Concursive Inspiration

January 31

It’s disturbing to me the number of people who call themselves Christians who fail to understand what it means to believe the bible is the inspired, verbal, inerrant, plenary word of God. II Timothy 3:16, 17 are watershed verses on the topic. A systematic theological covering on the subject would take several pages and hundreds of verses to relate what they mean, so I will only attempt to deal with the concept we call concursive inspiration. First, it is crucial we believe the scriptures, in their original languages and in the original manuscripts were without error. They were given to the prophets who wrote them word for word. The important thing about the term concursive is that it means God used the writers with all of their personality flaws, their shortcomings regarding language or grammatical training, all of their strength and/or weaknesses to write His word. They were the writers; He is the author. And He did it without allowing any flaws to become part of the written record as we have it today in both the Old and New Testaments. “All scripture is inspired by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness, so that the man of God may be adequate, equipped for every good work."

I would further like to suggest our translations from the original languages which themselves were not taken from the original manuscripts (they were lost by the time the English translations were made) can be depended on for accuracy. I’m often asked how the RSV, NASB, KJV, ESV can all be trusted, since they obviously do not all use the same words to convey the same truths. My first response is that God is just as capable of overseeing the accuracy of translations as He was in seeing to it the original manuscripts were accurate. Of course there are bad translations, and most men in the world of conservative theology know which ones they are. The precautions taken by bible scholars during the process of translating from the oldest manuscripts is unequaled in modern time. Some of the comments I hear from people who haven’t a clue about whether or not a particular verse means what it says are nothing short of extraordinary.

Truth and accuracy can be communicated with a variety of sentence structures using a variety of words. I do not teach nor do I believe the wording in the NASB is inspired in the same sense as the original texts were, but I do believe sufficient care was taken by each of the translating bodies of saints who gave us each of the translations to believe a careful study of the texts will yield an accurate, dependable understanding of God’s original intent. The operative phrase here is “a careful study.” Most bad theology comes from people taking one verse or group of verses completely out of context and building a doctrine around them.

The infamous statement, “That’s your interpretation,” is the classic excuse of the one who chooses not to be obedient to the clear teaching of scripture. II Peter 1:20, 21 make it clear no man has the authority to make his own private interpretation of what the scriptures say or mean. James 3:1 warns all such men will be judged harshly. It is the task of God’s teacher to accurately communicate what God said and demonstrate how what He said can be appropriately applied to living for His glory and honor today. It is the Holy Spirit living inside that teacher who leads him into truth, so he can accomplish the task to which he has been called (John 16:13).

So, the concept of concursive inspiration means God used men to convey perfect truth, His perfect will to men. He spoke through the prophets of the Old and New Testaments, without violating their individual personalities, and what they wrote was entirely, without exception, exactly what God wanted us to know. I believe, in a sense, He is still doing that when He calls men to communicate His truth to His church today. However, it’s crucial all believers search the scriptures daily to verify the teachings received from those who are doing the teaching. By searching and studying verses used by teachers, the disciple can verify whether the teacher is being faithful to the original intent. Anyone who depends entirely on the preaching he hears on Sunday mornings for his understanding of theology without dedicating a significant amount of his own time daily searching the scriptures is at best unwise and at worst a fool (Acts 17:11; II Tim. 2:15).