[MC1171611]

(This is a study with a Keynote presentation that I've prepared; it's designed for me to preach, not for an online discussion. Sorry if it appears a little scattered; it wasn't exactly homiletical.)

Intro: As Bible Believers we hold fast to the King James Bible, but the vast majority of Christians, and even Baptists, don’t hold the same position. Their beliefs vary from people who don’t believe any one Bible version to those who believe that the King James is the best, based on its Textual Foundations. I want to take some time and delve into the Bible issue, touching on the doctrines of Inspiration, Translation and Preservation.

Inspiration: 2 the drawing in of breath; inhalation.
an act of breathing in; an inhalation.

Most people, Baptists especially, always use this definition to explain the doctrine of Biblical Inspiration; they say that since “Inspiration” denotes breathing, therefore the Bible is “God-breathed.” However, we should compare Scripture with Scripture in order to understand the Bible properly.

2 Tim. 3:14 But continue thou in the things which thou hast learned and hast been assured of, knowing of whom thou hast learned them;
15 And that from a child thou hast known the holy scriptures, which are able to make thee wise unto salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus.
16 All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness:
17 That the man of God may be perfect, throughly furnished unto all good works.

While this is the most common instance of the word, and the most specific when dealing with the Scriptures, there is another appearance, and it comes much earlier than 2 Timothy.

Job 32:5 When Elihu saw that there was no answer in the mouth of these three men, then his wrath was kindled.
6 And Elihu the son of Barachel the Buzite answered and said, I am young, and ye are very old; wherefore I was afraid, and durst not shew you mine opinion.
7 I said, Days should speak, and multitude of years should teach wisdom.
8 But there is a spirit in man: and the inspiration of the Almighty giveth them understanding.

In this passage we find Elihu equating inspiration with supernatural understanding and wisdom on a subject, and dealing with nothing even closely resembling breath. That brings us to a better definition, also found in the Dictionary:

ORIGIN Middle English (in the sense [divine guidance] ): via Old French from late Latin inspiratio(n-), from the verb inspirare (see inspire ).

Even in 2 Timothy, the wording is “Given by inspiration,” not “inspired.” In fact, according to the passage in Job, the only thing that gets “inspired” is men, which in this case is the authors of the Bible.

2 Pet. 1:16 For we have not followed cunningly devised fables, when we made known unto you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but were eyewitnesses of his majesty.
17 For he received from God the Father honour and glory, when there came such a voice to him from the excellent glory, This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.
18 And this voice which came from heaven we heard, when we were with him in the holy mount.
19 We have also a more sure word of prophecy; whereunto ye do well that ye take heed, as unto a light that shineth in a dark place, until the day dawn, and the day star arise in your hearts:
20 Knowing this first, that no prophecy of the scripture is of any private interpretation.
21 For the prophecy came not in old time by the will of man: but holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost.

Spanish Bible passage:

“...mas los santos hombres de Dios hablaron, siendo inspirados del Espítu Santo.”
“Inspirados” means they were inspired of the Holy Spirit.
Jer. 36:1 And it came to pass in the fourth year of Jehoiakim the son of Josiah king of Judah, that this word came unto Jeremiah from the LORD, saying,
2 Take thee a roll of a book, and write therein all the words that I have spoken unto thee against Israel, and against Judah, and against all the nations, from the day I spake unto thee, from the days of Josiah, even unto this day.
3 It may be that the house of Judah will hear all the evil which I purpose to do unto them; that they may return every man from his evil way; that I may forgive their iniquity and their sin.
...
19 Then said the princes unto Baruch, Go, hide thee, thou and Jeremiah; and let no man know where ye be.
20 And they went in to the king into the court, but they laid up the roll in the chamber of Elishama the scribe, and told all the words in the ears of the king.
21 So the king sent Jehudi to fetch the roll: and he took it out of Elishama the scribe’s chamber. And Jehudi read it in the ears of the king, and in the ears of all the princes which stood beside the king.
22 Now the king sat in the winterhouse in the ninth month: and there was a fire on the hearth burning before him.
23 And it came to pass, that when Jehudi had read three or four leaves, he cut it with the penknife, and cast it into the fire that was on the hearth, until all the roll was consumed in the fire that was on the hearth.
...
27 Then the word of the LORD came to Jeremiah, after that the king had burned the roll, and the words which Baruch wrote at the mouth of Jeremiah, saying,
28 Take thee again another roll, and write in it all the former words that were in the first roll, which Jehoiakim the king of Judah hath burned.
29 And thou shalt say to Jehoiakim the king of Judah, Thus saith the LORD; Thou hast burned this roll, saying, Why hast thou written therein, saying, The king of Babylon shall certainly come and destroy this land, and shall cause to cease from thence man and beast?
30 Therefore thus saith the LORD of Jehoiakim king of Judah; He shall have none to sit upon the throne of David: and his dead body shall be cast out in the day to the heat, and in the night to the frost.
31 And I will punish him and his seed and his servants for their iniquity; and I will bring upon them, and upon the inhabitants of Jerusalem, and upon the men of Judah, all the evil that I have pronounced against them; but they hearkened not.
32 Then took Jeremiah another roll, and gave it to Baruch the scribe, the son of Neriah; who wrote therein from the mouth of Jeremiah all the words of the book which Jehoiakim king of Judah had burned in the fire: and there were added besides unto them many like words.

Notice that there were words added to the second edition, yet they were still the words of the Lord, just as much as the first writing! While it’s completely wrong for men to change, take away from or add to the Scriptures, God is allowed to do whatever He wants to whenever He wants to. It’s His word for cryin’ out loud!

Conclusion:

Let God be true, and every man a liar

God’s word is perfect.

