Practicing Christian Doctrine: An Introduction to Thinking and Living Theologically

by Beth Felker Jones

The authority of Scripture rests in its author, God the Holy Spirit. There are many theories about the means of the Spirit’s work of inspiration. We can exclude a pair of problematic possibilities. Given the kind of text Scripture is and the kind of Spirit we know, it cannot be the case that the Spirit inspired the words of the Bible through simple dictation. The Christian Scriptures are a complex collection of texts with human authors spanning various centuries, locations, and perspectives. When we read the Bible, we see that the inspiring Spirit did not erase or smooth over these differences between the human authors. For instance, the four Gospels, all inspired by the one Holy Spirit, reflect the different situations and community needs into which each of their four human authors wrote. The Spirit did not give us one gospel, by dictation. The Spirit’s work of inspiration preserves and honors the four voices of the four evangelists, all of whom tell the one story of Jesus. God works in and with human artistry and diversity. Without understanding the exact means of inspiration, we can nevertheless exclude wooden theories that would erase the human authors of Scripture.