THE REFORMED WITNESS HOUR"Its Author"Rev. Doug Kuiper(e-mail: Rev. Carl
Haak) |
Dear
radio friends,
Last week we examined the
confession of the psalmist, “Thy word is a lamp unto my feet, and a light unto my
path,” and we noticed that the psalmist believed Scripture to be the Word of God. What did he mean when he called Scripture the
Word of God? In what sense is it the Word of
God? Is it the word about God? Certainly that is true. Scripture reveals Jehovah God. But even more, and what makes it possible that
Scripture is the word about God, is the fact that Scripture is the word that God wrote,
that originated with God, the word of which God is the author. That, especially, is what we mean when we call it
the word of God.
It is important to understand
and believe that God is the author of Scripture, first of all, because when we know the
author of a book, we have already an idea of the value of it. That is true of any book we read in everyday life. Knowing various authors and the kind of writing
they put out, we can look at a cover and judge the book.
Even though we are often advised not to “judge a book by its cover,”
there are indeed times when that very thing is possible.
So, with Scripture, if we know that God is the author, we already have an idea of
the value of the book. Believing that God is
the one only true God, and that He speaks truth, we know that this book will speak truth.
Therefore, secondly, it is
important to know that God is the author of Scripture because that will give us an
understanding of the trustworthiness of the book. When
the psalmist spoke of Scripture being a light unto his feet and a lamp upon his pathway,
then he spoke of it being a trustworthy and reliable guide.
And that it is, because it is the word of God.
What is our starting point today
as we speak of Scripture being the word of God and being authored by God? Our starting point is the point of faith. Scripture says it is the word of God and we
believe what Scripture says. Generally, we do
believe it when a book tells who its author is. Very
rarely do we question that the author of the book is, in fact, the person whose name
appears in print on the cover. And that is
true of us with regard to Scripture, too. We
need not question the authorship of Scripture when we are told that God wrote it. However, our faith is not a merely blind faith. We know that God wrote it and that when God said
He wrote it He was right, because the things which Scripture prophesies of are coming to
pass. No man could have foreseen everything
that would happen in time and history. Scripture
must be written by God.
This, now, is the teaching of the apostle Peter, by inspiration, in
II Peter 1:20, 21
:
“Knowing this first, that no prophecy of the scripture is of any private
interpretation. For the prophecy came not in
old time by the will of man: but holy men of
God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost.”
Here Peter teaches us of the authorship of holy Scripture. Notice, first, that he is speaking of the origin
of Scripture. “No prophecy of the
scripture is of any private interpretation. For
the prophecy came not in old time by the will of man.”
In old time, prophecies originated already. Centuries
ago there were prophecies that were later recorded in Scripture. Prophecy is, of course, a matter of speech, first
of all. Peter says that “holy men of God
spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost.”
But these prophecies were written down. And
the word “Scripture” does mean “writings.” So Peter has in mind the coming of Scripture, the
origin of Scripture. And not just any one
part of Scripture, but he has in mind all of Scripture. Even though it is true that the day in which he
wrote, the Scripture was not completed yet, still he has in mind all the Scriptures, the
holy writings that the people of God had at that time.
“No prophecy of the scripture is of any private interpretation.” He has in mind the whole of Scripture.
Understanding, then, that Peter
is speaking of Scripture’s origin, notice, in the second place, that he is very clear
on this point: Man was passive in writing the
Scriptures. To say that God is the author of
Scripture does not require us to deny that men were used to write Scripture. The text says as much. “Holy men of God spake.” And we know ourselves that the apostle Peter, as
he writes these words, is writing Scripture. Scripture
is clear that David wrote many of the psalms; that Isaiah is the human being through whom
the prophecy of Isaiah came; that Paul was the human through whom many of the epistles
were written. Most of the books identify the
human instrument. We are not denying that men
were used to write Scripture when we say that God is the author of Scripture. But what we mean is that the words and ideas of
Scripture (notice that — not merely the ideas but the words also) did not originate
with men. Verse 20 says, “No prophecy of
the scripture is of any private interpretation.”
