The Inspiration of the Scripture -- By: John J. Murray

Journal: Westminster Theological Journal
Volume: WTJ 02:2 (May 1940)
Article: The Inspiration of the Scripture
Author: John J. Murray


The Inspiration of the Scripturea

John Murray

MR. PRESIDENT and members of the Board of Trustees, I must take this opportunity of expressing my deep appreciation to the Faculty of this institution for having nominated me to the Board of Trustees for the position of Professor of Systematic Theology and of expressing to the Board of Trustees my deep gratitude for the privilege they have conferred upon me when they elected me to and installed me in this office. While intimating my appreciation of this honour and privilege I cannot refrain from hastening to voice in the very same breath my keen sense of unworthiness. The department of Systematic Theology in Westminster Seminary is intended to continue a great tradition, that tradition associated with names second to none in the theological firmament of the last hundred years. The memory of the names of Hodge and Warfield, predecessors in this tradition, truly fills me with what I can only call a humiliating astonishment which tends to make it appear presumption on my part even to think of assuming a position which follows in the train of their illustrious and devoted service to God and His Kingdom.

But I have been prevented from succumbing entirely to the temptation arising from this humiliating sense of inadequacy by one consideration, the sense of Divine call and responsibility. In assuming this obligation I have been upheld and propelled not by the hope that I shall ever be able to discharge the office with the devotion, erudition, and distinction of those who have gone before in this noble tradition but only by the conviction that, for the present at least,

it is my calling and therefore I can plead God’s wisdom and grace in the pursuance of a task which though humbling in its demands is yet glorious in its opportunity.

I am going to address you tonight on the topic, “The Inspiration of the Scripture”. It is a subject on which much has been written, particularly during the last hundred years. It is furthermore even a topic on which inaugural addresses have been given in the past by very distinguished and competent scholars. Nevertheless I think you will agree that it is a subject of paramount importance, importance increased rather than diminished by the movements of theological thought which are our legacy, and in the context of which we live the life that we live. At Westminster Seminary we claim that the reason for our existence as an institution is the exposition and defence of the Holy Scriptures. It is our humble boast that all our work centres around the Bible as the Word of God, the only infallible rule of faith and practice. It is obvious, therefore, that our work and purpose are...

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