Lesson Two

Our Lord and Savior Jesus
Christ, from the Book of Luke , gave a narrative of a man who failed to build
his tower because of lack of preparation, Hence the title of the lesson was
“Preparation for Interpretation” .We firstly focused on the need for Holy
Spirit based Dependence and lastly focused on the need for the need for human
effort.

Conscious dependence on the Holy Spirit in interpretation is crucial for two given reasons that is, first, the Spirit was the source of the inspiration of Scripture. And second, the Holy Spirit grants illumination to human interpreters.

The Lecturer first focused on inspiration, he gave us a particular narration of his encounter. “I remember once having the opportunity to meet a well-known author whose books had helped me at a critical time in my Christian life. I was so excited…” , He said , “I told him about a particularly beneficial insight that I derived from one of his books. But much to my surprise, he looked up at me and said, “You’ve got that all wrong! That’s not what I wrote at all!””

He then used this example telling us that since the Holy Spirit is the one who is in charge of the initial authorization of the scriptures, He is the only one who knows the true meaning of the Scriptures.

No prophecy of Scripture came about by the prophet’s own interpretation. For prophecy never had its origin in the will of man, but men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit (2 Peter 1:20-21).

The Bible is organic truth, interconnected from beginning to end, a wonderful book that is the Word of life, grounded in life, that provides for all the needs of life. It is truth because it has the Holy Spirit as the author, and it’s impossible for the Holy Spirit to go against himself or contradict himself… It doesn’t matter if you read Jeremiah or Paul or Obadiah or Jonah; they all use different words, but the spirit behind those words is the same, because one Spirit inspired the words that were chosen.

— Rev. Dr. Stephen Tong, translation

Devine inspiration , as we perceive it comes in different ways , that is , first of all the “Romantic inspiration” . This shows us that God used different authors , based on their personal achievements and daily routines. Secondly we have “Mechanical inspiration” , this argues that authors relatively passed on what God Gave them

Then finaly , we have “organic insipiration” , and this means that authors were driven by God himself to write the scriptures “Our dear brother Paul also wrote you with the wisdom that God gave him” (2 Peter 3:15).

Organic inspiration on its own has two main components that is , the work of the holy spirit and a human role “…And so in order to understand fully what the Holy Spirit intended to say through these writers, we need to be in touch, as it were, with that spiritual source.”

— Dr. David R. Bauer

The Apostles affirmed as a fact that the Holy Spirit is the author of the Bible, “You spoke by the Holy Spirit through the mouth of your servant, our father David” (Acts 4:25).Likewise Paul as he was referring to Psalm 95:7-8 said “You spoke by the Holy Spirit through the mouth of your servant, our father David” (Acts 4:25) , Showing us that the HOLY SPIRIT is the author of the whole BIBLE.

If Gods Spirit is the source , its granted there are no errors in the whole Bible itself. Paul tells Timothy that the Word of God was inspired — theopneustos. It was breathed out by God. And if it was breathed out by God, then we know that the source is perfect, the source is inerrant, and whatever comes out of him has to be equally perfect and inerrant. That, then, is the inspiration. If the Spirit inspired it, and if the Spirit now dwells in me, when I study the Word, I need to rest, to trust in the Spirit to give me illumination and understanding, because he inspired it in such a way that my study is based on the understanding of the one who inspired the Word in the first place. There can’t be a better teacher than the author of a book, and the author of the book is the Spirit. And so, when the teacher who illumines our minds is the Spirit, there can’t be anybody who can give me a better understanding of what was said, of what was inspired, than the teacher himself who wrote it in the first place.

— Dr. Miguel Núñez, translation

The natural person does not accept the things of the Spirit of God for they are folly to him and he is not able to understand them because they are spiritually discerned (1 Corinthians 2:14, ESV).Some Christians would opt if the Bible had been directly received from God as it occurred in the case of other religions like the Islamic Koran and Mormonism. Yet in Christ , God , upon delivering his word had to engage a human