That is our first proof that the words, the ideas, and the impulse to write
Scripture did not originate in men. For when
Peter says in verse 20 that no prophecy of Scripture is of any private interpretation, he
does not mean (by inspiration, of course) simply to teach that no man may think he
understands Scripture and that others do not. It
is true, sometimes, that a minority of men have the correct understanding of Scripture. But Peter’s point is that no prophecy of
Scripture is of any private explaining, and that no aspect of Scripture is the private
idea of the men who wrote it. Do not go to
Peter and ask Peter to explain what he meant. Do
not go to Isaiah and ask Isaiah to explain what he meant.
For the men who wrote these Scriptures, the human instruments, were not giving
their own ideas.
The second aspect found in the
text that supports the idea that the words, ideas, and impulse to write did not originate
with man is that Peter says it in so many words: “the
prophecy came not in old time by the will of man.” Peter, Paul, and Isaiah did not wake up one day
and say, “I think I’ll write a book that God’s people in every age will
read and remember.” The writing of
Scripture was not due to their will. Just as salvation is not due to the will of man (we read in
Romans 9:16
,
“So then it is not
of him that willeth, nor of him that runneth, but of God that showeth mercy); just as the
sending of Christ into the human flesh was not due to the will of the virgin Mary (God
told her what He was going to do, He did not ask her permission or her agreement), so also
with Scripture. The prophecy came not in old
time by the will of man. The wills of the
human instruments were not a factor here.
Then, thirdly, in the text that
shows that the words, ideas, and impulse to write were not of man is this sentence: “Holy men of God spake as they were moved by
the Holy Ghost.” Now that word
“moved” is used in other Scriptures to refer to a ship being borne on the wind. It is not the will of the ship itself or the pilot
of the ship, it is not any activity of the ship that moves that ship along. It is the wind.
The ship is passive. So this passage
teaches very clearly that though God used human instruments to write His Scriptures, these
men were passive in that regard.
What a contrast is the idea of
so many men today that there is in Scripture a human element. Not just that God used men to write His
Scriptures, but that men had a say in what was written; that man is, perhaps, called
rightly the co-author of Scripture; that the substance of Scripture is partly due to God
and partly due to man; or that God gave men the ideas to write, but men wrote them in
their own words — the substance is God’s and the form is man’s. It does not matter how you explain the idea of a
human element. Either way, you end up with
this: man is not just used, man was
not merely moved by the Spirit, but man was actively involved in the writing of
Scripture. That idea the word of God in our
text rules out very clearly: “The
prophecy came not in old time by the will of man but holy men of God spake as they were
moved by the Holy Ghost.”
What the text underscores
positively, then, is God’s activity in the writing of Scripture. The text makes clear that the speaking of the
prophecy of Scripture, and then also the writing of those prophecies, is the work of God alone. For that Holy Ghost who moved the men of God to
speak and write is God.
And that this is the work of God
is made clear from the fact that there is a very evident shift in emphasis in the
original: for the prophecy came not in
old time by the will of man, but holy men of God spake as they were moved by the
Holy Ghost. The text speaks of the wonder of
inspiration. We have not used that word
before, but it is a very important word and a crucial concept to understand. The word “inspiration” means that God,
by the work of the Holy Spirit, guided men so that what they wrote was not their own word
but God’s word. That is not the way we
use the word inspiration today. We speak of
being “inspired” to do something — having the idea or incentive. That is not at all what our text means. We have already shown that man was passive. The word “inspiration” as we use it with
application to the writing of Scripture means that the Holy Spirit guided the men of God
so that what they wrote was not their word but God’s.
A most important question, then,
is, How did this inspiration take place? That
is an important question because some here also go wrong.
Trying to do justice to the idea that Scripture is entirely the word of God, they
might say that the humans who wrote Scripture were merely writing down what God dictated. That is not at all true. We can see from Scripture too that when Paul
writes he writes out of his own experiences and in accordance with his own personality. As David wrote
Psalm 23
,
he was surely not simply
writing down what God was dictating in his ear but was writing of his own experience and
his confession and what he believed to be true. It
is not the case, then, that inspiration took place mechanically.
