Church Fathers on Inspiration

by T. C. Pinckney                                                                                                                                   Vol. XI, No. 8, September 1998

Often in our ignorance of history and parallel fixation upon the supposed marvels of our own times we presume that all current questions are novel and require original answers from our enlightened minds. More often than not such assumptions are in error, and we disprove any superiority over the past by our very lack of acquaintance with it. Such is the case with current debates about the errors or absence thereof in the Bible. These debates have existed in varying forms for centuries.

This “Heritage” article will not burden you by attempting an exhaustive (and exhausting) review, but I will cite a few lines originally published between 1909 and 1917 in the series of papers known as The Fundamentals, A Testimony to the Truth.

The Fundamentals were made possible by two laymen who in 1909 donated a large sum to pay for the writing, printing, and distribution of twelve small volumes to set forth the fundamental doctrines of the Christian faith. The authors were biblical scholars of various denominations. The volumes were sent to 300,000 ministers, missionaries, and other workers throughout the English-speaking world. When the original generous gift was exhausted but numerous requests continued, the twelve booklets were combined into four volumes published in 1917 by the Bible Institute of Los Angeles. An unaltered reprint of that four volume work was issued by Baker Books in 1993. [I bought mine from Christian Book Distributors in 1994 for $24.95 plus postage.]

The following quotes are from “Inspiration” by Evangelist L. W. Munhall which appears as Chapter II of Volume II, filling 17 pages, obviously too long to quote in its entirety here. His full discussion is excellent, but today I just want to excerpt some of his quotes from a few of the church fathers whose names you may well recognize.

Justin: Martyred in Rome 165 a.d. “We must not suppose that the language [of the Bible] proceeds from the men that are inspired, but from the Divine Word Himself, who moves them. Their work is to announce that which the Holy Spirit proposes to teach, through them, to those who wish to learn the true religion.”

Irenaenus: c 130-202 a.d., pastor at Lyons. “The writers spoke as acted on by the Spirit.” “The writers are beyond all falsehood.”

Origen: c. 185-254, ministered in Alexandria. “The records of the Gospel are the oracles of the Lord, pure Oracles, purified as silver seven times tried. They are without error, since they were actually written, by the co-operation of the holy Spirit. ... There is nothing in the Law, the Prophets, the Gospel, the Apostles, that did not come from the fullness of God. Whoever has received these Scriptures as inspired by the Creator of the world, must expect to find in them all the difficulties which meet those who investigate the system of the universe. But God’s hand is not destroyed by our ignorance on particular points. The divinity of the Scriptures remains undisturbed by our weakness. It is a point in the teaching of the Church, that the Scriptures were written by the Spirit of God, and on this the opinion of the whole Church is one. All things that are written are true. He who is a student of God’s Oracles must place himself under the teaching of God.”

Augustine: 354-430. “The Scriptures are the letters of God, the voice of God, the writings of God.” “All Scripture is profitable since it is inspired of God. The Scriptures, whether in History, Prophets, Psalms, or Law, are of God. They cannot stand in part and fall in part. They are from God, who spake them all.” “It avails nothing what I say, what he says, but what saith the Lord.”

Finally, this quote from Munhall’s concluding section: “This, then, is the sum of our contention: The Bible is made up of writings, and these are composed of words. The WORDS are inspired — God-breathed. Therefore is the Bible inspired — is God's Word.

“This is plainly seen, first, in the uniform declaration of the Book. All the Old Testament Prophets, Jesus our Lord, and all the New Testament writers, bear the same testimony concerning this transcendentally important matter. Not a single word or thought to the contrary can anywhere be found in all their declarations. The attitude of Jesus toward the Old Testament and His utterances confirm beyond question our contention. He had the very same Old Testament we have today. He believed it to be the Word of God, and proclaimed it as such. He said, "One jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the laws, till all be fulfilled." In thwarting the tempter He said: ‘It is written! it is written! it is written!’ In confounding the Jews, He said: ‘If ye believed Moses ye would believe Me; for he wrote of Me.’ He never criticized the Scriptures, but always appealed to them as His Father's words, authoritative and final.”

I John 2:16 says “For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world.” Let us remember this verse when we come across skeptics who challenge the absolute accuracy, the absolute authority of God’s written Word, who profess to see contradictions, to need a new revelation, to place their experience and judgment above what God has written. They maintain stoutly and argue adroitly that the problem is intellectual, but such is not so. In every case, at heart their problem lies in one or more of “the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life.”