LCMS Convention Workbook St. Louis, Missouri — 1975, Page 455

Transcription machine transcription, uncorrected

⤓ Download .txt · copy text

THE INSPIRATION OF SCRIPTURE

II. Inspiration and History
A. Inspiration and /nerrancy

Even though there are differences and variety in the Sacred Writings
which sometimes perplex us because we can find no harmonization for
them that satisfies human reason. faith confesses the Bible to be the
inerrant Word of God. Since the inerrancy of the Scriptures is a matter
of faith, it is by definition a doctrine which is believed solely on the
basis of the witness of the Scriptures concerning themselves and not on
the basis of empirical verification.

1. This is not to say that in no case is the inerrancy of the Scnp-
tures demonstrable by extra-Biblical evidence. The Scriptures. for
instance, report historical events through which God worked out His
saving purposes. Since these events occurred on the plane of human
history, they are to that extent susceptible of investigation and even of
verification by historical research. The Christian faith does not relegate
the acts of God for man’s redemption to the arena of super-history so as
to detach them from the realm of reality open to examination by the
historian. While the Biblical witness to what God was doing in history
is not verifiable or unverifiable by the techniques of historical research.
Christians gladly submit the Scriptures to investigation with the full
confidence that whenever the extra-Biblical evidence is correctly read
and understood it will vindicate the complete reliability of the Biblical
records relative to that dimension of the events which is subject to human
examination.

2. This is to say that faith in the inerrancy of the Scriptures does
not rely on corroboration of Biblical truth by empirical evidence — faith
holds to the inerrancy of the Scriptures even when there is no extra-
Biblical substantiation and even when other sources appear to be in con-
flict with the Scriptures. Luther explained that he used writers of history
in such a way that while he did not disregard them. he did not permit them
to induce him to contradict the Scriptures. In the Scriptures God speaks.
Historians make mistakes.*

Faith affirms that God could speak His Word of Truth even through
men whose knowledge of nature and history apart from direct revelation
was partial and limited. Faith affirms that even in the presence of diffi-
culties which human reason may regard as deficiencies. we have, never-
theless. in the Scriptures God's totally reliable Word which cannot mis-
lead and deceive us.

“None of the natural limitations which belong to the human mind
even when under the inspiration of the Holy Ghost can impair the au-
thority of the Bible or the inerrancy of the Word of God: for Holy Scrip-
ture is the book of divine truth which transcends everything called truth
by the wise men of this world (1 Cor. 1:17 ff., 27. Col. 2:8) and is there-
fore able to make us ‘wise unto salvation’ (2 Tim. 3:15)."¢

Inspiration was not mechanical dictation but rather an operation
of the Holy Spirit that allowed a function to each author's individuality

10.

of their investigation of past events. But faith knows that behind the
secondary causes discernable to the historian there is the author and
Lord of history who has given us in His Word a truthful record of His
mighty acts.

C. Inspiration and the Meaning of Historical Events

Without the writings of men who spoke from God as they were
moved by the Holy Ghost. human beings would be left to their own re-
sources to speculate about the meaning of history or to wonder. indeed.
if it has any meaning at all (Ap IV. 167). Without the inspired Scriptures
how could we know the significance of Israel's history or of the life and
death of Jesus of Nazareth? A knowledge of the history recorded in the
Scriptures is of no benefit unless we understand the purpose of the
history (Ap IV. 51). In the Scriptures the report of events is accompanied
by an explanatory word from which alone we can learn that in all the
confusion that characterizes human history God was carrying out His
saving purposes.

If the Old Testament is not the Word of the God who knows the
end from the beginning (Is. 46:10). then it is simply a piece of human
nationalistic propaganda that attempts to ascribe cosmic significance
to the history of an obscure ancient people and does not deserve serious
consideration. If Old Testament claims about what God was doing in
Israel's history are a matter of Auman interpretation of Israel's history,
they are arrogant nonsense. But we must know this first of all that what
the Old Testament says about the meaning of Israel's history is not a
matter of one's own interpretation because what the Old Testament
teaches never came from the impulse of man. but holy men spoke from
God as they were moved by the Holy Ghost. (2 Peter 1:21)

1. Inspiration and Biblical Authority

A. Inspiration and the Unity of Scripture

The unity of the Scriptures is Christological,

Jesus said that the Old Testament testifies of Him (John 5:39) and
that Moses wrote of Him (John 5:46). In the parable of the householder
(Matt. 21:33-46) He cited Ps. 118:22-23 as applying to Himself. In Mark
14:27 He refers to Himself as the subject of Zech. 13:7. He went up to
Jerusalem that everything written of the Son of Man in the prophets
might be fulfilled in Him (Luke 18:31-33). Beginning at Moses and all
the prophets He expounded to the disciples on the Emmaus road the
things concerning Himself in all the Scriptures (Luke 24:27). In a post-
resurrection appearance to His startled and frightened disciples He
comforted them by assuring them that it was He whom they saw and not
a spirit. and then He explained that everything that had happened to
Him took place in order to fulfill what was written about Him in the law
of Moses and the prophets and the psalms. (Luke 24:36-48)

12

in writing the Scriptures. Therefore the predication of inerrancy to the
Bible does not imply that when the New Testament reproduces and
applies Old Testament statements this must always occur by means of
verbatim quotations. or that there must be verbal correspondence be-
tween parallel accounts of the same event wherever they are found either
in the Old or the New Testament.

