How Is the Bible “Divinely Inspired”?
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The question of the Divine inspiration of Scripture is one that has ebbed within society in recent years. Bodie Hodge, speaker and writer for Answers in Genesis, addressed a state school several years ago, and he reflected on his visit in a 2009 article. “I didn’t realize the importance of this question (Was the Bible written by men?) until I saw a statistical analysis of young people who had walked away from the church. Out of 1,000 young adults who have left church, 44% of them said that they did not believe the accounts in the Bible were true and accurate. When asked what made them answer this way, the most common response (24%) said that the Bible was written by men (not God, albeit inspiring men).”
What does a comparable 2022 statistic look like?
According to the American Bible Society, “Of five response options, the most popular (27%) was: The Bible is the inspired word of God and has no errors, although some verses are meant to be symbolic rather than literal. Last year (2021), this answer was chosen by 29 percent. This was the most popular choice of every age group except Millennials.
The second most chosen statement was: The Bible is just another book of teachings written by people that contains stories and advice. One in five people chose this (20%), up sharply from 13 percent last year. It is the favorite choice of Millennials (24%).
We saw the steepest drop in the fourth-place answer: The Bible is the actual word of God and should be taken literally, word for word. This had 15 percent agreement in this year’s poll, down from 26 percent last year. The highest support for this view came not from Elders, but from Boomers (19%).”
The Bible (which was completed almost 2,000 years ago) confirms what is currently happening, “For the time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching, but having itching ears they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions, and will turn away from listening to the truth and wander off into myths” (2 Timothy 4:3-4). While this passage is not explicitly directed at divine inspiration of Scripture, it fits within the growing unbelief in God and His Word. And God has not been taken by surprise.
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What Does "Divinely Inspired" Mean?
For something to be divinely inspired means it originated from our holy, Almighty God. Inspired by God means infinitely more than saying “I was inspired to send you a note.” For God to inspire Scripture means He superintended the writing of it. Everything written by the 40+ authors is — in effect — written by God Himself.
2 Peter 1:20-21 states, “knowing this first of all, that no prophecy of Scripture came from someone's own interpretation. For no prophecy was ever produced by the will of man, but men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit.”
God is a triune God (God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Spirit). For the Bible to say men were “carried along” by the Holy Spirit is to say they were led by God.
Did God Inspire All of Scripture?
Scripture answers this question quite succinctly in many passages, including 2 Timothy 3:16, which states, “All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work” (Italics added).
When the Bible says “all,” it is explicit that all means all. (See also 1 Corinthians 2:13; Hebrews 1:1-2; 1 Peter 1:10-11)
Are the Epistles Inspired Too?
Each section of the Bible, whether it be historical narrative, poetry, law, wisdom, prophecy, apocalyptic, gospels, or epistles, is inspired by God. Jesus quoted the Old Testament on numerous occasions, as did the Apostle Paul. And Jesus stressed the importance of Scripture when He said, “For truly, I say to you, until heaven and earth pass away, not an iota, not a dot, will pass from the Law until all is accomplished” (Matthew 5:18).
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Why Did God Have Humans Write Scripture, instead of Creating It Himself, Directly?
God is a Being of relationship, and He chose to use men to pen the Scriptures, partly because we are His image bearers. John 1:1 says, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.” Jesus — the perfect God-man — came to testify to the Truth and to continue the work of making God known to us. He used understandable languages to convey His message, and it fits that God would use men to write the Bible. Jesus approved the Old Testament and the Apostles’ efforts in the New Testament (see the book of Revelation).
God can do anything He wants, and since He loves us (John 3:16), why would He not want to involve us in such a worthy undertaking? Each Scripture writer was incredibly blessed to be used by God in such an endeavor.
God, you see, is beyond our comprehension. Isaiah 55:8-9 says, “For My thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways My ways, declares the Lord. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are My ways higher than your ways and My thoughts than your thoughts.”
He chose, in His kindness, to inspire the writers using the languages He gave us. When we get to heaven, who knows in what language we will speak? By His selection of the biblical authors, God deigned to speak to us via the languages He created for us (Hebrew, Aramaic, and Greek). This author’s conjecture is it took the Holy Spirit’s inspiration to make God’s voice active and “pennable” by the authors.
Each biblical author made his contributions understandable. We have commonality in the cultural, ideological, experiential, and vocational settings, etc., and the writers’ descriptions are comprehensible to the Bible’s readers.
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Is Scripture Trustworthy, Since It Was Written by Men?
Skeptics say the Bible is full of contradictions, therefore it cannot be divinely inspired. They also say since men are capable of great errors, the Bible cannot be the word of God.
Del Tackett, in his Truth Encounter Ministries, said, “If God is God and He is everything He has said He is and He is a personal God who wants to communicate to His creatures who He is, then He would not only communicate, but He would insure that it was communicated inerrantly. And, since it is a consistent part of God’s nature to work through His creation, He would use finite man as an agent in that communication and superintend inerrancy over that process.”
One common supposed fallacy which occurs in the historical accounts is found in the books of 1 and 2 Kings. Mr. Tackett shares the findings of Edwin Thiele, who spent years uncovering the truth of the perceived discrepancy in the calendars used by the ancient biblical kings. In his findings, the Bible proves itself inerrant as written by human authors, as it always does.
It is imperative we recognize God indeed inspired the Scriptures to human writers. Those who assert that since the Bible was written by men and not God and is therefore not trustworthy, inerrant, or even holy, is a revelation that that person considers himself like God (omniscient, omnipresent, and omnipotent). But, as the Bible says, “Pride goes before a fall” (Proverbs 16:18). We, none of us, possess God’s perfect attributes, and to claim knowledge of our holy God’s intentions is pure humanism (See also 1 Corinthians 2:14). As God said to Job in Job 38:2-4, “Who is this that darkens counsel by words without knowledge? Dress for action like a man; I will question you, and you make it known to Me. Where were you when I laid the foundation of the earth? Tell Me, if you have understanding.” The three characteristics listed above belong solely to God.
We do not fully know how God through His Holy Spirit inspired the human authors, but the Scripture continually validates its supernatural character through prophecy (see Isaiah 41:21-29). Only the Scriptures contain detailed prophecies and their fulfillment.
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The Beauty of Studying This Divinely Inspired Text
Each author’s personality and experience within the culture came into play as they wrote the truth-filled, inspired text. As a Ligonier article states, “And note that truth can be affirmed in many different styles and even by people who lack literary training and sophistication.” Another key as mentioned in this article is “…human authors played a key role in the writing of Scripture, making their own contributions to the text. In so doing, they were kept by God from affirming anything untrue (see John 17:17).”
Knowing Scripture has its divine origin from God Himself is a directive for us to handle the Word rightly (2 Timothy 2:15). The Apostle Peter states we should always be prepared to give a defense for the hope within us (1 Peter 3:15). Studying the Scriptures is hard, but eternally valuable. And familiarizing ourselves with true and godly apologetic resources is like extra credit. Once we accept the Bible as God’s Word and study it diligently, we wait expectantly for its transforming power (Romans 12:2).
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