THE BIBLE: SPECIAL REVELATION

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SPECIAL REVELATION

In the previous section we laid the foundation for understanding the makeup of the Bible and how we arrived at our modern collection of writings. Now we will move on to specifically understanding the Bible as God's revelation and what we mean when we call scripture 'inspired'.

When we talk about how God reveals himself we discuss two categories: General Revelation and Special Revelation.  Because we are finite and God is infinite, we cannot know God unless he has revealed himself to us.  General revelation is a topic that we mentioned in Theology proper when we said that you can know God through his creation. General revelation is how God has made himself known in nature, history, and even other ways such as examining and reflecting on our on our own creation as created beings. 

• In the Bible we have statements such as Psalm 19:1, and Romans 1:20 that testify to how God has revealed himself through the world around us. 

When we talk about special, or sometimes called particular revelation we are talking about three different modes in how God reveals himself in personal ways. 

1. In Historical events such as the Birth of Isaac in Abraham's old age (Genesis 21), the plagues in Egypt (Exodus 7-11), and the conquest of the Promised Land (Joshua 1-9). 
2. In direct Divine Speech like Jeremiah 18:1; Ezekiel 12:1, 8, 17, 21, 26; Hosea 1:1; Joel 1:1: Amos 3:1. 
3. In the Incarnation. Take a moment and read Hebrews 1:1-14 and Colossians 1:15. Jesus, the living word, is the full revelation of God.
4. In the Bible, his written word. It is through the words and pages of the Bible that we see God reveal himself. 

Here at Cornerstone, we believe that the Bible is the uniquely inspired word of God. Take a moment and read both 2 Timothy 3:14-17 and 2 Peter 1:16-21.  These two scriptures are fundamental to understanding inspiration of scripture and our Theology at Cornerstone.

By Inspiration we mean that the writers of scripture were supernaturally influenced by the Holy Spirit to write prophecy, poetry, history, or whatever was produced.

First in 2 Timothy 3:14-17 we have a letter, written by the apostle Paul. In this section he tells Timothy that Timothy has been taught the Holy Writings from childhood. This is not a reference to Paul's letters or the Gospels but the Old Testament. Paul and the early Christians lived under the assumption that the writings that they had, our Old Testament, were holy (set apart). In addition, Paul says these scriptures are "God-Breathed". The impression here is that Paul believed and viewed the Old Testament as divinely produced and because of that, it carried authority.  

In 2 Peter, Peter is also writing of the Old Testament when he says prophecy did not come from man but, "men moved by the Holy Spirit [who] spoke from God". Both of these early Church leaders viewed the Old Testament writings as inspired by God. 

We also have evidence in the New Testament that some of what was circulating in the early church was believed to be inspired. In 2 Peter 3:15-16 Peter compares Paul's writings to "other parts of scripture" providing intertextual evidence that Paul was writing under the influence of the Holy Spirit . 

When we talk about inspiration there are a number of different approaches that scholars, denominations, groups, or individuals take. These vary in perspective from the position that every word of scripture that was written by an author was dictated by God, literally telling them every single detail, to the opposite end of the spectrum where the writers were given a supernatural gifting that simply enhanced their understanding of God and writing.

Here at Cornerstone, along with the vast majority of Christians, we believe that there was a combination of the Holy Spirit and human influence working dynamically together in the writing of our Bible. The Holy Spirit directed and inspired the writers while allowing the writer's own distinctive personally, choice of words, and language to come into play. As a result, the writer gives expression to divinely directed words that are placed on parchment in a way that is uniquely characteristic to the individual writer. This view upholds the God-breathed origin of scripture while accounting for what we know from the scholarly study of the Bible on topics such as writing styles.

So why does it matter that we say Scripture is inspired?

• The Inspiration of Scripture matters because if the Bible is inspired by God, we can have confidence that the instruction is from God himself. While we do not live in the time that the events took place or immediately after, because scripture is inspired, we can have faith that they are accurate and faithful. As Paul says it, "is useful to teach us what is true and to make us realize what is wrong with our lives. It corrects us when we are wrong and teaches us to do what is right. God uses it to prepare and equip his people to do every good work".