Challenging claim 3 Inspired by God 2 Inerrant Word of God

There were lots of writings which found their way in the different communities which were genuine letters. But lots of Jewish and Christian writings didn’t make it into the Christian Canon just for being true … they were instead left out because the Church determined them to be not “Inspired.”

St. Francis Seraph Catholic Church (Photo credit: elycefeliz)

A great majority of Christendom says the Catholic Church has revealed the divinity and inspiration of the Bible and that they received the authority and capacity to declare which writings were Divine and inspired. Those who claim that the Catholic Church was the only one to decide which writings could be part of the Bible as the inspired word of God should than also trust that institution to interpret it for us, you could say.

“After all, that’s why God gave us a Church with the authority to do such things.” (Catholic blogger Matthew Warner)

There are millions who are protestant who believe the Bible is the inspired word of God. They accept that the Bible is inspired and they do not accept the authority of the catholic church, for the reason they have found enough proof that many of its teachings are not in accordance to those books the Catholic Church themselves considers the Word of God which has to be followed, but they themselves do not follow it.

 

Maulburg: Catholic Church (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Christianity existed long before the “Catholic” church was established and began their persecution of any believer who did not join their “church”. From early start of Christianity there have been people who only wanted to follow Jesus his teachings and not the teachings of a certain organisation or certain group. Even the apostles warned already for such danger. Throughout history there have been masses of Christians who never joined the catholic church, but followed the teachings from the Holy Scriptures.

To find out about the divinity of the Bible we should look what does the Bible itself says. In the texts we can find guidance and information about the validity and usefulness of the writings.

Being all created in the image of God, we all do have God in ourselves. We can either push Him in a little corner and deny him or can let Him speak in us and let us guide by His Voice. those who wrote the books which we do have now in the Christian Canon, are books of which we consider that those writers let the Voice of God speak in them. They allowed God’s Hand write the Words the world had to hear.

The Gutenberg Bible displayed by the United States Library of Congress, demonstrating printed pages as a storage medium. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

That it contains virtually ever type of literary style: drama, historical, narrative, instruction, songs and poetry, all from different authors but coming all to the same “saying” forming “one unity” makes it very special. Forty men from all walks of life over the course of 1500 years.  The writers of the Bible considered it to be not merely their own opinion, but in fact the inerrant Word of God. They wrote without contradicting each other, it is remarkably self-consistent.  Some of the writers include kings, peasants, philosophers, fishermen, tax collectors, poets, musician, physicians, teachers, statesmen, lawyers and shepherds. It has been translated into 2200 languages, more than any book in existence. All those writers indicated also they were not writing it from their-selves, but that God had instructed them. They never claimed it to be their won words, even Jesus not. Jesus also told others it was not him doing the miracles and he was not teaching his ideas but explaining God His Words, not his.

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Preceding:

Challenging claim 1 Whose word

Challenging claim 2 Inspired by God 1 Simple words

Next: Challenging claim 4 Inspired by God 3 Self-consistent Word of God

Dutch version / Nederlandse versie: Uitdagende vordering 3 Goddelijk geïnspireerd 2 Onfeilbare Woord van God

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Read also:

1. God, Creation and the Bible Hope
2. Unsure about relevance Bible
3. The Bible: God’s Word or pious myth?
4. Bible, Word of God, inspired and infallible
5. Why believing the Bible
6. Inspired word
7. Did the Inspirator exist
8. Who Wrote the Bible?
9. Bringing Good News into the world
10. Pure Words and Testimonies full of Breath of the Most High
11. God, Creation and the Bible Hope
12. Power in the life of certain
13. Bible for you and for life
14. Words to push and pull & Words to bring message
15. Unsure about relevance Bible
16. The Bible: God’s Word or pious myth?
17. Why believing the Bible
18. The importance of Reading the Scriptures
19. Appointed to be read
20. Bible a guide – Bijbel als gids
21. Scripture alone Sola Scriptora
22. Old and New Testament not discordant
23. The Bible is a today book
24. Bible like puddle of water
25. Of the many books Only the Bible can transform
26. Missional hermeneutics 1/5

Additional reading:

