Inspiration

[joeb]

Just how does it work?  I see people saying/implying that prophets don't really understand what God communicates to them or that a prophet will choose his own words and thus throw a monkey wrench in God's communication lines.  The Bible and SOP give us some clear indications on how inspiration works. 

1.  A prophet, under inspiration, can only say what God tells him to say.  See Balaam, Isaiah, and Jeremiah.  All three at times wished to not say what God told them to say, yet did it anyway when the Spirit of inspiration came upon them.  Ellen White experienced the same thing.

2.  There is a divine-human relationship in inspiration.  The same divine human relationship that existed in Jesus.

3.  God condescends to speak to us in our own language, for it is impossible for us to grasp the divine language.  Think about this.  Can we finite people understand an infinite language?  No.  It is beyond our grasp. God speaks with His prophets in the language they know and understand, and He is the one choosing how to make his message known.  Thus while human language cannot adequately express all of divine thought it is God that is doing the translating from divine language to human language, not the prophet.

[Kevin H]

Inspiration is a oneness of the natural and the supernatural. They are NOT throwing a monkey wrench in God's work. What they do is use language and illustrations that people living at that time can understand. They refer to culture, they take popular writings and speeches and stories and even plays in making their points.

Mrs. White made some points in Patriarchs  and Prophets in which she uses what was believed in her day about the source of earthquakes. If she talked about the Tectonic plates no one would have seen the point she was after. (That passage also says some horrible things about our rugged mountains saying that they are not beautiful.) The information is wrong, but the underlying message is good and the fact that she was not living when Tectonic plates were known, and the fact that rugged mountains are beautiful does not take away from the larger message and does not throw in a monkey wrench into God's plan. Same with how she draws lessons from the innkeeper's unkindness to Mary and Joseph (in the late 20th century we came to learn that this was Joseph's family home and not an inn.) or lessons for us about not drinking  alcohol.

In Numbers you have 10 unfaithful spies and 2 faithful spies, Joshua and Caleb. In Deuteronomy all 12 spies are faithful but the people rebel against them and Joshua and Caleb stand up to the people for the spies. And while Caleb is constantly referred to as one of the 12 spies, Joshua is not consistently listed as one of the spies. Do these differences throw a monkey wrench in God's communication lines

When you read a few unemphasized passages in the Bible (and also what we have learned about archaeology) in Joshua's conquest there was at least as much evangelism and conversions as there was killings and conquests. However the editing that we have of Joshua down plays the conversions and focuses on the destruction and conquest. It appears that this was done by either Jeremiah or someone in his inner circle. They were facing the Babylon conquest. So it was edited for the message to God's people facing the Babylonians. Does that downplaying of part of the history and emphasizing only a part of the story throw a monkey wrench in God's communication lines?

In the book of Mark, no one knows who Jesus is until you come to the centurion at the cross.  He finally realizes who Jesus is, but coming from a pagan background he used a pagan phrase which would have horrified any good monotheistic Jew. Does his expressing the truth in pagan language throw a monkey wrench in God's communication lines? On the other hand in the book of Luke everyone knows who Jesus is from before he was even born, and when you reach the centurion all he says is that this was a good man. Do Luke and Marks opposite views on who knew who Jesus was throw a monkey wrench in God's communication lines? No, although one of these were historically right and the other wrong, they both point out different truths about Jesus and add to our knowledge and understanding of Jesus. Here we have an obvious contradiction, yet even this does not throw a monkey wrench into God's communication lines.

Thus you see everything does not need to be fully perfect and infallible for God to communicate with us.

 

[Gary K]

I seem to be in agreement with a lot of what Joeb has to say on inspiration.  There is an Ellen White quote that backs up his assertion about the divine-human connection in the Bible.

Quote

The Bible points to God as its author; yet it was written by human hands; and in the varied style of its different books it
presents the characteristics of the several writers. The truths revealed are all “given by inspiration of God” (2 Timothy 3:16); yet
they are expressed in the words of men. The Infinite One by His Holy Spirit has shed light into the minds and hearts of His ser-
vants. He has given dreams and visions, symbols and figures; and those to whom the truth was thus revealed have themselves
embodied the thought in human language.

The Ten Commandments were spoken by God Himself, and were written by His own hand. They are of divine, and not of
human composition. But the Bible, with its God-given truths expressed in the language of men, presents a union of the divine
and the human. Such a union existed in the nature of Christ, who was the Son of God and the Son of man. Thus it is true of the
Bible, as it was of Christ, that “the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us.”john 1:14.

Written in different ages, by men who differed widely in rank and occupation, and in mental and spiritual endowments, the
books of the Bible present a wide contrast in style, as well as a diversity in the nature of the subjects unfolded. Different forms of
expression are employed by different writers; often the same truth is more strikingly presented by one than by another. And as
several writers present a subject under varied aspects and relations, there may appear, to the superficial, careless, or prejudiced
reader, to be discrepancy or contradiction, where the thoughtful, reverent student, with clearer insight, discerns the underlying
harmony.

As presented through different individuals, the truth is brought out in its varied aspects. One writer is more strongly impressed
with one phase of the subject; he grasps those points that harmonize with his experience or with his power of perception and ap-
preciation; another seizes upon a different phase; and each, under the guidance of the Holy Spirit, presents what is most forcibly
impressed upon his own mind—a different aspect of the truth in each, but a perfect harmony through all. And the truths thus re-
vealed unite to form a perfect whole, adapted to meet the wants of men in all the circumstances and experiences of life.

God has been pleased to communicate His truth to the world by human agencies, and He Himself, by His Holy Spirit, qualified
men and enabled them to do this work. He guided the mind in the selection of what to speak and what to write. The treasure
was entrusted to earthen vessels, yet it is, nonetheless, from Heaven. The testimony is conveyed through the imperfect ex-
pression of human language, yet it is the testimony of God; and the obedient, believing child of God beholds in it the glow of a
divine power, full of grace and truth.

In His word, God has committed to men the knowledge necessalyfor salvation. The Holy Scriptures are to be accepted as an
authoritative, infallible revelation of His will. They are the standard of character, the revealer of doctrines, and the test of experi-
ence. “Event scripture inspired of God is also profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for instruction which is in righ-
teousness; that the man of God may be complete, furnished completely unto even! good work.” 2 Timothy 3:16,17,R.V.
Great Controversy, Introduction to, paragraphs 2-7

Jesus is, and was while on earth, the truth.  There is, and never was, any error mixed with truth in Him.  He was like that because of the indwelling of the Holy Spirit.  In other words, Jesus was/is infallible in all things spiritual.  In the bolded part of the quote above we are told that the same union exists in the Bible as existed in Jesus, making the Bible itself just as infallible as the One who inspired it, the Son of God.  If we see error it is because we have not surrendered self and dug deeply enough into the Bible under the guidance of the Holy Spirit to clear up our misunderstandings.

[Gary K]

Looks like my ocr software translated an "ri" as an "l" and then left out a space in the first sentence of the last paragraph of the quote.  "necessalyfor" should be "necessarily for".