The Truth about Biblical Inspiration

how do we know the Bible is God's inspired word the Bible contains confirmations to establish that it was God speaking and not men's imagination my name is Lex and welcome to unlearn the question of inspiration is really a question about Canon the biblical Canon is a list of books that have been received as inspired scripture the word Canon originally referred to a measuring stick that was used to draw straight lines and to make sure things measure up correctly when referring to the Bible the word Canon describes the books that measure up to the standard of inspiration and Authority we should expect from the scripture books that are not recognized as inspired scripture are often called non-canonical the question concerning the Canon of scripture is important if the Bible contains books that are not inspired by God they could lead us astray but if we're missing inspired books we are missing out on something God wanted to reveal to us to tamper with God's word by addition or subtraction would result in a distortion of the revelation God has given therefore we must have the complete word of God and nothing added or removed the Bible says all scripture is given by inspiration of God if all scripture is given by inspiration of God then we must first understand what it means to be inspired by God so that we can know what books are scripture the word inspired means that it came from an external Source the Greek word translated here as inspiration of God is Theos which means god breathed so to say something is inspired by God is to say it originated from God or that it was breathed out by god notice here is the words of scripture that are God breathed not the authors of scripture this means the words of the Bible themselves are inspired no doubt the writers were inspired to write what they did but it's the scripture itself that is God breathed this means the words sentences paragraphs Concepts doctrines history prophecies Commandments and messages are all inspired by God we see that even details within the words are inspired when Paul makes a doctrinal argument based on a word being singular instead of plural when Paul argued now to Abraham and a where the promises made he does not say and to seeds as of many but as of one and to your seed who is Christ this shows us that it's not merely the concepts that are inspired but that the very words themselves are God breathed all scriptures God breathed means that every word of the scripture comes from God we can't say this part is inspired but this part is not when we say something is inspired by God we're saying that God is the source of that content it didn't originate from the minds of men but it came from God himself for prophecy never came by the will of man but holy men of God spoke as they were moved by the holy spirit scripture is a collaboration between humanity and the Divine God inspired the words and Men wrote them down in some cases we have direct quotes from God and in others we have teachings that are inspired by God the scripture also contains the works of God in the life of his people stories about how God delivered people from slavery War evil rulers famine and distress stories about how God healed people and spoke to them through Angels prophets dreams visions and personal address addresses the Bible also contains the Commandments promises blessings and curses that come from God it's the Redemptive history of God working in the lives of men and it was written by the inspiration of the Holy Spirit moving through the agency of mortal Men by definition all scripture is inspired by God therefore the only way something can be called scripture is if God inspired it we see this with the prophets in the Old Testament and with the apostles in the New Testament Moses was a prophet and God spoke to Moses face to face as a man speaks to his friend the apostles were taught by Yeshua personally and their teachings come directly from what he said they were also filled with the Holy Spirit and they spoke the word of God with boldness God commanded certain things to be written down to keep a record so that it would be remembered then the Lord said to Moses write this for a memorial in the book and recount it in the hearing of Joshua the Bible also contains a record of the covenants that God made with his people then the Lord said to Moses write these words for according to the tenor of these words I have made a covenant with you and with Israel other things were written down for future Generations now go write it before them on a tablet and note it on a scroll that it may be for a time to come Visions dreams and prophecies are also written down so that others can benefit from those Revelations write the things which you have seen and the things which are and the things which will take place after this there are even some things the writers were commanded not to write about seal up the things which the seven Thunders uttered and do not write them the Bible contains genius genealogies historical events places Kings and other relevant things that establish the Bible as historical and truthful the Bible contains prophecies and their fulfillment to establish the authority of the word and to verify its inspiration the Bible was written by 40 authors over the span of 1500 Years yet it contains a cohesive and reliable witness about the revelation of God Moses wrote about things in the Torah that find fulfillment in the New Testament over a thousand years later the prophet spoke accurately concerning the Messiah hundreds of years before he came in the flesh the the Old Testament Cannon began when God wrote the first words with his own hand on two