How the Bible Came to Us
The Bible as the Word of God
Key Proposition
• The Bible is the authoritative, revealed Word
of God and as such is wholly truth without
error in the original autographs.
– “The Bible encompasses the whole of human
history, from the beginning of creation (Gen. 1-2)
to the destruction of the world and the creation of
a new heaven and earth (Rev. 21-22). It claims to
be the very Word of God (Jer. 1:1-2; Hos. 1:1; 2
Tim. 3:16), written so we can know what God
expects from us” (Wegner, The Journey from
Texts to Translations, p. 13).
Key Texts on the Inspiration of
Scripture
• All Scripture is inspired by God and
profitable for teaching, for reproof, for
correction, for training in righteousness;
that the man of God may be adequate,
equipped for every good work (2 Tim
3:16-17).
– “God-breathed”; all scripture is the direct
result of the activity of God.
– “Profitable”, i.e., the Word of God is to
shape our thinking so that we might live
lives pleasing to God.
Key Texts on the Inspiration of
Scripture
• 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 (2
Pet 1:20-21).
– “Prophecy” here includes all of scripture.
– “Carried along” is the picture of wind filling the
sails of a ship.
– Men did not write their own opinions or
understandings, but wrote what God wanted
recorded.
The Bible is a Divine Book
• It is “God-breathed” and therefore comes
directly from God. It is His Word!
• Because God cannot lie, His Word cannot lie.
God’s Word is Truth!
• While the Bible is not a textbook on science,
history, medicine, geography, etc., when it
speaks on matters which fall within these
spheres of knowledge, what it says is Truth
and not Error.
• It is the writings that are inspired and
infallible, not the men who recorded them.
The Bible is a Human Book
• All 66 books of the Bible were written by men.
• God did not mechanically dictate what was
written, nor did He override the education,
experience, or personality of the writers.
• The human writers were not passive in the
process; they were instruments of God.
– They used research (Luke 1:1-4).
– They expressed intense personal feeling (Rom
9:1-3).
– Their varying styles, vocabularies, and
personalities clearly come through in their writings.
• But God insured that what they wrote was
what He wanted written, down to the very
word.
The Self-Attesting Witness of the
Word
• God’s Word is self-attesting; what it
says about itself must be used to
determine what it is!
– “The appeal to Scripture to validate the
authority of Scripture is an appeal to an
objective content that is God-breathed”
[James Grier, “The Apologetical Value of
the Self-Witness of Scripture” GTJ 1:1
(Spring 1980) 75].
Biblical Metaphors for God’s
Word
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Silver (Ps 12:6) and Gold (Ps 19:10)
A Lamp (Ps 119:105)
A Mirror (Jas 1:22-25)
Milk (1 Pet 2:1-3; 1 Cor 3:2)
Bread (Dt 8:3; Matt 4:4)
Honey (Ps 19:10)
Water (Eph 5:25-27)
“I have not departed from the command
of His lips; I have treasured the words of
His mouth more than my necessary
food” (Job 23:12).
Next Time:
The Birth of the Bible