Ministry of Love

The intention of this blog is to share Biblical messages at least on a weekly basis. Any response is appreciated. I do not expect everyone to agree with my interpretation of Biblical passages. I will try to respond with love and thoughtfulness.

Wednesday, February 02, 2011

Scripture Is God-Breathed, by John.

Scripture Is God-Breathed

I heard a forceful speaker bantering about his sermon notes. He said he put a "PPP" in the margin of his notes by some points. In music that means pianissimo, but in his notes it meant that point was weak and to pound the pulpit plenty! I think we too often express our weak points of doctrine by hitting them hard when talking with others. Have you noticed that? Most of us realize that volume has nothing to do with truth, but in arguments, we keep doing it anyway.

II Timothy 3:16-17 says, "All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work." II Peter 1:20-21 says, "Above all, you must understand that no prophecy of Scripture came about by the prophet's own interpretation. For prophecy never had its origin in the will of man, but men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit."

Between these two passages, lies an understanding of inspiration. I mentally subscribed to the verbal inspiration of Scripture for a number of years. I thought that God dictated the words to the prophets. I did not know that there were three words in the Old Testament for "prophet." I was amazed when I discovered there were, and that those three words gave a good description of how prophecy manifested itself. One of them refers to foretelling the future. That's the one most people think of when prophecy is mentioned. Foretelling the future could really get a prophet in trouble because if their prophecy didn't come true, they might be put to death. Zoroaster would not have lasted long in that day, and we wouldn't have the myriad forecasts he made. Elijah's prophecy concerning rain, happened exactly as he forecast it would. In fact, he's probably the only weather man other than Noah to get his forecasts 100% right!

The second word means the prophet looks around himself at what is happening with his neighbors, and his nation and he speaks out against those ills of society which are most destructive. These are the things people do that displease God the most, and if we pleased God all the time, we could do away with wars and prisons. Of course, the immoral majority of people never really seek to please God, so that's not going to happen. Both forms of prophecy fit Micaiah, I think. When Jehoshaphat visited Ahab, Ahab wanted him to attack Ramoth Gilead with him. Jehoshaphat agreed, but asked that they consult the Lord first. They consulted all of Ahab's prophets who were no more than "yes" men, and they said they would be victorious. Jehoshaphat, as we might say, smelled a rat. He asked if there wasn't someone else they could consult. Ahab said there was one more man named Micaiah, but that he always had something bad to say to him. They consulted Micaiah, and he agreed with all the other prophets, but even Ahab knew he was speaking ironically. He told him to tell the truth, and in II Chronicles 18:16 Micaiah said, "I saw all Israel scattered on the hills like sheep without a shepherd, and the Lord said, 'These people have no master. Let each one go home in peace.'" One of Ahab's prophets named Zedekiah had made some crude iron horns, like a bull's horns probably, and had prophesied that Ahab would "gore the Arameans until they were destroyed." Micaiah told Ahab a "lying spirit" was in his prophets. That made Zedekiah a liar, and he slapped Micaiah across the face and asked him which way that lying spirit went when it left him to go to Micaiah. Micaiah prophesied again and told Zedekiah in verse 24, "You will find out when you go hide in an inner room."

The account shows Micaiah practiced both of these forms of prophecy. He had decried Ahab's evil life, and forecast his death. It happened almost immediately. We aren't told what happened to those false prophets, but we can be sure God dealt with them.

The third word for prophecy deals directly with visions and indirectly with what we call ecstatic experience. We might think of it as being in a trance, seeing a picture, or something certainly out of the ordinary. When David danced in the street in II Kings 6:14ff that word is used, and he is spoken of as prophesying. It represents the excitement a person may experience when God speaks to him.

The three words should give a better idea of how the Scripture was written. Two people seeing the same vision will give differing reports because they saw it differently. That doesn't mean one is wrong and the other right. It simply means what they saw inspired them somewhat differently. I believe the Bible is like that. It's all true, but it presented different people's reports in different times, different places and circumstances. In a way, every word applies to us, but not in the same way. We learn from the whole Bible, but not every word applies to each one of us personally.

The central message of the Bible is Jesus. I understand there is a book just been published that says Jesus is the only true Word of God. He is certainly the Word of God according to the Scripture. He is not a book made of paper and ink. He is a living personality called in the Bible God's only born Son. I take that not only to refer to the virgin birth, but to the fact there is no other being in heaven or earth like Him, and the Bible tells us God spoke from heaven saying exactly that also telling us to listen to Him.

Inspiration in Greek is theopneustos a combination of the word "god" and "breath." God breathes on people, and they get the picture and deliver it to others. There are others who claim God has breathed on them, but it isn't true. They are false prophets. The surest way to flush them out is to compare their prophecy with what the Bible says plainly. An instance is easily seen in messages on the last times. God informed us about our attempt to establish timetables in Acts 1:7. In it Jesus says, "It is not for you to know the times or dates the Father has set by his own authority." That's as plain as anything gets, isn't it? Beyond that setting up a schedule for the end is false prophecy. Some other things are more subtle however, and we have to depend on the wisdom of many Christians instead of just our own idea.
I believe God is still inspiring people today to give His message to the world. Some are more gifted, some less, but many are agreed on the main doctrines of God, and I believe we probably should be talking and thinking about what is godly and ungodly rather than right and wrong. Following that we should do what we believe is godly regardless of what anyone else in the world does.

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