tablets of stone written with the Finger of God and it continued with the words that God gave Moses to write down Moses writings are called the Torah and they consist of Genesis Exodus Leviticus Numbers and Deuteronomy after Moses died Joshua was given the inspiration to write another book that we call Joshua each generation had its own prophets and scribes who were writing down the revelation of God to the people and with each new writing the Canon of scripture grew this continued until Malachi in 435 BC when the inspiration of scriptures stopped and the Old Testament Cannon was complete these books were verified by the people of that day who knew the authors to be Godly men who heard from the Lord the historical accuracy could be verified by eyewitnesses who were present during the events recorded and could attest to the truthfulness of what was recorded it's important to note that these books developed in the presence of witnesses they weren't hidden in caves to be found hundreds of years later by people disconnected from the events they were written amid God's people who could validate or invalidate what was written the New Testament Cannon began in much the same way as did the Old Testament scriptures the Old Testament Cannon was written down when God delivered Israel from Egypt and God instructed Moses to write about it in the New Testament the apostles began writing about God's Deliverance found in Messiah Yeshua there was no new revelation after the time of Malachi until the appearance of Yeshua in the gospels so there was nothing new to be written until that time the Old Testament closes with the prophet Malachi giving an expectation for the Messiah to come and he explains that the Prophet Elijah will announce his arrival so it's no surprise that the next inspired writing would appear at the coming of the Messiah in fulfillment of those prophecies behold I send my messenger he will prepare the way before me and the Lord whom you seek will suddenly come to his Temple even the messenger of the Covenant in whom you Delight behold he is coming says the Lord of hosts behold I will send you Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and Dreadful day of the Lord when we open the New Testament we have the expectation of this ful fillment and we quickly learn that the messenger who prepares the way is identified as John the Baptist he is called the Elijah who was to come and he announced the arrival of Yeshua as the Fulfillment of Old Testament prophecy John even identified himself with the prophecy of the one who proclaims the Messiah by saying I am the voice of one crying out in the wilderness make straight the way of the Lord as the prophet Isaiah said John fulfills this prophecy by coming before Yeshua being born first and by proclaiming Yeshua as the Messiah saying Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the the sin of the world because the messiah's coming was the next fulfillment of Prophecy we should expect scripture to be written about him therefore it is no surprise that the New Testament was written about Yeshua the New Testament Canon contains the apostles writings about the Messiah who he was what he did and what he taught the New Testament was written by the apostles and Close Associates of the Apostles Luke for example was an associate of Paul therefore Paul can validate Luke's writings as truthful and inspired by God likewise Mark was an associate of Peter so Peter could validate Mark's gospel Yeshua told the apostles that he would send the Holy Spirit to help them he said the Holy Spirit would teach them and remind them of everything he said and did this is how they were able to recall the things that happened with accuracy but the helper of the Holy Spirit whom the father will send in my name he will teach you all things and bring to your remembrance all things that I said to you the disciples wrote the gospels and Epistles by the leading of the holy spirit all scripture is given by the inspiration of the holy spirit so anything the apostles wrote by the inspiration of the holy spirit is by definition scripture and so we have the prophetic word confirmed which you do well to heed as a light that shines in the Dark Places until the day Dawns and The Morning Star rises in your hearts knowing this first that no prophecy of scripture is of any private interpretation for prophecy never came by the will of man but holy men of God spoke as they were moved by the Holy Spirit the New Testament scriptures were confirmed by eyewitness accounts who verified the truthfulness of their writings the New Testament was written in the first century by people who knew and followed Yeshua it was read by first century believers who could validate if the claims are true or not the New Testament was written by the apostles and Close Associates and it's validated by the apostles to be trustworthy and accurate their writings claim to be inspired by the Holy Spirit and the apostles claim to be writing the words of God the apostles also confirm each other's writings for example Peter speaks about Paul and refers to his Epistles as scripture saying as also our beloved brother Paul according to the wisdom given to him has written to you as also in all his Epistles speaking in them of things in which are some things hard to understand which untaught and unstable people twist to their own destruction as they do also the rest of the scriptures Peter speaks about everything Paul has written in all of his Epistles and he connects it with the rest of the scriptures indicating that Paul's Epistles are included with the rest of the scriptures this is important because we can see here that the apostles understood they