The Bible

Question: Do you believe in the verbal inspiration of the Bible?

I do. That is, I believe that the writers of the various books of the Bible were guided by the Holy Spirit, not only in the thoughts to which they gave expression but also in the choice of the words in which they expressed the thoughts. They "spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit" (2 Peter 1:21). It was the Holy Spirit who spoke. The words that were uttered were His words. (2 Samuel 23:2; Hebrews 3:7-8; 10:15-16; Acts 28:25). The very words that were used were the words that the Holy Spirit taught. Nothing could be plainer than Paul's statement: "These things we also speak, not in words which man's wisdom teaches but which the Holy Spirit teaches" (1 Corinthians 2:13).

The Holy Spirit Himself anticipated all these modern, ingenious but unbiblical and false theories regarding His own work in the apostles. The more carefully and minutely one studies the wording of the statements made in the Bible, the more he will become convinced of the marvelous accuracy of the words that were used to produce the thoughts. To a superficial student, the doctrine of verbal inspiration may appear questionable or even absurd, but any regenerated and Spirit-taught person who ponders the words of Scripture day after day and year after year will become increasingly convinced that the wisdom of God is in the very words used as well as in the thoughts that are expressed in the words.

It is a very significant fact that our difficulties with the Bible rapidly disappear when we come to notice the precise language that is used. The change of a word or a letter, of a tense, case, or number, often lands a person in contradiction or untruth. However, by taking the words just as they were written, difficulties disappear, and the truth shines forth. The more microscopically we study the Bible, the more clearly its divine origin shines forth as we see its perfection of form as well as of substance.  [this is only for the Bible written many years ago. Many of the newer translations are so "changed" in wording that this cannot be absolutely true of them]

"All Scripture is given by inspiration of God (is God-breathed") (2 Timothy 3:16). There is no warrant for the change that the Revised Version makes in this passage: "Every scripture inspired of God ..." As originally written, the entire Bible was infallible truth, and in our English versions, we have the original writings translations with substantial accuracy. But not all parts of the Bible are equally important. For example, the genealogies given in the first nine chapters of 1 Chronicles are important, far more important than the average student of the Bible realizes, but they certainly are not as important to the believer today as the teachings of Christ and the apostles.

~R. A. Torry~