God’s word defines itself

God’s word is given by inspiration

[Brother Tim]

Forgive me, Brother, for being confused, but I cannot see anywhere in your post where you establish that the men were inspired and not the words.

"Given by inspiration" is the method that God used to direct the words to be written. The words are God's Words.

The additional words of Jeremiah's second original were added messages, not modification of the first original that was destroyed by the king.

[MC1171611]

Originally Posted by Brother Tim

Forgive me, Brother, for being confused, but I cannot see anywhere in your post where you establish that the men were inspired and not the words.

"Given by inspiration" is the method that God used to direct the words to be written. The words are God's Words.

The additional words of Jeremiah's second original were added messages, not modification of the first original that was destroyed by the king.

It's the definition of the word, based on what the Bible says. Inspiration is God's supernatural understanding on a person, not words or paper. To extend it, a pastor that is truly preaching under the power of the Holy Spirit can be said to be inspired.

You'll never find where words are inspired; the men who speak or write them are those that are under inspiration. By extrapolation, if one is to contend that the King James Bible is Scripture, then according to the Bible it was given by inspiration, and by the definition of inspiration, the translators were influenced of God to translate and compile the King James Bible. It's really not that difficult to accept once the Biblical definition of inspiration is understood.

[bibleprotector]

This has already been shown elsewhere, but I will quote a particular paragraph:

http://av1611.com/kjbp/articles/raj-inspiration.html

Those who disagree with my position on the inspiration of the KJV do so because of their misunderstanding of the term INSPIRATION. They think that I teach God breathed-OUT the words of the AV thru the translators, when I teach nothing of the kind. Of course, I do believe that the hand of God was helping them in picking the correct texts and translating those texts faithfully. When I say KJV is inspired Scripture, what I mean is that God has made it ALIVE by BREATHING His breath INTO it. So what is WRITTEN in the Book (AV) are the LIVING words of God. Those are HOLY, and those words have TRUTH in them. There is no FALSEHOOD in the words of the AV. These Scriptures are INERRANT. That is, there are no NUMERICAL, DOCTRINAL, SCIENTIFIC or HISTORICAL errors in the King James text. You cannot have LIVING words and have them teach you ERRONEOUS things.

There are two meanings of Biblical Inspiration.

First, the word “inspiration” describes a process of giving the Word from the Spirit of God through the spirit of certain men in the writing of the very words of Scripture originally in the Autographs. This is a process that occurred once for each word as it now appears in the Scripture. Some people point out that Jeremiah 36:32 shows that a certain roll was destroyed, and Baruch rewrote it at the mouth of Jeremiah. As far as Bible inspiration is concerned, the Scripture as it now reads (and was preserved from Jeremiah’s time) is the one where the inspiration took place. Moreover, in inspiration there can be quoting of people, documents and other prophecies, etc. That is why in Jeremiah’s present book, it says, “and there were added besides unto them many like words.” Meaning that the present book is the Scripture, even though the former roll was true; the present book also contains an account of what happened to the former roll, and also additional material written after that time.

Second, and very importantly, inspiration describes the continuing power or nature of the words of Scripture, because they are God’s words, particularly, as John 6:63 states, “It is the spirit that quickeneth; the flesh profiteth nothing: the words that I speak unto you, they are spirit, and they are life.” Since God gave the words initially not to be lost or diminished, but to be preserved and transmitted, and now present perfectly in English for the whole world, we can certainly ascribe inspiration to the present manifestation of Scripture.

Therefore, we cannot say that the King James Bible was made by the process of inspiration from 1604–1611, but we can certainly say that the KJB has the inspired Word of God, indeed, is the inspired Word of God!

[bibleprotector]

Spanish Bible passage:

“...mas los santos hombres de Dios hablaron, siendo inspirados del Espítu Santo.”
“Inspirados” means they were inspired of the Holy Spirit.

¿?

And Brother Tim very properly said,

The additional words of Jeremiah's second original were added messages, not modification of the first original that was destroyed by the king.

Jeremiah's first writing was not the inspired "Scripture" as we have it today. It was in fact material 100% utilised for Scripture. (Either Jeremiah had a perfect memory, or prophecy was a suspension of the normal mind of a person, as with Saul, when he became another person in 1 Sam. 10, so he said it all again exactly, and also added like things). No matter what, we cannot say that the Scripture was being copied by inspiration at any time, except for when copying happened within Scripture, e.g. in the New Testament.

Other examples of earlier material utilised later include the Gospel writers quoting Pilate's superscription. Yes, Pilate wrote it, yes it was true, but the actual inspiration of Scripture took place when Matthew, Mark, Luke and John all recorded those spiritual words that God had Pilate write that day (and the Spirit of God was not in Pilate).

If someone copies the Bible today, they are not doing so under inspiration. However, as we speak or write the KJB, we are handling the inspired Scripture.

[MC1171611]

Brother, I have to disagree with you on the simple basis of the Bible's own definition of the word. While it's a rather different approach to the issue than most take (in fact, I doubt even Doc teaches this way), the fact is that the Bible clearly defines Itself as I presented in the OP, and there is really no getting around that without resorting to explaining things away or running to Webster's or Strong's. Scripture is given by inspiration, inspiration is God's supernatural intervention in a situation or God's supernatural understanding in a person, and if the KJB is to be called Scripture, as I believe It is, then It must have been given through the inspiration of God. I see only one definition of the word in the Book.

[bibleprotector]

I like the idea of interpreting Scripture by Scripture, i.e. understand about the KJB by reading the KJB.

"But there is a spirit in man: and the inspiration of the Almighty giveth them understanding." (Job 32:8).

Inspiration is surely a process here: it is the man who is being inspired.

The man writing the Scripture down from God the first time is an application of this.

I just can't see how making a translation/version/copy of Scripture could be "inspiration".