CAMPUS CHURCH BIBLE SCHOOL

Module 1. The Bible; its origin and inspiration

1.1. INTRODUCTION

•	Theology - the study of things relating to God. All religions have their own theologies; theology is not necessarily Christian or biblical.

•	Biblical theology - studying Bible passages to discover truth about God. This underlies expository preaching — Bible passages are expounded to explain what they teach about God, his works, ways and purposes. Note that preaching is more than theology, ALSO involving application of the truths expounded. (e.g. Peter’s Pentecostal sermon; Acts 2:14-36). 

•	Systematic theology - studying the Bible’s overall teaching on specific topics/subjects. Here we set out to discover the cumulative teaching of the Bible on a given topic ... and then move on to another topic and so on. It provides an overall ‘body of divinity’ — a panoramic view of the Bible’s message. (e.g. Jesus on the Emmaus Road ‘beginning at Moses and all the prophets’ opened up the OT teaching about himself as the Messiah; Luke 24:25-27).    

1.2. THE BIBLE ... ITS CONTENTS

•	Written over a period of some 1600 years (around 1500 BC to 100 AD).

•	Contains 66 books; 39 in OT and 27 in NT by around 40 different authors.

•	Produced mainly by Jews and entirely in the context of the small ancient nation of Israel. Explained by Paul in Rom. 3:2. 

•	Multiple genres of literature represented. Historical, legal, biographical, poetical, ‘wisdom’, prophetical, letters, apocalyptic. Some books include more than one genre (e.g. Daniel contains historical, biographical, prophetic and apocalyptic sections). It is important to know what genre we are reading when seeking to interpret Scripture.

•	The ‘canon’ (approved list) of Scriptures. Many ancient documents are not included because Jewish scholars (OT) and the early church (NT) rejected them as being mere human compilations. The decisions were based on such considerations as antiquity, authorship, consistency with other Scriptures, and spiritual content and quality (e.g. The letter to the Hebrews). However, the Roman Catholic Bible includes a group of such books known collectively as the ‘Apocrypha’ (hidden writings).

•	The Bible’s theme. The books vary enormously in length and subject matter but (as we shall see in the second module) they have a single unifying theme, namely, God’s purpose to redeem a people for himself and for his glory through the person and mediatory work of his Son, Jesus Christ.  

1.3. THE BIBLE AS REVELATION

There are two totally different ways in which people view the Bible.

•	As human literature ... differing in no way from other ancient literature like Homer’s works, Plato’s ‘Republic’ or Caesar’s ‘Gallic Wars’. Although there have always been sceptics, modern opinion has its roots in the 17th - 18th century ‘Enlightenment’, a widespread European philosophical movement that, while involving much that was good, tended to elevated human reason above all else. This led to the 18th - 19th century ‘Higher Critical Movement’ based in Germany which often approached the Bible as human literature subject to ignorance, containing error, and constantly modified by redaction (editing). A very modern statement of this approach is that of Richard Dawkins who says the Bible is ‘just plain weird, as you would expect of a chaotically cobbled-together anthology of disjointed documents, composed, revised, translated, distorted and ‘improved’ by hundreds of anonymous authors, editors and copyists.”   

•	As revelation ... as the ‘Word of God’. A true Christian will always see it thus, as a special revelation given by God but mediated through human authors. This is what the Bible claims for itself (e.g. Ex. 20:1; 2 Sam. 23:1-2; Isa. 1:1, 10-11, 18, 24; Matt. 19:4-5; Heb. 1:1; 2 Pet. 1:19-21). 

1.4. THE BIBLE ... ITS INSPIRATION

•	However, we need to go further than this statement about revelation to consider ‘inspiration’. By inspiration we mean that the biblical writings in their entirety are God’s Word. Otherwise we might err in thinking (as many do) that the Bible ‘contains the Word of God’ but is not in itself that Word. This idea allows people to pick and choose which Scriptures they think express God’s nature and will, and which are merely human commentary. (Matt. 5:17-18; Luke 24:25-27, 44; Jn. 10:35; 2 Pet. 1:19-21; 2 Tim. 3:15-17). 

