Full Inspiration of the Scriptures...

The Full Inspiration Of Scripture (1) The B.B.F.A. believes in the full inspiration of the Protestant Bible from Genesis to Revelation. There are two key thoughts to this belief - (a) inspiration, and (b) Scripture.

(a) What is meant by "inspiration"? "

All Scripture is given by inspiration of God" 2 Timothy 3:16

The Greek word for "inspiration" in this verse is theopneustos, which literally means "God-breathed" or "God-inspired". In other words, Scripture has been "breathed out" by God.

The New Testament references to Scripture specifically refer to the Hebrew Bible (what we call the Old Testament), but we believe that both the New Testament and the Old Testament are inspired. Furthermore, we believe that each word of the Bible is God-inspired, and not merely the concepts contained within its pages.

For instance, 1 Corinthians 2:13 refers to words taught by the Spirit; Psalm 12:6 says that "the words of the Lord are pure words"; in Matthew 5:18, Christ indicated that not even the smallest part of a Hebrew letter or word could be erased from the Law; in Galatians 3:16 Paul builds an argument around the difference between the word "seed" and "seeds". There are also warnings about adding to, or subtracting from God's words in Revelation 22:18,19 and Jeremiah 26:2.

(b) What is meant by "Scripture"?

The Bible was originally written in the Greek, Hebrew and Aramaic languages, and it is these which we hold as being inspired, not the English translations which have been made from these originals. If any text of the Bible has ever been inspired, the original must have been. The translations can only hope to translate this text accurately, and indeed, this is indicated in the Preface to most English translations. Read the preface of your own Bible and you will see that the translators have attempted to do the best with the texts available. Overall, there are many good English translations, but none are without fault. That being the case, how can something which was translated erroneously also be called "inspired"?

It should be noted that capital letters, punctuation, verse and chapter divisions were all added many centuries after the complete Bible had been written.

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