Each writer inerrantly imparted God's truth as the Holy Spirit moved
him to do so in his own way. from his own perspective. and for his own
purposes. Far from impugning the veracity of the Scriptures this multi-
dimensional application of whatsoever was spoken aforetime and this
multidimensional view of events reported serves to impart more fully
the truth which God reveals for the edification of His people. The Bibli-
cal conception of inspiration does not see these differences as errors. but
as inspired variety which we should recognize with thanksgiving and
study prayerfully imploring the Spirit's help so that we may receive ail
the instruction He wishes to impart.’

B. Inspiration and Historical Records in the Bible

The Holy Scriptures do not purport to be a textbook of universal
history offering an exhaustive account of the history of all nations and
peoples from the beginning of time up to the various periods when the
Biblical books were written. The Bible is selective in the history that it
reports, recording only those events and developments in general history.
and especially in the history of God's people. which serve to show that
God is the Lord of history and that in His steadfast faithfulness He
always remembered His covenant made with the fathers to carry out His
redemptive purpose in human history.

The history that the Bible does report is of vital significance for the
Christian faith. If it were the purpose of the Bible merely to inculcate
some eternal principles or universal! truths for men to observe in their
quest for blessedness. then it would make no difference whether the
stories used to illustrate the principles and truths were pure fabrications
or factual reports of real events.

The Bible. however. was written to bear witness to the action of God
in human history to accomplish the redemption of fallen mankind. If
Biblical historical records are unreliable or even false. then God's saving
actions in history are called into question too. The Christian faith rests
so squarely on God's actions in human history. centering in the incarna-
tion. death. and resurrection of His Son. Jesus Christ. that if Biblical
historical records are false. our faith is left without a foundation. (1 Cor.
18:17)

Working with the presuppositions and canons of their craft in order
to account for and reconstruct events in history. secular historians are
able to discern and take into account only the secondary causes in the
historical process. By observation of factors at work in the historical
process now and by the application of the principle of analogy historians
may be able to formulate some “laws of history’ operative at the level

iH

Also the apostles and evangelists understood the Old Testament
as witnessing to Christ. Peter identified Jesus as the prophet of whom
Moses wrote in Deut. 18:15. 18-19 (Acts 3:20-22), and to Cornelius he
testified that “to him [Jesus of Nazareth} all the prophets bear witness
that every one who believes in him receives forgiveness of sins through
his name” (Acts 10:43). Philip preached Jesus to the Ethiopian from
Is, 53. Paul preached Christ from Pss. 2 and 16 and Is. 55 (Acts 13:
32-37). The last thing recorded in the Book of Acts about Paul's min-
istry is that he tried to convince the Jews about Jesus both from the Law
of Moses and from the prophets. (Acts 28:23)

The New Testament. too. witnesses to Jesus. John’s Gospel was
written that men might believe that “Jesus is the Christ. the Son of God”
(John 20:31). Paul preached Christ and Him crucified (1 Cor. 2:2). Peter
proclaimed that God made Jesus both Lord and Christ. (Acts 2:22-36)

The unity of the Scriptures consists in this that from Genesis (3:15)
to Revelation (22:16) they testify to Jesus. the Christ of God. through
whom came grace and truth,

The unity of the Scriptures is theological. \t is the triune and only
God who reveals Himself in both Testaments. While a certain progres-
sion is discernable in the revelation that God gave of Himself and of
His saving actions in history when earlier Scriptures are compared with
later Scriptures, nevertheless there are in the Scriptures no conflicting
and contradictory conceptions of God and of His ways with men. God's
revelation of Himself in the Scriptures. though varying in fullness from
age to age. is always perfectly consistent with itself.

The unity of the Scriptures is doctrinal. Throughout the Scriptures.
wherever such topics are treated whether as the specific subject of dis-
cussion or only incidentally mentioned. the same doctrine is taught
concerning creation, anthropology. justification. sacraments, church.
the end of the world, resurrection of the dead. judgment. eternal life.
eternal death. or any other article of the Christian faith.

The unity of the Scriptures results from the fact that the witness
to Jesus in both the Old and the New Testaments was inspired by the
same Spirit. The prophets predicted the sufferings of Christ and the sub-
sequent glory by the Spirit of Christ within them: the apostles preached
the good news through the Holy Spirit sent from heaven (1 Pet. 1:10-12).
Because the same Spirit. whose office it is to glorify Christ (John 16:14)
and reveal the mind of God (1 Cor. 2:10-11). spoke through prophets
and apostles. there is complete unity not only in their witness to all that
God purposed and performed for the salvation of sinners through His
Son, but with respect to everything they spoke from God.

The unity which results from the inspiration of the prophetic and
apostolic writings is the basic presupposition of the hermeneutical prin-
ciple that the Scriptures interpret the Scriptures. Denial of the inspired
unity of the Scriptures renders this principle inapplicable and inoperative.
If the Scriptures were merely the writings of human beings who are
separated not only by centuries but by radical differences of viewpoint,

13

455