What are the Inspired Writings?
By: George M. Garcia
Tags: Inspiration, Bible Canon, Holy Spirit, Christian Living, Holy Scripture

Identifying the term “Scripture”

The traditional notion that’s quite common is the claim that the Bible is the word of God and inerrant in its doctrine. And many protestants label these special writings as “scripture”. But in Koine Greek, “scripture” means writing (a common word used). And scripture is not an inerrant or special form of writing, but merely common or usual.

•The Bible contains God’s words and also human perspectives (like in Job, Romans, 1 Corinthians, 2 Samuel).

Fathoming Divine Inspiration

Divine inspiration is often fathomed as some inerrant and automatic experience that manifested via the ancient prophets and apostolic fathers. But this is a rather brief and shallow understanding of divine inspiration (also a limiting outlook). Divine inspiration is not limited to a select few, because God is not a respecter of persons (Acts 10:34). In the Scriptures, no where does it imply that divine inspiration was merely for the purpose of composing holy books.

Divine inspiration is manifested through the essence and communion of God. The essence of God is liken to wisdom and the communion of God is liken to revelation. The fundamental forces of inspiration is wisdom and revelation from the Divine Spirit (Ephesians 1:17). By the means of these things, the spiritual man/woman learns ethereal mysteries, and discerns profitable from detrimental things (1 Corinthians 2:13–16; Wisdom 9:16, 17). But now many with veils will say that spiritual truths cannot be attained apart from the holy scriptures yet this isn’t true in the light of the Bible (1 John 2:27). Wisdom is the governing nature of God and revelation is the social nature of God. Without each of these expressions of God manifesting through us, we either miss the mark or beguile our souls and harm others in time. It is the ambition of God to guide us by wisdom and teach us according to revelation.

•Divine inspiration isn’t solely for composing works of literature, but rather it is the bedrock of Christian living and thinking. It’s called being “taught by God” and having “the mind of Christ” (John 6:45; Phillipians 2:5).

A Fixed or Flexible Canon?

An inquirer says, “Doesn’t the Bible claim not to add to God’s words?” Sort of. Revelation does make this claim, except it refers to itself and not the entirety of the Bible. To form a bias principle from this is not a proper exegesis of John’s text. What about Proverbs? Actually in the Hebrew, the term for “word” is debar which conveys speech or spoken word, not written word. Those who do add more oracles into our current knowledge of God aren’t always malevolently twisting God’s principles. Some do and some don’t, but what counts is if such oracles edify and do not diminish faith, then it should be considered divinely spoken (1 Peter 4:11).

Aside from this, let me finally address the question of the canon. Is the canon to be taken as rigid, or should we consider other writings as inspired? I think the issue of the canon is both personal and universal. Even if something is inspired, should we consider it canonical? I believe there are books that we should take as both canonical and inspired while there are other books we should judge as inspired but not canonical. The canonical status is for a universal audience while just an inspired status is for a personal audience. I think, for instance, we can all consider the gospels as canonical, but some or few of us can consider these books (e.g. Solomon’s Wisdom, 3rd Corinthians, Didache) to be inspired according to our spiritual discernment and ethereal experience. Because I doubt everyone will acknowledge the book of Wisdom, or a lost letter of Paul as canonical. God never issued a specific canon; otherwise, all the large streams of Christianity would agree. But the Bible cannot actually prove that all its books are inspired. 2nd Timothy 3:16 in its proper translation says:

“All God-breathed writings are useful for teaching, reproofing, correcting, and training in righteousness…”

This verse, instead of supporting a fixed canon, actually supports the notion that there are various writings that are God-inspired. But does this imply infallibility on the writer’s composition? Not at all. God doesn’t dictate inspiration word-for-word, but allows room for mistakes on the person’s part. These mistakes may appear small and very subtle, but valid documents do not require inerrant inspiration. God never really promised us a holy book like other religions, which depend on theory from their literary works to understand God or the spiritual realm. But Christianity is meant to understand God through the scope of Christ and guidance of the Holy Spirit. This is what makes us distinct from every religion, because our faith is based on intimacy, not theory like other religions. “But doesn’t the doctrine of inerrancy prove our faith is distinct from other faiths? Isn’t it a safe boundary for our faith?” No, because your faith should not be based on a book or theories, but experience of the living God. The doctrine of inerrancy isn’t necessary to prove the Bible’s authority, but historical and philosophical coherency, prophetic fulfillment, and divine experience are superior substitutes. Divine experience actually confirms inspired or prophetic writings as stated in the holy Scriptures,

“We ourselves heard that voice from heaven when we were with him on the holy mountain. Because of that experience, we have even greater confidence in the message proclaimed by the prophets…” (2 Peter 1:18, 19 NLT).

Final Discourse

If God really wanted us to adhere to everything in these writings, then He would’ve told us to follow the writings of Paul or Peter. Even if we did, our faith would be more of a philosophy in good works rather than an intimate experience with God and intimate eagerness to bless others with good works. Because legal adherence creates compulsion and not eagerness of heart; in other words, it doesn’t change the condition of our heart. The anxious feeling of avoiding punishment and arrogant presumptions in having truth does not “repent” the heart from sin. Intimacy with God as the prime motivation for our faith will soften the heart, and it will manifest life through the believer into our fallen world. If Scripture alone really worked, then there would be very less disputes on interpretation; in addition, some matters in the Bible cannot be fully understood without knowing its historical, literary, and linguistic background. The notion I have brought forward already refutes the method of Protestantism. And if the Bible cannot renew our minds as we read it from our own insight, then it is incapable of guiding the human heart into practical wisdom (2 Peter 3:16).

•I am not saying orthodox or catholic traditions are more correct than Protestantism, because all come from the same tree: mankind seeks to fathom God but in their own twisted mind or standard. God Has Mercy On All And That’s Why His Spirit Lives In Us.