Bible Basics

God's Word

Paul wrote, “All Scripture is given by inspiration of God” (2 Tim. 3:16). The expression “inspiration of God” means literally “God-breathed.” Just as we exhale air across the vocal chords to speak, God “breathed” into the minds of select individuals His word so they could speak His message. Inspired men “spoke as the Spirit gave them utterance” (Acts 2:4). For instance, David said, “The Spirit of Jehovah spake by me, and his word was upon my tongue” (2 Sam.23:2). And Paul affirmed that the things the apostles spoke were, “not in words which man’s wisdom teaches but which the Holy Spirit teaches” (1 Cor. 2:13). This passage teaches the verbal inspiration of the Bible, that is, that the very words of the Scriptures are given by God. Although He used the talents, backgrounds, personalities and writing styles of the inspired writers to convey His message, what these inspired men wrote expressed with absolute precision God’s word. These biblical scribes claimed no originality for what they wrote. Instead, Paul said, “The gospel which was preached by me is not according to man. For I neither received it from man, nor was I taught it, but it came by the revelation of Jesus Christ” (Gal. 1:11, 12). And so, men wrote by inspiration the revelation of God and we have it today – the Bible.

                                                                                                               -- Clark Dugger

Bible Basics