Is the Bible from God? (part 2)

Two important terms related to the origin of the Bible. Revelation and Inspiration

I. Revelation  

A. Definition – The unveiling or disclosure of divine truth from and about God to mankind. Revelation is God making himself known to humanity. God is self-revealing (Gen. 1-50; Deut. 29:29; Acts 17:26-29; Heb. 1:1-2).

 

Related terms – apokalypto – to unveil, remove the cover. phaneroo – to manifest, bring to light.  “From these two words it may be stated that revelation has to do with the unveiling, uncovering and manifesting of something or someone previously veiled or covered” (C.M. Horne, Z.P.B.E., Vol. 5, p. 86).

 

B. Necessity – Revelation from God to man is a necessity because of God’s character and nature. It is also necessary because of the sinful condition of humans. First, because God is infinite and transcendent, he is beyond the knowledge of finite beings unless he reveals himself to them (Ex. 33:18; Isa. 55: 8-9; Acts 17:24-25; I Tim. 6:16).  Secondly, humans are alienated from God in sin and therefore unable to know God by themselves  (Isa. 59:1-2; John 3:19; Rom. 3:10-11; Eph. 2:1-3; 4:17-28; 5:8). Yet despite the separation between God and man, God has created us as rational beings who are able to communicate and receive communication (Isa. 1:18; Acts 17:26-30; Rom. 1:19-20). Gratefully, God has communicated to humanity.

 

C. Forms – Revelation is commonly divided into the categories of general and special.

1. General Revelation – God’s witness of Himself through the created physical order, history, and the conscience of man. It is general in its universal accessibility.

a) Creation – (Ps. 19:1; 94:8-10; Acts 14:8-18; 17:24-29; Rom. 1:20; I Cor. 11:4; Heb. 3:4).

b) History – (Acts 17:24-29; Rom. 9:11). The evidence in this category is not as clear. One area of significance is God’s preservation of the people of Israel in the face of seemingly insurmountable obstacles.

c) Conscience – (Ecc. 3:11; Rom. 1:18-21; 2:14-16).  There are obvious innate qualities common to humans that point to God’s character. Two primary areas of interest would be “the evidential value of the moral impulse  which characterizes human beings” and “an internal sense of deity, which, although it may be marred and distorted, is nonetheless still present and operating in human experience” (Millard Erickson, Christian Theology, p. 155). Evidence would indicate that people (in general) are disturbed by the idea of accountability to God. (Ps. 10:4, 11, 13).

Humans were created in the image of God, and although that image is deeply marred by sin, it is not

altogether absent.  (Gen. 9:6; James 3:9).

d) Value – General revelation can lead to knowledge of certain things about God and even to a search for answers to the questions raised through general revelation; (e.g. Where did I come from? Why am I here? Is there a God? How did we get in the mess we’re in? Is there life after death?). General revelation is inadequate for leading to reconciliation with God. For this and for answers to the questions listed above, one must turn to special revelation.

Additional note: “The value of general revelation also rests in the provision of common ground or a point of contact between the believer and the nonbeliever, or between the gospel and the thinking of the unbeliever … there will be areas of sensitivity to which the message may be effectively directed as a starting point. These areas of sensitivity will vary from one person to another, but they will be there. This should be considered a supplement to, not a substitute for, special revelation.  Thus, sin produces relatively little obscuring effect upon the understanding of matters of physics, but a great deal with respect to matters of psychology and sociology. God is just in condemning those who have never heard the gospel in the full and formal sense.  No one is completely without opportunity. All have known God; if they have not effectually perceived him, it is because they have suppressed the truth. Thus all are responsible” (Christian Theology, p. 173, Millard Erickson).

 

2. Special Revelation – This refers to God’s particular, selective manifestation of himself and his Word for relational purposes toward himself and his creation. Special revelation moves from knowledge about God (as in general revelation) to knowledge of God on a relational level. Special revelation, in relation to humanity, began with Adam and Eve in their pre-fall existence (Gen. 1:28-30; 2:16-17) and became remedial in focus after the fall. This form of revelation is presented in four dimensions: personal, anthropic, propositional and progressive.

a) Personal – God is a personal being who reveals himself in expressions of intellect (Gen. 18:19; Ex. 3:7; I Chron. 28:9; Isa. 1:18, 55:8); emotion (Gen. 6:6; Ps. 103:8-13; Prov. 6:16; II Cor. 1:3,4); volition (Gen. 3:15; Ps. 115:3; John 6:38).