•	Inspiration necessarily implies verbal (or plenary) inspiration and inerrancy — which relate to the original Hebrew (OT) and Greek (NT) manuscripts or ‘autographs’, not, of course, to translations into English or any other language. (Note a few OT passages are in Aramaic). However, we need to note in passing that translations can be of several kinds: close translations seek wherever possible to translate the actual words of the original; dynamic translations seek to convey the meaning better by free translation into the idiom of the recipient language; and paraphrases are loose translations intended to convey the ideas behind words rather than the words themselves. (Paraphrases including ‘contextualisation’ e.g. translating ‘sheep’ as ‘pig’ for a tribe that has never seen sheep). The doctrine of verbal inspiration should encourage us to always use a close translation, though dynamic translations can sometimes be helpful for secondary reference.

1.5. THE BIBLE ... EVIDENCES FOR INSPIRATION

•	We have seen what the Bible claims itself — it is divine revelation and thus verbally inspired. But why should we accept the Bible’s testimony concerning itself? Before we accept such far-reaching claims we should surely seek some independent verification? Yes, certainly. Consider the following.

•	The Bible’s unity. Although written by many different hands over a vast period of time and in a great range of circumstances, the Bible is ‘tied together’ by strong themes that run throughout (God is creator, covenant maker and sustainer; he is holy and judges sin; man is sinful, helpless and under condemnation; sin can be forgiven through atonement by a sinless substitute; all culminating in Christ). 

•	The Bible’s progression. Just as in a book written by a single hand, the Bible unfolds its message progressively with time. This could not have been organised by a human editor over the timescale involved.

•	The Bible’s prophecy. There are many examples of  prophecy which are known to have been fulfilled historically long after they were foretold. 

•	The Bible’s power. Historically the Bible has demonstrated time and time again its power to transform human society (cf. Matthew Parris article*).

•	The Bible’s personal impact. Every Christian can testify to the ongoing power, wisdom and encouragement of the Bible in his/her own life (2 Tim. 3:15-17).

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* That does not mean that societies can never be rejuvenated morally, but when this happens it is invariably the result of religious, not educational, influences. A remarkable article in The Times newspaper on 27 December 2008, written by journalist and sceptic Matthew Parris, illustrates the point. It was entitled, ‘As an atheist, I truly believe Africa needs God’. The subtitle ran, ‘Missionaries, not aid money, are the solution to Africa’s biggest problem — the crushing passivity of the people’s mindset’. The article is an honest admission by someone brought up in sub-Saharan Africa that the biblical Christian gospel delivers men and women from tribalism and passivity, makes them walk tall, and empowers them to fashion their own personal and national destinies. Parris writes: ‘Africans who had been converted and were strong believers ... were always different. Far from having cowed or confined its converts, their faith appeared to have liberated and relaxed them.’ At the age of twenty-four he and four student friends travelled by land across the continent — through Algiers, Niger, Nigeria, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Congo, Rwanda, Tanzania and Kenya. Seeking places to camp at night they had to acknowledge that ‘when [they] entered a territory worked by missionaries … something changed in the faces of the people’ — and they felt safe in a way they did not feel elsewhere. Such impressions, he continued, were strongly reinforced during a recent visit to Malawi. The history of the Christian church provides countless examples of the way the Bible can transform society — locally, nationally and even internationally.18 However, such transformations are neither total nor enduring. According to the Bible, the world will only be restored to an idyllic state by the return of Jesus Christ and ‘the coming of the day of God’. At that time, writes St Peter, ‘the heavens will be dissolved … and the elements will melt with fervent heat. Nevertheless, we, according to His promise, look for new heavens and a new earth in which righteousness …