Inspiration Of The Bible
Kelly's Idiot Notes from his New Analytical
Bible with his own commentary
The Bible remarkable book & its teachings are
profoundly valuable
Some do not consider these teachings divinely
inspired.
In other words, the history & doctrines in the
Scriptures is accounted for by these people on natural rather than on
supernatural grounds.
Those who insist on the naturalist explanation,
indeed, are required to show how man could have conceived Bible.
The doctrine of Inspiration asserts that the
Biblical system did not originate in the human consciousness, that it would
not & could not have done so, that unaided men would have been wholly
incapable of creating such a system & enunciating its doctrines in the midst
of changing condition throughout the centuries, that there are those things
in the Scriptures that no human intelligence could have foreseen.
In addition, Bible teachings are such that they
would never have been formulated & promulgated by fallen man.
Bible must be accounted for on supernatural grounds
There is no middle position. …what Inspiration
signifies; namely, that the Scriptures were divinely communicated, that the
authors of the Bible were divinely inspired to write what they did, & that
without such Inspiration they would not & could not have done so.
Inspiration does not operate apart from the human
channel.
The inspired message is stamped with the
peculiarities of each.
It is thus human & divine.
We shall discover each writer proceeded in a manner
peculiar to himself, & that the style of one is not that of another.
These writers did not act under some form of
compulsion in a way unnatural to themselves. …
Mark writes with the directness & dispatch of the
Roman;
The questions of authenticity & genuineness of the
Scriptures are not to be confused with that of Inspiration.
Preservation of
the Bible,” will be discussed in a few weeks to establish
authenticity & genuineness.
Claims may be made for the authenticity &
genuineness of any ancient classic. …Let us assume that a work of
Plato has thus been authenticated; in that respect it is the same as the
authentication of the Scriptures … But that does not prove the work in
itself & its teaching to be true. These may be absolutely false, untrue to
facts; & yet the work may be an authentic, genuine production of Plato. The
authenticity & genuineness of the Bible are one thing; but what the Bible
teaches, & what claims these teachings may establish is quite another thing.
1. Let’s consider What the Bible Claims for Itself
Is it essential to the doctrine of Inspiration that
the Bible specifically declare that it is the inspired Word of God? …The
Egyptian or the Chinese religion may claim to be divinely inspired & find it
impossible by its teachings to make good such claims.
A fanatical person may declare he is “the light of
the world” but fail dismally in getting anyone to believe it.
A mere claim is not equivalent to its
establishment, but to establish a claim requires that it first be made.
We can easily see how the Bible may say very little
about its inspiration & yet hold within itself the irrefutable evidence that
it is so inspired.
II Timothy 3:16 …
In like manner Peter declares (II Peter 1:20, 21)
These verses state emphatically that the Scriptures cannot be ascribed to
men, that they did not originate in the human mind, that they are not a
human product & cannot be accounted for on natural grounds.
Word of God,” …”word of the Lord,” … Christ quoted
from the OT, considering it the Word of God. He declared that Moses & the
prophets wrote of Him & that He was the fulfillment of these Scriptures.
2. Internal Evidences of Inspiration
If the Bible contained things contrary to reason,
it is quite obvious that reason would reject it. Reason is incapable of
accepting what is impossible or involves a contradiction.
But the Scriptures contain nothing of that order.
We find in the Bible things that are contrary to
ordinary human experience; but that is vastly different from being contrary
to reason. Men being raised from the dead is not a thing of ordinary
human experience. But, given the being of God, the extraordinary & the
miraculous are always possible & are not contrary to reason.
Nothing is given by inspiration that is an offense
to reason.
In speaking of Internal Evidences of Inspiration
we refer to those things in the Scriptures that can be explained only on
grounds of divine inspiration. To justify its claims of divine inspiration
it must contain those things that can be accounted for in no other way.
(1) That the Bible is the Word of God is evident
from its doctrine of God.
The Bible opens with a statement of the fact of
God: “In the beginning God….”(Gen. 1:1) … the fact that we find God in the
Scriptures is not enough to cause us to assume that these Scriptures came
from God;
It is the particular doctrine of God they teach
that establishes these claims. …can we account for this doctrine in the same
way we would account for the deities of the Egyptian Babylonian, or Grecian
religions?
The God of the Bible is so different from pagan
conceptions this difference cannot be accounted for on the ground that,
being a different religion, it has a different deity …
The monotheism of the Scriptures is unique We are
too prone to read the Bible without regard to the ancient world in the midst
of which it was brought forth. Our concepts of God is monotheistic; we do
not stop to consider why they are so, … the Bible carry us back into its
ancient surroundings & conditions.
