What are the implications of believing that the Scriptures are “Inspired”?
Underlying EVERY biblical topic is the question of “inspiration of Scripture.” Depending on your view of this, any and every subject can be given a wide variety of interpretations. Without the unswerving belief in the absolute authority and finality of Scripture there is no firm ground to build anything authoritative on – only sinking sand! You can quote Church Fathers (so-called), reformation leaders, historical sources, cultural reasons, personal bias of Bible authors (so-accused), personal experience, what your pastor says, common practice/belief, church traditions and much more no doubt. If you are a Christian you need to KNOW (not just intellectually) that the book, which we call The Bible is God’s absolute and final Word on ALL subjects contained therein. It is for ALL Christians and ALL churches in ALL places at ALL times. If it is not, then it is nothing more than a mere ‘contribution’ to our understanding and is not really authoritative at all. If you do not already embrace the statements of this page, or are quite unwilling to do so then there would be little point in spending time perusing the many, lengthy studies and articles etc. on this site. They are all based firmly upon the belief that the Bible is the sole and absolute authority on every matter that pertains to eternal truth and temporal practices.
In an attempt to further expound upon the meaning and implications of ‘inspiration of Scripture’ I include below the following extract taken from the appendices of the Bible study on this site entitled ‘His Church’…
In the days of Jesus and His apostles and throughout the Bible’s history, there were many things done, said and written. By God’s guidance, a very select amount of that written material came to be understood by the Church as being ‘Scripture’. We cannot here give full consideration to the processes and background of the compiling of the Bible. But what does need to be highlighted is that those writings that were acknowledged as being ‘inspired’ (literally, God-breathed) were understood to be, not only applicable to the church or individual to whom they were addressed, but also to every other church and Christian. This means that Holy Scripture was written for all churches, in all places, at all times.
The Bible encompasses many different phases of God’s dealings with mankind. We need to be very clear in our understanding about which Covenant is applicable to us today. The Old Testament is still read by Christians because it is rich in history, prophecy, allegory and much more, but it is not the Covenant in which we live today (though it makes many forward-looking references to it). The New Testament was written as a direct result of God commencing a new covenant (agreement) with His people. The period of time covered from the founding of the New Testament Church (on the day of Pentecost) until the close of the New Testament writings is nearly sixty years. If any of the principles of Church development were to have changed, this would have been a quite sufficient period for them to have done so. Whatever else has been said, done or written since, or even during that time, has not acquired the status of being preserved in the ‘Inspired Book’.
[Taken from ‘His Church‘ – Appendix 1 – ‘Inspiration of Scripture’]