And
yet, at the same time, we have to guard against the ideas of some who say that while David
was living, or while Paul was living, God had an idea of some truth He wanted to convey to
His people and so He looked around to see who would be the best person to use to convey
that truth and decided to pick here a David and there a Paul and there a Peter, using the
best means He had at His disposal. Let us not
go in that direction either.
How did the Spirit work in men
so that what they wrote, while manifesting their own personalities and their own
experiences of life, was word-for-word, without error, the word of God? To answer the question, we have to think of the
truth of God’s sovereignty. God, from
all eternity, sovereignly determined everything that should happen in time and history. He sovereignly determined everything that relates
to the salvation of His church. Therefore, He
sovereignly determined to write His Scripture, to make Himself known to His people in
Jesus Christ by way of the written word. This
is the matter of God’s sovereignty.
From all eternity, He determined
every part of Scripture that should be written — the sixty-six different books. And He determined that these books would be of a
different type — some in the form of a letter to a church, some in the form of
recounting history, some poetry. He
determined also that these books should be written by different writers in order to
emphasize that when written by different writers, yet speaking one and the same truth, the
author of this book must be none other than God.
God, having determined that from
all eternity, raised up in His providence a David. And in order that David write
Psalm 23
,
which God had determined from all eternity that David
would do, God caused David first to become a shepherd.
God determined that He should use a Paul to speak to the church of the suffering
that the church will have to endure. In order
to prepare and equip Paul to do that, God determined that a Paul should suffer many things
of the gospel — including beatings and imprisonment.
God raised up, prepared, the men He wanted to write His Scriptures, governed every
aspect of their life in order that what they wrote expressed their own personality and
followed from their own experiences but was, for all that, the word of God.
How can that be? If to this point you have not been satisfied with
the answer, then we have to say it is a miracle! No
less is this a miracle (the inspiration of Scripture) than was God sending Christ into our
flesh and raising up a virgin Mary to be the instrument He used to that end. No less is this a miracle than God deciding to
save us, working His Holy Spirit in our hearts, and yet taking all the credit for the work
of salvation. So Scripture, and the
inspiration of Scripture, is a wonder and a miracle of God.
Know this first, dear radio
listeners, that no prophecy of Scripture is of any private interpretation. For the prophecy came not in old time by the will
of man, but holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost. Know that first.
For if you know that first, you will understand why Scripture is absolutely
trustworthy. The apostle Peter spoke to the
saints of that in verse 19: “We have
also a more sure word of prophecy; whereunto ye do well that ye take heed, as unto a light
that shineth in a dark place, until the day dawn, and the day star arise in your
hearts.” A more sure word of prophecy!
How can the people to whom Peter
writes know that he speaks the truth? Peter
is warning the church against doctrinal error, including those related to the second
coming of Jesus Christ. And he is also
warning them against the licentious living, the sinful living, that such errors lead to. How can the people to whom he writes know that his
warnings are to be taken to heart? He
emphasizes the trustworthiness of what he says, first of all, by saying that he was there
on the Mount of Transfiguration when he heard God say of Christ: “This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well
pleased.” But then Peter says,
“Don’t believe what I write just for that reason.
We have a more sure word. What I
write,” Peter means to be saying to the church, “is in accordance with all of
Scripture. And no part of Scripture is the
work or the product of the will of man.” Scripture
is the word of God. That makes Scripture a
faithful guide. And that makes the words that
Peter writes by inspiration true for us as well.
Peter exhorts the saints, then,
“whereunto ye do well that ye take heed, as unto a light that shineth in a dark
place.” Remember last week we spoke of
the need for Scripture as a light to shine on our dark pathway? Peter says, “knowing that Scripture is the
word of God, you can trust it reliably to guide you to your destination. You do well to take heed to Scripture.”
May God grant every one of us
grace to confess that Scripture is His word alone and to take heed to it.
Let us pray.
Heavenly Father, we pray that by
Thy Holy Spirit Thou wilt convict us of the truth of that which Thy word speaks and cause
us to give all glory and honor to Thy name for it. Enable
us to take heed to those Scriptures and not to turn aside from what they tell us. To the glory of Thy name and for Christ’s
sake, Amen.