I was talking about the inspiration of Scripture with a friend. He claimed that the Scriptures had some truth and were inspired by God, but were not infallible because men had to have messed it up in our fallibility. He also said that there was no way God forced men to have written the Bible properly according to His exact instructions because God never takes away our free will. My friend is not a Christian, which makes it hard to find a standard from which to debate this, do you have any suggestions?<\/p>\n\t
Though your friend is not a Christian, he is discussing the Bible and its origins. What he is saying that God is not able to accurately deliver His own message to mankind.<\/p>\n
The core is the claim is that since God gave people free will, they cannot be forced to relay a message from God just as He wanted. The story of Balaam contradicts his position. When Balak approached Balaam a second time asking for a curse on the Israelites, Balaam rightly responded: “Though Balak were to give me his house full of silver and gold, I could not go beyond the word of the LORD my God, to do less or more<\/em>” (Numbers 22:18). When Balaam went anyway with Balak’s people, God warned Balaam: “Go with the men, but only the word that I speak to you, that you shall speak<\/em>” (Numbers 22:35). Balaam tried numerous times to curse the Israelites through inspiration but failed. Thus, this proves that God can and does control the words spoken on His behalf. And yet it did not take away Balaam’s free will because before departing Balaam told Balak how to get the Israelites to sin so that God would be angry with them.<\/p>\n Paul stated, “Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, that we might know the things that have been freely given to us by God. These things we also speak, not in words which man’s wisdom teaches but which the Holy Spirit teaches, comparing spiritual things with spiritual<\/em>” (I Corinthians 2:12-13). When speaking God’s words, it is God who selects the word choice, not man. It isn’t part and part because “All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, thoroughly equipped for every good work<\/em>” (II Timothy 3:16-17). The phrase “inspiration of God” literally means breathed from the mouth of God. The claim of the Bible is that it is God’s words. That is why it is claimed, “Sanctify them by Your truth. Your word is truth<\/em>” (John 17:17).<\/p>\n Your friend says the claims of the Bible to be inspired by God, being the very words of God, are false. Therefore, it is up to him to prove his point; surely he isn’t making baseless claims, is he? Why should any accept a person’s opinion over a document that has thousands of years of history withstanding criticism?<\/p>\n Since he is claiming that the Bible has some truth, how does he determine which parts are true and which are false without resorting to personal opinion?<\/p>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Question: I was talking about the inspiration of Scripture with a friend. He claimed that the Scriptures had some truth and were inspired by God, but were not infallible because men had to have messed it up in our fallibility. He also said that there was no way God forced men to have written the…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[20],"tags":[568,37,225],"class_list":["post-32268","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-answer","tag-accuracy-of-the-bible","tag-apologetics","tag-inspiration"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":46389,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/is-the-bible-fallible-because-it-was-written-in-human-languages\/","url_meta":{"origin":32268,"position":0},"title":"Is the Bible fallible because it was written in human languages?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"April 18, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Dear Jeffrey, I am sorry that I have to turn to you for help, but this is why I am currently studying to be a preacher because people like you and many others inspire me to be able to teach. Unfortunately, I have wasted away much of my life\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":81327,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/can-inspiration-of-the-bible-be-proven\/","url_meta":{"origin":32268,"position":1},"title":"Can inspiration of the Bible be proven?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"December 8, 2024","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: I know II Timothy 3:16: \"All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness.\" I had a discussion with a person who is not a member of the Church of Christ and, therefore, not a Christian. I\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":61910,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/biblical-infallibility-can-we-trust-the-bible\/","url_meta":{"origin":32268,"position":2},"title":"Biblical Infallibility: Can We Trust the Bible?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"July 15, 2006","format":false,"excerpt":"by Jeffrey W. Hamilton I.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Trust in the scriptures is important to every Christian. The Bible is the center of our faith. \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0A.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0We are Christians because we believe that God exists and that the Bible is God's word - II Tim. 3:16 \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0B.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Believing in the Bible's message will save our souls\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Sermon"","block_context":{"text":"Sermon","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/sermon\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":8983,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/how-did-your-bible-come-into-existence\/","url_meta":{"origin":32268,"position":3},"title":"How did your Bible come into existence?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"March 12, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Could you please tell me how the Bible you currently have originally come into existence? Since we know that some of the apostles did not even start to write until about 50 AD, about 20 years after Christ ascended to heaven, we know with certainty that the apostles went\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":32607,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/how-may-we-know-the-bible-is-of-god\/","url_meta":{"origin":32268,"position":4},"title":"How May We Know the Bible is of God?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"February 24, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"by Abraham Smith Can you trust your Bible? Is the Bible a book of God or a book of man? If we doubt the Bible's trustworthiness, we lose it as: an infallible standard of truth; an authoritative basis for obedience or hope; \"living and powerful, sharper than any two-edged sword\"\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/01\/Bible-Reading-4.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":19596,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/i-think-paul-changed-his-mind-as-he-got-older\/","url_meta":{"origin":32268,"position":5},"title":"I think Paul changed his mind as he got older","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"February 4, 2020","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: I note that you comment a lot from Apostle Paul's epistles, but the apostle Paul changes his mind on subjects as he ages.\u00a0 Food for one.\u00a0 I understand that he didn't want to put a burden on the Gentiles, especially when literacy rates were probably so low in that\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32268","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=32268"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32268\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=32268"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=32268"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=32268"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}