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HOME GROUP NOTES
Welcome – what’s your favourite Bible book and why?
Worship/ Praise – music or words Witness – when was the last time a non-Christian asked you for a view on the Bible? What did you say?
Word – biblical inspiration (see below); what follows is a fairly detailed summary. Use the material creatively to get a discussion going but always bring it back to the Bible. What God's Word has to say is much more important than what any of us sense or think. Try to read a commentary (or even better a number of commentaries)on 2 Timothy 3:16 to 2 Timothy 4:2 before home group so that you have done "the exegesis".
THE BIBLE AND THE TRINITY Read Genesis 1:1-3 [NASB] 1 In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. 2 The earth was formless and void, and darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was moving over the surface of the waters. 3 Then God said, "Let there be light"; and there was light. Comment: The Father speaks the Word. And since there can be no speech without breath it comes as no surprise that the Holy Spirit, the Breath of God, is intimately involved in this process. Jesus as the perfect Word of God brings forth light and life. (More generally, Jesus "exegetes" (i.e. explains) the Father perfectly - cf. John 1:18). Although this is picture language, it represents a deep spiritual truth, which we can apply in our prayer lives. Discuss practical applications of this.
BIBLE PASSAGES There are at least two key passages on the subject of biblical inspiration. Read them out loud. The person preparing this slot would do well to consult a commentary beforehand.
2 TIMOTHY 3:16 [NASB] 16 All Scripture is inspired by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness; Comments The word “Scripture” here refers to what we call the Old Testament. Today when we speak of Scripture we generally mean both the Old and the New Testament together. But obviously the New Testament writers were primarily concerned with the Old Testament when they read Scripture. The Greek word for “inspired” in this verse is "theopneustos" or literally translated “God-breathed”. (There we have it again, the idea of God breathing out his Word). Theopneustos is apparently a rare word which is used for dreams or wisdom originating with God. This seems to imply that God breathed dreams, visions and ideas into the minds of the biblical authors.
2 PETER 1:20-21 [NASB] 20 But know this first of all, that no prophecy of Scripture is a matter of one's own interpretation, 21 for no prophecy was ever made by an act of human will, but men moved by the Holy Spirit spoke from God. Comments: If the verse in 2 Timothy 3:16, which we just read, stressed that Scripture comes from God originally, then these two verses in 2 Peter seem to be making the same point but in the negative: Old Testament prophecy did not originally come from human beings but from God. And for the same reason (v.20) Old Testament prophecy and thus prophecy in general is never a matter of simple, cold, human analysis. It is not a “matter of one’s own interpretation” as Peter puts it. If you are just going to apply your grey matter to a prophecy or any passage in the Bible without the Holy Spirit, you will get it wrong.
DIVINE OR HUMAN ORIGIN? Essentially there are four ways people have defined the process of inspiration (at least for our purposes).
1. The Dictation Theory The first one is the Dictation Theory. Proponents of this view believe that the original biblical authors were a bit like tape recorders. They heard God’s voice either audibly or in their heads and then put these words in writing, verbatim (i.e. word-for-word).
2. The Supervision Theory Most evangelicals these days, however, subscribe to a different idea, which is that God supervised the authors as they gathered their materials, spoke, prayed, wrote and edited the biblical texts.
3. The Roman Catholic Theory For Roman Catholics Jesus’ words and the traditions of the Church are decisive. Regardless of how the Bible came to be, Jesus and the Church have clearly demonstrated the authority of Scripture in their teachings and actions. If Jesus and the Holy Spirit working through the Church accord Scripture the highest importance, that is enough. How the biblical authors were actually inspired by God is of secondary importance.
4. The Liberal Theory/ Higher Criticism As for liberal thinkers (or more accurately liberal proponents of higher criticism), they often seem to view the Bible as nothing (or little) more than a human book – perhaps an influential, impressive and popular book – but almost certainly not inspired by God in the classic sense. For them the Bible originated mainly or completely with human authors. They carry out literary analysis and compare biblical texts with other texts which we have from the same period. In so doing, they look at similar forms, genres, sources, editorial practices and oral traditions – which actually is quite a useful exercise and we have lot to learn from them. It is just that problems arise when these scholars approach the Bible with dubious biases. Even if you are very brainy,without the Father guiding you in the name of Jesus by the Spirit, you really cannot understand the content of the Bible or its origins.
