Bibliology
Lesson - 1
Assignment:
Study chapter one (1) of the book entitled, The
Bible and Spiritual Criticism by A. T. Pierson.
The following comments are gleanings from this chapter. Questions on this
lesson will be based on the following comments.
Scripture:
II Timothy 3:16-17 "All Scripture is given by the inspiration of
God and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction
in righteousness; that man of God may be perfect, throughly furnished unto
all good works."
The Bible Divinely
Inspired
"All
Scripture is given by the inspiration of God." To benefit from a study
of the Bible, one must believe the Scriptures to be the very Word of God.
The Bible, in unequivocal terms, declares itself to be the product of Divine
inspiration. Divine inspiration means Divine inbreathing. The Holy Spirit
of God moved upon the minds of the writers of the Scripture planting in
their minds that part of God's counsel which constitutes the Bible. There
is an analogy in Divine inspiration of the Scriptures with that of the
creation of man.
"And the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed
into (inbreathed) his nostrils the breath of life and man became a living
soul," (Genesis 2:7).
Man is formed from the dust of the ground. Before God breathed into him
he was lifeless and certainly without power of discernment. He has form,
but it is unanimated. In Divine inspiration God starts with human form,
human language, and style of writing. But all this is to no avail until
God plants or breathes into their minds what He would have them write.
They were by uninspired faculties powerless to receive Divine revelation.
Like the hand writing on the wall which Belshazzar saw, the writing came
from the hand of man, but the words which he wrote came from God.
(Daniel 5:5).
As with the birth of Christ, the Holy Spirit overshadowed the virgin Mary.
She conceived and brought forth the living Word of God. The Holy Spirit
overshadowed the minds of the human authors of the Bible, causing their
minds to conceive. Their minds became pregnant with the Word of God and
that which was brought forth was the written Word of God. II Peter 1:21,
"For the prophecy came not in old time by the will of man: But holy
men of God spake as they were moved (borne along) by the Holy Ghost."
"Holy men of God spake as they were borne along by the Holy Spirit." The
Holy Spirit is the supreme agent in the authorship of the Bible. Men were
His instruments and He effectually used them to write that part of God's
counsel which He had placed in their minds. Divine authorship has produced
the world's only infallible Book and God will not honor an irreverent approach
to His word. It is an insult to any speaker to have only half interest
of his audience. How much more does one insult God when he reads the Bible
motivated by duty only and not with love, interest and reverence?
Translation Of The
Bible
Baptists
believe in Divine inspiration of the original manuscripts of the Scriptures
and without reservation declare them to be infallibly recorded. Baptists
do not hold that translations of the original manuscripts are inspired
in the sense that the originals were. Translators err. This shows they
acted without being directed by the Holy Spirit. But it should be understood
when Scriptures are translated intact, nothing added or omitted, the translation
is as perfect as the original manuscript itself. It is the errors in translation
that should be condemned and not the whole Bible. We should never cease
to thank God for the better translations and it is the consensus of true
theological scholarship that the King James version (1611) is far superior
to any that has been translated into the English language.
Not By The Genius Of
Man
II Peter 1:21 "The prophecy came not in old time by the will of
man."
The Scriptures came not by human planning. They did not originate in the
mind or will of man. When a man writes a book he does much preplanning.
Sometimes he does a lot of traveling accumulating information. Sometimes
data is compiled for years before the book is started. And many a book
is started that is never finished, and many are finished that should never
have been started. Not so with God's Book. When the prophets uttered and
wrote their prophecies there was no human fore planning of what they were
to speak or write. They worked according to a Divine plan they themselves
did not understand. Hence, their writing and prophecies presented a problem
to them. (READ - I Peter 1:10-12). Not only were the prophets confronted
in their prophecies with problems they could not solve, but even angels
desired to know the mysteries which those prophecies held and from them
also was the prophetical revelations kept. The prophets were uttering prophecies
not for themselves, but for future generations. So it was, time held the
key that would unlock the prophetical door and it is God that determines,
and controls all events of time. This is not in accord with the way seminaries
teach inspiration. Some teach that in the Old Testament times inspiration
came from certain established principles Such as; Israel must be preserved
as God's witnesses. Based on this, Isaiah was able to predict the future
of Israel. This theory of inspiration of the Scriptures is a grievous error
and comes no way near to the truth of Divine inspiration. In fact, this
theory, reduces Bible prophecy to nothing more than educated guesswork.