were writing scripture as the New Testament was being formed it didn't take hundreds of years for people to decide that these books belonged in the Bible the first century Christians immediately received them and treated them as scripture we also find Paul quoting from the Gospel of Luke and calling it scripture in 1 Timothy 5:18 Paul writes for the scripture says you shall not muzzle an ox while it Treads out the Grain and the laborer is worthy of his wages the first quote you shall not muzzle an ox while it Treads out the grain is taken from the Torah in Deuteronomy 254 but the second quote the laborer is worthy of his wages is not found anywhere in the Old Testament and only appears in the go Gospel of Luke as part of something that Yeshua said this shows us that Paul recognized the Gospel of Luke to be scripture and he quoted it in connection with the Torah these things show us that the gospels carry the same Authority as the Torah and the New Testament carries the same Authority as the rest of scripture the apostles wrote most of the New Testament including Matthew John all of Paul's Epistles James 1 and 2 Peter 1 and 2 and third John and Revelation only five books were not directly authored by an apostle the gospels of Mark and Luke the book of Acts judee's epistle and the book of Hebrews the gospel of Mark was written by Mark a close associate of Peter who could testify that Mark's gospel was accurate and truthful the Gospel of Luke and the book of Acts were written by Luke an associate of Paul and as previously stated Paul quoted from the Gospel of Luke as scripture the book of Jude was accepted because of his direct connection with James since he could verify and confirm Jude's authorship and inspiration that covers every book in the New Testament except Hebrews the authorship of the book of Hebrews remains uncertain but its message is clearly inspired by God many people believed it was written by Paul because its theology so closely matches that of Paul however the Mastery of the Greek language causes many to doubt it was written by Paul the most prominent theory is that Hebrews was written by Luke because of the many similarities it has with both Luke and acts in its writing style Luke was a close companion of Paul so it would be possible that Luke worked with Paul to write the book of Hebrews the Mastery of the Greek language suggests Luke as the author but the Theology of Hebrews points to Paul we may not know for certain who the author author of Hebrews was but there remains no doubt that it is the inspired word of God and belongs in the Canon of scripture the New Testament books we have today were preserved and handed down to us by first century Christians as inspired scripture the apostles understood they were writing scripture and the content of their writings attest to that fact these books were written and verified by eyewitnesses who confirmed their authenticity and accuracy the New Testament books were consistent in message with the Old Testament scriptures they have Apostolic endorsement and author ship and the confirmation of the Holy Spirit affirms them to be inspired by God God who at various times and in various ways spoke in time past to the fathers by the prophets has in these last days spoken Us by his son whom he has appointed heir of all things through whom he also made the worlds the biblical Canon was inspired by the Holy Spirit and written down by prophets priests and apostles chosen by God to deliver his word the Canon was not selected by men in a council hundreds of years after the books were written these books were verified by Witnesses at the time of the writing and proven to be true the 66 books of the Bible contain the full revelation of God to mankind therefore we don't need to add or subtract anything from this word to say something's missing from the Bible implies that we cannot trust God to preserve his word we believe that God is the author of scripture and the one who provided these books for us he has ensured that his word has been preserved throughout history to be handed down to the last generation God wants to reveal himself to us and he has done this through the the scriptures he protected and preserved that Revelation as a lasting record of everything he said and did as a testimony to all people the Journey of Canon formation is both Divine and historical for the Old Testament God initiated the process by inscribing The Ten Commandments on a stone tablet this was followed by Moses writing the Torah by direct inspiration from God prophets and scribes continued to record God's Revelations until Malachi completing the Old Testament by 435 BC these writings were validated by eyewitnesses Within The Community of Faith ensuring their accuracy and divine Authority there were no more inspired writings until the New Testament with the arrival of Yeshua fulfilling the Old Testament prophecies and giving more direct Revelation from God his life teachings and the apostles inspired writings formed the New Testament the apostles taught by the inspiration of the Holy Spirit wrote with Divine Authority and their Works were immediately recognized as scripture by first century Believers the unifying thread between Old and New Testaments is the seamless Narrative of God's Redemptive plan fulfilled in the Messiah and preserved in the Bible we hold today understanding the cannon and inspiration of scripture strengthens our faith in the Bible as God's word thanks for watching if you enjoyed this video I think you'll really like this next one also think about someone else who might like this video and share it with them and remember the truth will set you free we'll see you next time