Today I read an article by another author that does not give credit to the Holy Spirit for inspiring the Bible. This author suggests that the writers of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John each modeled their descriptions of the resurrection story based on the writings of Moses. He was discussing the rhythm of the verses, not the individual writings. The article was interesting but it left out one key ingredient: the role of the Holy Spirit in inspiring the Bible.
How easily we talk today about Paul's writings or John's writings without mentioning the Holy Spirit. Or we ponder questions like, "Who wrote the book of XXX?" (fill in the XXX with the book of your choice) without a word about the Holy Spirit.
Certainly some books identify an individual: “I, John, your brother … was on the island called Patmos because of the word of God and the testimony of Jesus.” (Revelation 1:9). Or consider “Paul, a bond-servant of Christ Jesus …” (Romans 1:1). I would be naive to suggest that a human being was not involved in recording the inspired words.
The important thing, I suggest, is the recognition of the source. As we saw in the first post in this series, 2 Timothy 3:16 states, " “All Scripture is inspired by God …”.
Then we looked last time at Hebrews 3:7—preceding the quote of Psalm 95, that verse states, “Therefore, just as the Holy Spirit says, ‘Today if you hear His voice, … ’”. This verse does not give the name of a human author, just the Holy Spirit.
We see that again in Acts 1:15,16 where it states,
“At this time Peter stood up in the midst of the brethren (a gathering of about one hundred and twenty persons was there together), and said, ‘Brethren, the Scripture had to be fulfilled, which the Holy Spirit foretold by the mouth of David concerning Judas, who became a guide to those who arrested Jesus.’”
This verse does not state that David foretold this. Instead, it gives recognition to the Holy Spirit who used the mouth of David. There is a big difference.
When others hear us speak about authorship of one portion of the Bible or another, we may know about the inspiration of the Holy Spirit but they may not. To those on spiritual milk, or even those who have yet to make that journey, PLEASE, let us help them. The power of the Scriptures takes on much greater authority when we mention that the Holy Spirit inspired it into the hearts of Paul or John or anyone else.
How easily we talk today about Paul's writings or John's writings without mentioning the Holy Spirit. Or we ponder questions like, "Who wrote the book of XXX?" (fill in the XXX with the book of your choice) without a word about the Holy Spirit.
Certainly some books identify an individual: “I, John, your brother … was on the island called Patmos because of the word of God and the testimony of Jesus.” (Revelation 1:9). Or consider “Paul, a bond-servant of Christ Jesus …” (Romans 1:1). I would be naive to suggest that a human being was not involved in recording the inspired words.
The important thing, I suggest, is the recognition of the source. As we saw in the first post in this series, 2 Timothy 3:16 states, " “All Scripture is inspired by God …”.
Then we looked last time at Hebrews 3:7—preceding the quote of Psalm 95, that verse states, “Therefore, just as the Holy Spirit says, ‘Today if you hear His voice, … ’”. This verse does not give the name of a human author, just the Holy Spirit.
We see that again in Acts 1:15,16 where it states,
“At this time Peter stood up in the midst of the brethren (a gathering of about one hundred and twenty persons was there together), and said, ‘Brethren, the Scripture had to be fulfilled, which the Holy Spirit foretold by the mouth of David concerning Judas, who became a guide to those who arrested Jesus.’”
This verse does not state that David foretold this. Instead, it gives recognition to the Holy Spirit who used the mouth of David. There is a big difference.
When others hear us speak about authorship of one portion of the Bible or another, we may know about the inspiration of the Holy Spirit but they may not. To those on spiritual milk, or even those who have yet to make that journey, PLEASE, let us help them. The power of the Scriptures takes on much greater authority when we mention that the Holy Spirit inspired it into the hearts of Paul or John or anyone else.
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