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(For a
second article by John R.W. Scott
on the
subject of the word of God
clink here)
The
Inspiration of the Bible
By
Philip E. Hughes
It is only in modern times that leaders
with in the Christian church have assailed the doctrine
of the inspiration of the Bible. Over the centuries, of
course, enemies have not been lacking who have assailed
it from without; but today it has become fashionable in
many church circles to deny the inspiration of the Bible
in the classical sense. The Bible is, indeed, now
widely regarded as a book of human, not divine, origin –
inspired only in the humanistic sense that the Hebrews,
who wrote it, had a genius for religion, just as the
Greeks had a genius for philosophy and the Romans a
genius for government. The evolutionary interpretation
of reality, which has so powerfully influenced the
thinking of the Western world, assigned the Bible, in
its different parts, a place within the supposed gradual
development of religion from the crude apprehensions of
primitive man in his cave-dwelling to the refined
concept of ethical monotheism of our day. This
viewpoint inevitably accords the Bible a position of
purely relative significance, in radical conflict with
the high conception of it as the inspired Word of God
addressing a unique revelation of truth to fallen (not
rising) man, and therefore absolute in its
significance.
Again, it is characteristic of the so-called
neo-orthodox theology of our day, with its emphasis on
“encounter,” to define the Bible as a word of man which
may, at certain times and under certain circumstances,
become the Word of God to me; that is, God may
speak or reveal some truth to me through it, so that at
the point in my experience it, or some portion of it,
functions as a Word of God to me. Correlative with this
outlook are the conceptions of the Bible as not in
itself the Word of God, as containing the Word of
God, as conveying truth through the “kernel” of myth,
independently of whether or not the “outer shell” in
which the myth is enclosed is historically true, and
even as – by a strange quirk of divine providence –
conveying truth through error. Conceptions of this kind
are marked by a subjectivism which contrasts noticeably
with the classical view of the Bible as an objective
revelation given by God.
What, then, are we to believe about the
inspiration of the Bible? Three main witnesses have a
claim upon our attention: the witness of the Bible to
itself, the witness of history, and the witness of God.
The
Witness of the Bible to Itself
Some people take exception to the procedure
whereby the Bible is allowed to witness to itself.
Certainly, the argument “the Bible claims to be the
inspired Word of God; therefore it is the inspired Word
of God” is not by itself admissible. But it is a
commonplace of legal justice that any person standing
trial has the right to engage in self-testimony. By
itself – that is, in the absence of the independent
witness of other persons or of circumstances – that
self-testimony may or may not be true. The point is
that it may be true, and so it must not be stifled.
In the case of the Bible, it bears witness to itself in
terms which, if true, are of the most vital consequence
for the whole of mankind. Its witness must, therefore,
be heard.
All who read the Old Testament cannot help
being struck by the theme which so often and so
extensively recurs that it may properly be described as
the leading theme, namely, the assertion that it is God,
not man who is speaking. This impression is conveyed by
the use of characteristic expressions, such as “Thus
saith the Lord…” and “The word of the Lord came unto me,
saying…”
The implication of such expressions is fully
corroborated by the witness of the New Testament to the
Old. Thus, the Apostle Paul affirms that all Scripture
is given by inspiration of God (or, literally, is
“God-breathes”); the author of the Epistle to the
Hebrews declares that it was God Who spoke in time past
in the prophets; and Peter asserts that the ancient
prophets “spake from God, being moved by the Holy
Spirit.” And what could be more significant for the
Christian than the attitude of Christ Himself (with
which, of course, the attitude of His apostles is fully
consonant)? He emphasized not only that He had not come
to destroy the law and the prophets but to fulfill them,
but also that not one jot or tittle would pass away
until all things were accomplished. The Scripture was
for Him something that could not be broken. In the
temptation in the wilderness, the devil is on each
occasion repulsed, without further argument, by a
quotation from the Old Testament, “It stands written…,”
the plain inference being that it is the absolute
authoritative Word of God. It was the Old Testament
Scriptures, viewed in their entirety – “The law of
Moses, and the prophets, and the psalms” – which the
risen Saviour expounded to His disciples, emphasizing
the necessity that all things written in them concerning
Him should be fulfilled. Throughout the New Testament,
indeed, the whole of Christ’s life, death, and
resurrection is seen in the light of the fulfillment of
Holy Scripture, and therefore as a vindication of the
Bible as the inspired Word of God.
But, it may be asked, what of the New
Testament? It, too, is not without its own
self-testimony. If the Old Testament bears witness
pre-eminently to the One Who is to come, the New
Testament bears witness to the One Who has come.
It testifies to Him Who, in his person and action as
well as in his teaching, is the Word of God incarnate.
The New Testament is the record of the imperishable
truth which Christ brought and taught. Christ Himself
proclaimed that heaven and earth would pass away, but
that His words would not pass away. Moreover, He
promised to His apostles that the Holy Spirit would
teach them all things and bring to their remembrance all
that He had spoken to them, and would lead them into all
truth and reveal to them things that were to come. This
is the very keystone of the New Testament and of the
claims which it makes for itself. Accordingly, it is a
mark of consistency to find John affirming that the
witness of his Gospel is true or Peter classifying
Paul’s epistles along with “the other scriptures.”
The
Witness of History
The witness of history to the Bible is the
witness of the history of the Christian church. Until
modern times, as has already been said, the bible was
always acknowledged by the church to be the inspired
Word of God. The significance of this fact can hardly be
overemphasized. The definition of the canon of Holy
Scripture – and especially of the New Testament, since
that of the Old was already established – in the period
that succeeded the age of the apostles, so far from
being the result of the assertion of an authority
superior to the Bible (as thought the books of the Bible
became canonical because the church pronounced them to
be so), was in fact a recognition of this very principle
of the divine inspiration of the Bible. It was a
recognition of an authority vested in the biblical
books, which is unique and normative precisely because
together they constitute the Word of God written. If
there was one external factor which played a decisive
role in the fixing of the New Testament canon, it was
the equating of canonicity with apostolicity. Books
which were not of the apostolic origin were not
admissible as canonical. In other words, the authority
vested in the apostles is now vested in their writings,
through which they continue to govern the church.
