Various Evidences Of Verbal Inspiration -- By: Warren Vanhetloo

Journal: Central Bible Quarterly
Volume: CENQ 01:4 (Winter 1958)
Article: Various Evidences Of Verbal Inspiration
Author: Warren Vanhetloo


Various Evidences Of Verbal Inspiration

Warren Vanhetloo

Dean of Central C. B. Seminary

Verbal Inspiration

Bible believers hold to what is known as verbal plenary inspiration of the Scriptures. Verbal inspiration is that extraordinary and supernatural influence exerted by the Holy Spirit upon the writers of the 66 books of the Bible by which their words were also the words of God, and were preserved from all error and omission, thus producing an infallible original record. Plenary emphasizes that every single part is in its entirety inspired.

Each writer was guided so that his choice of words was also the choice of the Holy Spirit, thus making the product the Word of God as well as the work of man. This was not mechanical dictation, although some parts of revelation were given by direct dictation.

Revelation is that direct divine influence which imparts truth to the human mind. Inspiration is that divine influence which secures the accurate transference of this truth into language by the writers of Scripture. Illumination is that divine influence which enables believers to understand truth already revealed. Revelation is what God gives; inspiration is His method of insuring the precise record of what He gives; illumination is the comprehension of that recorded revelation.

The world in which we live, particularly the scientific world, follows the inductive method of reasoning. Dr. Stanley E. Anderson of Northern Baptist Seminary, Chicago, Illinois, has considered verbal inspiration according to the inductive method and has presented the results used here.

The inductive method of studying inspiration may be defined in the words of Webster’s dictionary as “the act or process of reasoning from a part to a whole, from particulars to generals, or from the individual to the universal.” Such individual evidences of divine revelation and exact inspiration are not like links in a chain whose strength depends on its weakest part; instead, each proof is like a strand in a cable whose strength is increased by a proper combination of all strands.

If we hold to inspiration at all, we should not be afraid of verbal inspiration. In syllogistic form we may put it this way: All Scripture is inspired of God; each word is a part of Scripture; therefore, each word is inspired of God. Surely God could inspire the words for the Bible as well

as the thoughts. And since words are necessary to convey thoughts, the words of the Bible must all be inspired in order to guarantee an accurate transcript of God’s will.

Various Evidences

1. History and archeology. Modern archeolo...

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