Ps. 119:41-48, Arguments for the Divine Origin of the Bible (6)

The inspiration of the New Testament is a special issue.  The key individuals of the NT (Jesus, Paul, Peter, John, etc.) gave evidence of the veracity of the Old Testament by the way they used it.  But how can we know that the NT is inspired by God?

Strong's Proofs of Inspiration

1.    Since we have shown that God has made a revelation of himself to man, the presumption becomes doubly strong that he will not trust this revelation to human tradition and misrepresentation, but will also provide a correct and authoritative record of it.

2.    Jesus, who has been proved to be not only a credible witness, but a messenger from God, vouches for the inspiration of the Old Testament, by quoting it with the formula: "it is written"; by declaring that "one jot or one tittle" of it "shall in no wise pass away"; and by calling it "the word of God" which "cannot be broken."

3.    Jesus commissioned His apostles as teachers and gave them promises of supernatural aid of the Holy Spirit in their teaching, like the promises made to the Old Testament prophets.

4.    The apostles claim to have received this promised Spirit, and under his influence to speak with divine authority, putting their writings upon a level with the Old Testament Scriptures.  We have not only direct statements that both the matter and the form of their teaching were supervised by the Holy Spirit, but we have indirect evidence that this was the case in the tone of authority which pervades their addresses and epistles.

5.    The apostolic writers of the New Testament, unlike professedly inspired heathen sages and poets, gave attestation by miracles or prophecy that they were inspired by God, and there is reason to believe that the productions of those who were not apostles, such as Mark, Luke, Hebrews, James, and Jude, were recommended to the churches as inspired, by apostolic sanction and authority.

 

We will move on from these arguments in our next post.  Before we do, let us consider the application of this.  First, it is reasonable to believe that the Bible is the divinely given Word of God.  But it is still a step of faith.  The application is that we love the Bible because it is God’s word, we are committed to the reading and study of the Bible because it is God’s word, and we are committed to obedience to the Bible because it is God’s word!