But there was no question of this authority
of the apostles being human authority; for,
inasmuch as it was derived from Christ, their divine
Master, theirs was a divine authority, and their
teachings (handed down in their writings) again was not
their own, but Christ’s, in accordance with His promise
that the Holy Spirit would bring to their remembrance
all that He had taught them and would lead them into all
truth. In defining the canon of Scripture, therefore,
the church, with the instinct of faith, was
acknowledging and submitting herself to this authority,
which, even more than apostolic, was dominical; for,
ultimately, the authority involved is none other than
that of the Lord Himself.
Although the unanimous consent of the
Fathers is in the main an ecclesiastical fiction, yet
there was at least one doctrine in which they were
united, namely, that the Bible is the inspired Word of
God. It was far from them to claim for their own
writings the inspiration which they attributed to
Scripture. And the same is to a particular degree true
of the Age of the Reformation, when, in the light of the
biblical revelation, which then shone forth again after
centuries of spiritual darkness, all pretended
authorities were exposed as spurious except insofar as
they were subject to the supreme authority of the Word
of God. Also worthy of notice is the inconsistency of
modern liberal authors who, while denying the
objectivity of the Bible as the Word of God, nonetheless
commonly seek to authenticate the theology they propound
by adducing statements and quotations from the Bible, as
thought it were in fact objectively authoritative.
Mention may also be made of the history of
persecution. Men and women from generation to
generation have given proof of the inspiration of the
Bible by the radical transformation which the reception
of its message has produced in their lives, so much so
that they have held the Bible to be more precious than
any other possession and have been willing to suffer
torture and death rather than deny its truth, by which
they have been set free. Attempts also to destroy the
Bible, to burn it, to ban it, or in any other way to
obliterate it from society, have ever proved futile.
Not only does it continue unchallenged year after year
as the world’s best seller, but it is beyond doubt the
greatest force for good and blessing in every sphere of
human society.
The witness of history to the inspiration of
the Bible is indeed massive, and it powerfully confirms
the witness of the Bible to itself. When, as at the
present time, the church is tempted to leave the old
paths and to disparage this witness of her history, she
should ask herself whether she is not in fact thereby in
danger of ceasing to be the church, and bartering her
heritage for something that is not of God but of the
devil.
The
Witness of God
Here we come face to face with that
testimony which is absolutely conclusive and
inexpungeable. The witness of God is greater than the
witness of man. It needs no support, but stand firm by
itself. Briefly stated, the position is this: if the
Bible is in reality the inspired Word of God, it must as
such be self-authenticating; it is in no need of human
sanction. God Himself witnesses to the truth of the
Bible. As its Author, He also authenticates it to the
heart and mind of every believer. It is by the
operation of the Holy Spirit that we are brought to
faith in Christ, and that saving faith is founded upon
the good news proclaimed in the pages of the Bible,
and nowhere else. It is by the internal witness of
the Holy Spirit that we acknowledge and appropriate the
biblical message, and are assured daily and constantly
that “all scripture is inspired of God.”
As the witness of the Holy spirit, this
testimony is objective; as an internal witness within
the believer, it is subjective. As at the same time
both objective and subjective, this witness is
completely impregnable. He who experiences it cannot
gainsay it. He who gainsays it has not experienced it,
and should search his heart as to why this is so.
In all charity and humility we would invite
those to whom this internal witness of God, the Holy
Spirit, is something strange to consider whether they
are not lacking one of the essentials of genuine
Christianity and whether, consequently, they are in any
proper position to assail the doctrine of the
inspiration of the Bible. We would urge them to pray
that God will grant them the witness of the Holy Spirit,
to convince and enlighten both heart and intellect.
Finally, let us ever remember that the
primary purpose and function of Scripture is to lead us
to Christ, that its proper place is within the framework
of God’s plan for our redemption. Hence, Paul advised
Timothy that the Holy Scriptures were able to make him
“wise unto salvation through faith which is in Christ
Jesus”; Peter reminds his readers that “the word of the
Lord abideth for ever,” adding that “this is the word of
the gospel which was preached unto you”; and John, in
describing the purpose of what was possibly the last in
time of the biblical writings, asserts: “These things
are written that you may believe that Jesus is the
Christ, the Son of God, and that believing you may have
life in his name.”
“The Scripture,” wrote the reformer and
martyr William Tyndale, to whom, more than anyone else,
we owe the priceless treasure of our English Bible, “is
that wherewith God draweth us unto him, and not
wherewith we should be led from him. The Scriptures
spring out of God, and flow unto Christ, and were given
to lead us to Christ. Thou must therefore go along by
the Scripture as by a line, until thou come at Christ,
which is the way’s end and resting-place.” May God
grant us to use this holy book for his holy purpose.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
L.
Boettner: The Inspiration of
the Scriptures
J.
Calvin: Institutes of the Christian Religion, I,
vii
J.
Jewel: A Treatise of the Holy
Scriptures
C.F.H.
Henry, ed.: Revelation and the
Bible
J.
Orr: Revelation and Inspiration
B.B.
Warfield: The Inspiration and Authority of the Bible;
and, in particular, the introductory essay by C. Van Til
W.
Whitaker: A Treatise of the
Holy Scriptures
If you have any additional
questions please contact us at life@nwi.net.
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