Adapted from “The Holy Scriptures: God’s Word, Written in Human Words,” an updated version of Herman Bavinck, Our Reasonable Faith, trans. Henry Zylstra (Eerdmans, 1956), chapter 7.
When we say the Bible is “inspired,” what exactly do we mean? The word gets used for poets, artists and great thinkers too. So is Scripture inspired in the same way as a brilliant novel? Or is something quite different going on?
The particular work of the Holy Spirit by which God’s revelation was recorded is called inspiration (2 Tim. 3:16). We can get some light on what that means from two places: comparisons drawn from ordinary life, and the explanations Scripture itself gives.
Minds Shaped by Other Minds
Start with something we all know. Human beings are able to take the thoughts of others into their own minds and to be guided by others in their thinking. All instruction and education rest on this ability, and so do all science and all knowledge.
Usually this happens by some means: signs or gestures, spoken or written words. And usually it takes effort. We study other people’s ideas deliberately, often with considerable exertion, trying to make their thoughts part of our own inner life.
But there’s another side to this. Phenomena like hypnotism and suggestion show that another person’s ideas can be introduced into our minds without any activity on our part. They can be imposed on us and can even command our will and actions, turning people into passive instruments who simply carry out the will of the hypnotist. Both Scripture and experience teach that human beings can also come under the influence and power of evil spirits in this way. In such cases a person no longer speaks and acts for himself but is governed by the evil spirit. In Mark 1:24, for instance, it is the unclean spirit speaking through the possessed man who recognises Jesus as the Holy One of God.
The Flash of Genius
Then there’s the so-called inspiration of artists. Great thinkers and poets have learned that they owe their best and most beautiful work not to their own effort but to sudden, invading flashes of insight.
That doesn’t mean hard work is pointless. Genius doesn’t make effort and industry unnecessary, and study is usually the indispensable condition for such moments. Yet the insight that comes isn’t simply the logical result or ripe fruit of the study. In people of genius there is always a secret power at work that can’t be logically calculated.
Writing to his sister, Nietzsche described this power: “You have no idea how powerful such inspirations are; they fill one with a passionate ecstasy of mind, one feels transported and quite beside himself, one hears nothing and sees nothing — one simply accepts. The thought comes to one like lightning. Everything happens involuntarily, as though borne in upon one in a storm of freedom, independence, power, and divinity. Such is my experience of inspiration” (Ecce Homo, written 1888, published 1908, in the chapter ‘Why I Write Such Good Books,’ under the subsection on Thus Spoke Zarathustra, §3).
God Is Already at Work in His World
Here’s the point. If things like this happen in the normal lives of people and artists, there’s no basis at all for objecting to the idea that God influences the thinking and willing of his creatures.
By his Spirit, God is active and present in his creation.1Gen. 1:3; Ps. 33:6; and Ps. 104:30. And of all his creatures, it is humanity in particular that was made by the breath of the Almighty and by the Spirit of God.2Job 33:4 and Ps. 139;:1-16ff. In him we live and move and have our being (Acts 17:28). Our thinking, willing and doing, even in their sinful course, happen under God’s rule; nothing takes place outside the counsel of his will (Eph. 1:11). The king’s heart is in the hand of the Lord like rivers of water, and he turns it wherever he wills (Prov. 21:1). Our ways are before the Lord’s eyes, and he ponders all our goings (Prov. 5:21; 16:9; 19:21; and 21:2).
In a far more intimate way still, God by his Spirit lives in the hearts of his children. By that Spirit he brings them to confess Christ as Lord (1 Cor. 12:3), helps them know the things God has given them (1 Cor. 2:12; 1 John 2:20; 3:24; and 4:6-13), gives gifts of wisdom and knowledge (1 Cor. 12:8), and works in them both to will and to do his good pleasure (Phil. 2:13).
If the Spirit of God truly dwells and works in all creatures, there is no ground at all for regarding inspiration as impossible or improbable.
Led by the Spirit or Moved by the Spirit?
None of these influences of the Spirit on the world and the church is the same as the inspiration given to the prophets and apostles. But they do help explain it. And it’s just as necessary to see the difference.
That difference becomes very clear when we compare two verses. In Romans 8:14 Paul says that as many as are led by the Spirit of God are children of God. In 2 Peter 1:21 Peter says that holy men of God, the prophets, were moved by the Holy Spirit, and so prophecy came about.
Being led by the Spirit belongs to every believer. It means the mind is enlightened and the will and desires are governed and directed, so that we receive the knowledge, the power and the desire to do what pleases God. But being “moved” by the Spirit was given only to the prophets and apostles. It was a stirring and prompting to make known to others the revelation of God’s will that they had received.
God Speaking Through the Prophets
The New Testament underlines this special character with a formula it uses again and again when referring to the Old: what was said was spoken by the Lord through the prophet (Matt. 1:22; 2:15, 17, 23; 3:3; 4:14, and the like). The Greek expression points to the Lord as the source or origin of what was said, and to the prophets as the means or agents through whom it was said. The distinction is even sharper where we read that God spoke through the mouth of his prophets.3Luke 1:70; Acts 1:16; 3:18; and 4:25.
So here is what Scripture teaches. God, or his Spirit, is truly the speaker of his Word. But in giving expression to it, he has used the prophets and apostles as his agents. The Bible is not inspired merely the way a masterpiece is inspired. It is God himself speaking, through people he chose and moved for that very purpose.