by Matthew W. Bassford<\/p>\n
The fundamental question of our faith is whether the Bible is the inspired word of God. If it is, we can rely on its contents. If it isn’t, everything we believe in, from the creation to the resurrection, is built on a foundation of sand instead of rock.<\/p>\n
Not surprisingly, then, those who are opposed to the Scripture often either deny its inspiration or attempt to limit inspiration’s scope. Those who adopt the latter approach will say that the Bible is inspired in its broad outlines, but its details are the product of human understanding and reflect the wisdom of the time in which its authors wrote. This position seems to be much like ours, but in practice, it leads to very different results. We insist on obedience even to the commandments that we don’t particularly care for (Matthew 19:9, anyone?) because we believe they express the will of God.<\/p>\n
However, if we believe instead that not everything in Scripture is necessarily inspired, that gives us the freedom to reject the hard sayings as anachronisms. Surely Paul’s comments about women in I Timothy 2 and the practice of homosexuality in 1 Corinthians 6 are echoes from an unenlightened, barbaric past, mere expressions of the apostle’s own human prejudices! Surely our wisdom has evolved beyond such things!<\/p>\n
This perspective allows us to have our cake and eat it too. We get to celebrate the risen Lord and cherish the hope of eternal life while also rejecting every commandment that we find difficult or inconvenient. Only the ones that are amenable to the spirit of our own time need remain.<\/p>\n
As convenient as this would be, though, it simply doesn’t align with what the Bible itself says about inspiration. In particular, we must take into account Paul’s words in I Corinthians 2:10-13. Here, he makes two strong claims about the involvement of the Holy Spirit in his work. First, the Spirit has revealed the truth to him. Second, he expresses that truth in words taught by the Spirit.<\/p>\n
This does not mean that Paul was a Scripture-writing robot. If inspiration deprived human authors of their authorial voices, every book of the Bible would sound alike. This is not the case. The Pauline epistles don’t sound like the Johannine epistles and neither sound like the Petrine epistles. All reflect the personalities of the apostles who wrote them.<\/p>\n
Instead, it describes a subtler process. In some way, the Spirit of God worked with the spirits of the prophets, allowing scope for human individuality yet precisely expressing what God wanted to be said. Because inspiration operated at the word level, nothing that the inspired writers recorded strays from the will of God.<\/p>\n
Thus, we can have great certainty about what we read in the Bible. We don’t have to wonder whether any miracle or commandment is a human invention. None of them are. However, it also imposes a weighty responsibility on us. If God has said it all, we must obey it all. To do otherwise represents a failure to honor Him.<\/p>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
by Matthew W. Bassford The fundamental question of our faith is whether the Bible is the inspired word of God. If it is, we can rely on its contents. If it isn’t, everything we believe in, from the creation to the resurrection, is built on a foundation of sand instead of rock. Not surprisingly, then,…<\/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,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[27],"tags":[219,225],"class_list":["post-39564","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-article","tag-bible","tag-inspiration"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":32268,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/how-do-i-answer-the-claim-that-the-scriptures-have-some-truth-but-cant-be-infallible-because-men-were-involved-in-its-writing\/","url_meta":{"origin":39564,"position":0},"title":"How do I answer the claim that the Scriptures have some truth but can’t be infallible because men were involved in its writing?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"March 24, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"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\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":39564,"position":1},"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":4178,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/how-can-you-trust-early-christian-writers-when-you-disagree-with-them-on-some-topics\/","url_meta":{"origin":39564,"position":2},"title":"How can you trust early Christian writers when you disagree with them on some topics?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"March 18, 2006","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: I appreciate and respect your willingness (and the willingness of your church) to so openly and staunchly defend your beliefs to the world. If anyone \"has a ready answer,\" it's the folks at La Vista Church of Christ! You previously wrote: Allow me a moment to answer your last\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":34328,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/the-inspiration-and-preservation-of-scripture\/","url_meta":{"origin":39564,"position":3},"title":"The Inspiration and Preservation of Scripture","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"April 19, 2021","format":false,"excerpt":"by George P. Estes Sentry Magazine, December 1999 That Scripture is the word of God is accepted by all who believe in God and in Jesus. This includes the sixty-six books we call the Bible. ln this age, some nineteen hundred years from the apostles of Christ, we need proof\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":978,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/how-do-we-know-the-bible-is-inspired\/","url_meta":{"origin":39564,"position":4},"title":"How do we know the Bible is inspired?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"February 26, 2004","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: How do we know absolutely that the Bible is the infallible and inspired Word of God? How did the Bible as we know it today come into existence? Answer: Entire books have been written on the subject of the inspiration of the Bible. It is unlikely that I will\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":34852,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/if-the-bible-is-inspired-then-why-does-it-say-the-earth-is-round-and-in-other-spots-speak-as-if-it-is-flat\/","url_meta":{"origin":39564,"position":5},"title":"If the Bible is inspired then why does it say the earth is round and in other spots speak as if it is flat?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"September 17, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: If the author of the Bible is God through people, why in some places does it say the earth is a circle, like a phrase where it says we are like grasshoppers and God is watching over us and then there is another one where a tree is described\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\/39564","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=39564"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39564\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=39564"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=39564"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=39564"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}