A critique of the modernist theory of inspiration

Title of research paper:-

Inspiration: A modern view. (just what to Betsys is modern inspiration)

Outline -----------------

Various definitions of inspiration

What is inspiration?

Dictionary definitions.

Other definitions:

Check phone for a picture

David R. Law Inspiration: New Century Theology

Continuum, The Tower Building, York Road, London SE1 7NX & 370 Lexington Avenue, New York NY
10017-6503, 2001.

Inspiration may have what we might loosely term an objective and a subjective dimension.

Objective feature of the Bible text, not merely a value judgement on the part of the reader.
God, it is claimed, is involved in some way in the composition of this divine involvement, these are
held to be objectively inspired.

Subjective human beings [in some way] are, or can be, involved with texts. That is there are
resources in inspired texts that can if allowed have a qualitative impact on human existence.
The term inspiration in its subjective sense, then, expresses the impact of the biblical texts on the
reader. PG 36

Calvin believed that the same Holy Spirit who inspired the writings was responsible for enabling the
reader to encounter the Bible as Gods word. PG 37 - is this a modern view (what is the modern
view)

We can qualify the concept of inspiration still further by distinguishing between active and
passive, causative and resultative inspiration. PG 38 - what does modern inspiration do
to these accounts? Use definition of the above words to flesh out a narrative and
understanding.

What is the liberal view of inspiration

Which ones are modern interpretations?

It is above all that the since the Enlightenment that the inspiration of the Bible has become a
theological problem. In the modern era theories concerning the inspiration of scriptures have
traditionally been divided into two groups, namely what are loosely termed conservative and
liberal approaches. These divisions are the consequence of the rise of the natural sciences and
biblical criticism. The rise of the scientific world-view has undermined the traditional view that God
intervenes in the natural order and has replaced many supernatural explanations for dramatic
occurrences in nature with explanations that do not require divine agency. PG 41-42

- Is there an agreed position as to what is the conservative position? What are some of
the denominational ramifications?
-
- What was the view before the Enlightenment period?
o A fundamentalist form denies the validity and veracity of many modern
scientific insights and rejects the results of modern biblical scholarship. PG 42
- So is it safe to say that the liberal view uses natural science, a scientific approach to
classify and identify inspiration? -Yes
- The opposite to liberal would therefore be a supernatural reasoning or understanding?

The liberal view of inspiration borders and promotes an approach to abandon the concept [of
inspiration] altogether. PG 42 If anything it accepts wholeheartedly the scientific world-view and
the results of biblical criticism, and attempts to adjust the concept of inspiration in their light.

In retrospect in some patterns of conservativism the belief that God intervenes directly in the
world is still held. Such conservative proponents attempt to reconcile the results of modern
science with this basic belief. PG 42-43

Then there is the deductive-indeductive dichotomy PG 44

The scholastic theology of inspiration arises from the fusion of the model of inspiration inherited
from the Fathers with Aristolelianism. PG 56

Scientific approach (Instrumental theory). Example of someone writing with a piece of chalk. The
chalk is the instrument (by which the writing is able to take place). But in the case of inspiration the
chalk is not capable of speech or writing. The principal efficient cause is the writer. But the qualities
of the chalk have been essential in allowing the human being to write. PG 56

- The human being is the instrument that makes the divine communication possible PG
57

Dictation theory, like one would speak to a secretary is inline with writers such s Jerome,
Chrysostom and Augustine. Calvin also speaks of it, this was a dominant understanding of
inspiration in the Protestant orthodoxy of the seventeenth century. PG 58

- But the argument is given that both theories do not answer to the diversity of the Bibles
different styles of writing and different forms of literature. PG 59

If dictation theory of inspiration is to be retained, it can only be in a qualified form which respects
human autonomy and does not insist that every individual word in the Bible is due to divine
dictation. PG 61

Alonso Schokel there is a close collaboration, a union of mind and will in order to produce the end
result. The executive gives the general theme, sketches its development and some of its leading
ideas, and perhaps proposes one or two good phrases which ought to be incorporated. The
secretary draws up the document, which is then corrected and written once again in its final form.

