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Are the Scriptures Inspired By God?

Posted March 22, 2011

Hi Y____,

I watched this video, and it questions the inspiration of scripture. Videos like this are designed to shake the faith of those who faith is designed and predestined to be shaken.

Here is one of the two verses this video questions.

Mat 27:9 Then was fulfilled that which was spoken by Jeremy the prophet, saying, And they took the thirty pieces of silver, the price of him that was valued, whom they of the children of Israel did value;

There are two explanations for why Matthew attributes this prophecy found in Zechariah to Jeremiah. Here are those explanations from Barnes Commentary:

"In ancient times, according to the Jewish writers; “Jeremiah” was reckoned the first of the prophets, and was placed first in the “Book of the Prophets,” thus: Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Isaiah, and the twelve minor prophets."

The second explanation is that a one letter scribal error would change Zechariah to Jeremiah.

"Others have thought that there was a mistake made by ancient transcribers, writing the name Jeremiah instead of Zechariah; and it is observed that this might be done by the change of only a single letter."

If whole verses like 1Jn 5:7 have been inserted into the text, it is certainly possible for a single letter to be miscopied. Only a prejudiced critic would find that to amount to proving the Bible to be a book written by mere men, without the inspiration of the holy spirit.

2Pe 1:20 Knowing this first, that no prophecy of the scripture is of any private interpretation.
2Pe 1:21 For the prophecy came not in old time by the will of man: but holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost.

So changing the very meaning of words like 'aion' which originally meant a period of time with a beginning and and end, into a word meaning eternity, which has no beginning or end, is actually and deliberately being used of our Lord to deceive the masses. The poor composer of this video has no hope of delivering himself from the strong delusion our Lord has placed upon him for the present.

As for Mat 2:23:

Mat 2:23 And he came and dwelt in a city called Nazareth: that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the prophets, He shall be called a Nazarene.

This plainly says "the prophets", not any particular prophet. What we are being told is that the general sense of all the prophecies of "the prophets" is that the Christ "will be called a Nazarene".

Here is Barnes again on this verse:

"The character of the people of Nazareth was such that they were proverbially despised and contemned, Joh 1:46; Joh 7:52. To come from Nazareth, therefore, or to be a Nazarene, was the same as to be despised, or to be esteemed of low birth; to be a root out of dry ground, having no form or comeliness. This was what had been predicted by all the prophets. When Matthew says, therefore, that the prophecies were “fulfilled,” his meaning is, that the predictions of the prophets that he would be of a low and despised condition, and would be rejected, were fully accomplished in his being an inhabitant of Nazareth, and despised as such."

Christ and all of his disciples were considered to be "ignorant and unlearned" men.

Act 4:13 Now when they saw the boldness of Peter and John, and perceived that they were unlearned and ignorant men, they marvelled; and they took knowledge of them, that they had been with Jesus.

Not because they were any of them illiterate, but simply because none of them, had been "brought up at the feet of Gamaliel" as Saul of Tarsus was before he became the apostle Paul. This is exactly how all the great scholars of Christendom view you and me. We are called to be despised and rejected by this world, just as was our Lord.

1Jn 4:17 Herein is our love made perfect, that we may have boldness in the day of judgment: because as he is, so are we in this world.

I do not believe any of this will shake your faith as it will many others.

Your brother in Christ,

Mike