This series was originally given to the students and faculty at Moody Bible Institute.

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Show Notes

Richard Dawkins has said:

“The God of the Old Testament is arguably the most unpleasant character in all fiction. Jealous and proud of it, a petty, unjust, unforgiving, control freak, a vindictive, bloodthirsty ethnic cleanser, a misogynistic homophobic racist and infanticidal, genocidal, filicidal, pestilential, megalomaniacal, sadomasochistic, capriciously malevolent bully.”

Now, let’s remove the emotion.
He makes some important observations. Let’s just take “bloodthirsty ethnic cleanser” – If you take a passage of Scripture where God tells the Israelites “Go in and kill all the people; destroy the Amalekites completely.” Truthfully, that sounds pretty much like a vindictive, bloodthirsty, ethnic-cleansing God, doesn’t it?
But the error that many make when we take a passage out of context is to misunderstand the larger picture of God and Israel as a theocracy (meaning Israel had no king or government establishment the way other nations did, God was their King).
As a theocracy, other nations surrounding Israel would have infiltrated Israel, and Israelites would have embraced their gods, for example, which becomes a perennial problem for Israel.
So, why would God ever allow or command the extermination of a people group?

1. God knew that people group would never repent
2. They hated God’s people
3. Therefore, they hated Yahweh

Unlike Dawkins’ conclusion that God is capricious—meaning he does what he wants, He’s raving mad and He kills people—God is quite the contrary.
He takes no joy in the destruction of the wicked.
God wants none to perish, but God knows that these people hate Him and His people, they are always going to be an enemy of God. In a theocracy, there were times when God said to destroy a people group, and that may make God appear to be a “bloodthirsty, ethnic-cleansing God,” from a human level, but we must fast-forward in Scripture and remember that God sent His only Son to atone for the sins of all people and that those who trust in Christ and Christ alone have eternal life with Him.
Said another way: everyone deserves to go to Hell, why should any get to Heaven–including me, and including you?
All the scripture is God breathed and it has metrics, so to speak (2 Timothy 3:16-17).
V17: So that the man of God may be equipped for every good work.

We are to put our confidence in the inspired word of God in that we depend on Him.

Cindy and I were very cruel parents; we required that our children brush their teeth. I remember coaching each of them to brush their teeth. Some children take to this quickly; others have no time for it and must be monitored. Coaching them to become regular teeth-brushers required teaching, reproofing, and correcting.
The word of God is such. If you’re teaching others, are you teaching correctly? Are you reproofing, and correcting on occasion?
Many of you know my story. I came out of a rough background and when I became a believer, I had quite the foul mouth. I can remember one time I let a four-letter word slip and a friend of mine immediately corrected me. I said, “what difference does it make?” and he quoted Ephesians 4:29 at me: Let no unwholesome word proceed out of your mouth.
It just took that one correction, and from then on I was ever aware. The bible is to teach, to reproof, to correct, and to train us to be righteous. You can’t be righteous if you have a foul mouth, Michael.

Stott writes: Do we hope either in our own lives or in the teaching ministry to overcome error and grow in truth, to overcome evil and grow in holiness? Then, it is to the scripture that we must turn. The scripture is profitable for these things.