The Inspired Word: Scripture in the Light of Languages and Literature, trans. Francis Martin (London:
Burn & Oates, 1967) pp 71-2
 - A synergy of instrument and dictation inspiration?

Adherents of the verbal inspiration theory hold that the very words of the Bible are inspired. That
is, God does not merely inspire the biblical writers or their messages but has inspired the choice of
the words they employ. Such a view can be found in Iranaeus and Clement of Alexandria. PG 62

The theory of verbal inspiration came into its own in the era of Protestant orthodoxy.

Difference between verbal and dictation supporters of verbal inspiration stress that God does not
dictate his message directly to the prophets or apostles, but rather creates the conditions in which
the biblical writers can receive and express the divine communication in the language which God
finds most appropriate. God creates these conditions by guiding and influencing the circumstances
into which the biblical writer is born, such as family, culture, occupation, education, etc., and by
directing the writers life in such a way that when the divine message is communicated to him he
expresses it in precisely the words which God wishes to be employed.

- Brilliantly coined. A supernatural charged explanation.

- This explanation is then mowed down by denouncing such a belief or position in light of
biblical criticism and literary and historical analysis. The above view looks at the
responsibility of named individuals in the writing of the biblical accounts. However this
is thrown out in light of biblical criticism (thus leaning the liberal view).
- The question then arises, for me why not accept the original document to be inspired
in its purest sense. The autograph being committed to biblical inerrancy. The copies
being handed down then losing that inerrancy and lending to errors or inconsistencies
found via form criticism and the like. Not to mention the different version in light of the
argument of inspiration.

And yet there is the theory of gradation of scripture; limited to certain areas of the Bible. Yet again a
theory developed in light of inconsistencies in the Bible.

Plenary inspiration takes it up a notch from verbal inspiration. It was affirmed by the Council of
Trent, reaffirmed at the First Vatican Council. PG 66-67

- Confusion settles in when plenary inspiration is cornered off as all scripture is inspired,
which then commits us to a doctrine of verbal inspiration.
- Signifies that the inspiration is entire and without restriction. Even grammar etc.
- Origen and Gregory Nazianzus hold that the influences of the Holy Spirit extended
down to the most insignificant details of the text.

Word-centred and non-verbal theories of inspiration has revealed that non is free of difficulties.
Such is the importance of the Bible for Christianity, however, that some defence of its authority
must be undertaken. The traditional, and in my view most suitable, vehicle for this defence is the
concept of inspiration, despite all the difficulties associated with it.

It is above all the supreme difficulty of showing the existence of a relationship between God and the
Bible that makes the concept of inspiration so problematic. There are obvious and very powerful
reasons for this difficulty. The question of Gods relationship to the Bible can be seen as the part of
the more general theological problem of Gods relationship to the world. PG 142
 - This quote is very applicable to the issue as it regards to the liberal view. In light with its
ascension after the Enlightenment period. Which gave birth to the modern philosophy
and the post-modern metanarrative from which liberalism thrives.

Other views

Edited by Roger R. Nicole & J. Ramsey Michaels, Inerrancy and Common Sense Grand Rapids,
Michigan Baker Book House 1980.

A 1961 survey among American clergy reported in Christianity Today that 12 percent classify
themselves as liberals, 14 percent as neo-orthodox, and 74 percent as evangelicals. The last group is
broken down into 35 percent Fundamentalists (who hold to total inerrancy) and 39 percent
Conservatives (who hold to less than total inerrancy). PG 17

- The inspiration of the Bible seems to be closely linked to the Battle of the Bible.
- in 1976 Harold Lindsells ibid precipitated a major crisis by naming individuals and
institutions now associated with a looser doctrine of Scripture.
- Intimately linked to scripture inerrancy and authority.

