There is much misunderstanding regarding what is meant by Tim. 3:16, Inspiration "All Scripture is given by inspiration" Many well-meaning Christians pick up their Bible and believe every word between its covers is God Inspired.
Little thought, however, is needed to show that nothing could be farther from the truth. The Greek and Hebrew texts from which our Bibles are translated, are themselves coplies, but as originally given, the whole Word or scriptures was RECORDED by inspiration that is, it pleased God to inspire holy men to record not only His own Spirit-breathed Word-- revelation, prophecy, instruction- but record also, the words of good men, wicked men, angels, demons, and even the words of satan himself. However, I would like to enlarge upon this point, as much wrong teaching has come about by the failure to heed the injunction to rightly divide the word in this particular sense, and thus build doctrine purely upon the words of men.
The most outstanding example of the recorded words of man are found in the book of Ecclesiastes. It seems incredible that any person could be so woefully blind as not to see that this book is a record of what passed through the mind of Solomon, when as he clearly reveals he set himself to find satisfaction in the things of the world with-out God. Solomon was the king of Israel and could have everything his heart desired simply for the asking and have it he did, to the full...wealth, slaves, craftsmen to carry out all his building ambitions, men servants, maid servants, musical instruments, and musicians to play them; lust to the full wives, feasting, wine, women, folly he exhausted every avenue, but all ended in disappointment, vanity, vanity, vanity. He drew a few wise conclusions, but for the most part all led to disappointment, and so far from God did he get with his natural reasoning, that he made a number of foolish
statements such as in Ch. 1:9-10.
Solomon concluded that he reached the peak of knowledge, yet God declared through the prophet Daniel 12:4, at the time of the end, "Many shall be travelling to to and fro and knowledge shall be increased." Solomon would get a rude awakening were he to return today. However, he expressed his worst blunders when having got so far away from God; he concludes that as no man knows whether there is any life hereafter, ch. 3: 19-22, there is nothing better for a man to do than to enjoy the works of his own hand, ch. 4: 22; for the wise and the fool, all go to the same place. Likewise man has no pre-eminence over the beast, all go to the same place, and as all is vanity, it were better that a man were not born; so he reasons, if a man live a thousand years twice over it would still be all empty vanity and no one knows what shall be hereafter.
Thus reasons the man Solomon. Note the words of ch. 1: 1, The words of the Preacher (Hebrew, lecturer), the son of David, king of Jerusalem. Note also that the term, "Thus saith the Lord," is used 2,000 times in the Old Testament, but is not found once in Ecclesiastes. Why? Because this was as is clearly shown, Thus saith Solomon. Note also he uses the personal pronoun "I" forty times in the first two chapters. One might ask, why then did God record this? I believe there is a great lesson to be learned from this. Solomon was credited with being the wisest of men; he had unbounded wealth, could have anything his heart desired, and yet after taking full advantage of all this, it brought him only misery and a feeling of absolute hopelessness. So, in his final conclusion, he realizes, ch. 11: 13, "Fear God and keep his instructions, for this is the whole duty of man." Cannot every person take a warning from his experience?
My chief reason, however, in bringing before you this ex-ample of the need to heed the injunction to rightly divide the word & receive the holy spirit to illuminate it's understanding, is because incredible though it may seem, certain sects actually build doctrine upon these words of Solomon, which shows in a remarkable way how true are the words of I Cor. 2: 14, "The natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God... neither can he know them because they are spiritually discerned." As these same people deny the new birth, John 3: 1-7, here and now, they have shut themselves off from the only means of understanding the Bible, namely, the Spirit of God, John 16: 13; 1 John 2: 27.
Thus they can only reason with their natural mind, and therefore cannot discern between the natural and spiritual of God's Word. These same people deny even the pre-existence of Christ whom clearly himself says himself that he came down out of heaven, also the personality of the Devil, demons. I am convinced that while they remain in bondage to this, they will remain blind to an understanding of the spiritual truths of the Bible needed to be illuminated into their spirit. This is not just "a dig at them", but they will give this matter their serious consideration; and to Christians, in general, I feel sure this subject of the necessity of the Holy spirit to lead into all truth will give a new understanding to the study of the Bible.
Chapter 12:13!
