This is the first statement of the Church of God Declaration of Faith. Earlier creeds began with a statement about God: “I believe in God the Father Almighty, Creator of heaven and earth”. But like many creeds of the early twentieth century, the Declaration of Faith first establishes the Holy Scripture as the foundation of all theological reflection.
This was by no means a novel concern. The ancient theologians, the Reformers of the 16th century, and subsequent renewalists all held to the priority of Holy Scripture. However, the early twentieth century was a period in which the divine inspiration and veracity of the Bible was increasingly questioned and criticized. In response, many Evangelical and Pentecostal creeds of the period began with a statement affirming the divine inspiration of the Bible. The deconstruction motif of postmodernity, with its hermeneutic of suspicion, means that the Christian scriptures continue to be attacked.
The sacred scriptures are inspired by God (2 Timothy 3:16). Just as God breathed into Adam and he became as living soul, God has breathed upon and spoken through holy men and women (2 Peter 1:21; cf. Exodus 15:21; Luke 1:46-55; et al). The act of speech requires breathing. So, the words of God are not static, but dynamic – living and active (Hebrews 4:12). The word of the Lord came upon the ancient prophets and they spoke. The Bible is the Divine/human Word of God, inspired by the Holy Spirit, communicated through and to humans. Just as Jesus Christ is the incarnate, fully-divine/ fully-human Son of God who was tempted in all ways but remains sinless; likewise, the Bible is the inscripturated fully-divine/fully-human book of God that reveals the righteousness of God and the sinfulness of humanity with infallibility.
When we speak of divine inspiration, we must also speak divine inscripturation – the process of transmitting the living, spoken Word of God into words on clay tablets, parchment, and other media. The word of the Lord came upon the ancient prophets and they wrote. The doctrine of verbal inspiration requires that we understand the processes of transmission. Generation after generation of scribes copied and recopied the inspired words. The words of God are eternal, but the media upon which those inspired words are written are fragile. The scribes preserved the holy words for each generation with remarkable consistency and accuracy. Were there mistakes in transmission? Yes, there are minor copying errors. But even the most antagonistic opponents of the Christian faith admit that the copying errors do not affect the veracity of the Christian message in any way.
The doctrine of verbal inspiration requires that we understand the processes of translation. The first words of sacred scripture (Genesis 1:1) were inspired in ancient Hebrew (read right to left):
בְּרֵאשִׁית, בָּרָא אֱלֹהִים, אֵת הַשָּׁמַיִם, וְאֵת הָאָרֶץ
The first translation of the sacred scripture was done in the 2nd century before the birth of Christ. Ancient Jewish scribes translated the Hebrew scriptures into Greek. This translation is called the Septuagint. Here is the translation of Genesis 1:1 from Hebrew into Greek:
ἐν ἀρχῇ ἐποίησεν ὁ θεὸς τὸν οὐρανὸν καὶ τὴν γῆν
The apostolic writers of the New Testament wrote in ancient Greek. Here is an example from John 3:16 –
οὕτως γὰρ ἠγάπησεν ὁ θεὸς τὸν κόσμον, ὥστε τὸν υἱὸν τὸν μονογενῆ ἔδωκεν, ἵνα πᾶς ὁ πιστεύων εἰς αὐτὸν μὴ ἀπόληται ἀλλ̓ ἔχῃ ζωὴν αἰώνιον.
In the 4th century, Jerome of Striden was commissioned to translate the Greek and Hebrew scriptures into Latin. His translation became the primary Bible throughout Europe for centuries. Here is John 3:16 –
sic enim dilexit Deus mundum ut Filium suum unigenitum daret ut omnis qui credit in eum non pereat sed habeat vitam aeternam
Here’s the point: Not one word of sacred scripture was divinely inspired in a modern language. The Bible is the Divine/human Word of God, inspired by the Holy Spirit, communicated through humans speaking ancient languages. Therefore, the doctrine of verbal inspiration must allow for the translation of ancient biblical texts into the diverse languages of humanity. According to the Wycliffe Bible Translators, as of 2021 the full Bible has been translated into 704 languages, the New Testament has been translated into an additional 1,551 languages and Bible portions or stories into 1,160 other languages. Here is John 3:16 in Burmese:
‘ဘုရားသခင်၏သားတော်ကို ယုံကြည်သောသူအပေါင်းတို့သည်၊ ပျက်စီးခြင်းသို့မရောက်၊ ထာဝရအသက်ကို ရစေခြင်းငှါ၊ ဘုရားသခင်သည် မိမိ၌ တပါးတည်းသော သားတော်ကို စွန့်တော်မူသည်တိုင်အောင် လောကီသားကို ချစ်တော်မူ၏။ ‘ ရှင်ယောဟန်
As a good Pentecostal, I rejoice that people throughout the earth can hear and read the Word of God in their own languages (Acts 2:8).
The Bible is the Divine/human Word of God, inspired by the Holy Spirit, communicated through humans speaking ancient languages and containing a variety of literary genres and devices which must be properly interpreted.
The doctrine of verbal inspiration requires that ancient words be translated, that modern words be defined, and similes, metaphors, analogies, and other literary devices must be understood. In Scripture, some words are to be understood literally, some spiritually, some allegorically, some hyperbolically, some metaphorically… Well, I hope you get it.
Be diligent to present yourself approved to God as a worker who does not need to be ashamed, accurately handling the word of truth (1 Timothy 2:15).
I believe in the verbal inspiration of the Bible. That means I believe that every word, every metaphor, every simile, etc. is the Divine/human Word of God. It is my commitment to verbal inspiration that compels me to be a serious student of Holy Scripture, to approach the Bible in humility and reverence, to allow the living and active word judge the intent of my heart and mind. The proper attitude towards Holy Scripture is a teachable spirit, the willingness to accept rebuke and correction, and be trained in righteousness.
