Download How Firm a Foundation, part 1 The Inspiration of the Bible

How Firm a Foundation, part 1 - - The Inspiration of the Bible
Sola Scriptura = “solely on the Scriptures”
The two key doctrines of the evangelical church:
#1 – The authority of the inspired, inerrant Word of God
#2 – The necessity of Christ’s substitutionary work on the cross for every person’s salvation
David Wells – The Courage to Be Protestant
“Under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, the Apostles gave the church the definitive statement of what the
Christian faith is. They delivered it to us in the form of doctrine.”
“Christians, therefore, are those people who ‘know’ this doctrine. They ‘believe’ it, ‘have’ it, ‘hold fast to’
it, ‘guard’ it and ‘contend earnestly for’ it.”
“Today, however, the doctrines of the New Testament are terra incognita in most evangelical churches.
And then we are dumbfounded when commitment evaporates and ignorance reigns!”
Cut loose from its doctrinal moorings, evangelical Christianity has become increasingly shallow,
inauthentic and irrelevant.
David Wells – The Courage to Be Protestant
“For many people, the word ‘evangelical’ has become a synonym for what is trite, superficial and moneygrubbing.”
Bibliology = “the study of the Bible”
The inspiration of the Bible is “ground zero” for the Christian faith.
“All scripture is inspired by God.” 2 Timothy 3:16
#1 - - “Inspiration” does not mean that the writers of the Bible had some moment of great human insight.
#2 - - “Inspiration” does not mean that God gave the writers of the Bible the basic idea and then they
fleshed it out in their own words.
Exodus 24:4 - - Moses wrote down the words the LORD spoke
Jeremiah 30:4 - - “These are the words the LORD spoke.”
Matthew 24:35 - - “My words will never pass away.”
#3 - - “Inspiration” does not mean that God inspires me as I read the Bible
“ALL scripture is inspired by God.” 2 Timothy 3:16
“Inspired” = “God-breathed”
“God-breathed” means that God “breathed” the exact words He wanted through the writers and down onto
the pages of the Bible.
“No part of the Scripture ever came about by the writer’s own origination . . . But holy men spoke from God
- - as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit.” 2 Peter 1:20-21
The result 0f “inspiration” is a collection of 66 books that we call the Bible.
“Inspiration” means that God caused the exact words He wanted to be written down in the Bible.
David Wells – The Courage to Be Protestant
“Inspiration means that whatever deficiencies the writers had as human beings did not make it into the
revelation of God as recorded in the Bible.”
“Revelation” – refers to information that God reveals to mankind in the Bible which we could never
discover on our own.
“Inspiration” – refers to the process whereby God guided the writing down of “revelation,” so that what
was written down was absolutely correct and accurate.
Verbal Plenary Inspiration:
Verbal – The very words of the Bible were so guided by God, not just the general ideas
Plenary – All the words of the Bible were so guided by God, not just some of them
“Illumination” – refers to the Holy Spirit opening our minds/hearts as human beings so that we can
understand God’s written “revelation.”
The Bible is:
• Revelation from God . . .
• Written by men whom God inspired as they wrote . . .
• Which we as human beings are able to understand because of the illuminating ministry of the Holy
Spirit
The Bible also claims to be inerrant and infallible.
• “Infallible” means that the Bible is incapable of making mistakes
• “Inerrant” means that, indeed, there are no mistakes in the Bible
“The Law of the LORD is perfect.” Psalm 19:7
“Inerrancy” means that, in every area to which the Bible speaks, the Bible is correct.
“Inerrancy” is the lynchpin of biblical Christianity.
“If there be any mistakes in the Bible, there may as well be a thousand. If there be one falsehood in that
book, it did not come from the God of truth.” John Wesley
“Once the infallibility of the Bible is abandoned, it always and ever opens the door to further departures
from the faith . . . Embracing the doctrine of a Scripture with errors will always lead to disaster down the
road.” Harold Lindsell Battle for the Bible
“On that day some Sadducees (who say there is no resurrection) came to Jesus and questioned Him.”
Matthew 22:23
“They said, ‘Teacher, Moses said that if a man dies and has no children, his brother shall marry his widow
and provide offspring for his dead brother.’” Matthew 22:24
“Now there were seven brothers and the first of them married and died. And since he had no children, the
second brother took his wife. But he died without giving her children either. And this same thing
happened down to the seventh brother. And last of all, the woman died.” Matthew 22:25-27
“In the afterlife, whose wife of the seven will she be, since all had her?” Matthew 22:28
“Jesus answered and said, ‘You are mistaken, because you do not know the Scriptures or the power of
God.’” Matthew 22:29
“For in the afterlife, people neither marry nor are they given in marriage, but they are like the angels in
heaven.” Matthew 22:30
“But regarding the resurrection of the dead, have you not read what God said, ‘I am the God of Abraham,
the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.’? God is not the God of the dead but of the living.”
Matthew 22:31, 32
GOD: “Four hundred years after these men died on earth, I still am their God because they are not dead
- - they are still living, in heaven with Me.”
#1 - - Tells us that Jesus believed the bible to be inerrant and infallible
Jesus also believed the Bible’s account of:
Adam and Eve (Matthew 19)
Jonah and the fish (Matthew 12)
Noah and the Flood (Matthew 24)
Sodom and Gomorrah and Lot’s wife (Luke 17)
#2 - - Tells us that Jesus believed the Bible to be inspired down to the deepest level imaginable
Here in Matthew 22 – Jesus bases His entire theological position on the afterlife on the tense of a verb in
the Bible – “am” (present tense) versus “was” (past tense).
•
•
Jesus not only believed that God “breathed” every word in the Bible . . .
But Jesus believed that God “breathed” every tense of every word in the Bible
So What?
“The Law of the LORD is perfect, restoring the soul. The statutes of the LORD are trustworthy,
making wise the simple. The precepts of the LORD are right, giving joy to the heart. The commands of the
LORD are pure, giving light to the eyes. The ordinances of the LORD are sure. By them Your servant is
warned. In keeping them there is great reward.” Psalm 19:7-11
“Be careful to obey all the law that My servant Moses gave you from Me; do not turn from it to the right or
to the left.” Joshua 1:7
“Meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do everything written in it. For then
you will be prosperous and then you will have good success.” Joshua 1:8