Why is it that Christians insist on verbal inspiration being so essential? It’s because words mean things. Specific words express preciseness, a preciseness essential for conveying meaning without ambiguity. Original words, conveyed by the Spirit of God in the Hebrew Old and Greek New Testament, utilize the human vocabulary of each writer. But you may be sure the human writer could not write whatever he saw fit. His being inspired by the Holy Spirit as a select penman did not allow him to insert any word he wished from his own vocabulary. Were this the case, divine inspiration was not needed. Yet, it was this very inspiration that assured the authority and accuracy only God could provide. This is what makes the Bible God’s word and not man’s. Were it only man’s word, it comes only with man’s authority. For the Bible to possess the necessary authority, it must have been generated from the authoritative source Himself. Nothing less will suffice if it is to be recognized, honored, and obeyed as the very Word of the living God. In every case, and there are many, where the Bible’s authority is either denied or questioned, the message it carries must, of necessity, be denied or questioned as well. The end result is the same: “Don’t take it seriously. It doesn’t really say that, and even if it should say that, it doesn’t mean that.” This is precisely where we are in much of modern Christendom. This helps explain the recent neutralizing and marginalizing of Christianity so rampant in today’s culture.
Hebrews 4 describes the Word of God as our only offensive weapon, and it is called “alive and powerful, sharper than a two-edged sword.” If verbal inspiration of the Bible is surrendered, you have just laid down your arms. You are weaponless and powerless.
With the erosion of the authority of the Bible, there is an accompanying decrease in the influence Christians have upon our increasingly secular society. The most tragic aspect of all this is not in the rejection of the Bible by unbelievers, which should not surprise us, but it is the rejection of some claiming themselves to be Christians. Their position is likened to a saboteur who seeks to blend in with the enemy while contributing to their defeat from within, all the while wearing a benign smile… some of them behind podiums as they lecture their liberalism in prominent seminaries. According to them, the Bible, thusly, says nothing objective nor does it demand anything from anyone. It is, then, reduced to a bland, impotent collection of interesting but unauthoritative literature. The Bible deserves and demands better, much better.
CC-02-19
Published by