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Answering the Bible Question: Is the Bible the Word of God? Pastor Eric S. Lewis Shadow Mountain Community Church

Series Introduction Week 1 Week 2 Week 3 What does the Bible claim about itself? Week 2 How do we know that the Bible IS the word of God? Week 3 How do I know my English Bible is reliable? For the next three weeks, we are going to look into the answers to these questions and even more questions. I want you to engage your mind. Canned answers will not be allowed. I am not looking for the answers as much as the understanding. Today we are going to look at the great doctrines of the Bible. Next week, we will focus on how the Bible got from the pen of the authors to the Bible you have today and we will answer that all important question, “Which version is the best version?” This will be a power packed lesson so please come ready to take notes and get to work. We will wrap up the series by looking at the apologetics of the Bible. That is how does one logically come to the conclusion that the Bible is, in fact, the Word of God. So to sum up we will answer these three questions: Week 1: What does the Bible claim for itself in terms of its divine nature Week 2: How do we know the Bible is the Word of God? Week 3: How did we get the Bible as we know it today?

Class Rules In the end all doctrine must come from Scripture. There are no dumb questions so please ask. The goal of the course is life change, so ask if you don’t understand. There is no quiz so relax. Ok. Now let’s set some ground rules for study.   In the end all doctrine must come from scripture. There are no dumb questions so please ask. My goal is your understanding because I want you to be changed in your heart by the knowledge. This class is supposed to strengthen your Christian life so if you don’t understand, please let me know. There is no quiz at the end so relax. Ok let’s get started…

Let’s start with some words to know! Revelation Inspiration Verbal and Plenary Inspiration Illumination

Romans 1:20 For since the creation of the world God's invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that men are without excuse. So the Bible says that God has revealed himself and theirfore we are without excuse if we don’t seek to know him. How has he done that? This particular passage refers to God’s work being evident in creation, but there is also revelation in the Bible. What exactly are we talking about when we talk about “revelation?”

Revelation God reveling something to mankind that we could not know any other way. REVELATION God revealing something to man that he could not possibly know on his own. So revelation, theologically speaking, is not just revealing, but rather showing man something that he had to learn from God.

2 Timothy 3:16 All Scripture is inspired by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness; The Greek word here that is translated inspired literally means “God Breathed.” That is that God literally breathed out the words of scripture. He used men to do it, but they came from God.

Inspiration The act of God by which He insure that the revelation is communicated correctly. INSPIRATION The working of God by which He insures that His revelation is recorded perfectly  

2 Peter 1:20-21 But know this first of all, that no prophecy of Scripture is a matter of one's own interpretation, for no prophecy was ever made by an act of human will, but men moved by the Holy Spirit spoke from God. This passage talks about the words of scripture being inspired. This means they say exactly what God wanted them to say.

The understanding that each word of scripture is inspired. Verbal Inspiration The understanding that each word of scripture is inspired. VERBAL INSPIRATION Word for word or each word  

The understanding that the entirety of Scripture is inspired. Plenary Inspiration The understanding that the entirety of Scripture is inspired. VERBAL AND PLENARY INSPIRATION Word for word or each word In its entirety

1 Corinthians 2:13-15 which things we also speak, not in words taught by human wisdom, but in those taught by the Spirit, combining spiritual thoughts with spiritual words. But a natural man does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually appraised. But he who is spiritual appraises all things, yet he himself is appraised by no one. This text refers to the idea that the Holy Spirit acutually makes clear to the believer the revelation of scripture. This is known as “Illumination.”

Illumination The work of the Holy Spirit by which He makes clear the scriptural revelation to the believer. 1 Corinthians 2:13-14 ILLUMINATION The work of the Holy Spirit by which He makes clear the scriptural revelation to the believer. This should not be considered to be synonymous with inspiration. Often we say that we are inspired, but really are not. Inspiration deals with God giving new revelation to man and illumination deals with man being made able to understand it by the Holy Spirit. I Corinthians teaches us that Man cannot understand the things of God apart from the illuminating work of the Holy Spirit.

The Einstein Illustration Einstein dictates the theory of relativity to you (Revelation) He then asks you to write it down (Inspiration) He then tells you what words to use (Verbal Plenary Inspiration) He then explains it to you so that you understand it (Illumination) Imagine that Albert Einstein is in this room right now and he dictates to you the theory of Relativity. That would similar to revelation. He is telling you something that you probably don’t already know all about and that you probably don’t have the time to research on your own. What if he then asked you to right down what he is saying. That would be like inspiration. You still don’t have to understand the theory of relativity you are just writing it down. Then he says to you, “no you must use these words or the formulas don’t work.” That is verbal inspiration. Then he says to you, “you must include all of this and don’t take away or add to it or you have changed the truth of the equations.” That is plenary inspiration. Finally he begins to explain to you what it is that you have written in a way that you can understand. That is a picture of illumination. This is a life long process with God teaching you the truth that he has written.

Inerrancy The doctrine that understands that the Bible is without error in its original form (the autographs) If we believe the Bible is the Word of God revealed to man then we must assume that it is without error since God cannot make a mistake. We will talk about this more next week, but that means that the Bible should be accurate in every way.

To Sum Up: The Bible claims to be… God’s revelation to mankind Inspired by God word for word and in its entirety and therefore without error The Holy Spirit helps the believer to understand the inspired words

So What? The Bible is the Word of God in such a way that whatever it says, God says. -Dr. B. B. Warfield What this means to us is that f the Bible really is the inspired word of God, we as leaders must lead by it, we as teachers must teach according to it, we as parents must train up our children according to its teachings and we as Christians must use it as the foundation of our families.

Questions? Ok, but I can write a book that claims to be the Word of God, but it isn’t really. Is there a way that I know the Bible is really the word of God besides what it says about itself? “Ok, but I can write a book that claims to be the Word of God, but it isn’t really. Is there a way that I know the Bible is really the word of God besides what it says about itself?” This is an important question. I call it the apologetic question. Is there a way outside of the biblical claims for us to know that the Bible really is what it claims to be? There is and we will cover that next week.