Inspiration Flashcards
What is the ultimate reason we believe that the Scriptures are the word of God? Provide support from Scripture. (Grudem 4)
Because God said so. The words of Scripture are self-attesting. They cannot be “proved” to be God’s words by appeal to any higher authority. For if an appeal to higher authority were used to prove that the Bible is God’s Word, then the Bible itself would not be our highest or absolute authority: it would be subordinate in authority to the thing to which we appealed to prove it to be God’s words. Truth is what God says, and we have what God says (accurately but not exhaustively) in the Bible.
2 Samuel 7:28 – “You are God, and your words are true.”
Psalm 12:6 – “The words of the Lord are words that are pure, silver refined in a furnace on the ground, purified seven times.”
Proverbs 30:5 – “Every word of God proves true…”
John 17:17 – “Sanctify them in the truth; your word is truth.”
- Nick Jensen Answer…
The ultimate reason that we believe that the Scriptures are the word of God: (Grudem 77) Our ultimate conviction that the words of the Bible are God’s words comes only when the Holy Spirit speaks in and through the words of the Bible to our hearts and gives us an inner assurance that these are the words of our Creator speaking to us. 1 Cor. 2:13 “The natural man does not receive the things of the Spirit of God, for they are folly to him, and he is not able to understand them because they are spiritually discerned” (1 Cor. 2:14). Apart from the work of the Spirit of God, a person will not receive spiritual truths and in particular will not receive or accept the truth that the words of Scripture are in fact the words of God.
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From Lecture:
How should inspiration change us?
We cannot know God in a saving way unless he wants us to - unless he allows us to. Our knowledge cannot be one of pride, but needs to be of humility because our knowledge is only through Him revealing himself to us.
When we are reading God’s Word we are hearing His actual words. Authority. To disobey scripture is to disobey God. To misunderstand, ignore the Word is doing so to God! We’re interacting with Him when we read the scripture.
Reorient our priorities to connect with God - not through nature or through worship, but through His Word. Approach it as we’re approaching God.
Rights our perception of the world. Some our faculties can deceive us and the Word is the foundation of how we orient our lives versus our feeling/tradition/family/others.
Approach the scripture with a great deal of confidence because we know our perceptions are flawed. No matter what I think I can return to the scripture and understand what is right.
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Summary written on Test:
Holy Spirit. We can’t know these things on our own (1 Cor 2:13-14)
What does the following statement mean: “The Bible was inspired by God. (Grudem 4)
God literally breathed out the words of Scripture. In 2 Timothy 3:16 Paul affirms that all of the Old Testament writings are theopneustos – “breathed out by God.” This breathing must be understood as a metaphor for speaking the words of Scripture.
2 Tim 3:16 – “All scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness.”
- Nick Jensen Answer…
“The Bible was inspired by God” means that they were theopneustos or breathed out by God. This is shown through prophets in the old testament with ‘Thus says the Lord’ – what a prophet says in Gods name – God says. The Bible is Gods Word in written form. Men are moved by the holy spirit & the Holy Spirit speaks from God. Both the Old and New Testament are considered ‘Scripture’ and all scripture is ‘God Breathed’ and compel belief. For those in whom God’s Spirit is working there is recognition that the words of the Bible are the words of God. (Grudem 74-77)
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theopneustos: God-breathed, i.e. inspired by God
Original Word: θεόπνευστος, ον
Part of Speech: Adjective
Transliteration: theopneustos
Phonetic Spelling: (theh-op’-nyoo-stos)
Short Definition: God-breathed, inspired by God
Definition: God-breathed, inspired by God, due to the inspiration of God.
What form of inspiration do we adhere to? Please define this in detail.
Verbal Plenary Inspiration – He breathed out every word exactly how he wanted it communicated to us. (2 Tim 3:16) Then you must believe it and obey it with all your heart, for God himself, your creator and your Lord compels you to believe and obey through his word – the Scriptures.
- Nick Jensen Answer…
We adhere to “Plenary Inspiration” which means full inspiration. It means that ALL of the words of Scripture are God’s words. 2 Tim. 3:16 – All scripture is ‘God Breathed.’
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Summary from Lecture
The entire Bible, ALL scripture, all of the stories, all of the poems, are from God and are beneficial to us.
List three key passages and their teachings concerning the doctrine of inspiration.
