Man’s Presumptuous View of Inspiration

While several prominent liberal Bible scholars, including Bart Ehrman, seem to concede that the original autographs (the original penned Scriptures) of the New Testament books are inspired by God they go one step further. Sadly, many believe that if God really wanted people to have His actual words, surely He would have miraculously preserved those words, just as He miraculously inspired them in the first place. This to me is the height of presumption telling God what He needs to do for us to believe in Him. For that matter why stop there. Why not tell God that unless He performs miracles all the time I will not believe in Him. God gives us just enough information about Himself that we can reasonably believe in Him – but it does take a step of faith since we don’t know everything about God. Just think if He overwhelmed us with His supernatural doings and daily miracles it wouldn’t take any faith to believe in Him since it would be impossible not to believe in Him. Instead, God gives us what is needed for us to exercise faith.

In the case of the veracity of the New Testament (or for that matter the entire Bible) God has given us more than enough evidence to accept its reliability. In fact, we can have reliable manuscripts without having perfect manuscripts. Scribes have done an amazing job in ensuring that the New Testament you have in your hands today is essentially the New Testament our early church fathers read. Despite scribal variations (and there are clearly some) no essential doctrine of the Bible has been impacted. The problem with Ehrman, and many today, is not that we don’t have a reliable New Testament, but we have people that don’t want to be held accountable to the clear teaching contained in its pages. People today love to criticize the Bible and make light of its contents so they can feel comfortable when they choose to not obey its teachings; believing it is not an accurate work of God.

I believe that God chose His initial method of divine inspiration to give us His Word. But He then chose human beings, clearly with a deep reverence for Him, to use their gifts of scholarship to preserve it. Could He have preserved it in another way – yes, of course He could. But clearly in His sovereignty He chose scribes to carry His Word forward.

To those people who want to do their own thing and not be accountable to God, I doubt that even if they knew the original autographs were around today, they still wouldn’t believe. God has given us enough proofs of His existence. Mankind has chosen to suppress the clear evidence that is all around him.

The Bible is not the only way that we can come to Christ. In fact, many, including myself, come to Christ knowing little of the Bible and the apologetic evidence we have today. Certainly, God doesn’t need us to defend His truth and His Word. The Bible stands alone as the only complete and absolute source of truth whether we choose to believe it or not. In the final analysis liberals and skeptics want more revealed truth than God chooses to share with us. He has given us more than enough for any sincere seeker to find Him. In the end everyone, including the liberal Bible scholars, will have to stand before the Lord and answer why they chose to ignore all of the clear signs pointing to Christ as the only way to heaven.