Bulletin Articles: Full Article for Record Number 1010
Verbal Inspiration
by Larry Ray Hafley
(A brother wrote for a few thoughts on verbal inspiration. Below are my comments to him.)
Here are a few arguments I use on verbal inspiration. They are sure, making wise the simple.
First, in Matthew 10:18 20, the Lord told the apostles not to deliberate over "how or what ye shall speak." Some say that the apostles were given the "sense" of what should be said but that they were to put it in sentences. Well, Matthew shows that cannot be true, for it would be given them "what ye shall speak."
This squares with Paul who said that he spoke "in the words...which the Holy Spirit teacheth" (Cf. Matt. 10:20; 1 Cor. 2:13). Did Paul give thought to, that is, did he deliberate, then formulate, and choose the words he utilized? He says he did not. Jesus had said the apostles should not do so.
But back to Matthew 10 how could the apostles have provided the words if they were not to take any thought about how or what they spoke? They could not have done so. Thus, the words were given to them, just as Jesus promised and just as Paul said they were.
Second, the apostles sometimes spoke things which they did not believe! At least, they did not comprehend the impact and import of their words. For example, note Acts 2:21, 38, 39. As Acts 10 & 11 shows, Peter did not understand that the Gentiles were included in the gospel. It took several miracles to make him accept the fact (Acts 10:47, 48; 11:1 18; 15:7 11). That being so, there is no way he would have used the words of Acts 2:21, 38, 39, if those words had been left to his own devising. Since he did not believe the Gentiles were included, he would never have said that the promises of the Spirit were to all the Jews and their children "and to all them that are afar off," the Gentiles. Thus, the words were not his, but the Spirit’s (Acts 2:4). That is verbal inspiration. It fits exactly what Jesus said-"take no thought....for it shall be given you in that same hour what ye shall speak. For it is not ye that speak, but the Spirit of your Father which speaketh in you."
Third, Paul said that the gospel, the word he preached, was not from what he had heard, or from what he had been taught. His declaration was received by revelation from Jesus Christ (Gal. 1:11, 12; Eph. 3:5). That word, said he, was not the word of men but the word of God (1 Thess. 2:13). How, though, could the word he preached not be of men if he by deliberation gave it declaration? The truth is that the word was given to the apostles and spoken by them, "as the Spirit gave them utterance." That is verbal inspiration.