THE RELIABILITY OF THE BIBLE Within evangelicalism there have been two main camps: the inerrantists and the infallibilists. LIBERALISM If you are an atheist or a devout Muslim you will have no problem in suggesting that the Bible is riddled with contradictions. After all, as far as they are concerned, the Bible is just a human product with all the standard shortcomings For example, compare 2 Samuel 24:9 with 1 Chronicles 21:5. Comments: Here is one way in which this riddle has been solved: Israel The solution to the difference in counts for Israel seems to be answered in the Hebrew word for "valiant," which is "chayil" found in 2 Samuel 24:9. It means, "men of valor, army, host, etc." It seems to mean that the men numbered in 2 Samuel 24:9 were those with battle experience whereas the men of 1 Chronicles 21:5 were not. It was most probably true that there were an additional 300,000 men ready for battle who had not yet experienced it. Therefore, 2 Sam. 24:9 numbers only the experienced men, whereas 1 Chronicles 21:5 numbers all men mature enough for battle. Judah The solution seems to provided for us in the following verse six which says, "But he did not number Levi and Benjamin among them, for the king’s command was abhorrent to Joab," (NASB). Verse six states that the numbering process had not yet been completed since the tribes of Levi and Benjamin had not been numbered.
INERRANCY According to the Chicago Statement on Biblical Inerrancy “inerrancy” signifies the quality of being free from falsehood or mistakes and so safeguards the truth that the Holy Scripture is entirely true and trustworthy in all its assertions.
INAFALLIBILISM According to the Chicago Statement on Biblical Inerrancy “infallibilism” signifies the quality of neither misleading nor being misled and so safeguards in categorical terms the truth that Holy Scripture is a sure, safe and reliable guide in all matters. Infallibilists criticize inerrantists for a number of reasons which Philip tried to boil down to two fundamental objections: Firstly, inerrancy implies a modern, scientific level of precision which was alien to the biblical authors. It is almost as if inerrantitsts are implying that the Scriptures should have been inspired in a certain way. It certainly does not seem to reflect how the biblical authors were actually inspired. Secondly, inerrancy encourages a defensive attitude and poor scholarship because Christians start to panic and come up with wild ideas to defend the perfection of Scripture. Instead of focusing on the gospel they can waste precious time on secondary issues fearing that the entire biblical system will collapse if it the Bible is found to contain but one spelling mistake. Comment: In the Bible there is sometimes a problem with time scales. In the story of Jairus as recorded by Matthew it is simply said that when Jairus first met Jesus he told him that his daughter was dead (Matthew 9:18). According to Mark and Luke, however, the daughter was merely at the point of death at the beginning of the story and it was only later – after the incident of the woman with the haemorrhage – that Jairus and Jesus learned that she actually died (Mark 5:35 ff; Luke 8:49 ff). There is a clear contradiction between the initial words of Jairus as recorded by Matthew and the other Evangelists.” You could say that Matthew just abbreviated the account, but the fact remains that Jairus probably did not say what he said at the time Matthew indicates he did. Not a big problem, infallibilists would suggest. The general drift of the passage and even the vast majority of the details in the story remain reliable. Inerrantists, on the other hand, have a real problem at this point. How can they make this seeming error disappear?
TRUSTWORTHINESS In this church we subscribe to the Evangelical Alliance’s basis of faith. At paragraph 3 it states the following: “[We believe in] the divine inspiration and supreme authority of the Old and New Testament Scriptures, which are the written Word of God—fully trustworthy for faith and conduct.” Notice the phrase: the Bible is “fully trustworthy for faith and conduct”. Perhaps this is a good compromise. If the Bible is fully trustworthy for faith and conduct (to borrow inerrantist language), maybe it does not have to be 100% inerrant (to back up the infallibilists). We do not have to tie ourselves in knots by using a word like “infallible” which is a double negative, has plenty of theological baggage and does not capture our positive trust in the dynamic authority of the Bible.
APPLICATION Read 2 Timothy 3:16 – 4:2 (and make sure you consult a trusted commentary on this passage beforehand – try www.searchgodsword.org if you would like a computer-based commentary): 16 All Scripture is inspired by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness; 17 so that the man of God may be adequate, equipped for every good work. 1 I solemnly charge you in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who is to judge the living and the dead, and by His appearing and His kingdom: 2 preach the word; be ready in season and out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort, with great patience and instruction.
TOP TIPS
1. Find a good Bible translation. What are the strengths and weaknesses of your particular Bible translation?
2. Read the Bible regularly – ideally every day.
3. Make sure you interpret what you read properly. Always ask:
(a) what God said (to others in the past) – EXEGESIS/ EXPLANATION Who is the author? When did he write? Who was the audience? What was his main purpose in writing? What was going on at the time in society at large etc. Use a commentary.
(b) what God is saying (to you now) – EXPOSITION/ APPLICATION Try not to skip the exegesis (otherwise you will just hear God saying the same thing every time). Pray and ask the Holy Spirit to help you apply any lessons learned.
4. Use your insights patiently and with reference to the Bible:
(a) to teach others – to instruct them in the ways of God
(b) to train others – to set an example to others in their walk with God and help them become disciplined
(c) to exhort – to urge the timid, the misguided or downright stubborn by appeal or argument
(d) to correct/ reprove – to express disapproval of the actions of others (e) to rebuke – to reprove sharply with authority
5. General pointers: Do all of this in love, with patience and instruction! Work on the areas that come less naturally! Be aware that you are doing this in the presence of Jesus who judges the living and the dead! |
Philip Parnham, 30/06/2009 |
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