Some Children Have Better Theology than a lot of Pastors!
Scriptures, The Out-Breathing of God
Scriptures, the Out-Breathing of God
© 2010 www.RevEarlJackson.com
2Ti 3:16-17 All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness: That the man of God may be perfect, throughly furnished unto all good works. (KJV)
2Ti 3:16-17 All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be competent, equipped for every good work. (ESV)
Both of these excellent translations say the same thing regarding the scriptures, but they use different terms to do it. The King James speaks of “inspiration”, while The English Standard speaks about scripture being “breathed out by God”. Both are beautiful and valid ways to translate the original. The word “inspire” means literally to blow into something in order to blow it up. When we blow into a balloon we are “in-spiring”. But in actuality the emphasis is not on the inflating, it is on the exhaling! It is the breathing out that is involved in theopneustos. So the Scriptures are from the very breath of God.
This is an important and beautiful thing that we must understand about the scriptures. It was not an accidental choice of words. It is the very thing that makes the Scriptures “profitable” for the things mentioned here. It is what makes doctrine “profitable”. It make reproof “profitable”. It makes the scriptures “profitable” for correction, and instruction in righteousness. All this, so that the man of God may be “competent” or “perfect” in the things of God, well-equipped for all the good works god wants Him to do.
The Scriptures are the out-breathing of God, and this gives them unique and powerful characteristics and functions. I mentioned that the word here is not without significance. As a matter of fact everywhere the Scriptures speak about the breath of God, they refer either to His power to create life, or His power to destroy it. In a very real sense everything in the universe is the result of God breath. He spoke and said: “Let there be light, and their was light”. Everything came about because of God’s word. It is His out breathing. “And the LORD God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul” (Gen. 2:7) . The pinnacle of God’s creation was man, made in His own image, and God “breathed into Him, the breath of life”. The breath of God is His life-giving and creative power. By it He made the worlds. “Through faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God, so that things which are seen were not made of things which do appear” (Heb. 11:3). The word of God created the worlds, and the same creative breath of God created the Scriptures, out-breathing the full intentions of God for man in His Scriptures, the very revealing of God’s mind, will and purposes to man.
God did not produce the Bible by merely stimulating the minds of the writers or by suggesting ideas to them. He could have done that if He had wanted to, but the Bible is too important, so God wrote it by direct causation. It is the direct out-breathing of God that wrote every word of it. Some people don’t believe this, they believe that men wrote it, and that God simply inspired them, sort of the way that a poet is inspired when he sees a beautiful flower, or a painter when he sees a golden sunset. This is what the word “inspired” has come to mean today, after it has been trashed of it’s true meaning and has been thoroughly secularized. But that is not what the word meant when the King James Translators chose it for their translation. It meant that God breathed the Bible. Every part of it is His creative handiwork. He alone is it’s author. “But surely he used men to write it, with their individual personalities, their own quirks and eccentricities, their own vocabulary etc?” Yes, but each of the men were out-breathed from God in their entirety. God controlled everything about the human authors. He out-breathed their emotions, their intellect, their synapses and neurons in their brains fired at His will alone. When it tells us He out-breathed the Scriptures, the process was absolute, perfect and thorough in every detail. Scriptures are God’s creation, not man’s. They are the sole production of God. They are His creation alone, and no man had anything to do with it. The penmen of God were “carried about by the Spirit of God”. Their personalities, the words they used, everything about them and everything about what they spoke and wrote in the Scriptures, was His out breathing not theirs. He did not suspend their brains, or use them like mere robots or dictation machines, but He controlled everything nonetheless. “For no prophecy was ever produced by the will of man, but men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit” (2Pet. 1:21 ESV).
The inspired Bible, which is the result of God’s perfect creative out-breathing is, infallible, and inerrant, and all Christians must own it as such. There is no room for any compromise here whatsoever. Anyone who says otherwise is a heretic who needs to be expelled from whatever church he belongs to, who needs to be shunned by the people of God, who needs to be cast out of our churches, our pulpits, our seminaries, and if possible banished from all contact with Christians whatsoever. If he is on a church or seminary pay-roll, he must be fired at once. Paying him is being an accomplice to one who is a direct enemy and co-conspirator of Jesus Christ. He is the worst sort of reprobate who does not believe in God’s word. Belief in the inerrant, infallible and fully inspired Scriptures, is the bare bones minimum requirement for inclusion among the people of God. It all starts here. If you do not recognize the God-breathed book, then you have no part with the people of that book. It’s plain and simple.
Don’t compromise on this, or you are undermining the entire Christian system, worldview, and foundation. Take away a God-breathed Bible, and we will all be atheists. The Scripture is the only standard by which everything about Christianity itself is defined. Without the Bible, you have only and utter darkness. This is one doctrine that is not open to negotiation, and whose truth is not even open for discussion. Either the Bible is completely inspired, inerrant and authoritative, or Christianity does not exist. It’s that simple. It’s that important. There is no room for discussion or argument about this. This is the dogmatic doctrine upon which all other doctrines rest. If the Bible is not the very word of God, then you might as well forget about everything else. Christianity is a sham, a farce, a cruel joke if the Scriptures are not the very Word of God.