3 Key Passages – Doctrine of Inspiration:
- Nick Jensen Answer…
2 Tim. 3:16 – All scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be competent, equipped for every good work. (This teaches that ‘all scripture is God breathed’)
2 Peter 1:20-21 – knowing this first of all, that no prophecy of Scripture comes from someone’s own interpretation. For no prophecy was ever produced by the will of man, but men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit. (This teaches that men spoke/wrote God’s words with help from the H.S.)
2 Peter 3:15-16 – And count the patience of our Lord as salvation, just as our beloved brother Paul also wrote to you according to the wisdom given him, as he does in all his letters when he speaks in them of these matters. There are some things in them that are hard to understand, which the ignorant and unstable twist to their own destruction, as they do the other scriptures. (This affirms that Paul’s letters, along with the rest of the New Testament – are all part of the O.T. ‘Scripture’, and should be treated as God’s inspired words)
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Summary written on Test
2 Timothy 3:16 – “breathed out from God.” Paul talks about how all scripture is breathed out by God, profitable for teaching…not our human wisdom.
2 Peter 1:20-21 – “no prophecy of Scripture comes from someone’s own interpretation.” I love this because I hear so many commentaries from others such that we as a Christian society so many times lean upon others’ understanding versus the pure milk of the Word. This verse also talks about inspiration through the Holy Spirit.
2 Peter 3:15-16 – Affirms that the Scripture written by Paul is from “wisdom given him” versus just something he conjured on his own understanding.
I memorized the words ‘theopneustos’ and ‘verbal plenary’: god breathed out and full inspired. God’s Word was breathed out into scripture and everything we need is fully in the Scripture.
Lay out and define, using Scripture, the other doctrines derived from the doctrine of inspiration. Show how each doctrine is derived from the doctrine of inspiration.
- Inerrancy (Grudem 5) – Scripture in the original manuscripts does not affirm anything that is contrary to fact.
Inerrancy is derived from the doctrine of inspiration …
- Canonicity (Grudem 3) – Preserved writings that are deemed to have divine authorship and therefore which are to be included in the cannon of Scripture as God’s authoritative words in written form.
Canonicity is derived from the doctrine of inspiration…
- Authority (Grudem 4) – The idea that all the words in Scripture are God’s in such a way that to disbelieve or disobey any word of Scripture is to disbelieve or disobey God.
Authority is derived from the doctrine of inspiration…
- Sufficiency (Grudem 8) – The idea that Scripture contained all the words of God he intended his people to have at each stage of redemptive history, and that it now contains all the words of God we need for salvation, for trusting him perfectly, and for obeying him perfectly.
Sufficiency is derived from the doctrine of inspiration…
- Nick Jensen Answer…
Other doctrines derived from the doctrine of inspiration:
To disbelieve or disobey any word in scripture is to disbelieve or disobey God
This is derived from the doctrine of inspiration because we have determined that ALL the words in Scripture are God’s words through the doctrine of inspiration, so if you disbelieve or disobey any of those words, you disobey God.
Luke 24:25 – Jesus rebukes disciples for not believing the OT scriptures
John 15:20 – If they kept my word, they will keep yours also
Isa. 66:2 – God delights in everyone who ‘trembles’ at his word
The Truthfullness of Scripture
God cannot lie or speak falsely. Heb. 6:18 – ‘it is impossible for God to lie.’
Biblical writers repeatedly affirm that the words of the Bible, though human are Gods own words or inspired by God. Since all of the words of the Bible are God’s words, and since God cannot lie or speak falsely, it is correct to conclude that there is no untruthfulness or error in any part of the words of scripture.
Proverbs 30:5 – Every word of God proves true; he is a shield to those who take refuge in him. To believe all the words of Scripture implies confidence in the complete truthfulness of the scripture that we believe.
The Bible (God’s words) is the ultimate truth. John 17:17 – Sanctify them in truth; your word is truth.
Written Scripture is Our Final Authority
Scripture remains authoritative in its written form. Written scripture was ‘God-breathed’ (2 Tim. 3:16), Pauls writings are a command of the Lord (1 Cor. 14:37) classified with ‘the other scriptures’ (2 Peter 3:16).
This is born out of the doctrine of inspiration because it is the Bible writings that are said to be ‘breathed out.’
The written scripture itself should be the final authority – and hypothetical reconstructions of the ‘word’ should never contradict or call into question the accuracy of the words of Scripture. In the bible we have GOD’S VERY OWN WORDS. WE MUST NOT TRY TO IMPROVE ON THEM – CANT BE DONE