In the introduction the question is asked, Was total inerrancy the normative position of the
church? Following this question with a list of church fathers who treated the Scripture as divinely
inspired and absolutely authoritative, the very words of God.

The challenge in the liberal view (The challenge in inspiration).

D.A. Carson The King James Version Debate

In the chapter on the Early Circulation of the NT he writes, speaking on the various manuscripts,

All this sounds alarming. If no two manuscripts agree, how can we know what the Holy Spirit
inspired the New Testament authors to write? The matter is, on the face of it, very difficult. All agree
that one cannot simply take the oldest manuscripts and trust them, for they may conceivably be very
poor parents that are now lost.

- This in contrast to Bwambales statement in regards to older is better when it comes to

manuscripts. It is possible that Geisler is of this opinion and Bwambale projects or agrees
with the notion.

On the doctrine of inspiration to the preservation of the text. Pickering says that the affirmation
that God has preserved the original wording of the New Testament text is a statement of faith;
but this acknowledgement of the need for faith is coupled with an insistence that such faith is an
intelligent faith, a faith that accords with the available evidence.

- Wilbur N. Pickering, The Identity of the New Testament Text (Nashville: Nelson 1977).

Challenge in definitions

A challenge is thrusted in Inerrancy and Common Sense that the definition for the inerrancy of the
Bible is not as it is seems. That inerrancy simply means that the Scriptures are the word of God. PG
63
Change from the orthodox position?

Inerrancy: The argument is given that Hemann Sasses judgement that Augustine believed that the
Bible is free from mistakes, errors and contradictions even in its smallest details. From there the
conclusion by Oswald Loretz (A Catholic theologian) is given, Augustines position remained
normative in the RC until the second Vatican council. Thus the medieval church in the West
continued to hold to total inerrancy until the eve of the Reformation. PG 21

The position of the reformers then comes into question, stating that there is contention among
historians:

Neo-orthodox theologians are said to reconstruct Protestant doctrine back into the Reformers
themselves, a tendency most evangelical scholars readily detect.

Luthers position is said to be no different from Augustines inerrancy of the Bible and thus verbal
inspiration. Only Holy Scripture is to be considered inerrant. PG 22

Not only the words which the Holy Spirit and Scripture use are divine, but also the phrasing. PG 23

The decline of the American church from evangelical to liberal and neo-orthodox leadership is cited
as a very complicated historical process. It is then alluded to as a spiritual decline of the church in
contrast to the decline of modern Western culture.

Lindsell cites American Unitarianism as an instance in which doctrinal decline has followed from a
rejection of biblical authority. PG 27

Issues within the field of orthodoxy led to its demise and the children growing up in that
generation departed to liberalism. PG 29

the ugly spectacle of Christians persecuting other Christians became

Neo-orthodox limited inerrancy

Clark Pinnock a doctrine of complete inerrancy is vital because the sola scriptura principle cannot
be maintained without it.

Both neoorthodology and the proponents of limited inerrancy seek to secure the Christian faith in a
position which is invulnerable to attack on scientific and historical grounds. PG 33

Post-Darwinian era Christians have developed an inverterate habit of bowing to the fallen human
reasoning in the form of scientific authority PG 34

Argument given in regards to separation and pruning, in regards to those who departed from the
faith Strong argument in regards to those who do not see the inerrancy of the Bible.

Closing arguments

It was the recognition of this fact [issues in relation to variant manuscripts and scribal and
translator errors] which led evangelical theologians to emphasize the inspiration of the original
autographs. PG 74
- The case of Ellen G. White in the context of the liberal view of inspiration is poignant.
The same arguments for and against the inspiration of the Bible writers are applied to
EGW. Therefore her ministry stands as an attestation to the issue of inspiration and the
representation of God through His prophets. - This nugget can be placed in my
reflective conclusion.