While it is true that God is infinite (not limited by space), eternal (not limited by time, without beginning or end), transcendent (above and supreme over the world), and self-existent (the only uncaused cause, needing nothing other than Himself for His existence), it is equally true that God is personal, revealing Himself on a personal level to specific individuals(Gen. 6:8; 8:1; 12:1,2; Ex. 3:1-4; Josh. 1:1-9; II Chron. 7:14; 16:9; Isa. 57:15; 66:1,2; Jer. 1:4,5; Acts 13:21,22; Gal. 1:15; James 1:27).  

b) Anthropic – Special revelation is anthropic in that God uses forms common to man to help us know him. The primary example of this is the use of human languages. Other forms of special revelation were also used by God (e.g. dreams, visions, theophanies, angels, prophets – Gen. 20; Isa. 6; Gen. 16; Lk. 2; Rev. 1:1-14; Heb. 1:1-2; 2:14-15?; I John 1:1-3).

c) Propositional – The preservation of revelation is in the form of inscripturated (written), objective, propositional truths (Deut. 6:6-9; Matt. 4:1-7; I Cor. 2:13; I Thess. 2:13). The only existing form of special revelation to man today is the Bible, which is sufficient for every need of man in relation to God. (II Tim. 3:16-17).   

d) Progressive – Scriptural revelation unfolds progressively. What begins with promise and prediction in the O.T. culminates in fulfillment in the N.T. (E.g. Gen. 3:15; 12:1-3, 7; 15:5; 17:16 w/Gal. 3:16; Rom. 4:13; see also rom. 3:21-26; 5:13-15; Gal. 4:4; Heb. 1:1-2; 9:26-27).

 Additional note: Jesus Christ is the central person and theme of special revelation. Simply put…

• • • In the Old Testament, Christ is coming: Redemption predicted. 
    • In the Gospels, Christ has come: Redemption provided.
    • In the New Testament epistles, Christ is coming again: Redemption explained (cf. Lk. 24:25-27; 44:47; Jn. 5:29, 46; Acts 10:43; 17:2-3).

The revelation of redemptive history has progressed through creation, the fall, the flood, the call of Abraham, the great Exodus, the birth of the nation of Israel, Israel’s kingdom phase, exile and return. Then, after 400 silent yet preparatory years, God sent his Son. Before Christ came history moved toward the end; now it moves along the end (Rom. 13:11-12; Phil. 4:4-5; Heb. 10:23-25; James 5:8; I John 2:28-3:2). Concerning written revelation, the progression was completed with the Old and New Testament canon (Rev. 22:18-19).

 II. Inspiration 

A. Definition – God’s supernatural direction of the writers of Scripture whereby they composed and recorded in the original manuscripts of the 66 books of the Bible; His Word without error.  God did this without excluding their personalities and literary styles (II Tim. 3:16; II Pet. 1:19-21; I Thess. 2:13).  The human writers were not unintelligible dictaphones but true authors communicating the mind of God without error in fact, doctrine or judgment.

B. Extent – Inspiration extends to the very words (verbal) (cf. I Cor.2:13).  As was observed in I Tim. 3:16, inspiration also extends to all parts of Scripture (plenary).  Inspiration extends to the original manuscripts of the Old and New Testament canon. Under the heading of “extent” there should be a consideration of canonicity and preservation.

1. Canonicity – This addresses the question of which books actually belong to the inspired canon.  The word canon means measure or standard.  The process of determining canonicity does not raise a book to the position of Scripture, rather it recognizes that it was already Scripture.  The following rules establish the standard for canonicity 

a) General rules –

1) Inspiration by God: (Tone of Divine Authority ) self-attestation.     

2) Recognition by men of God (Ex. 24:3; Jos. 24:26; Isa. 10:25; Dan. 9:2-attested by others).

3) Collection and preservation by the people of God (Deut. 31:26; Isa. 10:25; II Kings 23:34).

4) Consistency with other recognized books.

b) New Testament Rules –

1) All of the general rules.

2) Apostolic authority – I John 1:3; 4:6.

3) View of Christ.

4) Authenticity.

c) Necessity – Why a collection of canonical books?

1) To know which to read (Neh. 8:8; Col. 4:16; I Tim. 4:11, 13).

2) To know which to translate into foreign languages.

3) To define the limits of apostolic doctrine.

4) To defend the truth (I Tim. 3:15; Ti.1:9).

Additional note: From the beginning there have been inauthentic and non-apostolic writings in circulation (II Thess. 2:2; Jn. 20:30; 21:25; I Cor. 11:2; II Pet. 1:16).  Note: The 39 books that make up the O.T. canon were probably declared as such by the time of Ezra (5th cent. B.C.; Ez. 7:11).  The Council of Carthage 397 A.D. accepted 27 N.T. books as canonical. These were completed by the end of the 1st century. The apocryphal books and gnostic gospels were never officially accepted as part of the Bible by the Jews or the early church councils. The following reasons for their rejection as part of the Biblical canon are sufficient.

