Verbal Inspiration

Verbal Inspiration
Jerry C. Brewer
www.gospelpreceptor.com
Once upon a time religious people could discuss the Bible from a common perspective. While they may have twisted it to suit denominational theology, most of them believed it to be God's word. Even the great denominational debaters like Bogard, Norris and Rice defended their doctrines against such giants as N. B. Hardeman, Foy E. Wallace, Jr. and Alexander Campbell from that perspective. But the world has changed since then. Permeated with secular humanism, most of the denominational world, and many within the church, deny not only the doctrine of Christ, but the inspiration of the very Book in which it is revealed. A constant in an ever-changing world of human philosophy, the Bible remains as verbally inspired on the threshold of the second millennium as it was when it resided in the "earthen vessels" of the first millennium. Jesus said, "Heaven and earth shall pass away, but my words shall not pass away," (Matthew 24:35), and Peter affirmed that "the word of the Lord endureth forever." (1 Peter 1:25). The claim of verbal inspiration is a claim that the very words of the Bible are those which the Holy Spirit caused the writers of the Sacred Volume to select in conveying God's will to man's mind. That doesn't mean the writers were mere amanueses in the production of the Bible, styled by some the Mechanical Theory of inspiration. God does not circumvent the natural faculties of his creatures. This view of inspiration renders the writers mere machines and eliminates the exercise of their own distinctive writing styles which are evident in the Bible. The eminent J. W. McGarvey rejected this theory for additional reasons. The theory fails to account for the play of the writer's human feelings; and for the obvious fact that in recalling to their memory what Jesus had said the Spirit only recalled what they did not already remember; and in guiding them into all truth he did not guide them into that which they already possessed. (Evidences of Christianity, Part IV, Ch. VII, p. 212). Neither does the claim of verbal inspiration allow for the selection of words by the writers themselves. The Thought Inspiration theory holds that the writers were given God's thoughts and allowed to select the words by which they were to be expressed. But words are vehicles of thought and it would have been impossible for finite men to select the words by which the mind of the Infinite God was adequately conveyed. The theory of Thought Inspiration is espoused by so-called translators of modern perverted texts of the Bible and couched in the term Dynamic Equivalence. That's why their productions are not word-for-word translations of the original languages. Verbal inspiration consisted of the Holy Spirit exerting an influence upon the writers of the Bible, without circumventing their natural styles and personalities, and giving them the very words by which God's will is expressed to man. "But when they shall lead you, and deliver you up, take no thought beforehand what ye shall speak, neither do ye premeditate: but whatsoever shall be given you in that hour, that speak ye: for it is not ye that speak, but the Holy Ghost." (Mark 13:10-11). "And when they bring you unto the synagogues, and unto magistrates, and powers, take ye no thought how or what thing ye shall answer, or what ye shall say for the Holy Ghost shall teach you in the same hour what ye ought to say." (Luke 12:11-12). Expressly forbidden to "premeditate," the apostles could not have selected the words they spoke. Those were supplied by the Holy Spirit and that is illustrated by Luke's record of Peter's reply to the Sanhedrin in Acts 4:8. Quoting Isaiah 64:4, Paul said the things which "eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man," (1 Corinthians 2:9), referred to the gospel plan of salvation which was unknown to the patriarchs and prophets. Moved by the Spirit of God, they foretold those things, but their full revelation was reserved for Christ's witnesses. (1 Peter 1:10-12). "But God hath revealed them unto us by his Spirit: for the Spirit searcheth all things, yea, the deep things of God. For what man knoweth the things of a man, save the spirit of man which is in him? even so the things of God knoweth no man, but the Spirit of God." (1 Corinthians 2:10-11). "All things" and "the deep things of God" refer to scheme of redemption or the gospel plan of salvation which was conceived in the mind of God. Having said that, Paul then defines the means by which that plan was made known to man. "Which things also we speak, not in words which man's wisdom teacheth, but which the Holy Ghost teacheth; comparing spiritual things with spiritual." (1 Corinthians 2:13). "Which things also we speak," refers to the "things which God hath prepared for them that love him," (v.9), which was the gospel scheme of redemption. Both the plan and the words by which it was made known to man were breathed out from God. That is verbal inspiration. God's word expressed in the Bible is as inspired as it was when it reposed in the minds of inspired men in the first century. That great truth is one of the foundation stones upon which our faith rests. If the very words of the Bible weren't breathed out from God, then is our faith vain and our hope lost.