- The Bible is a collection of 66 books, written by 40 different authors, over 1,500 years, in 3 different languages, and on 3 different continents.
- Remarkably, in light of the above facts, the Bible exhibits a common theme and storyline from beginning to end – God’s love and plan of salvation for humanity – while also containing no errors or contradictions.
- The incredible uniformity and consistency that we see in the Bible is truly miraculous. In fact, it is powerful evidence testifying to the fact that the Bible is the inspired word of God.
- When Christians speak of the inspiration of Scripture they are referring to the process whereby God superintended the writing of the Bible through the Holy Spirit’s guidance in the lives of its human authors.
- 2 Timothy 3:16 declares, “All Scripture is God-breathed” (theopneustos in the Greek). What does this mean? In 2 Peter 1:20-21 we are told, “Above all, you must understand that no prophecy of Scripture came about by the prophet’s own interpretation of things. 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.”
- God used average, fallible, sinful human beings to convey his exact words and message to the world. Though each author of Scripture had their own unique style, personality, and background, all of them were inspired by the same Spirit to record God’s special revelation in the Bible.
- An illustration that can help us better understand this concept is this: Just as the Holy Spirit came upon the virgin Mary, a sinful human being, to produce the perfect Son of God, Jesus; in the same way, the Holy Spirit came upon the sinful, human authors of Scripture to produce the perfect word of God, the Bible.
For more on the inspiration of Scripture please check out Jason & Jared Carlson’s CD album, Answering the Tough Topics available in our online store.