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An essay on the bible as an inspired book from God
Essay on inspiration of the bible
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The Bible is the infallible, inspired, inerrant Word of the living God. I grew up hearing this from pastors, teachers and evangelists. I have come to believe that the Bible is indeed the inspired Word of God because the Bible itself claims it, Jesus and the early church fathers believed it, and textual unity supports it.
First, the Bible claims, “All Scripture is inspired by God and is useful to teach us what is true and to make us realize what is wrong in our lives” (2 Timothy 3:16, NLT). Here, the Greek word, theopneustos, really means expiration or breathing out (God-breathed). JohnF. Walvoord explains when he quotes B. B. Warfield, “In a word, what is declared by this fundamental passage is simply that the Scriptures are a Divine product, without any indication of how God has operated in producing them" (Walvoord 1959, 6). The Bible does not indicate how inspiration occurred; only that it did.
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Jesus based his life and work on the Old Testament, which he equated to the Word of God (Akin 2014). The church fathers repeatedly supported the inspiration of Scripture; from Augustine who not only affirmed the Bible’s inspiration, but also insisted that it was without error or imperfection to Martin Luther who called scripture, “God’s Word written” (Akin 2014). When John Wesley penned, “Scripture… is a most solid and precious system of divine truth” (Akin 2014), he was in effect saying that the Bible is 100% true and as such, inspired by
The Bible is read and interpreted by many people all over the world. Regardless, no one knows the absolute truth behind scripture. Walter Brueggemann, professor of Old Testament, wrote “Biblical Authority” to help people understand what he describes as six different parts that make up the foundation to ones understanding of scripture. He defines these six features as being: inherency, interpretation, imagination, ideology, inspiration, and importance. As Brueggemann explains each individual part, it is easy to see that they are all interconnected because no one can practice one facet without involuntarily practicing at least one other part.
Wesley believed that the doctrine of the Trinity of Father, Son and Holy Spirit was a "fundamental belief" of Christian faith
The first and foundational aspect of the quadrilateral is Scripture. God’s Holy Word. To Wesley, the Bible was the only book needed and he considered it the first and final authority. He considered Scripture to be primary with the remaining three factors holding complimentary roles. When studying Christian theology, we are to use the other components of the quadrilateral to assess how scripture addresses a specific question. With the Bible as the final test, Scripture is most important and it is how God reveals Himself to us.
In the first book and chapter of the Bible, Genesis 1, gives an account of a literal twenty four-hour, six-day view of Creation. It states that God forged the Heavens and the Earth ex nihilo, which means "out of nothing", in a six-day allotment. He then rested on the seventh day. However, a question lingers, is the Word of God inerrant? Archaeological digs have proved that the Bible is reliable. These digs have uncovered evidence that has been pre-recorded in the Bible. For example: the Bible said that Noah's Ark rested on top of Mt. Ararat; with this in mind, archeologists recently found the Ark on top of the same mountain. With regards to this evidence, Paul, an apostle of God, wrote Romans 1:20 which states, "For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes, His eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly seen, being understood through what has been made, so that they are without excuse." This verse says that God's divine qualities have been seen. Those with a nonpartisan perspective know that the creation of the world is too intricate for chance to have created everything. The chances of just ...
The Apostle Paul states, “All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness” (2 Timothy 3:16, NIV). He also reminds Christians that, if
There is much debate over the accuracy and the inerrancy of Scripture. Pertaining to this debate there exists an underlying question as to whether or not the New Testament is considered part of the canon or for that matter if it is actually given by the inspiration of God. How did the books that are in the New Testament get there? Who decided which books should be added or taken out? Do we have all the books that we should have? Many ask these questions, but Christians are ill equipped to give an answer. For centuries, Christians have claimed that they have the absolute truth, are saved only by faith, and claim the Scriptures as inspired by God. In spite of these claims many Christians are not able to clarify the origins of what they place all of their faith upon. The questions asked above are profoundly significant since they have eternal consequences. They have consequences because in order to trust and obey God there must be certainty in the accuracy of God’s Word. This testament will attempt to answer the question: How Do We Know The New Testament is God’s Word?