© 2010 www.RevEarlJackson.com
2Ti 3:16-17 All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness: That the man of God may be perfect, throughly furnished unto all good works. (KJV)
2Ti 3:16-17 All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be competent, equipped for every good work. (ESV)
Both of these excellent translations say the same thing regarding the scriptures, but they use different terms to do it. The King James speaks of “inspiration”, while The English Standard speaks about scripture being “breathed out by God”. Both are beautiful and valid ways to translate the original. The word “inspire” means literally to blow into something in order to blow it up. When we blow into a balloon we are “in-spiring”. But in actuality the emphasis is not on the inflating, it is on the exhaling! It is the breathing out that is involved in theopneustos. So the Scriptures are from the very breath of God.
This is an important and beautiful thing that we must understand about the scriptures. It was not an accidental choice of words. It is the very thing that makes the Scriptures “profitable” for the things mentioned here. It is what makes doctrine “profitable”. It make reproof “profitable”. It makes the scriptures “profitable” for correction, and instruction in righteousness. All this, so that the man of God may be “competent” or “perfect” in the things of God, well-equipped for all the good works god wants Him to do.
The Scriptures are the out-breathing of God, and this gives them unique and powerful characteristics and functions. I mentioned that the word here is not without significance. As a matter of fact everywhere the Scriptures speak about the breath of God, they refer either to His power to create life, or His power to destroy it. In a very real sense everything in the universe is the result of God breath. He spoke and said: “Let there be light, and their was light”. Everything came about because of God’s word. It is His out breathing. “And the LORD God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul” (Gen. 2:7) . The pinnacle of God’s creation was man, made in His own image, and God “breathed into Him, the breath of life”. The breath of God is His life-giving and creative power. By it He made the worlds. “Through faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God, so that things which are seen were not made of things which do appear” (Heb. 11:3). The word of God created the worlds, and the same creative breath of God created the Scriptures, out-breathing the full intentions of God for man in His Scriptures, the very revealing of God’s mind, will and purposes to man.
God did not produce the Bible by merely stimulating the minds of the writers or by suggesting ideas to them. He could have done that if He had wanted to, but the Bible is too important, so God wrote it by direct causation. It is the direct out-breathing of God that wrote every word of it. Some people don’t believe this, they believe that men wrote it, and that God simply inspired them, sort of the way that a poet is inspired when he sees a beautiful flower, or a painter when he sees a golden sunset. This is what the word “inspired” has come to mean today, after it has been trashed of it’s true meaning and has been thoroughly secularized. But that is not what the word meant when the King James Translators chose it for their translation. It meant that God breathed the Bible. Every part of it is His creative handiwork. He alone is it’s author. “But surely he used men to write it, with their individual personalities, their own quirks and eccentricities, their own vocabulary etc?” Yes, but each of the men were out-breathed from God in their entirety. God controlled everything about the human authors. He out-breathed their emotions, their intellect, their synapses and neurons in their brains fired at His will alone. When it tells us He out-breathed the Scriptures, the process was absolute, perfect and thorough in every detail. Scriptures are God’s creation, not man’s. They are the sole production of God. They are His creation alone, and no man had anything to do with it. The penmen of God were “carried about by the Spirit of God”. Their personalities, the words they used, everything about them and everything about what they spoke and wrote in the Scriptures, was His out breathing not theirs. He did not suspend their brains, or use them like mere robots or dictation machines, but He controlled everything nonetheless. “For no prophecy was ever produced by the will of man, but men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit” (2Pet. 1:21 ESV).
The inspired Bible, which is the result of God’s perfect creative out-breathing is, infallible, and inerrant, and all Christians must own it as such. There is no room for any compromise here whatsoever. Anyone who says otherwise is a heretic who needs to be expelled from whatever church he belongs to, who needs to be shunned by the people of God, who needs to be cast out of our churches, our pulpits, our seminaries, and if possible banished from all contact with Christians whatsoever. If he is on a church or seminary pay-roll, he must be fired at once. Paying him is being an accomplice to one who is a direct enemy and co-conspirator of Jesus Christ. He is the worst sort of reprobate who does not believe in God’s word. Belief in the inerrant, infallible and fully inspired Scriptures, is the bare bones minimum requirement for inclusion among the people of God. It all starts here. If you do not recognize the God-breathed book, then you have no part with the people of that book. It’s plain and simple.
Don’t compromise on this, or you are undermining the entire Christian system, worldview, and foundation. Take away a God-breathed Bible, and we will all be atheists. The Scripture is the only standard by which everything about Christianity itself is defined. Without the Bible, you have only and utter darkness. This is one doctrine that is not open to negotiation, and whose truth is not even open for discussion. Either the Bible is completely inspired, inerrant and authoritative, or Christianity does not exist. It’s that simple. It’s that important. There is no room for discussion or argument about this. This is the dogmatic doctrine upon which all other doctrines rest. If the Bible is not the very word of God, then you might as well forget about everything else. Christianity is a sham, a farce, a cruel joke if the Scriptures are not the very Word of God.