1. Proof of The Bible’s Divine Inspiration
2. Do You Allow God to Speak to You Every Day?
3. Corruption in our translations !
4. Confessing In Jesus
5. Hebrews 1:1-2! From the 1865 Benjamin Wilson bible
6. Nazarene Commentary Luke 1:67-80 – Zechariah’s Prophecy
7. Words are important
8. The Chronological Dates In The Bible – (Re-edited)
9. The Divine Name in Christian Greek Scriptures (New Testament)
10. An Old Exposition about the Name of God
11. The Divine Name of God: Spoken by Jesus and Early True Christians
12. Re: Christendom
13. The Council of Nicaea (Nicene Council)

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Related articles

• Canonization of the Bible (hades1solution.wordpress.com)
  The word canon comes from the Greek kanwn, the Hebrew qaneh and Acadian quanu and literally refers to a measuring rod used by a ruler or mason to test the straightness and set standards (Keathley III 2009). Also is one speaking of the Orthodox, Catholic, Protestant or another version of the Bible when referring to which books are in the cannon. This essay will explore such issues and debates as the developed throughout history and explain how we came to have the Bible as we know it today.
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  “The eastern Old Testament canon appears to have reached common ground about the middle of the fourth century. Books most dearly loved but thus excluded from the Old Testament Cannon such as Ecclesiasticus and The Wisdom of Solomon thereafter sometimes came to appear in not yet so sharply defined lists dating from this time. In 90 A.D. in the west evidence of other Books of the Apocrypha circulated thus signifying the completion of the Apocrypha. These Books were included in the Western Cannon but not in the Jewish Canon at this time (Sundberg Jr. 1975). However some still disputed the canon until the 7^th council of Nicaea in 787 A.D (Septuagint: From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia 2014). The Septuagint was used by Jerome to translate the Bible into the Latin Vulgate and thus forms the basis for the Roman Catholic Bible. The Roman Catholic Bible includes some books of the Apocrypha not in the Greek Orthodox Bible. The protestant Bible However consist of a Four Fold division of the Septuagint without the Apocrypha. According to Ed Hindson and Gary Yates In the Essence of the Old Testament: A Survey : “ Though the Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox Church accept the books of the Apocrypha as canonical Scripture, these books never Claim to be the Word of God. They were written after the time when the Jews believed God stopped Speaking through his prophets. Philo however frequently quoted from them and New Testament writers would cite them to prove a point (1 Cor 15:33; Titus 1:12). Despite the historical value they are not included in the Hebrew Bible However (Hindson and Yates 2012).”
• The Bible – does it matter? (totellthenations.wordpress.com)
  Evangelicals disagree about the extent of the Bible’s authoritative domain, with infallibilists limiting it to “religious” matters, and inerrantists expanding it indefinitely. The critical question at present is whether inerrancy is a divisive distraction or an essential feature, perhaps even the rallying cry, of evangelical biblicism…
• Why I Love The Word of God – Full and Updated Version! (jnwheels.com)
  If the reliability of the Scriptures are up for debate in your mind and heart, then so are all of its doctrines, precepts, directives, commandments, prophecies and promises. As ministers in the Lord we need to be confidant in who we are serving.
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  The Bible has been the most adored and praised book as well as the object of more persecution and opposition than any other book in History. For example, before Constantine, Rome, at one point, thought that they had exterminated the Christian religion. Diocletian, by a royal edict in 303 A.D. demanded that every copy of the Bible be destroyed by fire. He killed so many Christians and destroyed so many Bibles, sending Christians into hiding, that he actually thought that he had put an end to the Bible. He inscribed a medal that said, “the Christian religion is destroyed and the worship of the gods restored.” A few years later Constantine came to the throne, making Christianity the state religion. Man cannot thwart the purpose and plan of God, not even through evil or persecution. This is one example among many throughout history. Many stories of persecution and triumph are still being written among our brothers and sisters in Christ around the world today – in Asia, the middle east, and elsewhere.
• The Inspired Bible (jessedooley.wordpress.com)
  God’s Spirit is not bound by the writings of those in the past. Indeed, God continues to live through their inspiration. However, God is still very much alive beyond those sacred texts. God is alive in our sacred selves, in you, in me, in nature, in all things.
• Great Writings on Biblical Inerrancy: Two Things Critics Must Demonstrate to Defeat Biblical Inerrancy (biblicalexegete.wordpress.com)