Even though humans wrote the text, translating it and passing it down from generations to generations, God’s truth is unchanging. Debates of the inerrancy of the bible cannot usurp God as the King of grace. Instead of focusing on the inerrancy of the Bible, individuals who wish to seek a life of faith should focus on the inspiration God is showing them in his word. These revelations should move them into applicable, daily life changing implications from what they have learned. God shows revelations of himself through the Bible, and his character is revealed time and time again throughout scripture. Any faulty facts or discrepancies in grammar or data, should not take away from the value that scripture holds. When we read scripture we bring new meaning of interpretations of the truths God shows us, since new eras and environmental factors will be influential on how we process information. The bible is not just a fact book, telling humans stories of the past, but instead the bible is inspired instructions for how we can deal with spiritual and ethical encounters we
The unembellished definition of inerrancy is that every word of the Bible is true. The Bible isn’t inerrant, because it records every fact about any one subject, rather, it’s inerrant, because every fact that it records is true and accurate.
For centuries now Christians have claimed to possess the special revelation of an omnipotent, loving Deity who is sovereign over all of His creation. This special revelation is in written form and is what has come to be known as The Bible which consists of two books. The first book is the Hebrew Scriptures, written by prophets in a time that was before Christ, and the second book is the New Testament, which was written by Apostles and disciples of the risen Lord after His ascension. It is well documented that Christians in the context of the early first century were used to viewing a set of writings as being not only authoritative, but divinely inspired. The fact that there were certain books out in the public that were written by followers of Jesus and recognized as being just as authoritative as the Hebrew Scriptures was never under debate. The disagreement between some groups of Christians and Gnostics centered on which exact group of books were divinely inspired and which were not. The debate also took place over the way we can know for sure what God would have us include in a book of divinely inspired writings. This ultimately led to the formation of the Biblical canon in the next centuries. Some may ask, “Isn’t Jesus really the only thing that we can and should call God’s Word?” and “Isn’t the Bible just a man made collection of writings all centered on the same thing, Jesus Christ?” This paper summarizes some of the evidences for the Old and New Testament canon’s accuracy in choosing God breathed, authoritative writings and then reflects on the wide ranging
Spanning fifteen hundred years with over 30,700 manuscripts, extensive archaeological evidence and 2000 prophecies that have been fulfilled, the Bible is God 's word to us. (Yohn, 2013). In the Bible, the Father is essentially giving us a picture of the history of the world and is also leading us to a place where we must make a decision that involves whether we choose to accept his son or reject him and remain guilty. Additionally, the Word of God tells us what happened that caused this breach between us and God, the result of this and how God has rectified it through the blood of his son. In fact, from the beginning of the Bible (written 1400 B.C.) to the last book (A.D. 96), God is showing us why we need Jesus and how to find him. Just as a plant’s root system propagates and occupies the pot that encloses it, Jesus permeates the entire Bible. Therefore, the motif of the Bible is the story of the redemption of mankind and it all points to Jesus as the messiah and savior who secures this for all.
... God’s word, and it provides humanity with his truth and revelation. His word is a guide to live by, and through his word, all is made clear. No doctrine or faith in Christianity should stray from the word of God. His word is pure and holy, and it reveals his plans and love for all.
Jesus Christ and Paul stayed faithful to God’s message even though they were presenting their message of the Old Testament to an audience of the New Testement. Jesus Christ would debate the use of a particular words tense of the verb in the Old Testament questions. Paul would make his theological argument based on the Old Testament passage as singular or plural. They exhorted the importance of correctly interpreting the scripture. Paul also urged Timothy(2 Tim 3:16) to study the Old Testament, stating that all scripture is inspired by God. The Old Testament and New Testament affirm that the Word of God is eternal.
There wasn’t much debate prior to the Enlightenment about the Bible’s inerrancy, authority or sufficiency. Of course these topics were talked about, but never as debated as they were come the Enlightenment. On the inerrancy of Scripture: During the enlightenment, biblical inerrancy underwent abuse with the rise of liberalism. A major force during the Enlightenment was Immanuel Kant.
What is the meaning of Biblical inspiration? The word inspiration firstly appeared in usage in second Timothy 3:16, where we can read: “All Scripture is inspired by God and is useful to teach us what is true and to make us realize what is wrong in our lives. It corrects us when we are wrong and teaches us to do what is right" (Holy Bible, 2013). Following the word's syntax, assumption is that "inspired" is translated to mean every scripture is inspired and useful. Some translations give samples that could be explained as “ex-spired” or "breathed out", therefore, the expression “God-Breathed.” Looking through the Biblical sense of inspiration the firstly comes the idea that writers created exactly the things need to be written for God. This idea is supported in Peter 1: 20-21, where it is clearly stated that "no prophecy of Scripture is a matter of one's own interpretation...
the Bible were “God - breathed” making each a Word from God and not the words of the