Some doofus atheist asked, "Why can't a Creator God write a book?" or something like that. Well, atheists can't help their ignorance, but it did get me to thinking. What exactly does inspiration mean?
Inspiration in this instance refers to the means of God revealing Himself to us through the Bible. It is an activity of the Holy Spirit. This simply means that the Bible is God’s authoritative word to human beings. There are three New Testament passages which help to explain inspiration.
2nd Timothy 3:16 - “All Scripture is God-breathed.”
God’s breath is a term from the OT and is a metaphor for God bringing abou,t or creating, particularly through His Spirit. In this case, the Scriptures are created or breathed out by God Himself. In Genesis 2:7, Job 33:4 and Psalm 33:6, humans are of course involved but not even mentioned. “All” of Scripture is said to be God breathed or inspired by God’s Spirit.
2nd Peter 1:19-21 - “No prophecy of Scripture came about by the prophet’s own interpretation. For the prophecy never had its origin in the will of man, but men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit.”
“Carried along” is the same term as is used in Acts 27:15 meaning a ship being driven along by the wind or a storm. This suggests a strong compelling to write what one is being inspired to write. All of Scripture is said to be God breathed or inspired by God’s Spirit.
John 10:34-36 - Jesus said, “You know that the Scriptures cannot be broken. Why do you call it blasphemy when I say, “I am the Son of God”? After all, the Father set Me apart and sent Me into the world.”
Jesus’ claim to speak God’s very words and His claim to divine authority point to the inspiring activity of God. The whole Bible comes to us with a claim of divine inspiration, i.e., being breathed out by God.
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The whole Bible comes to us with a claim of divine inspiration, i.e., being breathed out by pleople who believe in God.
ReplyDeleteFixed.
Oh, dear Hugo - you’re such a proud and arrogant fool. Your journey could not be more tragic. I hope the future proves me wrong, but it feels like I’m talking to a dead man walking. Romans 9:22-24
ReplyDeletelol! That is so cute; thanks for both the meaningless insult and the positive wish for my "eternal" future... whatever that means.
ReplyDeleteLet me know what part of Big Bang theory you don't understand when you have the time, I still don't understand exactly the path you take to conclude that it points to a creator, hum sorry, Creator...
It' not an insult. It's a statement of fact.
ReplyDeleteWhat part is fact?
ReplyDelete- Me being a fool
- My journey being tragic
- Me appearing as a dead man walking to you
I believe they are all opinions; insults in that case.
Here are two facts:
-Humans, who believed in God, wrote the Bible.
-Humans, alive today, believe in God, in part at least, because of the Bible.
Here's an opinion; an insult:
A naive simple minded person like you, who had (and still have) strong emotional personal experiences, thinks that his feelings and views regarding a "spiritual reality" are supported by the Bible: its authors could not have lied under torture and death threats, could not have been deceived by con artists, were divinely inspired by a magic ghost called the Holy Spirit, could not have been misquoted/mistranslated for manipulating the masses, and could not have come up with concepts such as grace because they are too "complex".
I don’t feel this as an insult. Jesus welcomed the naive and simple minded. Jesus would welcome the most intellectually handicapped among us, sit that person on His knee and say, “Welcome to My Kingdom.”
ReplyDelete“Unless you become like a little child, you cannot be part of My Kingdom.”
How different is that from the reception any of my children would receive from an atheist? As one atheist told me, in reference to my kids, “Morons are disgusting.”
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“its authors could not have lied under torture and death threats,”
You think the authors were tortured to say that Jesus rose from the dead?
You think the authors were tortured to declare that the tomb was empty?
You think the authors were tortured and that’s why the sceptic and brother of Jesus, James began to worship Him?
You think the authors were tortured and that’s why the sceptic and Christian killer Paul began to worship Jesus?
You think the authors were tortured to boldly proclaim the message of salvation?
That’s weird!
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“could not have been misquoted/mistranslated”
Sure, they could have been. But as scholars who know about these things judge and assess literature from antiquity, the Bible towers above any comparable work from the time in accuracy and number of manuscript evidences. “Typo’s” have been found precisely because of, again in comparison to other works of the time, the embarassingly large number manuscripts available.
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“for manipulating the masses”
I believe that’s an opinion :-)
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“and could not have come up with concepts such as grace because they are too "complex".”
Not complex as much as totally and completely foreign to the human mind.
As one atheist told me, in reference to my kids, “Morons are disgusting.”
ReplyDeleteWow, well that person was a moron, and made a disgusting comment!
You think the authors were tortured to say that Jesus rose from the dead? ...
No, not at all!
All these questions show that you missed the point. Ironically though, you did bring up exactly the kind of examples I had in mind: You specify for example that the "sceptic" Paul was a "Christian killer", as if it was remotely close to support the credibility of his story.
It only shows that he must have really believed what he believed... not that what he believed was actually true.
Not complex as much as totally and completely foreign to the human mind.
Wait wait, you seriously consider some things in the Bible to be soooo special that they have to be "foreign to the human mind" !?
You really believe that no humans could have written that on their own, simply using their imagination!?
Does it mean that you never heard of experiments done to test quantum phenomena? Ever heard of double-slit experiments? Or perhaps you think the ideas to test these were spawn by God in the mind of physicists?
Because quantum mechanics IS something that is completely foreign to the human mind!
Seriously, you made my day... that's freaking hilarious. Thank you!