It’s crucial that we know what this Bible says to you and to me.
2 Peter 1:20-21
Said another way, Scripture is from God, but here we see through man. Our context is important.
2 Peter 1:15-16 tells us to be confident not just in some clever story, but facts. When we read “Christian” books, studies, or commentaries that are not really moored and centered on the Bible, we must be careful and discerning. I’m not saying don’t read it, I’m saying argue with it! Challenge it! Don’t assume it just because a person with a PhD says so.
The inspired word of God is clearer and cleverer than mythology.
Peter SAW the transfiguration. That’s the context. When he saw the transfiguration a number of things happened, and that’s what he’s talking about here.
Thank God for Peter and the questions he asked, because those are the questions we all want to ask.
Peter looks back on that and says, “I was an eyewitness, and I heard God speak–” so we have an eyewitness and the voice of God confirming who Jesus Christ is.
How do we interpret that? Vv. 20-21 are debated at great length.
Prophets did not invent prophecy, prophecy came from God.
The phrase “moved by the Holy Spirit” is very important.
“Moved” has many nuances the way the NT authors used it. Acts 27:15
The storm was so bad they’d thrown the tackle overboard. They couldn’t do anything more and they just let themselves be driven by the wind. That’s a great picture of inspiration, isn’t it? That God somehow through His Holy Spirit drove these men to write these words.
1. Scripture is the Word of God
2. Scripture is the Word of God from man.
“Verbal” just means the word. Verbal inspiration would push against concept inspiration, not dictation. If God had wanted to dictate He could have dictated to an angel to put it on parchment and hand it to man as a sacred document; but God, in His super intention, used men to put these words together.
3. Plenary. Plenary is a fancy word for full, the concept of “all of it.” We say “verbal plenary inspiration.”
Very few seminaries and Bible colleges in the US hang onto a verbal plenary inspiration. Most have moved away from it subtly, but clearly.
For example, Paul’s writings sometimes are vilified. Many people say, “Oh, that’s Pauline,” or, “Because Paul held this harsh doctrine, it must not be inerrant-“ but seldom is a person who is against inerrancy attacking something they like in the Bible. They only use it as a wet stone to sharpen their issue that a passage is too “Pauline” or “Old Testament” or some other ridiculous statement.
When Peter endorses Paul’s writing as God’s Word (2 Peter 3:15-16); or when the New Testament apostles hand those letters to us– this is not Pauline, men and women.
This is God using Paul, Isaiah, Moses, David, and each of the other authors He chose to use, to give you and me a book.

“Inspiration is God’s superintendence of the human authors so that using their own individual personalities they composed and recorded without error His revelation to man in the words of the original autographs.” – Charles Ryrie

In Sam Harris’ book called Letter to a Christian Nation, he writes:
“You believe the Bible is the Word of God and that Jesus is the Son of God and that only those that place their faith in Jesus Christ will find salvation after death. As a Christian, you believe these propositions, not because they make you feel good but because you think they’re true. Before I point out some of the problems with these beliefs, I would like to acknowledge that there are many points on which you and I agree. We agree for instance, that if one of us is right the others wrong. The Bible is either the Word of God or it isn’t; either Jesus offers humanity the one true path of salvation, (and then he cites John 14:6,) or he does not. We agree that to be a true Christian is to believe that all other faiths are mistaken and profoundly so. If Christianity is correct and I persist in my unbelief, then I should expect the torments of hell. Worse still, I have persuaded others and many close to me to reject the very idea of God, they too will languish an eternal fire (Matt 25:41) If the basic Doctrine of Christianity is correct, I have misused my life in the worst conceivable way. I admit this without a single caveat. The fact that my continuous and public rejection of Christianity does not worry me in the least should suggest to you how inadequate I think your reasons for being a Christian are.”
I don’t know if that makes your blood boil, but it about sent me out of the roof – and he’s exactly right.
One of us is right and one of us is wrong.
Why we believe what we believe is not just about tolerance and love and acceptance. It’s a matter of eternal destiny for people who are living a lie, who are deceived.
You and I get to be a part of the community who believes the Bible is the Word of God.
Cherish it. Study it. Learn! Pound your head against it. Read it! Read it! Read it!
Because herein is life, and elsewhere is death.

“No one outgrows the Scripture. It widens and deepens with our years.” –Charles Spurgeon.

Ron Rhodes:
“No one is born an atheist. People choose to become atheists as much as they choose to become Christians and no matter how strenuously some may try to deny it, atheism is a belief system. It requires faith that God does not exist.”
Which side of the fence to we want to be on? Trusting God at His word.
God’s Word inspired to men to write it down, given to you and me, so that anyone that wants to know the mind of God can read it in print.
Don’t let the world teach you theology–and don’t let the world teach you what the Bible says.