The Inspiration of the Bible

Author(s):  
Gerald O’Collins, SJ

Dealing with biblical inspiration within the scheme of the Word of God in its threefold form (as preached, written, and revealed), Karl Barth distinguished between divine revelation and the inspired Bible. He insisted that the revelation to prophets and apostles preceded proclamation and the writing of Scripture. He interpreted all the Scriptures as witness to Christ. While the human authors of the Bible ‘made full use of their human capacities’, the Holy Spirit is ‘the real author’ of what is written. Raymond Collins, in dialogue with Thomas Aquinas, Barth, and others, interpreted biblical inspiration in the light of the Second Vatican Council’s Constitution on Divine Revelation. He spoke of the Holy Spirit as the ‘principal, efficient cause’ (with the human authors as the ‘instrumental’ causes), rejected dictation views of inspiration, and examined the scope of biblical truth and the authority of the Bible for the Church.

2019 ◽  
Vol 1 (2) ◽  
pp. 101-111
Author(s):  
Ferderika Pertiwi Ndiy ◽  
S Susanto

Church growth is an important study in church history. The Bible has important principles in church growth, therefore these principles need to be analyzed so that they can contribute to the study of church growth. The Acts of the Apostles is a book that has a history and principles of church growth, therefore the author conducted research on church growth based on Acts 2: 1-47. The author uses a qualitative approach to literature study to find the principles of church growth based on Acts 2: 1-47. The results showed that there were three principles for the growth of the early church. The first principle based on the fourth verse is to depend on the Holy Spirit, the second principle based on verses 14-36, 42 is to preach the Word of God, the third principle based on verses 42-46 is to live in fellowship. For the growth of the church today the church must depend on the power of the Holy Spirit, teaching based on the word of God, and the church lives in fellowship.


Kairos ◽  
2017 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
pp. 91-100
Author(s):  
Monika Bajić

The Bible, which is indisputable regarded as the inspired word of God, is written under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. Man, as an earthen vessel, was used by the Holy Spirit to pen the revelation of God’s truth in Jesus Christ. The Holy Scriptures are “God breathed” words to the Church and are key in interpreting and fulfilling God’s telos for creation. This write-up wishes to emphasize and survey the critical role of the Holy Spirit in the Scriptures. Due to the inspiring role of the Spirit, the word of God is not a dead letter, rather a life-giving word that spills new life into the believer and the Church. Precisely this connection of Spirit and letter marks the Holy Scripture as living and active and conveys the desired transformative dimension for the individual believer and the faith community.


Kairos ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 13 (1) ◽  
pp. 37-91
Author(s):  
Stanko Jambrek

In order to have a fruitful understanding of the nature of the Church, the Bible uses a variety of pictures, which when taken together form Church models by which believers live and act by. We have reviewed Church models in three categories: the first category is taken by Church models which are formed today by our everyday life; the second one are Church models which have been created by man throughout history; and third, the Church models which have a foundation in the Word of God. Church models formed by everyday life and man-made Church models can be used as negative examples of models to be changed and avoided, especially models of the Church as an institution and as a denomination. The Bible shows a particular reality and nature of the Church by using numerous different pictures from everyday life. These include pictures from the ownership system; the picture of the way the human body works; pictures from premarital, marital, and family life; pictures from architecture, agriculture, cattle breeding, fishery, and citizenship and patriotism. Each of the used pictures communicates one or more God’s truths in a way that is experientially very close and familiar to the listeners and readers. These pictures reflect life and point towards life. The 21st century Christianity needs to adopt and apply Biblical pictures of Church which, when taken together, form the Biblical Church model. As we establish this model, we need to focus on God and His purposes and plans for a specific time, place, and culture. Our communication with God needs to be completely open, and the Church needs to be prepared to follow God’s plans and the guidance of the Holy Spirit. The Biblical Church model contains God’s (immutable) and human (mutable) elements. God is immutable, which is why anything that is permanent and immutable in Church comes from God, and what can and needs to be changed is anything that came from people. The human elements need to be aligned with God’s Word and the Holy Spirit’s guidance, so that the Church would be able to obey God’s will fruitfully.


