Authority and Inspiration in the Bible
The Bible 📖
The Bible has Divine Authority because it is the inspired word of God.
What are the different Christian views of the nature and authority of the Bible?
The main theories about inspiration
What are the conservative views on inspiration?
Neo-Orthodoxy 🎅🏽
What are some liberal views on inspiration?
Conservatism suggests the Bible is the inspired word of God. There are 3 mains views on this...
Catholics 👨🏻
Evangelical Protestantism 👸🏻
Key Terms 🔖
Inspired Comes from the Greek word meaning 'God breathed' which could represent God breathing out or writing scripture.
Catholics believe that scripture is canonical and the Word of God written by humans who where inspired by the Holy Spirit. They also believe that living Traditions help keep the Bible dynamic and alive as new interpretations of the Bible can continuously be found.
The Apostolic Succession 📩: Jesus' apostles appointed Bishops who were given teaching authority to their successors, ⛪, this is continued to the present day.
Key Catholic beliefs are that:
✅ God allowed humans to write the Bible by inspiring them, and allowed them to use their own skills 👧🏽(so they are not just dictating robots like evangelicals believe), but it contains no errors ⛔.
✅As the inspired word of God, both the Old and New Testaments are true, and truth comes from EACH AND EVERY of the literary forms, as these cover the whole range of thinking and expression.
Catholics believe this because of...
❎ To interpret scripture, scripture must be seen as a unity and a whole, read within the living tradition of the church where the interpreter is attentive to the analogy of faith (so that no scholar misinterprets scripture).
🤔 Article 3 of the Catechism.
Meaning 'new orthadoxy', refers to the works of theologions inclusing 'Karl Barth', 'Reinhold' and 'Paul Tillich'.
Biblical Inerrancy: The belief that the Bible is without error or fault in all its teaching.
Key Beliefs
🙏🏽 Accepts that some parts of the Bible are untrue or contradictory, such as Genesis and Jesus talking about divorce.
🙏🏽 Karl Bath said that Bible contains the word of God but it is not the word of God.
🙏🏽 Karl Bath also suggests that God reveals himself though Jesus, not scripture.
🙏🏽 Reading the Bible makes us aware that we are sinners and are need of forgiveness.
🙏🏽 With God, scripture becomes meaningful, and the experience is authoritative for the believer.
Authority: demands respect and obedience to give guidance in our lives. The Bible is considered as the inspired word of God and therefore it has divine authority.
How is scripture used by Christians?
- for guidance
- comfort and encouragement
- understanding the purpose of life,
- a source of help when making difficult decisions.
What is the issue with authority in the Bible?
There are many types of literature in the Bible. It is difficult to see how erotic poetry and myth are inspired and authoritative, or how such a variety could be connected to one source, it gives us misconceptions and conflicting ideas about God, but on the other hand it shows that he is complex.
Prophets, narrative
Poetry, in Psalms, Wisdom, songs and proverbs
History Books, 1 / 2 Kings about Soleman and David
👪Evangelical Protestants have very conservative ideas and see ALL parts of the Bible as the literal word of God and inerrant (incapable of being wrong). ✅
✍🏻🕊Catholics believe that the Bible was written by humans who where inspired by the Holy Spirit. This inspiration ensures that everything that is said in scripture is true. The purpose of scripture is to be interpreted and maintained as a unity.
👨🏻Neo-Orthadox (Karl Barth): sees the Bible as the work of humans, not God. Those who read it can become inspired if it helps them feel a personal relationship with Jesus ❤.
Other Christians have more liberal views, like the Social Gospel Movement are more concerned with social action than with unsolvable doctrines 🎉, and Process Theologians see God as something completely different than how he is described in Scripture (eg he is not omnipotent, not the creator, does not intervene in this world).
Liberal Views of the Bible: The view that the Bible is a human document and not the literal word of God; it is only partially inspired.
This can become confusing because the Bible contradicts itself, like having two different creating accounts in Genesis. For example Genesis 1 states that animals, and finally humans, were created on day six, but Genesis 2 implies that humans were created before animals
Evangelicals: A Protestant denomination committed to spreading the word of Jesus so that others can be 'born again' (saved from original sin) by being converted and receiving salvation.
Atonement: The belief that that humans would be reconciled from original sin through Jesus sacrifice. It is importantto note that this is part of the theology of St Paul. (Romans 5:1-11)
These Christians rejects the idea that the Bible is literally the inspired Word of God. Here are 2 main examples...
Evangelicals believe this because of...
🤔2 Timothy 3, which shows that scripture has a purpose to redeem us and inspired by God suggests that God write scripture. This is especially important for Evangelicals because their key belief is that Christians are saved through God's grace received in Jesus' atonement
🤔 2 Peter 1 suggests that although humans wrote the Bible, they have no influence as to what was said because it was literally dictated by God 🤖. This means that the Bible is 100% true -so many Evangelicals see Genesis as historically and scientifically accurate!
"All Scripture is inspired by God.. that man of God may be complete."
2 Timothy 3
"No prophecy ever came by man, but men moved by the Holy Spirit spoke from God."
2 Peter 1
The Apostolic Tradition 📢 🕊: Jesus commanded his apostles to spread the message of the Gospel to everyone 💬. The apostles got their teachings from and teachings received directly from the Holy Spirit, Jesus, or writings inspired by the Holy Spirit.
Evangelicals believe that all scripture is verbal plenary inspiration (God inspired all scripture) and all scripture is the literal word of God.
Living Tradition: Any work in which the Holy Spirit remains active within the Church, ie the Apostolic Tradition.
scripture is... "written under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, they have God as their author."
Article 3 of the Catechism 📜
Canon: Scripture that a religious group regards as inspired by God, and therefore authoritative.
Social Gospel Movement: applies Christian concepts to real, ethical scenarios.
Process Theology: ie God is not the creator but exists pantheistacally with the world, God is not omnipotent, nor does he intervene with the universe. The Bible is entirely a human object,