Inspired Word of God   2015-103

So what is inspired? Does it mean that it is as simple as being influenced by a divine or supernatural being, when talking about religion? I have mentioned in my writings, many times, that I believe that the Bible was inspired by God.

Do I really think this? Again, what does inspired actually mean? I firmly and truly believe that there is a God. He is active, alive, and present with us always. I do NOT care if some do not believe this, but my thoughts to them, could still be interesting, maybe.

But that being said, do I truly believe that the Bible is inspired by God. I researched for a Sunday School lesson, called, “History of the Bible” and have a one inch thick booklet I passed out at the time. I was going through it the other day and found a page about this subject.

In it there were four different thoughts about the Bible, in reference to God having a hand in writing it. I looked it over and found a page that was attributed to the Thomas Nelson Publishing co. from 1990-. It was titled “Authority of the Bible – Inspiration or God’s Breath”.

“The most common appeal to the Bible’s authority has been by the concept of inspiration. For the most part, the Bible does not directly speak about inspiration. One verse, however, is often quoted. “All Scripture is inspired by God and is useful for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness” (2 Timothy 3:16). The word inspired in this passage is the Greek theopneustos, which literally is God Winded or God-breathed. It follows a verse referring to the “sacred writings” (verse 15), that is, the Hebrew Bible and possibly some of Paul’s letters as well. There is more than one way to speak about inspiration. We can identify four basic ways to think of the inspiration of the Bible.

1              One view holds that every word of the Bible is totally inspired by God and contains truth free from error. The assumption here is that God effectively persuaded all biblical writers to put down just the correct words, all the time. (I would imagine that this refers to or means the Bible is inerrant or without error)

2              Another way to speak of inspiration is to say that it applies to the ideas and concepts, but not to the actual words of the Bible.

3              Still other Christians have argued that God inspired not words or ideas but individual people. These folks then wrote what they did using the language and thought forms of their culture.

4              Yet another view of inspiration is that God inspired the community that produced, preserved, and passed on the writings we call Scripture.”

So, inspiration can be defined as all the words, all the ideas, all the writers, or all the believers who kept the writings as Scripture. Each of these positions has its advocates, its strengths, and its critics. Not all Christians agree on how to describe the God-breathed nature of the Bible. But, most Christians do agree that Scripture is inspired by God. God is the ultimate source or origin of Scripture

After researching the History of the Bible and reading many sources of data, I firmly believe the Bible is indeed “the inspiration by God”. To what degree of the four concepts shown above, I will keep to myself, but feel anyone can believe as they believe – which is only right and correct, and I respect those feelings and beliefs of others. I also feel that this issue should NOT be debatable as the essence of Belief in Faith is not something to be debated.

OK, that was then! Do I still believe it now? I have to still say yes, but with some reservations and thoughts. I think He was there when the King James Version (KJV) was compiled. The KJV was overdue for mankind to have the Bible that was understandable, at its disposal. The many versions that were in play at the time were archaic and hard to read. The Bibles at the time were many and some are listed here: The Vulgate, which St. Jerome wrote, The Wycliffe’s Bible, Matthew-Tyndale’s, Luther’s German Bible, the Bishops Bible, Coverdale’s, the Great Bible, Geneva Bible ,Douay-Rheims and even Noah Webster’s Bible about 1880. I would imagine that there have been many more versions or translations over time, up to a recent one called the Message, written by Eugene Peterson, which is more of a paraphrase than a translation.

Needless to say, was God involved in the inspiration of these variations? Perhaps, and perhaps not. I think He might have been present when they were being written or compiled at the time the work was done and His inspiration was evident to those doing the writing at the time.

I think most of us have our own opinions about this word “inspired” in relation to the Bible and again, that is fine. I know there is a God, one God that is the creator of the Universe and He is with us always and part of this companionship is being involved with writings of Scripture in some way. Believe what you want to believe, but I stick to my thoughts as being true, right and final about this subject, but cannot say that I was inspired by God to say so.

Den Betts