THE BIBLE: INSPIRATION & NEEDLESS PERSPIRATION
By Jeromie Carr
December 4, 2000

Without a doubt, the Bible is the final authority on Christian doctrine and life.  Without it, we would know next to nothing about God.  He is truly blessed who studies and applies the Bible.  However, I have always said that most true Christians are well meaning but misguided, and so it is with how Christians view the sovereign Word of God.  The Bible has been such a part of the Christian tradition for so long, and it has been so revered that some Christians go a little far in honoring the perfectness of the Bible.  Many unjustified beliefs and rumors have cropped up over the years, diluting what the Bible is really all about.  Here, I expel some of those rumors and clarify some misunderstandings that may be leading some astray from the Word of God as God intended it to be read.

Here they are:

God did not “write” the Bible, he inspired it (II Timothy 3:16).  That means that people wrote it using their own words that reflected God’s thoughts.  God wrote the Ten Commandments on stone, but a human, presumably Moses, cited the stone in Exodus 20 and Deuteronomy 5.

Everything the Bible says is not true.  Only the things that the Bible means to be true are true.  The Bible contains many instances of people saying things that are untrue (such as most of the book of Job).  It also contains instances of people who are stating their own opinions (I Corinthians 7:12) or feelings (most of Ecclesiastes).  Just because the Bible quotes someone’s opinion does not mean that it is correct (Acts 5:38b, as some works of men, such as the pyramids of Egypt have endured through many ages).  In fact, most of Proverbs and Ecclesiastes are generalizations that do not necessarily apply in every single situation.  Just because they are generalizations does not make them divinely inspired.

The Bible is not some kind of horoscope that you read every day to find out what God wants you to do on that particular day.  It’s great that people read the Bible every day, but it is pure superstition to believe that whatever you read in your daily devotions absolutely must apply to you on that particular day.

It is okay to write in your Bible.  Revelation 22:18-19 does not pronounce its curse on people who use the Bible to take notes or write commentaries, or anything like that.  It only curses people who claim that their alterations are part of the inspired Word of God.

Having a Bible in your breast pocket will not prevent you from getting shot in the heart.  Also, carrying a Bible with you does not grant good luck.

Quoting Scripture does not ward off demons or Satan.  They are just words, not magical incantations.  Feel free to quote scripture during times of temptation or trial to help remind you of what God says.

It is not a heresy to believe that people other than the primary author have modified certain portions of the Bible.  Just because Moses wrote most of the Pentateuch does not mean that he had to write all of it.  In fact, we do not know who wrote most of the books of the Old Testament, and many books were probably written or updated by several people.

The King James Version is not the only or “official” word of God to the English world.  It happens to be a popular and revered translation and rest assured that those who use it are reading the inspired Word of God.  However, the modern versions are not “New Age” or “Antichrist” versions that twist the Bible so that it means something different.  Most of them are just as good at preserving the Word of God as the KJV.

The child in Isaiah 7 was named Mahershalalhashbaz, and was the son of Isaiah and his wife (see Isaiah 8:3).  The word “virgin” in 7:14 does not mean someone who has not had sexual relations.  It just means young girl.  The only reason that the word in most all English translations is “virgin” because of the long tradition of ascribing that prophecy to the virgin birth of Christ.  That verse is correctly applied only in a secondary fashion to Mary and Jesus.  Mary was a virgin when Jesus was conceived, and his father was God and the doctrine of the virgin birth is correct.  However, the primary fulfillment came during Isaiah’s lifetime.  A good many prophesies have a contemporary fulfillment as well as a Messianic or eschatological fulfillment.

The Bible and science coexist perfectly.  They merely present two different perspectives.  Science is great for interpreting what we can see and interact with, but it does nothing to help us understand what we cannot see or interact with.  Conversely, the Bible primarily reveals what we cannot see or interact with, and does not do a great job of revealing scientific truth because, although nature has always been around, the scientific method was not invented until the end of the Middle Ages.  For example, Joshua 10:13 seems to suggest that the sun’s motion creates the phenomenon of day and night, even though we now know for certain that it is the earth’s motion that creates this phenomenon.  That’s okay because the author of Joshua did not know or care about the Copernican paradigm of the solar system.  Insisting that the world must have been created in six literal twenty-four hour days because the word “day” in Genesis 1 means a literal day demands insisting that the sun revolves around the earth because the words “stand still” means literally standing still.

If you happened to notice that the NIV, as well as this essay, does not capitalize divine pronouns such as “he,” “his” or “him” when referring to God.  Capitalizing divine pronouns is a point of grammar, not a Biblical mandate.  Modern grammarians are getting away from capitalizing those words and I don’t feel the need to follow that somewhat archaic rule.  If you feel that God demands the respect of capitalization or red lettering, God will honor that, but he does not require it.

Understand that all the words of any English Bible are only approximations of the Hebrew and Greek.  Do not attempt to use an English dictionary as the final authority on what a particular word in the Bible means.  If you do not read Greek or Hebrew, use an  exhaustive concordance such as Strong’s along with a good Greek or Hebrew Lexicon, or easier yet, buy a good commentary that explains key foreign words.