It helps to understand what Christians mean by the Word of God. The Word contains the words of saints and sinners, of men and demons. Although it quotes sinners and demons, it is the Word of God simply because God wanted those words preserved for us to read.
The words in the Bible are words God had moved men to write down. God chose the words, but let the writers’ personalities show through. Here is one way to see God’s hand in the Bible: imagine giving a quiz to forty students in one university class. Have them write down what they think about the meaning of life, about death and the afterlife, heaven and @#!*% , punishment, spirituality, God, and love. You would get a wide range of opinions, just like you would on any Internet bulletin board topic.
But the Bible is consistent in its view of these very controversial subjects. It was written by about forty men over a period of over a thousand years, in several languages and countries and cultures. Yet they are united in their views of God, life and death, heaven and @#!*% , and other biblical doctrines.2 This harmony is one of the most important aspects that point to the Bible’s authorship of God. God used fallible men to write a book that has outlasted the fall of civilizations.
What Do You Think?
a. Fallible men and women make amazing scientific discoveries all the time. Because fallible scientists developed the theory of evolution, should we discard it on that basis? Why or why not?
b. If you found out that forty students all wrote the same answer to an essay question, wouldn’t you suspect they had all borrowed from the same source, such as from each other or from the Internet?
2. McDowell, Josh, The New Evidence that Demands a Verdict. (Thomas Nelson Publishers, Nashville 1999.) p 6.
