LCMS Convention Proceedings St. Louis, Missouri — 1965, Page 293

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REVELATION, INSPIRATION, INERRANCY 293

We know the inspired word as a divinely creative word,
a word with a power that no merely human word has.
We therefore stand in awe of this word. We know that
we dare not deal with this word according to our own
ideas (2 Peter 1: 20), toy with it, or even resist it. If we
do, we shall be destroyed by it. For those who believe
it and obey it it will be “a lamp shining in a dark place”
(2 Peter 1:19), the light of God’s new world shining
even now in this dark world of sin and death, the light
of heaven on earth,

C. The Holy Spirit Is the Power in History

.. The Spirit is the “Lord and Giver of Life”; He is
active and powerful in creation and re-creation. The
Spirit “who proceedeth from the Father and the Son”
is active also in the history that runs from creation to
re-creation. In the power of the Spirit of God the great
leaders of Israel do their work for God and God’s peo-
ple: Moses (Num. 11:25; Is. 63: 10-14), Joshua (Deut.
34:9), the judges (Judg. 3:10; 6:34; 11:29; 13:25; 14:6,
19), kings (1Sam. 10:6, 10; 11:6; 1Sam. 16:13). The
Spirit is the decisive power in the history of the people
of God (Zech. 4:6; Hag. 2:5). The Spirit is the decisive
power in the history of all nations; He, not the massive
military power of man, has the last word and the final
victory (Is. 31:3).

6. Through His prophet God promises that the Mes-
siah shall establish His righteous reign on earth and
bring back the peace of Paradise in the power of the
Spirit of the Lord (Is. 11:3-10). According to the prom-
ise, the Servant of the Lord shall be “a covenant to the
people, a light to the nations” in the power of the Spirit
(Is. 42:1-7). As it was promised, so it came to pass. The
history of Jesus the Servant Messiah is marked through-
out by the presence and power of the Spirit. The Spirit’s
presence and power is seen in the record of Jesus’ con-
ception (Matt. 1:18; Luke 1:35), His baptism (Matt. 3:
16, 17), His temptation (Matt. 4:1), His victory over
demons (Matt. 12:28), His words (John 3:33, 34; 6:63;
Acts 1:2), His whole Servant ministry (Matt. 12:18;
Luke 4: 14-21), including the cross (Heb. 9: 14).

7. When Jesus returns to the Father, He continues
His work in history through His apostles by the Spirit.
The Spirit equips the apostles for their task of witness;
the Spirit teaches and reminds them of all they have
seen and heard. He witnesses to and glorifies the Christ
and so leads them into all truth (John 14: 26; 15:26, 27;
16:13-15). Because the Spirit speaks in the apostles,
their witness to Jesus Christ is not a mere report about
Him; rather, their witness confronts the world with
Christ and through Him convicts the world of sin and
righteousness and judgment (John 16:8-11). Their
word forgives and retains sin with divine authority
(John 20: 21-23).

8. Working by the Word and sacraments through
men in the history of this world, the Spirit produces that
which is not of this world. The Spirit gathers the
church. The old order, where “sin reigned in death”
(Rom. 5:21), is overcome; “the law of the Spirit of life

in Christ Jesus” sets men free from the old “law of sin
and death” (Rom. 8:2). “By one Spirit” all men are
“baptized into one body” (the church) and all are
“made to drink of one Spirit” (1 Cor. 12:13). Thus there
is created the new, eternal people of God, who confess
with Paul: “Through the Spirit, by faith, we wait for
the hope of righteousness” (Gal. 5:5). The presence and
power of the Spirit in the church now is “the guarantee
of our inheritance”; His powerful presence is a foretaste
and pledge of the new heavens and the new earth which
we shall inherit at the end of this world (Eph. 1:13, 14;
2 Cor. 1:22; 5:5; Heb. 6:4, 5).

9. What does this mean for our understanding and
teaching of the inspiration of the Scriptures? As we
keep this connection between the Spirit and history
firmly in mind, we see by faith that the historical char-
acter of the Scriptures is evidence of their inspiration;
for the Spirit of God works in history through inspired
words uttered at particular times and places for particu-
lar needs of the people of God. We see both the oneness
of all the divine words, as creations of the one Spirit,
and the particular quality of each word spoken in the
power of the Spirit at a certain point in history. We
shall therefore avoid the danger of trying to make each
word say everything.

10. We see also that the divine control of the apostle
or prophet is not limited to the moment of the inspired
writing but involves also God’s governance of the man’s
whole previous history. The Spirit working in and
through prophet and apostle takes the whole man, with
all that his history has given him and made of him, into
His service and moves him to speak “from God” (2 Peter
1:21). The word of God spoken or written by inspired
men at God’s command has on it the impress of the
personality, character, and style of the historical indi-
vidual. This should put an end to all talk of mechanical
inspiration.

11. We see also that the Scriptures, precisely in their
historical character, are H. oly Scriptures, since they are
the product of the Spirit who produces in history that
which is not of this world. We shall remember that we
cannot treat an inspired document as just one more his-
torical document, that we cannot take “laws of history”
derived from documents that are wholly of this world
and simply apply them to an inspired document.

D. The Holy Spirit Is the Spirit of Revelation

12. St. Paul calls the Holy Spirit the “Spirit of...
revelation” (Eph. 1:17). “God,” he says, “has revealed
. .. through the Spirit” what no eye has seen, no ear
has heard, and no heart of man has conceived (1 Cor.
2:9, 10). “By the Spirit” the mystery of Christ has been
revealed to apostles and prophets (Eph. 3:5). St. John
“was in the Spirit on the Lord’s Day” when “the revela-
tion of Jesus Christ” was made known to him (Rev.
1:10; 1:1). The Old Testament, too, connects the Spirit
with the divine revelation given through the prophets.
The prophet is called “a man of the Spirit” (Hos. 9:7);
he is “filled . . . with the Spirit of the Lord... to de-