When we speak of verbal inspiration we mean that God gave the very words originally to the Bible writers, and as they put them down in the original manuscripts the very words were the words of God.That means the Bible is the infallible Word of God, reliable in religion, reliable and perfectly accurate in science, infallibly correct in history, true in every particular. "The law of the Lord is perfect." "Forever, O Lord, thy word is settled in heaven." "Thy word is true from the beginning." - John R. Rice [Twelve Tremendous Themes, pg. 19]
Notice [in I Peter 1:10-12] these very prophets "who prophesied of the grace that should come unto you," inquired and searched diligently into their own prophecies, into the Scriptures they themselves had written, "searching what, or what manner of time the Spirit of Christ which was in them did signify, when it testified beforehand the sufferings of Christ, and the glory that should follow." These prophets search their own writings, earnestly desiring to find out what the Holy Spirit meant when He, the Holy Spirit, testified through their pen of the first and second coming of Christ and such matters written down in the Bible!
These human writers knew (vs. 12), had it revealed to them from God, that they were simply agents ministering to us and not unto themselves the things which the Holy Ghost gave them to write down. - John R. Rice [Twelve Tremendous Themes, pg. 21]
The words of the Bible are God's words. Those who believe the Bible must believe in verbal inspiration. The only intelligent alternative is complete repudiation of the Bible -- infidelity; and yet that, God knows, is not very intelligent. - John R. Rice [Twelve Tremendous Themes, pg. 29-30]
There may be some things about the Bible you cannot explain. But your ignorance is a sorry excuse for criticizing the blessed Word of God. Other men, more devout than you, more scholarly than you, older in experience than you, greater soul winners than you, have been able to believe in the Bible. Do not let your youth or your ignorance or your pride or your friendship for modernists and unbelievers lead you into the terrible sin of adding to or taking from the words of the Bible. - John R. Rice [Twelve Tremendous Themes, pg. 34]
I have considered prayerfully for years all the so-called contradictions alleged to be in the Bible, and little by little by faith and prayer and the Holy Spirit's leading and careful study of the Word of God I have found the apparent discrepancies and difficulties fade away. those who do not believe the Bible are simply those who have not given it a chance to prove itself what it claims to be, the verbally inspired, infallible Word of God, true from the beginning, perfect, written "not in the words which man's wisdom teacheth, but that which the Holy Ghost teacheth." - John R. Rice [Twelve Tremendous Themes, pg. 34-35]
Man-made and false, dear reader, the Bible cannot be.The Bible has proven itself. Its prophecies have come to pass in countless cases. Its promises have proven true to millions who trusted them. The God who revealed Himself in the Bible has revealed Himself through salvation to millions of believers. After all, dear reader, it is not the BIBLE that is on trial but the READER of the Bible. Let God's Word be true and every man a liar. The critics damn not the Bible but themselves. Unbelievers prove not their wisdom but their folly. Those who will not believe the Bible lose comfort day by day, lose assurance in the heart, lose the answer to their prayers, and God pity them, lose everlasting life and the joys of Heaven! - John R. Rice [Twelve Tremendous Themes, pg. 35]
I have heard even friends of the Bible say, "The Bible is not a book of science." But infidels and timid Christians are both wrong on this matter. The Bible is a book of science. It plainly deals with many scientific matters. And wherever the Bible mentions matters of science, it does it with the absolute authority of the infallible Word of God. God made the world, and God made the Bible.So when God speaks in the Bible about the world which He made, He tells the exact truth. In fact, the Bible is the only absolutely scientific book in the world. All other books of science eventually are outgrown and found out of date and inaccurate. Now century after century finds the Bible still infallibly correct. - John R. Rice [Twelve Tremendous Themes, pg. 37-38]
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