In our Foundations series we saw that the starting point for truth is God and His Word – and the two are inseparable. We know God because He has spoken. What kind of God is He? How can we please Him? How can we be sure we will go to heaven?
There are lots of compelling reasons to trust the Bible. But the main reason we trust the Bible is because it is the Word of God. God INSPIRED the authors of this book to write exactly what they wrote. What does inspiration mean? How did it work?
“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 complete, equipped for every good work.” 2 Tim. 3:16-17
Theo-pneustos – “God-breathed.” That is where we get the word and the doctrine of the inspiration of Scripture. God breathed His Spirit (pneuma) into the hearts and minds of the prophets and apostles, and they breathed out His words onto the pages of Scripture. God could have chiseled all of Scripture directly onto stone tablets as He did with the ten commandments. Instead He chose to work through people with different personalities, different experiences, in different times in history of places on earth. In this way God gave us a book that speaks to every part of life.
“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.” 2 Peter 1:20-21
The Holy Spirit guided the process of Bible-writing. He did not FORCE or DICTATE the words. He influenced the writers as they sought to hear from God. We know from the narrative of the Bible that this was a process the writers had to learn. When Samuel was a boy, God called to him verbally. At first the child assumed the voice was his guardian, Eli, the High Priest. But Eli eventually figured out what was happening and instructed the young prophet to say: “Speak, LORD, for your servant hears” (1 Sam. 3:9). When Samuel did so, the Lord began to use him as He would for the rest of Samuel’s life. God spoke to Samuel and Samuel spoke to God’s people.
It is not clear exactly how this worked every time for every prophet. But what is clear is that the authors of Scripture knew when they were speaking and writing God’s Word and when they were simply expressing their own thoughts and ideas (e.g. 1 Cor. 7:10,12).
“And Samuel grew, and the Lord was with him and let none of his words fall to the ground. And all Israel from Dan to Beersheba knew that Samuel was established as a prophet of the Lord. And the Lord appeared again at Shiloh, for the Lord revealed himself to Samuel at Shiloh by the word of the Lord.” 1 Samuel 3:19-21
The Word of the Lord was obvious to the prophet speaking it and to the people hearing it. False words, false prophesies, were possible and even commonplace. But there were definite ways to identify a false message that was not actually from God. For one thing, any prediction of a future event that did not come to pass was immediately revealed as false – and the exposed false prophet was executed (Deut. 18:20-22). And the key way to identify a false prophet was by his message – did it fit with the Law of Moses and call God’s people to worship and serve only the Lord their God?
“If a prophet or a dreamer of dreams arises among you and gives you a sign or a wonder, and the sign or wonder that he tells you comes to pass, and if he says, ‘Let us go after other gods,’ which you have not known, ‘and let us serve them,’ you shall not listen to the words of that prophet or that dreamer of dreams. For the Lord your God is testing you, to know whether you love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul. You shall walk after the Lord your God and fear him and keep his commandments and obey his voice, and you shall serve him and hold fast to him. But that prophet or that dreamer of dreams shall be put to death, because he has taught rebellion against the Lord your God… So you shall purge the evil from your midst.” Deuteronomy 13:1-5
False signs and even fulfilled prophecies were possible apart from the Lord. But any message that contradicted previous Scripture was immediately and explicitly forbidden. That remained the rule in the New Testament as well.
“But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach to you a gospel contrary to the one we preached to you, let him be accursed.” Galatians 1:8
Demons can “masquerade as angels of light,” and provide compelling experiences for the unprepared. Every false religion and cult can be traced to this kind of experience. And every one could have been exposed and rejected early on if this simple principle had been followed – new revelation must can never contradict previous revelation! If it does, it did not come from God, but from some other diabolical source.
For more on the verbal, plenary inspiration of Scripture, click here. The bottom line is that we can completely trust the Bible we have. It has been thoroughly vetted for thousands of years, confirmed over and over, meticulously copied, protected and preserved by God. This is the starting point for our relationship with God and we should have tremendous confidence that as we read the Bible we are reading the actual Word of God.