The God of the universe has revealed Himself to us. He has done this in a general way through creation (Romans 1:18-20). However, God has also amazingly revealed Himself to us in a special way through the Bible.
The Bible is also known as the “Scripture,” the “Scriptures,” or, as the “Word of God.” The word “Bible” comes from the Greek word “biblos.” Matthew 1:1 says: “The book (biblos) of the genealogy of Jesus Christ, the Son of David, the Son of Abraham…”, and the next Greek word, “biblion” which is found in Luke 4:7, “And He was handed the book of the prophet Isaiah. And when He had opened the book, He found the place where it was written…”, both of which mean simply: “book.” (The Great Doctrines of the Bible, by William Evans. p. 193)
We know that the Bible is the only book on earth that is truly the Word of the Living God because of the following reasons:
- The Inspiration of the Bible
According to the Moody Handbook of Theology, inspiration is defined as “the Holy Spirit’s superintending over the writers so that while writing according to their own styles and personalities, the result was God’s Word written—authoritative, trustworthy, and free from error in the original autographs.” (The Moody Handboook of Theology, by Paul Ennis, p. 153)
The Bible speaks of itself as inspired. Second Timothy 3:16 says, “All Scripture is given by inspiration of God.” The very significant word, inspiration is from a Greek word meaning literally, God breathed.”
Inspiration, as defined by the Apostle Paul, who wrote this passage, is the strong, conscious inbreathing, of God into men (as they wrote the Scriptures), qualifying them to give utterance to truth. It is God speaking through men. The Old Testament is therefore just as much the Word of God as though God spoke every single word of it with His own lips. The Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments are the result of divine inbreathing, just as human speech is uttered by the breathing through a person’s mouth.’ (Evans, p. 95)
The Bible has been complete for over 2000 years. The Old Testament was completed about 400 years before the birth of Christ and the New Testament was completed by about 95 A.D.
There have been many false teachers who have attempted to dilute and deny the doctrine of the inspiration and inerrancy of the Bible. These have worked subtly and persistently to infiltrate our churches, denominations and seminaries with the view that the Bible is only written by man (much like other religious books written by other religions and that the Bible, therefore, is filled with errors.
This is why it is so important for us to understand what the doctrine of inspiration really is. Next time, I will describe some of the false views of inspiration that have appeared over the years. This study will help you to discern the true Biblical teachers from the false in these latter days.
Paul wrote to the young preacher, Timothy, this warning:
“But the Spirit explicitly says that in the later times some will fall away from the faith, paying attention to deceitful spirits and doctrines of demons, by means of the hypocrisy of liars seared in their own conscience as with a branding iron” (1 Timothy 4:1-2, NASB).
While the Scriptures are under attack today by demonically directed men and women in many cults and false religious, we can rest in the assurance that God’s Word, the Bible, is absolutely true! The only book on the earth that is the perfect Word of the Living God.
Stay tuned for: False Views of Inspiration
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