Archive for February 2007
God has spoken and He has communicated His Word to us. Firstly by revelation when God spoke to the writers. Secondly, through inspiration as the writers were divinely guided by God, in the process of writing His message. However, in order to understand God’s revealed and inspired message, illumination is required. This is where God causes the Bible to be understood by both the human heart and the mind.
Why do we need of illumination? Without illumination, the reader is blinded both by his nature, and by Satan. Just as a light bulb needs power in order to give light, so does the Bible need somebody to provide the power! The person, who does this illuminating, is God the Holy Spirit.
The actual word inspiration is only found once in the New Testament, where Paul explicitly states that “All scripture is given by inspiration of God” or more literally “God-breathed.” Divine inspiration naturally proceeds from divine revelation. Whilst through revelation God speaks to man’s ear, it is by inspiration that God works the pen, thus ensuring that the message is written correctly.
This process of inspiration has several theories attached to it. One theory called the content theory, suggests that the author garnered the main idea from God, but God allowed the writer to choose his own words.
