THE CONFIDENCE OF INSPIRATION

By Dr. M. R. Dowler

It is truly amazing how quickly events transpire once set into motion. The Watergate Scandal of the 1970s is an example. In June, 1972 five men with connections to the White House were arrested while burglarizing the headquarters of the Democratic National Committee in the Watergate Office Complex in Washington. Twenty-six dizzyingly-rapid months later President Richard Nixon resigned in disgrace in August 1974 as a result of his involvement in the scandal and its subsequent cover-up.

The Senate Select Watergate Committee Hearings was at the very heart of the scandal, impaneled to thoroughly investigate who did what, when; or as committee member Senator Howard Baker’s question that later became an oft-quoted catch-phrase, “What did the President know and when did he know it?” Interestingly, all three television networks (ABC, NBC and CBS) broadcast the hearings, and ratings indicate that eighty-five percent of the American adult population had watched at least a portion of the 319 hours of hearings.

The inspiration of the scriptures is at the very heart of Evangelical Theology; it is the Greek word “theopneustos” meaning God-breathed (2 Timothy 3:16). Theologically, revelation (the message from God to man) is a vertical action, while inspiration is a horizontal action. Simply stated, inspiration is the supernatural influence on the writers of scripture by the Holy Spirit that what they were writing was (and still is) the absolute truth.

The Bible is the only religious text that invites investigation (John 5:39). Openness to belief must precede the reception of the truth (Acts 2:41; 17:11). Ancient Judaism knew God because they painstakingly scrutinized the written truth He conveyed. The US Senate investigated the events of the Watergate scandal leading to the indictment of sixty-nine people and twenty-five convictions. Conversely, biblical inspiration produces confidence in the truth allowing us to investigate the scriptures even further. So check out the Bible, really! Think about it