(1) No apocryphal book is quoted as Scripture in

the New Testament.  The N.T. writers allude to and

even cite pagan poets whose books were not considered inspired Scripture (see Acts 17:28). 

(2)The Qumran community was not an orthodox Jewish community and, hence, is not an official voice of Judaism.

(3) Many of the early Christian Fathers including Origen, Cyril of Jerusalem, Athanasius, and all important Fathers before Augustine clearly rejected the Apocrypha.  Some of these men made presumable or occasional reference to one or more apocryphal books in a homilectical way but none of the major early Fathers accepted the apocryphal books into the Christian canon.

                   

  (4) Augustine’s acceptance of the Apocrypha is refuted

by his contemporary Jerome who was the greatest Biblical scholar of his day.

(5) No local synod or canonical listing included these apocryphal books for almost the first four hundred years of the

Church’s existence (five points from: Christian Apologetics, p. 364, Norman Geisler).

2. Preservation – The Bible promises its own preservation– for all time (Ps. 119:89; Matt. 5:17-18; 24:35; John 10:35; I Pet. 1:23). Some take objection to the reliability of the Bible because we do not have the original manuscripts. Yet there exists sufficient textual support to give clear witness to the context of the originals. God has preserved a completely trustworthy text and in reality we possess more than one hundred percent of the text when all textual evidence is considered. Should we, on the other hand, assume that the original manuscripts were filled with error?

“Is there objective proof from the surviving manuscripts of Scripture that these sixty-six books have been transmitted to us with such a high degree of accuracy as to assure us that the information contained in the originals has been perfectly preserved? The answer is an unqualified yes….In fact, it has long been recognized by the foremost specialists in textual criticism that if any decently attested variant were taken up from the apparatus at the bottom of the page and were substituted for the accepted reading of the standard text, there would in no case be a single, significant alteration in doctrine or message. This can only be explained as the result of a special measure of control exercised by the God who inspired the original manuscripts of Scripture so as to insure their preservation for the benefit of His people. A degree of deviation so serious as to affect the sense would issue in failure to achieve the purpose for which the revelation was originally given: that men might be assured of God’s holiness and grace, and that they might know of His will for their salvation” (Gleason Archer, Encyclopedia of Bible Difficulties, pp. 29-30).

                C. Elements 

1. Human and Divine – Inspiration involves both Divine and human elements (II Peter 1:21 states that “men spoke from God”).

This Divine and human element concurs in the same words (I Cor. 2:13). The message is completely from God, but

God used the humanity of the writer to communicate his message (I Thess. 2:13). It is an unnecessary assumption to believe that error must be present in the text because humans were involved. Error was not present in Jesus Christ and He was both human and Divine (I John 1:14, 18; Col. 2:9; II Cor. 5:21).

 2. Inerrancy –Another element of inspiration is inerrancy the belief that the Bible is without error in the original manuscripts). 

Inspiration by God guarantees inerrancy. The Bible, being the Word of God, will not deceive, lie, perpetuate falsehood, or contain error on any subject that it addresses. By means of deduction it can be argued that God is perfect and does not lie (Num. 23:11; Deut. 32:4; Ti. 1:2; Ja. 1:17); God breathed Scripture (II Tim. 3;16); Scripture is perfect and does not lie.

 

Inerrancy does not require infallibility in the art of scribal transmission but the preservation of the truthfulness of the text.  “The copyist who inadvertently misspells some word in John 3:16 cannot be said to have introduced error in the sentiment or message of that salvation verse even though he may have slipped in his orthography.  It is something far more essential than typographical errors that is under consideration when scriptural inerrancy comes up for discussion” (p. 28, Encyclopedia of Bible Difficulties, Gleason Archer).

 

In places where the Bible appears to contradict itself, seven rules should be considered before reaching conclusions:

a) The Bible should be presumed innocent before

reaching a conclusion.

b) Be sure you know what the text says.

c) Be sure you know what the text means in its various

contexts.

d) Don’t confuse error with imprecision (e.g. Rounded

numbers do not necessitate error).

e) Don’t confuse contradiction with difference of

perspective (Gospels).

f) The Bible records things that it does not approve.

g) The Bible is a progressive/completed revelation.

 

The careful study of supposed contradictions will prove the Bible to be supplementary and complementary in its various passages rather than contradictory (See: When Skeptics Ask, Geisler and Brooks).

Steve Cornell

See – Is the Bible from God, (part 1)

Is the Bible from God? (part 3)