How account for monotheism, the doctrine of one
God, in the Scriptures? Moses & his people lived in a polytheistic world,
surrounded be peoples who had no true knowledge of the one supreme God, but
worshipped many gods. Abraham was called out of Babylonian polytheism.
Canaan was inhabited by polytheistic people. Egypt, in which the Israelites
sojourned for so long, was polytheistic. Israelites, on entering their land,
found it full of polytheistic races. Throughout Israel’s national career
this paganism was flaunted on every hand.
Under such conditions, how can we account for the
radically different, distinctive monotheism of the Scriptures? Could we
expect that, … Hebrew people would conceived & bring forth this concept of a
pure monotheism? The conditions under which they lived were absolutely
against their doing so.
We must see the Bible in the midst of this
paganism, standing alone & apart, holding high this truth – the only truth
concerning God that the enlightened consciousness can accept – a striking
exception to what prevailed in that early world. Intellectually, the Greeks
were advanced far beyond the Hebrews; religiously, they could not approach
the glory… How account for this outstanding exception that presented, not
simply what was different, but the absolutely true as opposed to the
absolutely false?
It cannot be accounted for on natural grounds,
brought about by the beliefs prevailing in Israel’s environment; these were
diametrically opposed to the new, lofty, rational concept.
It cannot be accounted for on the ground of an
evolutionary procedure in religious thinking. It stands alone in the midst
of degraded paganism, not as evolving from it – as from the lower to the
higher – It is a revelation, not an evolution; … concepts that could never
come through an evolutionary process.
…cannot account for it by the religious
peculiarities of the Hebrews, through whom this monotheism was brought
forth.
The Egyptians made their religion. They produced it
& lived by it.
But the monotheism of the OT was not what the
Hebrews lived by. Throughout a large part of their history they lived not
by it, but contrary to it; their idolatry was constantly
condemned by their monotheistic Scriptures.
The Bible cannot be explained on the ground of the
higher religious concepts of the people … The only way of accounting for the
doctrine of God in the Bible is by divine revelation, not by human
origination & development.
(2) That the Bible is the Word of God is evident
from the manner in which its great central truth is developed & maintained.
A system is prepared by a single individual,
whether it be a system of philosophy or a system of religion. Let us say
that it is developed consistently. Whether or not it conforms to what is
strictly true is another question. …It is the work of one mind during a
given period of his life.
In such cases we can easily understand how its
unity is maintained, …
The Bible is not that sort of thing. It is not a
system evolved by a single mind. On the contrary, writing of the OT … period
of nearly 1,500 years. It represents many authors. It proceeded from stage
to stage, through all the changing conditions of the centuries in which it
was produced. That it is very difficult to maintain unity of all the
particulars related to a great central truth, …
In this respect also the Bible stands absolutely
alone.
Furthermore, the conditions under which the Bible’s
great central truth was evolved were historical. …Shiloh Prophecy back in
Egypt, … did not occur until from five to seven centuries had passed. And
what was realized by Shiloh at that time (i.e. the line of David) required
another thousand years for its fulfillment in Christ.
In the genesis & development of its Messianic idea
the Bible takes us back to the beginning – to the Fall - & declares that the
Redeemer, the seed of the woman, will come in a selected historical line.
Through the long centuries this line was carried forward.
By the time of Abraham, the redemptive plan had
become part of the Hebrew national consciousness.
From Abraham this central truth ran across national
line for a period of 2,000 years, …
This redemptive plan, developed & maintained
throughout the ages with all the changing conditions of the passing
centuries, cannot be explained on natural grounds. The stamp of divinity
rests upon it …
To assume that such a thing has evolved as a human
concept, held throughout the centuries, requires infinitely more faith than
to believe in the divine authorship of the Bible.
It is either a man-made scheme or
a divine plan; there is no middle ground.
(3) That the Bible is the Word of God is
established by the prophetical Scriptures.
Predictions of the Bible, that were not fulfilled
in the lifetime of the prophet, … predictions pertaining to Israel that were
fulfilled to the letter, as well as in detail. …
the Messianic predictions in the Psalms & the
Prophets that were minutely fulfilled in a way that no prophet, … could have
foreseen. They were fulfilled in a way that no one could have contrived …
In matters of prophecy the Bible supplies in itself
the evidence of its own inspiration.
3. External Evidences of Inspiration
