Any book is only as good as its author. This is no less true with the Bible. Some mistakenly think of the Bible as simply a human book that contains very human thoughts about God. Others mistakenly believe that it the Bible was taken down by dictation, like the authors were simply acting as secretaries for God. The Bible presents a vastly different picture of how it came into being.
Q: Who wrote the Bible?
A: Holy men who were taught by the Holy Spirit.
(Acts 1:16; 2 Timothy 3:16; 1 Peter 1:10-11, 2 Peter 1:19-21)
We turn first today to Acts 1:16. Here the Apostle Peter says that the Holy Spirit spoke by the mouth of David, and that the resulting words were Scripture. First, the Holy Spirit spoke. Whatever else we say about the Scriptures, we must say that they are the words of the Holy Spirit. The Bible isn’t simply human words about God. It is God’s word. Second, it was truly David speaking. When David wrote the psalms that Peter referred to, he was writing like David wrote, not like Moses or Isaiah. The Spirit spoke by the mouth of David, but he didn’t simply take possession of David and speak through him like a sock puppet. The Holy Spirit spoke, and David spoke. We must believe both of these.
Our next passage speaks to the fact that God truly is the ultimate author of Scripture. 2 Timothy 3:16 begins, “All Scripture is breathed out by God…” Note, every Scripture that is Scripture is breathed out by God. It is the nature of Scripture to be God breathed. If it is Scripture, it is God breathed. If it is God breathed, it is Scripture. We might think about it like this…
Words Breathed Out by God = Scripture
Scripture = Words Breathed Out by God
When we understand this statement rightly, the idea that Paul was just speaking about the Old Testament goes out the window. He is speaking to the nature of Scripture. Since the New Testament writings are Scripture (as Peter sure believed them to be, see 2 Peter 3:15–16) then they too are breathed out by God.
This ought to give us pause before we say, “God told me…” or “The Holy Spirit told me…” When we say we are saying God’s words, we are saying that our words are equal with Scripture. God spoke with singular severity concerning those who spoke falsely or presumptuously in his name (Deuteronomy chapters 13, and 18).
This also means that the Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments carry, not the weight of their human authors alone, but the very authority of God. When the Scriptures speak, truly God speaks. His authority does not fade with the passing of time (Isaiah 40:8).
Our third passage, 1 Peter 1:10-11, also speaks to the divine nature of Scripture. Here we see that the prophets gave their prophesy by the “Spirit of Christ,” that is, the Holy Spirit (compare v10 & v12). The prophets themselves studied their own prophesies. If they thought they were simply their words, they would never have revisited them. Instead, they recognized that they were also God’s words about Messiah, and so they studied them as they looked forward to his coming.
Our last passage, 2 Peter 1:20-21, places the authority of Scripture above all. As Peter writes this, he is claiming that the Scripture has authority over human experience. Peter says this as one who saw Jesus on the mount of transfiguration. If any mere human could claim to have a transcendent experience, one that could bend his interpretation of everything, it was Peter. He saw the glory of Christ temporarily unveiled on the mountain. Yet, Peter says that the Scripture is “more fully confirmed” or “more sure” than even his vision of the glory of the Son with his very own eyes.
Why? Why is it more sure? The Scriptures are more sure than experience because Scripture is not a matter of one’s own imagination. Personal experience can be wrong. Anyone who has ever experienced hallucinations, or cared for someone who has, knows this is true. A more common problem though is believing what we think when we are carried away by emotion. We get caught up in emotion from time to time. We can be fooled by our emotions. We can be manipulated into an experience. Peter says that God’s word is more sure because it doesn’t start in man, but in God.
Your translation may say that no prophesy is a matter of “one’s own interpretation.” I am saying that it is not a matter of the prophet’s own imagination, or origination. That requires some explanation. First, when the prophets of old spoke, they neither created the circumstances of their prophesies (such as visions) nor was the interpretation ultimately theirs, but God’s. They weren’t ultimately responsible for what they said, God was. Second, context tells us this isn’t simply “interpretation” such as we do as we study the Scripture. The next verse makes clear that this is about the production of prophesy, (and by extension Scripture) not its interpretation. It wasn’t produced by the will of man, but God’s will. Yet another example in the Scriptures of God doing his work by superintending man’s will with his own.
This passage not only affirms the divine authorship of Scripture, but the activity of the human authors as well. They truly spoke. When you quote Isaiah, you can rightly say, “The Scripture says…” or “God says…” but you can also say, “Isaiah says…” Isaiah, and every other human author of Scripture, was “carried along by the Holy Spirit” when he wrote. Isaiah was really writing, but he was driven to write by the Holy Spirit.
The primary implication I would like to point out today is based in the divine-human origin of the Scripture. The Scriptures have both a truly human, and truly divine origin. They were not dropped out of heaven tied to a parachute. Neither are they a scaffold of human words built up to Heaven. The Bible address the realities of human fallenness, sin, suffering, and pain. It does so honestly, without either glorifying human experience or minimizing it.
The Bible does not simply crawl in the mud next to us. Instead it addresses all fallenness, sin, suffering, and pain, not with human wisdom, but with God’s own wisdom. The Scriptures address all the problems of life, first among these is our sin and resulting alienation from God. But they don’t just offer us friendly advice from a wise sage. When the Bible addresses these problems, God is addressing them. What encouragement to know that God tells me how he is to be worshipped, how to deal with my sin, and how to live. At the same time, what a frightening thing it ought to be to live either ignorant of what the Bible says, or to ignore what it teaches!
Yours in Christ,