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Commentary on "Heaven's Means of Communication"

COLLEEN TINKER

 

Day 5: Wednesday, December 31, 2008

This lesson discusses the role of Scripture in revealing God’s will and purposes. It opens by stating that during the primordial period of history, God revealed himself by means of “dreams, visions, or epiphanies.” From the time of Moses (c. fifteenth century BC) onward, many of God’s revelations were written down.

The lesson makes three central points about Scripture: its unity, its historical portrayal, and its survival. Regarding its unity, the lesson states that although written by approximately 40 authors over nearly 160 years, it is unified in its revelation of “the plan of salvation”, the Messiah, and its doctrines. Historically the Bible “embodies the oldest history of any people in the world.” Nothing like it exists in any other tradition. Finally, the Bible has more ancient manuscript evidence than does any other ancient work of literature.

The author makes the point that the reason for this remarkable unity is “the Holy Spirit, the real author of God’s Word, who inspired all the human authors. He ensured that the biblical historians presented a accurate picture, and He watched over the history and preservation of the Bible.”

In the Teachers Comments, p. 13, first paragraph, are these words: We can look back to Adam for a clue. Adam, the first man, was “God-breathed,” meaning that God literally breathed life into him. Thus, Adam’s life was God-inspired; it is the reason he became a living soul. The Bible is called the Living Word of God because it has power to teach, convict, correct, and instruct us how to grow into the fullness of God. The Bible is the thought of God communicated to humanity.”

In the E. G. White Notes for Wednesday’s lesson are these words excerpted from the 1989 devotional guide compiled from White’s writings, Lift Him Up, p. 117:

“The Ten Commandments were spoken by God Himself, and were written by His own hand. They are of divine, and not of human composition. But the Bible, with its God-given truths expressed in the language of men, presents a union of the divine and the human. Such a union existed in the nature of Christ, who was the Son of God and the Son of man. Thus it is true of the Bible, as it was of Christ, that ‘the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us’ (John 1:14).”

Further, the Notes include this quotation from The Great Controversy, pp. Vi, vii: “God has been pleased to communicate His truth to the world by human agencies, and He Himself, by His Holy Spirit, qualified men and enabled them to do this work. He guided the mind in the selection of what to speak and what to write. The treasure was entrusted to earthen vessels, yet it is nonetheless, from Heaven. The testimony is conveyed through the imperfect expression of human language, yet it is the testimony of God; and the obedient believing child of God beholds in it the glory of a divine power, full of grace and truth.”

 

Problems

The details presented in the main copy of the lesson are fairly straightforward. The Teachers Comments, however, need attention. The creation of Adam has nothing to do with the way Scripture is inspired except for the underlying fact of God’s initiation. God’s breathing life into Adam is comparable to His giving us new birth, as Jesus explained to Nicodemus: “That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit” (John 3:6, ESV). He breathed the breath of life, and Adam became a living soul—as we also become “living souls” when the Holy Spirit gives life to our own dead spirits (Ephesians 2:1, 3) when we are born again (John 5:24) and sealed with the indwelling Holy Spirit (Ephesians 1:13-14).

The Bible is the revelation of God’s will and purposes made known by the Holy Spirit to the authors whom He chose to record His words. The quotation above from The Great Controversy says that God allowed the Bible writers to imperfectly express His divine ideas in human language. This understanding of “thought inspiration” rather than of “verbal inspiration” allows for human error to creep into the biblical writing. It suggests that God allowed men to interpret God’s thought inspiration according to their best understanding without His correction and control of the text.

2 Peter 1:19-21, however, gives a totally different picture: “And we have something more sure, the prophetic word, to which you will do well to pay attention as to a lamp shining in a dark place, until the day dawns and the morning star rises in your hearts, knowing this first of all, that no prophecy of Scripture comes from someone's own interpretation. For no prophecy was ever produced by the will of man, but men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit” (ESV).

Finally, the quotation above from Lift Him Up downgrades both the Scriptures and the Lord Jesus, placing both in a position less authoritative than that of the Ten Commandments. First, the Lord Jesus is God—not one-third of God or part of God. He is of the same substance as His Father and as the Holy Spirit. He is not “less than” God nor limited in what divine powers He has.

This quotation places the Ten Commandments in a more authoritative place than any of the rest of the Bible, claiming that they were the only part of the Bible actually written by God. Thus His inspiration of the prophets is less accurate and less authoritative than that or the Commandments. Also, according to this quotation, Jesus Himself is a union of divine and human, just as is Scripture. The clear implication is that the humanity of Jesus dilutes the power and authority and identity of God in Him.

This assumption is fallacious. The Ten Commandments were God’s covenant with Israel, written, as were all ancient Hittite covenants between a conquering king and the people whom he conquered, by the conquering king. The Commandments were the very “words of the covenant” (Ex. 34:28) God made with Israel. The Ten Commandments are recorded for all time not on extant tables of stone; they are recorded, along with all other words of God, in Scripture.

Further, Jesus is God. He is not “half God, half man”. His deity and power and divine nature are not altered by His humanity. Even His omnipresence and omnipotence are unaltered, as Colossians 1:17 declares: “And he is before all things, and in him all things hold together.”

Even when on earth, even when in the tomb, all things hold together in Jesus. His role did not end because of His incarnation. He is eternally, completely God. The Ten Commandments are not “more of God” than is Jesus or than is the rest of Scripture. The Ten Commandments had a clear origination and were temporary in effect (Galatians 3:17); Jesus is without beginning and without ending.

 

Summary

  1. The creation of Adam is utterly unlike the inspiration of Scripture. The parallel with creation is our own new birth when our dead spirits are “birthed” by the Holy Spirit, thus giving us spiritual life and moving us from death into life (John 5:24).
  2. The words of the Bible were directly inspired by God. He did not impress writer’s thoughts and allow them to record them imperfectly, warped by limited human understanding.
  3. The Ten Commandments are not more authoritative, more directly “of God” than is the rest of Scripture. Further, Jesus’ incarnation cannot be used as a contrast for God’s direct authorship of the Ten Commandments. Jesus is God—the very God who wrote the Ten Commandments. His deity and eternal power is not limited in the slightest by his incarnation. In Him all things hold together (Colossians 1:17). Jesus is greater than the Ten Commandments. He is eternal; the Law had a beginning and an ending (Galatians 3:17).

 

Copyright 2008 BibleStudiesForAdventists.com. All rights reserved. Revised December 27, 2008. This website is published by Life Assurance Ministries, Glendale, Arizona, USA, the publisher of Proclamation! Magazine. Contact email: BibleStudiesForAdventists@gmail.com.

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