2017 ◽  
Vol 3 (2) ◽  
pp. 214-233
Author(s):  
Jan Van Doleweerd

Modern Hermeneutics is rooted in the realities of the readers and their culture. But what if readers are going to be their own Hermes? What kind of authority is left for the Bible as the Holy Word of God? The Calvinistic concept of autopistia, the self-convincing of Scripture, attempts to preserve the balance between tradition and inner light, between objectivity and subjectivity. It ties the Bible to God and the Holy Spirit but also to the readers and their context. With the autopistia as background this article contributes with a new hermeneutic frame with three vantage points: (1) the Text as Viva Vox Dei, (2) the reader, and (3) the historical and present hermeneutical community of readers, the church.


2009 ◽  
Vol 18 (1) ◽  
pp. 95-110
Author(s):  
Hollis Gause

AbstractThe doctrine of the Holy Trinity is the product of divine revelation, and is a doctrine of divine worship. The expressions of this doctrine come out of worshipful response to divine revelation demonstrating the social nature of the Trinity and God's incorporating the human creature in His own sociality and personal pluralism. The perfect social union between God and the man and woman that he had created was disrupted by human sin. God redeemed the fallen creature, and at the heart of this redemptive experience lies the doctrine of Holy Trinity, with the Holy Spirit as the communing agent of all the experiences of salvation. The Spirit is especially active in the provision and fulfillment of sanctification, which is presented here as the continuum of 'holiness-unity-love'. He produces the graces of the Holy Spirit – the fruit of the Spirit. He implants the Seed of the new birth which is the word of God. He purifies by the blood of Jesus. He establishes union and communion among believers and with God through His Son Jesus. This is holiness.


2007 ◽  
Vol 20 (3) ◽  
pp. 278-290
Author(s):  
Adam McIntosh

Although Karl Barth is widely recognised as the initiator of the renewal of trinitarian theology in the twentieth century, his theology of the Church Dogmatics has been strongly criticised for its inadequate account of the work of the Holy Spirit. This author argues that the putative weakness of Barth's pneumatology should be reconsidered in light of his doctrine of appropriation. Barth employs the doctrine of appropriation as a hermeneutical procedure, within his doctrine of the Trinity, for bringing to speech the persons of the Trinity in their inseparable distinctiveness. It is argued that the doctrine of appropriation provides a sound interpretative framework for his pneumatology of the Church Dogmatics.


1967 ◽  
Vol 20 (2) ◽  
pp. 183-197
Author(s):  
H. F. Woodhouse

What is the ultimate seat of authority to which Christian theology makes its appeal?' Dr Whale in posing this question says that answers fall into three great and distinctive types. ‘The first type emphasises the authority of the Church’ while ‘the second type emphasises the sole authority of the Bible’ and ‘the third type may be loosely described as mystical—its constitutive principle is the “Inner Light”'.1


Religions ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 11 (2) ◽  
pp. 89
Author(s):  
Pan Zhao

During China’s Republican Era (1912–1949), the True Jesus Church, comprising one of the largest indigenous Pentecostal/charismatic churches in China, created a whole set of exclusive salvation doctrines based on its unique biblical interpretation. This paper attempts to illustrate the role that the Bible played in the development of the True Jesus Church (TJC for short) and how its biblical interpretations functioned in the shaping of its exclusive identity based on certain aspects of its charismatic experiences and unique doctrinal system. The founding of the TJC relied upon charismatic experiences, which were regarded as the work of the Holy Spirit to prove the authority of the Church. Doctrinally, the approaches to biblical interpretation employed by TJC leaders were another source of the church’s unique identity: The exclusive status the church assigned to itself was evident in its distinct interpretive approaches, as well as in its innovative rituals, especially facedown immersion baptism. Along with various influences of the Pentecostal tradition and the Chinese social context, these hermeneutics were an important reason for the TJC’s development as an independent denomination in the Republican era.


