Frequently Asked Questions About the Church of Christ and Other Topics

BIBLICAL INSPIRATION

Question: "What do you as a church believe about the Bible?"

Simply put, we believe that the Bible is God's book. We're absolutely convinced that its 66 separate "books" were literally communicated to us by God Himself, and therefore, are accurate and trustworthy in every detail.

Naturally, though, we don't deny that it was actually red-blooded human beings who put the ink on the paper to produce the original 66 documents. It's just that we're convinced that the God of the Bible supervised these writers in some way to ensure that they wrote the exact words that He wanted written. The term most people use when referring to this supernatural supervision of the Bible writers is "inspiration."

What has led us to the conclusion that the Bible is inspired -- that it's God's personal message to us? The answer begins with the Bible's own claim that it came from God. Thousands of times the Bible writers claim that God was speaking through them.

Moses, for instance, wrote in Exodus 20:1, "And God spoke all these words . . ." Jeremiah said, "This is what the Lord God Almighty says . . ." (Jeremiah 5:14). And Isaiah said, "The Lord spoke to me . . . He said . . ." (Isaiah 8:11). When Matthew referred to a prophecy of Isaiah's, he said that it was "what the Lord had said through the prophet" (Matthew 1:22). Paul made this statement to the Corinthian Christians: "To the married I give this command (not I, but the Lord) . . ." (1 Corinthians 7:10). And Peter exhorted his readers to remember the command given "by our Lord and Savior through your apostles" (2 Peter 3:2).

Of course the Bible's classic claim of inspiration is 2 Timothy 3:16: "All Scripture is inspired by God." The English words "inspired by God" are actually a translation of a single Greek word (the New Testament was originally written in Greek) that literally means "breathed out by God" or "God breathed." Scripture was breathed out by God. It originated with Him.

To be even more precise, it was God the Spirit, or as we usually say, the Holy Spirit, who supervised the production of the Scriptures. Countless passages confirm this. Passages like Acts 1:16 which says "The Holy Spirit foretold by the mouth of David" the fate of Judas. And passages like 2 Samuel 23:2 where David recognized that "The Spirit of the Lord spoke by me, and His word was on my tongue." Passages like Nehemiah 9:30 and Acts 28:25 which acknowledge that the Holy Spirit was the source of the messages spoken by Nehemiah and Isaiah. And passages like Revelation 1:10 where John said that he was "in the Spirit" when he wrote.

But it's in 2 Peter 1:20-21 that we find the Holy Spirit's role in the production of Scripture most clearly expressed. There Peter announced, "But know this first of all, that no prophecy of Scripture is a matter of one's own interpretation, for no prophecy was ever made by an act of human will, but men moved by the Holy Spirit spoke from God." In other words, Scripture didn't originate with human beings. It wasn't just a product of several men's own thinking and investigation. Instead, these men were "moved" -- more literally, "carried along" -- by the Holy Spirit.

We know, however, that just because the Bible claims to be God's Word doesn't make it true. Any book can make that claim, and, as a matter of fact, several do. So, the next question many of us have asked is: "Is there any evidence which sufficiently supports the Bible's claim to have come from God?" And we've found the answer to that question to be a resounding "yes." And, I might add, we've found that there's plenty of this evidence too. If you're interested in hearing more about the evidence which supports the Bible's claim to be God's book, just contact us, tell us you'd like information on "the evidences of inspiration" and we'll be glad to mail you the information at no cost to you.

Finally, since the Bible is God's personal message to us, we also believe that it is the final and absolute authority for our beliefs and practices -- a belief that our Master, Jesus, was unswervingly committed to Himself.

For Jesus, matters of faith or doctrine were established by an appeal to the written word. As far as Jesus was concerned, an appeal to Scripture was all that was needed to end any debate. For instance, when the chief priests and scribes became indignant because children in the temple crowd were exalting Jesus as the Son of David -- the Messiah -- they asked him, "Do you hear what these are saying?" His response to them was, "Yes; have you never read," and then He quoted Scripture to prove that their praises were very appropriate (Matthew 21:15-16). And in Matthew 22:31-32 Jesus said to the Sadducees, "Have you not read that which was spoken to you by God," and then He quoted Scripture to prove that there is life after death. As far as Jesus was concerned, God said it, and that is that.

And how could anyone forget how Jesus, when He was confronted by Satan after forty days of fasting, responded to each of Satan's tests with an "It is written" and then a quotation from Scripture (Matthew 4:4, 7, 10). To Jesus, "it is written," and that settles it. And so, as fully surrendered followers of Christ, to us, "it is written," and that settles it as well.