Bibliology: The Doctrine of the Scriptures, How did we get the Bible?

How Did We Get the Bible?

We have already seen that Scriptures are very important, and that they claim for themselves to be the Word of God. This places a lot of weight on the Bible. We will now begin to look at how we got the Bible in the first place. In doing so there are four terms we should become familiar with; revelation, inspiration, inerrancy, and canonicity.

Revelation

When speaking of revelation we are speaking of the process by which God acts in history, makes Himself personally present to His people, and communicates to them His saving will, purposes, and claims upon their lives. Revelation thus encompasses God's deeds, God's presence, and God's Word; it is both "personal" and "propositional" in nature. We thus learn that revelation is the original deed, and self-presentation, or communication of God to mankind through His Word the Bible. Revelation is the divine act of communicating to man which other wise man would never know.

There are two ideas to consider the first is general revelation or natural revelation, and the second is special revelation. We will treat these in greater detail when we move into Theology Proper. For now, just to dip our toe in the water, general revelation refers to that which God has revealed to man about Himself through the natural world or in a general way. For example in Matthew 5:45 we read, “…He causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous.” (NIV) In Romans 1:19-20 we can comprehend, “…that which may be known of God is manifest in them; for God hath shewed it unto them. For the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead; so that they are without excuse…” Also consider Rom. 2:14-16 and Acts 14: 17.

The second idea is special revelation which means God reveals Him self in “special ways” outside of or apart from the universe, nature, and creation; this is especially true of the Bible. Today we are privileged to have the completed Word of God, the Bible and this is the primary means and only sure means of special revelation.

Inspiration

All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness: That the man of God may be perfect, thoroughly furnished unto all good works. (2Timothy 3:16-17)

Connected to revelation is inspiration. Inspiration in the biblical sense refers to the divine origin of the Scriptures, through the Holy Spirit's influence upon the human authors. It literally means breathed out. The doctrine of inspiration presupposes God's providential supervision over the entire process of the formation of the canon or recognized Books (this will be treated later), so that the original revelation was recorded and transmitted in ways consistent with the divine intention.

Fundamentalists hold that inspiration is plenary, meaning inspiration extends to all parts of the canonical books and that this plenary inspiration is verbal, meaning it extends to the very words of the text, and not merely the ideas contained therein. In this connection The Earnest Contender holds to the ideas of confluent and organic inspiration. These are words used to denote a view of inspiration which recognizes the instrumentality of the human writer's personality, as opposed to "mechanical" that God took over and/or "dictation" God told them what to write.

Inerrancy

Thy word is very pure... (Psalm 119:140)

Inerrancy or infallibility is the consequence of divine inspiration, preserving the original writers of Scripture from all error in their scripted (written down) teaching. There are some well meaning evangelicals who teach that inerrancy is predicated only of biblical doctrine concerning faith and practice. Still others, especially new evangelicals, who feel that even inerrancy in areas of faith and practice is debatable. Then there are liberals who prefer to be called moderates who deny the doctrine of infallibility out right. The student of God’s Word must exercise discernment in this, and I pray that you do.

The Earnest Contender holds firm to the proposal that inerrancy extends to all matters for which the Bible speaks, including both scientific and historical detail. This is the best approach and has been proven many times over in the field of natural science. This view considers that sound biblical interpretation takes into account such factors as authorial intent, literary genre, colloquial expressions, approximations, anthropomorphisms, and the like.

Canonicity

The authority of the Bible rests in its Canonicity. The 66 books called the Bible were brought together and recognized as sacred Scripture, this process is known as canonization. Each book had to meet certain requirements, for example they must have been written by a Prophet, or an Apostle, or someone in the close company or commissioned by the above, in other words they must claim, and meet the tests of divine authority. To learn more about the canon see the article 27 Is the Number Right?

This has not been an exhaustive study on these terms but merely a glimpse so that we become somewhat familiar with them, and to answer the question “Where did the Bible come from?” I am open for questions here so please ask away.

The next post we will begin to answer the question “How can I understand the Bible?”