2 Peter 1:20-21 (NIV), “Above all, you must understand that no prophecy of Scripture came about by the prophet’s own interpretation of things. For prophecy never had its origin in the human will, but prophets, though human, spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit.”

And

2 Timothy 3:16 (NIV), “All Scripture is God-breathed …”

Question: What is your personal response to these claims for the bible?

Some world religions have similar claims

How do we decide between these claims? I believe one of the ways God is present in our lives is through His Holy Spirit, who confirms and gives us a personal assurance of what is true.

Relation to Human Reason, Social Policy, and Tradition

We are taught to obey the laws of the state, to respect our customs and the advice of experts and organisations given responsibility for making society work, and to become self-reliant, to use our own reason and logic to make personal decisions. But we learn in life that all of these are highly imperfect, they can always be improved upon.

Our bible verse claims that all of these things we rely on are subordinate to the bible. Only scripture is perfectly true and unchanging, and wherever it contradicts our reason or traditions, we need to put those aside and rely on the bible.

That can be hard at times when:

— Some parts of the bible seem uninspiring

There are different styles in different parts of the bible, written for different purposes.

Ceremonial law, especially concerning animal sacrifice, is clearly obsolete, but these had a purpose in giving mankind an awareness of their sin and the need for forgiveness.

Some of the guidelines for temple worship are similar.

Genealogies can be tedious. But they serve as legal documents for entitlement and rights, and they are also part of the outline of God’s plan for the salvation of mankind through Israel.

— Many versions of the Bible

If the bible is the Word of God, then you would expect it to be under attack in all sorts of ways. One method of attack is to produce a huge number of different versions, some of which seem contradictory. One motive for changing the bible is for monetary profit, as new versions have copyright and generate income, while older versions have no copyright.

— The Apocrypha and Catholic Bible

I recently heard a Catholic influencer argue that the bible is just a useful reference to support Catholic Church teaching and doctrine, and human reason. He claimed the Reformation simply deleted those parts of the bible that didn’t support the view that all scripture was from God.

But on checking, I found that Jerome, who translated the Vulgate, the Latin version of the bible on which the church relied for 1,000 years, also did not regard those parts as inspired. He saw they were not suitable for inclusion in the bible, as they were not part of the original Hebrew version of of the bible which he translated from.
Jerome didn’t use the popular Greek version as he believed it was not sufficiently accurate, and it had accumulated other books which he labelled “Apocrypha”, and argued they should only be used for “edification,” not for establishing doctrine.
But Augustine disagreed, he thought this change to what was familiar would confuse the faithful. His view won out, so these other books remained in the Latin Vulgate.

There are times in life when we face a choice between what is true, and what is comfortable and familiar.

Personal

My personal response has changed over the years.

During university years, I was eager to find problems in most everything, including the bible.

As a young adult I read much in the bible that I had to put aside awaiting further light, but as the years passed that light appeared, and I was given more understanding.

I also found there was underlying meaning that began to stand out on further reading. Many passages in in the bible are true at different levels; e.g in John ch. 4, Jesus tells the Samaritan woman at the well that she has had five husbands, and the one she had now was not her husband, and we take that to be literally true in domestic terms. But five was the number of foreign gods imported by the alien nations following the downfall of the northern kingdom of Israel, and the hybrid version of god developed by the Samaritans,  as they mixed their beliefs with local customs, was not true God. Jesus was speaking both of the woman’s domestic history, and the history of idolatrous worship of the entire northern kingdom which this woman represented.

I have also found the bible is a living document. As we read the bible, the same Holy Spirit who guided the prophets to write, now interprets those words as we read them. Understanding of the bible is a gift of the Holy Spirit, it is not given by education, so its meaning is not received by people who are determined to not believe. But people whose hearts are open to receiving all God wants to show them will be given further understanding each time they open the bible, it is forever new.

And I have found that understanding and guidance does not only come from the words I read. When I read with an open heart and mind, that makes me more open to God’s leading throughout the day. It allows God to speak, guide, and equip me, for whatever circumstances I face on the day. So, the bible speaks to us indirectly as well, in ways we don’t anticipate.

Over the years I have come to fully accept our verse which claims that “All Scripture is God-breathed.”