There is much misunderstanding regarding what is meant by Tim. 3:16, Inspiration "All Scripture is given by inspiration" Many well-meaning Christians pick up their Bible and believe every word between its covers is God Inspired.
Little thought, however, is needed to show that nothing could be farther from the truth. The Greek and Hebrew texts from which our Bibles are translated, are themselves coplies, but as originally given, the whole Word or scriptures was RECORDED by inspiration that is, it pleased God to inspire holy men to record not only His own Spirit-breathed Word-- revelation, prophecy, instruction- but record also, the words of good men, wicked men, angels, demons, and even the words of satan himself. However, I would like to enlarge upon this point, as much wrong teaching has come about by the failure to heed the injunction to rightly divide the word in this particular sense, and thus build doctrine purely upon the words of men.
The most outstanding example of the recorded words of man are found in the book of Ecclesiastes. It seems incredible that any person could be so woefully blind as not to see that this book is a record of what passed through the mind of Solomon, when as he clearly reveals he set himself to find satisfaction in the things of the world with-out God. Solomon was the king of Israel and could have everything his heart desired simply for the asking and have it he did, to the full...wealth, slaves, craftsmen to carry out all his building ambitions, men servants, maid servants, musical instruments, and musicians to play them; lust to the full wives, feasting, wine, women, folly he exhausted every avenue, but all ended in disappointment, vanity, vanity, vanity. He drew a few wise conclusions, but for the most part all led to disappointment, and so far from God did he get with his natural reasoning, that he made a number of foolish
statements such as in Ch. 1:9-10.
Solomon concluded that he reached the peak of knowledge, yet God declared through the prophet Daniel 12:4, at the time of the end, "Many shall be travelling to to and fro and knowledge shall be increased." Solomon would get a rude awakening were he to return today. However, he expressed his worst blunders when having got so far away from God; he concludes that as no man knows whether there is any life hereafter, ch. 3: 19-22, there is nothing better for a man to do than to enjoy the works of his own hand, ch. 4: 22; for the wise and the fool, all go to the same place. Likewise man has no pre-eminence over the beast, all go to the same place, and as all is vanity, it were better that a man were not born; so he reasons, if a man live a thousand years twice over it would still be all empty vanity and no one knows what shall be hereafter.
Thus reasons the man Solomon. Note the words of ch. 1: 1, The words of the Preacher (Hebrew, lecturer), the son of David, king of Jerusalem. Note also that the term, "Thus saith the Lord," is used 2,000 times in the Old Testament, but is not found once in Ecclesiastes. Why? Because this was as is clearly shown, Thus saith Solomon. Note also he uses the personal pronoun "I" forty times in the first two chapters. One might ask, why then did God record this? I believe there is a great lesson to be learned from this. Solomon was credited with being the wisest of men; he had unbounded wealth, could have anything his heart desired, and yet after taking full advantage of all this, it brought him only misery and a feeling of absolute hopelessness. So, in his final conclusion, he realizes, ch. 11: 13, "Fear God and keep his instructions, for this is the whole duty of man." Cannot every person take a warning from his experience?
My chief reason, however, in bringing before you this ex-ample of the need to heed the injunction to rightly divide the word & receive the holy spirit to illuminate it's understanding, is because incredible though it may seem, certain sects actually build doctrine upon these words of Solomon, which shows in a remarkable way how true are the words of I Cor. 2: 14, "The natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God... neither can he know them because they are spiritually discerned." As these same people deny the new birth, John 3: 1-7, here and now, they have shut themselves off from the only means of understanding the Bible, namely, the Spirit of God, John 16: 13; 1 John 2: 27.
Thus they can only reason with their natural mind, and therefore cannot discern between the natural and spiritual of God's Word. These same people deny even the pre-existence of Christ whom clearly himself says himself that he came down out of heaven, also the personality of the Devil, demons. I am convinced that while they remain in bondage to this, they will remain blind to an understanding of the spiritual truths of the Bible needed to be illuminated into their spirit. This is not just "a dig at them", but they will give this matter their serious consideration; and to Christians, in general, I feel sure this subject of the necessity of the Holy spirit to lead into all truth will give a new understanding to the study of the Bible.
Amen to that!