2020 ◽  
Vol 6 (2) ◽  
pp. 116-128
Author(s):  
Marlon Butarbutar

Kristologi adalah merupakan pokok terpenting dalam ajaran iman Kristen. Kristologi juga bisa disebut sebagai pusat kekristenan itu sendiri, dengan itu kristologi adalah pusat dari ilmu theologia. Karenanya mempelajari Pribadi dan karya Kristus, berarti sedang berada pada pusat theologi Kristen. Yesus Kristuslah yang memberikan identitas kepada kekristenan, yang sekaligus membedakannya dari agama atau kepercayaan yang lain. Keistimewaan doktrin ini terletak dalam pribadi dan karya Yesus Kristus sebagai Tuhan yang menjadi finalitas jalan menuju kepada keselamatan yang kekal. Pemahaman yang benar terhadap doktrin kristologi tidak lepas dari pengetahuan yang sehat terhadap Alkitab, sebab Alkitablah satu-satunya sumber utama yang dengan jujur dan terbuka memberikan kesaksian mengenai pribadi Yesus sebagai juruselamat dunia. Memang realita historis tulisan-tulisan di dalam Alkitab itu ditulis oleh manusia, akan tetapi proses penulisannya diilhami oleh Allah melalui pimpinan Roh Kudus sehingga apa yang diucapkan atau ditulis sesuai dengan kehendak Tuhan (bnd. 2Tim 3:16). Alkitab secara keseluruhan dipercaya dengan akurat dalam mengambarkan Yesus Kristus. Akan tetapi dalam prosesnya banyak ditemukan bahwa kristologi yang dihasilkan bertentangan dengan Alkitab. Sejarah membuktikan bahwa gereja selalu berhadapan dengan pengajaran-pengajaran sesat yang menyerang gereja dari dalam. Dalam hal ini berbentuk ajaran-ajaran (doktrin) yang menyesatkan atau bidat-bidat yang menyelewengkan ajaran murni Alkitab. Bahaya ajaran-ajaran sesat ini tidak saja timbul pada abad-abad belakangan ini, melainkan sudah ada sejak gereja didirikan. Karenanya penulis hendak menguraikan kristologi yang akan menjadi dasar apologetika di era postmodern sekarang ini.   Christology is the most important point in the teachings of the Christian faith. Christology can also be called the center of Christianity itself, so that Christology is the center of theological science. Therefore studying the Person and work of Christ, means being at the center of Christian theology. It is Jesus Christ who gives identity to Christianity, which also distinguishes it from other religions or beliefs. The specialty of this doctrine lies in the person and work of Jesus Christ as Lord who becomes the finality of the path to eternal salvation. A correct understanding of the doctrine of Christology is inseparable from a healthy knowledge of the Bible, because the Bible is the only major source that honestly and openly testifies about the person of Jesus as the savior of the world. Indeed the historical reality of the writings in the Bible was written by humans, but the process of writing was inspired by God through the leadership of the Holy Spirit so that what was said or written was according to God's will (cf. 2Tim 3:16). The Bible as a whole is believed to be accurate in describing Jesus Christ. However, in the process it was found that the resulting christology was in conflict with the Bible. History proves that the church is always dealing with false teachings that attack the church from within. In this case the form of teachings (doctrines) are misleading or heretics who distort the pure teachings of the Bible. The danger of these heresies has not only arisen in recent centuries, but has existed since the church was founded. Therefore the author wants to elaborate on the Christology that will be the basis of apologetics in the current postmodern era.


2020 ◽  
Vol 6 ◽  
pp. 24-39
Author(s):  
Sylwester Jaśkiewicz ◽  

Cardinal Wyszyński continues teaching about the Holy Spirit as love and as a gift, which comes from the Bible and patristic tradition (eg St. Augustine). The basic text of his reflections on the God of Love are the words from the First Letter of St. John: “God is love” (1 Jn 4: 8, 16). He reads these words, or the shortest definition of God, from the perspective of the Christian and his life experience. In the Holy Spirit, God communicates as love. To be gifted and loved by God means for man to elevate him to the supernatural order. The Holy Spirit, who in the interior life of God is the Love of the Father and the Son, in his self-giving to the world (ad extra), pours God’s love into human hearts (Rom 5: 5), enlivens and dynamises human life. Love as a proprium of the Holy Spirit is also the criterion of Christian identity and of the Church. Important threads of the discussed issue are also the spiritual motherhood of Mary and the establishment of her as the Temple and Bride of the Holy Spirit.


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