  The really decisive question among Christian scholars (among whom alone, it would seem, could a question of inspiration be profitably discussed), is thus seen to be, ‘What does an exact and scientific exegesis determine to be the Biblical doctrine of inspiration?’
• Great Writings on Inerrancy: Dealing With Difficulties In The Bible (biblicalexegete.wordpress.com)
  It must be admitted that the text of scripture as transmitted to us contains occasional difficulties which appear to challenge the doctrine of biblical inerrancy. Some of these difficulties are relieved by a proper use of the science of textual criticism. Others, such as discrepencies in statistics or the spelling of names, call for emending of the text which goes beyond the available data of textual criticism. Still others present logical difficulties, such as the endorsement given in Judges 11 to the apparent sacrifice of Jephthah’s daughter, when Deuteronomy 12:31 forbids all human sacrifice in Israel.
• The Old Testament: an update on a journey (part 2) (theway21stcentury.wordpress.com)
  Either we assume from the start that the Bible is inerrant and notto be judged by science and history, or we resist forming a judgment until we have assessed all the evidence. Other christiansmay be able to start with that assumption, but I cannot.I have written elsewhere why I don’t think inerrancy can be assumed. Here’s a brief summary of the reasons:
  • The Bible doesn’t claim to be inerrant – the belief is based on the view that inspiration implies God’s perfect authorship.
  • Jesus and the NT writers respected the authority of the Jewish scriptures that form our Old Testament, but didn’t seem to treat it as inerrant.
  • Inerrancy, as it is understood today, has not been the unanimous view of all christians through history.
  • Christian today believe some things and explain others away, so inerrancy seems to be more a catchcry than a practically believed doctrine.
  • The Old Testament doesn’t seem to be inerrant when we read it, and scholars confirm that it isn’t.
• What Has Chicago to Do With Nicaea? Or, “Inerrancy Isn’t In the Bible” (derekzrishmawy.com)
  One of the frequent complaints against the doctrine of inerrancy is that, not only is a theological novelty taught nowhere until the 19th century, more than that, “it’s not in the Bible.” Nowhere is there a verse that says the “Bible is completely true in all that it affirms in history, theology, etc. in the original autographs” and so forth. So how then, if we’re Sola Scriptura Protestants, can we go about insisting on it, or other variations like “infallibility” (which, is actually the more comprehensive term), as a sort of de fide doctrine?
• Briefly Explaining Preservation of the Biblical Text (biblicalexegete.wordpress.com)
  The copies of the autographs and their subsequent translations and versions represent the over 3,000 Hebrew manuscripts and hundreds of translated manuscripts of the O.T. The N.T has almost 5800 Greek manuscripts and roughly 20,000 translated manuscripts. Preservation states that we have God’s words with us today, however it does not guarantee that there won’t be variations, transcriptional errors or damage to portions of each manuscript as time passes. So many of the criticisms of the Biblical text in regards to its reliability stem from this particular subject of preservation or transmission. Scholar and Christian Apologist Doug Powell writes in “The Holman Quick Source Guide to Christian Applogetics”, page 153: “A common misconception about the New Testament is that it is transmitted like links in a chain, each book being copied, which was then copied by someone else, and so on. This is often likened to the ‘telephone game’ where one person whispers a message to another, and then that person whispers it to another, and it goes around the room. By the time it reaches the last person the message is often corrupt. But this is not the case how the New Testament writings were handed down.”
• let’s start over: Defining “Mainline” and “non-Evangelical” (unsettledchristianity.com)
  Evangelical is a word/label that should apply to those who believe in the power of the Gospel and as such, Mainliners who are not inerrantists but believe in the power of the Gospel feel somewhat slighted when you take the label away from them.
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  “mainline” is an American thing. It doesn’t require a belief in inerrancy but can and should believe in the power* of the Gospel*. Further, a mainline denomination holds sway upon large parts of the American public and may even become involved in the political sphere. The denominations are larger than a sect, has historic doctrine,andis seen.So, the new mainline would be who?
  • The Roman Catholic Church
  • The United Methodist Church
  • The Southern Baptist Convention
  • The Latter-Day Saints (remember, they are the dominant group in several western States)
  • Evangelical Lutheran Church in America
  • Assemblies of God