What is divine inspiration and why does it exist? Alan Watts

There is a lot of written about the inspiration, infallibility, and inerrancy of Holy Scripture, but only the first of these terms is found in the Bible.Deductions from the principle of divine inspiration arefallibility and inerrancy.When Protestants applied the Bible to the papacy in the 19th century, it became a current term.

The argument is that if the Bible is inspired by God, it must be perfect.Even the smallest mistake can cause people to doubt the truth of God's Word if they discover it.It's logical to argue that we don't possess the original manuscripts and that all the copies we have contain errors, but they come up against the obvious objections.It does not mean that the copies we have are misleading or that they are not inspired by God.

In the modern church, belief in what they represent is the hallmark of conservative, and usually evangelical, believers.The unique place occupied by the text of the Bible in Christian worship bears witness to the fact that it is divinely inspired.

It was thought that poets were inspired by a muse or other genius who gave them their talent.The inspiration was only given to the people who composed the literary works.Holy men were moved by the spirit of God, but the texts they produced were also breathed out by him.The mark of holiness was the guarantee of their authority in the life of the church.

"Infallibility" emerged as a way of saying that the Scriptures do not teach error, and "inerrancy" makes it more precise by insisting that they don't contain it either.The excessive zeal of some of their proponents has caused both terms to suffer.Some people think that Job must have been a historical person since he is described in that way in the book that bears his name, but it is just as likely that he's a fictional character created by the author in order to make a series of important theological points.To insist on the historicity of Job is going too far, and the term loses its credibility when such claims are made.

To insist on the historicity of Job is going too far, and the term loses its credibility when such claims are made.

This is the best way to look at these words.The written constitution of the church is the Bible.As far as the life of the church is concerned, its authority is both inerrant and absolute.Every word in its teaching must be carefully weighed and its meaning considered, and no Christian preacher or teacher has the right to distort or minimize its teachings.If parts of the Old Testament food laws are no longer applicable today, we don't have to worry about that.The authority of the document as a whole is retained even though provisions are obsolete, and if the circumstances for which they were designed should recur, they would come back into force.

The Bible has a spiritual message that can be applied in spiritual ways long after the material circumstances in which it was originally revealed have disappeared.The Bible will not lead us astray or teach us anything that is false if we view it that way.

Since many of the mistakes made in copying can be corrected, we don't need to worry too much about what the original means.As long as we don't put too much weight on words or passages that are unclear, this should not affect our understanding of the text.

There are allegations that the Bible contains errors of fact or judgement that are not accidental.Archaeologists have raised questions about the invasion of Palestine under Joshua because of missing evidence, such as the collapse of the walls at Jericho or the destruction of Ai.Historians have found no evidence for the existence of Esther or Daniel, and many scholars believe that they were made up in later times for political reasons.

The New Testament is less open to this kind of objection because the time period it covers is shorter and better known, but there are still many details about the life of Jesus and the apostle Paul which are hard to piece together from the texts.Did Jesus cleanse the temple at the beginning of his ministry or did he do it twice?The event might have been faked by the disciples to make a point.

The book is written for the average Christian and traces the theme of God's love through all the major doctrines of the Bible.

The evidence is insufficient for us to decide either way, and the intention of the original author is unclear, so these are difficult questions to answer.Scholars try to resolve these difficulties on the assumption that the problems were not apparent to those who first wrote or read the texts.It would be foolish to accuse the text of lying or misrepresenting the facts simply because we don't know what they are.The researcher will persist until he finds a solution and refuse to comment on theories which discount the witness of the texts.They are a major part of the evidence and must be treated with care.

The arguments about the historicity of the biblical text are important in the sense that our faith is based on truth, but they are not the main point.The Bible is not the source of our doctrine and spiritual life since it contains no errors.Infallibility and inerrancy have their place, but divine inspiration remains the key to interpreting the text because it is the Word of God.When Paul wrote to Timothy, he spoke to us all.