Bibliology
October 7, 2021
Lesson 2 in a 5 week series
Baby loaded up, coffee in hand, this bleary-eyed mama hops in the car, headed out for an afternoon adventure. A friend had recently scored a huge plot of land out in the backhills of Tennessee, and they had just finished their build. Address plugged into Apple Maps, and I was on my way to see her new digs.
About an hour into the drive, Siri politely requests that I turn left off of the highway onto a small one-lane road. I drive another 2ish miles. The established road becomes a gravel path and there is no longer a home or human in sight. I see the “arrival” mileage slowly tick down on the GPS screen.
“600 feet till you arrive at your destination.. 500 feet.. 400 feet..”
Only problem being, there was no civilization in sight. Then she says the dreaded words.. you know, you have heard them before… “Turn left, then be prepared to park and walk to your destination.”
“SIRI! Girl, you did me dirty!” There I was.. going along with her instruction, and where did it leave me? Middle of a field- stranded, and to top it off.. no service to call for directions.
I know you have been there before, too. Given some directions that leads you completely off course. In this Information Age, we have an overabundance of opinions, world views, and beliefs being spewed at us constantly. But how do we know which way to go or what to believe as truth?
I only know of one guide that will never lead you to fall or fail. One guide that has perfect direction and instruction every time. If God created this whole place that we call “the world,” I’d say we can trust his navigation on the inter-workings of it. That guide is called his Word.
“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God… The Word became flesh and dwelled among us.”
-John 1:1, 14
The living Word is Jesus Christ. The second person of the Trinity who came to earth as a human to walk our dusty roads, live a sinless life of service, and then give His life for us. This Jesus was born of a woman, and therefore had two natures: fully God and fully man - divine and human.
In a similar manner, the written Word, or the Bible, also has two natures: divine and human. The Holy Spirit inspired human authors to pen the words of Scripture. Just as Jesus tells us He is the truth, His written word is completely free from falsehood and deceit, therefore, the message in the Bible will never lead us into falling. We learned a bit about the makeup of the Bible on Monday, but today I want to give you the lowdown on why you can trust it. The fancy theological word for this is called “Bibliology.”
God’s Word Is Inspired
“All Scripture is inspired by God and is profitable for teaching, for rebuking, for correcting, for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work.”
- 2 Timothy 3:16
“For prophecy never had its origin in the human will, but prophets, though human, spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit.”
- 2 Peter 1:21
The word “inspired” here means that its message was breathed out by God into the hearts and minds of the human authors, and they recorded the words. In the majority of situations, the human authors worked as ambassadors who wrote God’s message authoritatively in their own voice. However, there are some cases where the authors would dictate word-for-word what the Spirit told them to (such as prophecy and direct quotes from God, “Thus says the Lord..”). In either case, the message is “inspired.”
The Holy Spirit prepared each author to do the work of the writing. If we acknowledge that God is all-powerful and all-knowing, we understand that He can inspire perfectly through the means that He knows will be best.
God’s Word is Inerrant
“Every word of God is pure;
he is a shield to those who take refuge in him.”
- Proverbs 30:5
The Bible is a reflection of the one who authored it, which we learned is the Holy Spirit. God cannot err, the Bible is God’s Word, and therefore the Bible cannot err. It’s pretty air tight, if you ask me! (I know, I had to, I’m sorry)
Now, when we say that the Bible is inerrant, that is in reference to the autographs, or the original copies that were penned. As of today, the Bible has been translated into over 2,500 languages. Many of those languages have different versions available. I know, in my Bible app, I have the option to choose from 64 different versions. Variances can be found amongst the different translations. Because of this, I prefer as close to a word-for-word translation from the original Hebrew or Greek autographs. (ESV, CSB, and NASB are all good options - if you want my two cents)
And yes, believe it or not, we do have access to manuscripts of portions of the Bible that are many millennia old. Archeologists have found over 6,000 ancient Greek manuscripts and over 10,000 ancient Latin manuscripts. The Dead Sea Scrolls that were found in 1946 contained between 800-900 Hebrew Old Testament manuscripts from over 2000 years ago. You can tell the men transcribing these did it with utmost care because it is rare to find an error among the handwritten copies. If there ever is one cited, it’s typically a simple transposition in a letter - not major discrepancies.
God’s Word is Infallible
“We also have the prophetic message as something completely reliable, and you will do well to pay attention to it, as to a light shining in a dark place, until the day dawns and the morning star rises in your hearts.”
- 2 Peter 1:19
God’s character is flawless, and his Word is a reflection of that. Because the Bible is infallible, we can say that it the perfect guide that will not lead us astray or deceive. Scripture is trustworthy and equips us for every good work. It will always lead you to truth when you do the work of rightly interpreting it. The story line of the entire Bible from cover-to-cover gives us God’s redemptive plan for all of time. He is the author of this story - not just the written words in Scripture, but He is the author of life. Therefore, we will do well to heed His instruction manual.
God’s Word transcends time. There is an ideology circulating right now in progressive circles that claims that we are more enlightened now than the men who penned scripture 2000+ years ago. They claim that culture’s moral standard and beliefs shift through time, therefore our interpretation and adherence to different portions of the Bible should also shift through time. I think they are failing to remember that the Holy Spirit (who transcends time) is the one who gave these authors the message to write. Scripture is His instruction manual for the world, and we do not have the authority to pick and choose what parts we believe.
God never changes or never shifts, and neither does his Word. It’s our only true compass.