There are many good books which deserve a careful study, but the gulf fixed
between the very best book authored by man and the Book wrote by the Holy
Spirit is a gulf that the world's most sanctified author will never bridge.
The Bible is the Divine Book and as the Divine Book it is unique, standing
above and apart from all other literature.
Divine Condescension
Jesus
Christ was the God man, the one person in whom Divinity and humanity was
perfectly combined. There never was such a being before and there never
will be again. He was unique and separate from sinners. So with the Bible,
we have Divine inspiration. God condescended to reach down and bring human
agency under His direct influence, causing it to be in union with Divinity
so as to Produce the perfect Book! The Bible stands eternally in a class
all by itself. There will never be another book that, combines together
the Divine and human element as this Book does. When we say the Divine
and human was brought into combination to produce the Bible, we want to
emphasize the fact that the human element had nothing whatsoever to do
with the authorship of the Bible. Men are authors of the Bible in an indirect
sense only. They wrote what was dictated to them by the Holy Spirit. In
writing they were left to their own forms of expression and style of writing
and it is only in this sense we can say, "Paul wrote the epistle to the
Romans." Or, "John wrote the books of the Bible which bear his name." Some
people believe and teach mechanical inspiration. That is, the writers employed
of the Holy Spirit were no more than a pencil would be in the hand of a
man. This is error. God allowed the writers to express themselves in their
own manner, but exempted them from error in what they expressed.
The Supernatural Book
The
Bible is the supernatural Book because it is authored by the Holy Spirit
and Holy Spirit authorship makes, it a spiritual Book. To be supernatural
is to be beyond the natural. So, when a person agrees with the fact of
Divine inspiration he is at the same time testifying to the truth that
the Book can only be understood by a mind which transcends the natural.
This is what Paul meant when he said, "The natural man receiveth not
the things of the Spirit of God; for they are foolishness unto him; neither
can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned," (I Corinthians
2:14). Only "born again" persons are equipped with spiritual
faculties whereby they are enabled to study the Scriptures profitably.
We do not mean being Holy Spirit regenerated makes one intellectually superior
in the natural realm. Paul says, "Not many wise men after the flesh
are called," (I Corinthians 1:26). The Lord Himself said, "The
children of this world are in their generation wiser than the children
of light," (Luke 16:8). On the other hand, the poor, despised
and uneducated saint has been GIVEN a faculty whereby he is enabled to
comprehend spiritual things. And if he, like the blind man Jesus healed,
(John 9:25) knows only one thing in the spiritual realm; this one
thing is one hundred percent more than the world's most wisest man knows.
A man may tediously labor, and earn for himself a Ph.D., yea, he may earn
and own a D.D. and labor all his life in the study of the Scripture, but
until he is saved, and indwelt by the Holy Spirit he shall NEVER know any
spiritual truth as he ought to know it. Salvation of the soul and illumination
by the Spirit is absolutely necessary to a right understanding of God's
Book.
Questions
Lesson - 1
1.
Do you believe the Scriptures are Divinely inspired?
2. Write, in your own words, what you believe Divine inspiration means.
3. Can a person understand the Scriptures before he experiences regeneration
by the Spirit? Give Scripture supporting your answer.
4. Who is the supreme agent in the authorship of the Scriptures?
5. In order to benefit from a study of the Bible, one must be born again,
believe the Scriptures to be inspired of God and have a _ _ _ _, _ _ _
_ _ _ _ _ and reverence for the Scriptures. (Copy, and fill in the blanks).
6. Were there any errors in the original manuscripts of the Bible?
7. When translators err in translation, what does their errors prove?
8. How long did the human writers of the Scriptures plan and premeditate
concerning what they were to write?
9. In writing the Scriptures men were left to their own manner of expression.
Will the theory of "mechanical inspiration" agree with this assertion?
10. Is it necessary to be educated in the schools of men before one can
understand the teaching of Scripture?
11. Why is it that the Bible is infinitely superior to the best book authored
by man?
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