Theology Discussion Paper

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Liberty University *

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Religion

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Jun 9, 2024

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The Bible or “the Good Book,” the manual, the guide as it is sometimes called. We should believe the Bible is God’s inspired word for a few reasons. John 1:1 tells us that the word was there from “the beginning,” and the word was with and was God.” “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.” If so, why wouldn’t a sovereign God breathe on or inspire individuals to participate in the divine authorship of the Bible? According to Everyday Theology: Exploring the Christian Faith . 1 “The Bible affirms that both human and a divine author wrote the Bible. There are numerous times within the passage of Scripture that a human author provides his own name as part of the writing, thereby indicating that the product is his work.” 2 “Although the human authors claim to have written the various books of the Bible, they also claim that the words they are writing are not their words only but are actually the words of God.” And according to (2 Timothy 3:16-17) they have a purpose “All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting, and training in righteousness, so that the servant of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.” An objection to this belief would be, as pointed out in the article excerpt for our class discussion by Elmer Towns, Arguments that the Bible is the Word of God is that it speaks of human limitations in understanding and rationale. The author writes, 3 “Because of the limitations of humanity, it is impossible for an imperfect human with the limited rational ability to conceive of an unlimited God who is all-powerful and eternal in attributes.” Another strong reason for believing God divinely inspired the Bible is that although the Bible was written by different men at different times, places, and circumstances, men with diverse backgrounds and occupations. The unity and theme of the writings all tie together, pointing back to God as the author and speaking to the urgency and importance of the Word of God that it would reach people from all walks of life, from continent to continent, cultures, ethnicities, languages, and backgrounds of people. The Bible reveals the love of God, his redemptive message, his promises, His “Omni” attributes, and His patience for His people. Although divinely inspired, these men had weaknesses. They encountered sin common to men, thus leading us to believe the scripture undoubtedly should point to a divine author who is blameless without sin and has all power. An objection to this belief was also pointed out in the excerpt by Elmer Towns 4 “The unity of the Bible is contrary to what one would normally expect from a book that was written by authors in the circumstances in which they wrote.” The article also pointed out the superiority of the Bible when compared to other writings, such as Shakespeare and others. The reliability of the Scriptures may always be questioned, but the Word of God is genuinely reliable, inspired, and leads to salvation. 529 Words Bibliography 1 Gabriel and Small , “Everyday Theology,” 27. 2 Ibid., 28. 3 Towns, “ Arguments that the Bible is the Word of God,” 43-59. 4 Ibid.,
Gabriel Etzel and R. N. Small, Everyday Theology: Exploring the Christian Faith , ed. Ben Gutierrez and Gabriel Etzel (B&H Academic, 2016), 27. Towns, Elmer. “Arguments that the Bible is the Word of God.” In Theology for Today, ed. Joan Manos (Fort Worth: Harcourt College Publishers, 2001), 43-59
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