Different Views of Inspiration
Bill Wenstrom
Inspiration • Sermon • Submitted • 54:45
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· 19 viewsDifferent Views of Inspiration Lesson # 5
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Throughout His ministry, Jesus of Nazareth appealed to the Old Testament Scriptures while teaching and considered them authoritative because they were the Word of God.
This is never more evident than in John 10:34-35.
John 10:34-35 Jesus answered them, “Has it not been written in your Law, ‘I said, you are gods’? 35 If he called them gods, to whom the word of God came (and the Scripture cannot be broken).” (NASB95)
In this passage, the Lord when defending Himself from attacks from His enemies quotes the Old Testament.
Specifically He quotes Psalm 82:6 and then says that this “Scripture can never be broken.”
This statement makes clear that He considered the Old Testament canon as being the supreme authority in judging matters.
Jesus again declares the Old Testament as from God in the Sermon on the Mount discourse.
Matthew 5:17 “Do not think that I came to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I did not come to abolish but to fulfill. 18 For truly I say to you, until heaven and earth pass away, not the smallest letter or stroke shall pass from the Law until all is accomplished. 19 Whoever then annuls one of the least of these commandments, and teaches others to do the same, shall be called least in the kingdom of heaven; but whoever keeps and teaches them, he shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven.” (NASB95)
Notice again Jesus appeals to the authority of the Scripture and says that it is eternal and indestructible implying it is from God since God is eternal and indestructible.
He also appealed to Scripture when dealing with the temptations of Satan (Luke 4).
Throughout the Gospels, one can see Jesus asking the question “Have you never read in the Scriptures?”
Our Lord’s confidence in the Old Testament canon also appears in Matthew 19:4 when addressing the issue of divorce.
He appeals to the account of Adam and Eve in Genesis to reaffirm God’s original design for marriage.
We can see that throughout the Gospels, Jesus testified that whatever is written in the Old Testament is the Word of God.
He not only was of this conviction before His resurrection but also after it (Luke 24:25-46).
The New Testament frequently refers to the Old Testament as “scripture” (Matthew 21:42.) which clearly implies a well-known body of literature considered authoritative both by the Christian and Jewish communities.
Jesus Christ Himself referred to this authoritative literature in the same manner as did His contemporaries (Matthew 19:4).
The apostle Paul does the same (Romans 1:17 et. al.).
They both introduce quotations from the Old Testament with the phrase “it is written.”
First Corinthians 15:3–7 is an early Christian creed which demonstrates how the orthodox Jewish view of Scripture was brought over into even pre-Pauline Christianity since it twice describes the death and resurrection of Christ with the words “according to Scripture” (1 Corinthians 15:3-4).
In his epistles, the apostle Paul declares often the authoritative nature of his own writings (see 1 Corinthians 12:28; 7:25; 14:37; 1 Thessalonians 4:14; 2 Thessalonians 3:6, 14; Galatians 1:8–11; Ephesians 2:20; 3:5).
The second epistle of the apostle Peter which was considered by many one of the latest New Testament letters, combines the commands of the apostles of Jesus Christ together with the words of the Old Testament prophets in the sense that both are authoritative (2 Peter 3:2).
In this epistle, Peter states that his fellow apostle Paul wrote according to the “wisdom that was given him (2 Peter 3:15).
The book of Revelation written by the apostle John also makes direct claims to its own authority in that it promises blessings to those who obey its precepts (Revelation 1:3), and warning those who might add to or take away from it (Revelation 22:10).
In the second, third and fourth centuries of the church’s history, she accepted without question that both the Old and New Testament had come from God through human agents.
Irenaeus, Theodore of Mopsuestia, Gregory of Nyssa, as well as Augustine express this in their writings.
However, there are differences among them regarding inspiration.
Some church fathers leaned toward a dictation view while on the other hand others to a looser interpretation.
Athenagoras believed that the human authors were like a flute which the Holy Spirit as the flutist played.
Augustine and Origin, who assigned more agency to the human authors, are examples of the latter.
Despite this, Christians of the first millennium believed the Scriptures were inerrant and originated from God.
This view of Scripture remained unchallenged throughout the Middle Ages with a few exceptions such as Peter Abelard who began to question Scripture’s inerrancy.
When we come to the Reformation, we see that men like Luther, Calvin, and Zwingli understood the Scriptures as possessing divine authority, and should thus be considered by all Christians as the ultimate authority for the church which they called sola scriptura.
Martin Luther regarded the human authors as the “tongue” of the Spirit, and Calvin liked to quote Isaiah 59:21, with its reference to “My Spirit which rests on you and my words which I have put into your mouth.”
Luther, Calvin, and Zwingli all affirmed the inspiration of Scripture as God’s word.
Luther did question the inclusion of James in the canon because he believed it contradicted Paul however this of course was not a question of inspiration, but of a letter’s canonicity.
We must remember that before the Enlightenment, reason had been viewed as a custodian and servant of divine revelation meaning a person submitted their reason to the authority of Scripture and of the church.
However, the Enlightenment reversed all this in that it made revelation the servant of reason in the sense that one examines truth with one’s own intellect, and decides for oneself what is true or false.
Therefore, the Enlightenment presented a direct challenge to scriptural authority, and thus inspiration.