Subject: Is belief in the bible needed to be save |
Bible Note: The following are some excerpts from an article by Michael Bremmer. Below it is the web address where you can read it in its entirety. There are some other articles there that you may find interesting. “Inspiration is plenary, meaning the whole Bible is inspired.” “Inspired is the Greek word theopneustos and means "God-breathed." When we say that Scripture is inspired by God we mean the same thing as the apostle Paul, that Scripture is God-breathed. At onetime, this definition was adequate for defining the doctrine of inspiration, but the constant attacks on this doctrine have made it necessary to particularize the definition of inspiration.” “Some insist that not everything in the Bible is Scripture, but only what is inspired can rightly be called Scripture. Not surprisingly, they decide what is inspired and what is not. To illustrate the problem, a person can say that he believes Scripture is inspired by God, yet does not believe that the events in Genesis 1-3 are actually historical events.” “Obviously, the word "Scripture" does not have the same meaning with all, therefore, it is important in any discussion on inspiration that all do have the same understanding of what Scripture means. Those who hold to Biblical view of inspiration agree that the word "Scripture" refers to the whole Bible, all sixty-six books. From Genesis to Revelation, all Scripture is God-breathed. The Scriptures are verbally inspired. Verbal inspiration means every word of Scripture is exactly the words that God meant. This view is supported by both Jesus statements on the subject, and by His use of Scripture. Although the Scriptures teach verbal inspiration, they do not teach the idea of mechanical dictation. The mechanical dictation theory of inspiration teaches that God used the writers of Scripture as robots, only writing as God dictates, and their personality was not a factor in the Scripture's composition. The Scripture, however, teaches the Divine-human authorship. Every word divine; and every stroke of the pen human. The original Scriptures are without error, "Thy word is Truth" (Jn. 17.17). Both the Old and New Testaments are without error in all that they affirm. They are truth without any mixture of error. Inspiration is plenary, meaning the whole Bible is inspired. The apostle Paul states, "All Scripture is inspired of God" (2 Tm. 3.16), not "Some Scripture is inspired of God." However, there are some who do not believe that all Scripture is inspired of God. We will now consider some of these partial inspiration views.” -- Michael Bremmer Please read the entire article at: http://www.mbrem.com/bible/bible.htm Concerning plenary: plenary is simply defined as being “full in all respects”. So plenary inspiration would indicate that God inspired all scripture. Inspiration - "That extraordinary supernatural influence exerted by the Holy Ghost on the writers of our Sacred Books, by which their words were rendered also the words of God, and therefore, perfectly infallible." (by Benjamin Warfield, The Inspiration and Authority of the Bible, P R, 1948; page 420) Verbal Inspiration - The inspiration extends to the very words of Scripture. Plenary Inspiration - The inspiration extends to every part of Scripture. Verbal Plenary Inspiration - This is the traditional orthodox view. It teaches a verbal inspiration, meaning that the Holy Spirit guided the human choice of every word in the original autographs. However, the human authorship was respected and the characteristics pf the human author was preserved. It teaches a plenary inspiration, always meaning that every portion of the original autographs is equally inspired, resulting in an inerrant, infallible and authoritative record of divine revelation. This is the best view for maintaining the "dual authorship" of the Bible. "By the term dual authorship two facts are indicated, namely, that, on the divine side, the Scriptures are the Word of God in the sense that they originate with Him and are the expressions of His mind alone; and, on the human side, certain men have been chosen of God for the high honor and responsibility of receiving God's Word and transcribing it into written form" (Lewis Sperry Chafer, Systematic Theology, Vol . 1 of 8, page 72). http://www.calvarychapel.com/redbarn/terms You ask: “Does paul know what he is writing will be considered some day to be the WOG?” I don’t know if he knew it would be compiled into a book with the others, but he spoke with the authority of speaking the word of God. He knew his source of inspiration. He specified he spoke with the authority of the Holy Spirit. WOS |