possible. It doesn't matter which way it is translated. The second rendering cannot mean that there may be some other scripture that is not God inspired and profitable. In either translation the context and terms used clearly refer to the entire Old Testament canon. The debate over the two grammatical possibilities is overrated.

2 Peter 1:19-21 (particularly 1:21) "And so we have the prophetic word made more sure, to which you do well to pay attention as to a lamp shining in a dark place, until the day dawns and the morning star arises in your hearts. 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."

Peter reminded his readers in this passage that he was among the eye-witnesses of the Gospel, and of the glory of Christ. He heard the words of the Father confirming that Jesus is the Son of God, the promised Messiah. Yet his personal witness of these events, if unaided by the Holy Spirit, would be subject to fallible human interpretation. So he gives us a more solid foundation on which to base our acceptance of Christ as God's Messiah. He says that now we have a more sure prophetic word, preserved in infallible, inerrant Scripture (:19).

Our Bible is not a result of human speculation or interpretation. 2 Peter 1:20 says, "no prophesy of Scripture is of private interpretation." Literally he writes, "that all prophesy of Scripture did not COME TO BE by its own interpretation." The verb used is "ginetai". It primarily means "to come into being", "to become."

The Romanist view of this verse is that the church alone must interpret Scripture. They take it to mean that no prophesy of Scripture is to be privately interpreted by individuals. A Romanist booklet The Bible is Not our Sole Guide published by the Knights of Columbus (pg. 26) says, "St. Peter gives the reason for ruling out private interpretation and recognizes only the official interpretation as the safe guide." The context of this booklet clarifies that the "official interpretation" is the one endorsed by the "church." This view ignores the impact of the verb Peter uses. It changes the Apostle's description of how the Scriptures "came to be" into a command about what we are to do "with" Scripture. That is obviously not what the apostle is talking about.

The meaning of the verse is simply this: Scripture originated by means of a special act of God at work on the human writers that made their interpretations correct and error free. The resulting Bible is a more sure prophetic word than even the testimony of fallible human eye-witnesses. The Bible did not come into being by humans interpreting events. God gave the interpretation himself.

The rest of the context shows that this interpretation is sound and that the Romanists are simply wrong. In 2 Peter 1:16 Peter says, "we did not follow cleverly devised tales when we made known unto you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ." Instead of human interpretations, God kept the writers free from incorporating inaccurate human interpretations as they wrote.

In 1:21 Peter wrote, "For prophesy never did come by the will of man."

It came by men "carried" by the Holy Spirit. The word "carried" is "phero" which means "to bear (as one would a burden)" or "to carry along." Uses of this Greek word in other places show its meaning. It is used of a bird "carried" along and supported by the wind, of a ship "borne" along by the waves, and of a ship "borne" along as the wind fills its sails. So also these chosen writers were carried along by the Holy Spirit himself as they authored their inspired books. They "spoke from God." In the inspired Scriptures, God speaks as certainly as if we hear his own voice.

The Results of Inspiration
Having an inspired word of God presents us with many advantages. An inspired, and therefore infallible Bible, is a source of absolute truth. It conveys to us all that God wants us to know.

What we learn from Scripture is free from error and enables us to know what is true. This includes what it says concerning creation, providence, resurrection, the miracles and all other revealed ideas.

In 2 Timothy 3:16-17 Paul wrote about the profitableness of the inspired Scriptures. All Scripture must stand as God's authoritative word. Nothing in it can be ignored, nullified, added to, or eliminated. 1 Corinthians 14:37 presents what Paul wrote as commandments of the Lord, not as ideas of the Apostle himself.

Therefore, since the inspired Bible is the only authoritative standard we have, Scripture alone must interpret Scripture. Seeming problems must be resolved internally by the use of other inspired texts. This topic will be examined more closely in future chapters.

Questions for Review and Thought
1. How does the common use of the word "inspired" differ from the use of the term in connection with the writing of the books of Scripture?
2. What are the problems with the "dictation view" of inspiration?
3. What do we mean by the "organic view" of inspiration?
4. According to 2 Timothy 3:15-16 what writings are inspired?
5. According to 2 Peter 1:20 where do the interpretations of the Bible writers come from?