How Did God Inspire the Bible?

Last month, I was leading a Bible study for my den of Cub Scouts and their parents and grandparents. While teaching about how we listen to God by reading the Bible, a question arose. How did God inspire the Bible?

Second Timothy 3:16 states, "All Scripture is breathed out by God." However, it does not mention the methodologies used by God.

 I gave the boys a list of a few different methods used by the Lord to inspire the Scriptures:

 1. Dictation Sometimes the Lord dictated his message word-for-word to the writers of the Bible. For example, God told Jeremiah exactly what to write. "Thus says the LORD, the God of Israel: 'Write in a book all the words that I have spoken to you'" (Jeremiah 30:2).

 2. Enhanced Memory Sometimes God enhanced the memories of the Bible's writers. Jesus promised his apostles that the Holy Spirit would help them to remember what he had said to them (John 14:25-26).

 3. Visions For example, as Jesus started sharing the visions of Revelation with John, he told John, "Write what you see in a book and send it to the seven churches" (Revelation 1:11).

 4. Research For example, the Gospel of Luke was based on extensive research. As Luke stated, "Having carefully investigated everything from the beginning, I also have decided to write a careful account for you, most honorable Theophilus" (Luke 1:3, NLT).

 This may not be an exhaustive list of the methodologies employed by God to inspire the Scriptures, but it helps to answer the question. However the Lord chose to inspire specific portions of the Scriptures, we can be assured that "those prophets were moved by the Holy Spirit, and they spoke from God" (2 Peter 1:21, NLT).

The Jesus Movement: Revolution

This is Greg Pittman's sermon from last Sunday at Cedar Ridge Christian Church (our home congregation) in Broken Arrow, Oklahoma.

I Was Wrong

On March 4, I wrote a post ("What Can Salt Do?") which indicated that salt cannot reverse the process of corruption; it can merely slow the process. I implied that Christians, as the salt of the earth, cannot reverse the corruption within our societies; we can only slow the process.

However, I have been reading through the New Living Translation of the Bible this year. When I came across 2 Kings 2:19-22, I realized that I had been wrong about my understanding of the effects of salt. When it has the miraculous power of God behind it, salt can reverse the process of corruption. This has huge implications for the people whom Jesus called the "salt of the earth."

Here is the text:

"One day the leaders of the town of Jericho visited Elisha. 'We have a problem, my lord,' they told him. 'This town is located in pleasant surroundings, as you can see. But the water is bad, and the land is unproductive.'

"Elisha said, 'Bring me a new bowl with salt in it.' So they brought it to him. Then he went out to the spring that supplied the town with water and threw the salt into it. And he said, 'This is what the LORD says: I have purified this water. It will no longer cause death or infertility.' And the water has remained pure ever since, just as Elisha said" (2 Kings 2:19-22, NLT).