Date: Mon, 10 Aug 1998 06:38:43 GMT
From:  (Nigel B. Mitchell)
Subject: Prophecy and Inspiration
Newsgroups: aus.religion.christian

(2 Peter 1:20-21 NRSV) … no prophecy of scripture is a matter of
one’s own interpretation, because no prophecy ever came by human will,
but men and women moved by the Holy Spirit spoke from God.

When Christian people read the Bible, we usually ascribe some sort
of label to it, like "This is the word of the Lord",
"God’s Holy word", even the "Word of God" (with
capital letters just to make the point really clear). But what do we
mean by this?

There is a tradition of reading the Bible as literally "God’s
word to us" – like the bumper sticker that says "God said it,
I believe it, that settles it". This way of reading scripture,
sometimes called ‘fundamentalism’ or ‘literalism’, assumes that the text
of the Bible was given to the Biblical authors as a perfect and complete
text which contains no errors or contradictions, requires no
interpretation, and allows for no deviation.

Of course, for those who read the Bible in this way, there is no
question that the laws of scripture are all binding, the stories of
scripture are all true accounts of what actually happened, and the
prophecies contained in scripture all validate what has already
happened, or predict without error what will happen in the future, or
sometimes both.

If a simple reader, theologian, Bible scholar, or scientist finds a
contradiction or an error within the Scriptures, or a discrepancy
between what we observe in the world and what is written in the text of
Scriptures, then it is clear that those people are wrong, and they need
to study the Scriptures more closely, and forget about all that other
stuff they have learnt, if they really want to find the truth. So the
fundamentalist or literalist tradition of reading the Bible would have
us believe.

The words of 2 Peter, that no prophecy of scripture is a matter of
one’s own interpretation, but the work of "men and women moved by
the Holy Spirit [to speak] from God", are sometimes quoted in
support of this view. Another text that is often used is (2 Timothy 3:16
NRSV) All scripture is inspired by God and is useful for teaching, for
reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness,

But is being inspired or moved by the Holy Spirit to speak from God
the same as writing an infallible account of eternal truth? Most people
would say ‘no’ – in fact most people would not even ask the question.

I would like to tackle this topic by looking at two words that
appear often in the Bible, and are inescapable in any discussion of how
Christians should read, use and understand the Scriptures. Those words
are "Inspiration" and "Prophecy".

I suspect that the fundamentalist/literalist tradition of reading
the Bible is about the only context in which the word
"inspiration" is taken to imply a fixed, literal, one-to-one
correlation between the source of the inspiration and the output of the
inspired person. But that is a very unusual use of the word
‘inspiration’. There are two common uses of the word ‘inspiration’ in
the English language, and given that these two uses are paralleled in
the meaning of the corresponding Greek word, it is appropriate for us to
use them both in regard to the inspiration of scripture.

The most common use of the word "inspiration" is in
relation to ideas, structures, and works of art. John Howard our Prime
Minister says that his inspiration comes from his predecessor, Robert
Gordon Menzies. The Architect of the Sydney Opera House was inspired by
the sails of boats on the Sydney Harbour. Art students spend hours in
galleries, looking at the work of the great masters, and seeking
inspiration for their own work.

But John Howard is not Bob Menzies, you need a fair bit of
imagination to see the sailing boats in the Sydney Opera House (well, I
do, anyway), and it is generally considered undesirable for art students
to produce exact copies of the works of the great masters in their own
work. "Inspiration" means influence, and it can involve the
recycling of ideas and images and ways of approaching a problem, but it
does and should not imply an exact copy; nor does it involve removing
the personality, creativity and experience of the person who is
inspired.

The other use of the word "Inspiration" is in relation to
breathing. Inspiration and expiration is what keeps us all alive.
>From the first book of Genesis, through to the ministry of Jesus and
beyond, the Bible sustains a deliberate play on words which relies on
the fact that the Greek and Hebrew words for "Spirit" can also
mean "wind" and "Breath". The wind (or Spirit) of
God moves over the waters in Genesis 1. The Breath (or Spirit) of God is
breathed into the man created n Genesis 2. Jesus breathed on his
disciples and said "Receive the Holy Spirit" in John 20, the
author of the second letter to Timothy tells us that all scripture is
inspired (or Breathed) by God, and the author of the second letter of
Peter tells us that the work of prophecy is moved by the Spirit (or
breath) of God.

As far as I can understand it, the fundamentalist/ literalist way of
understanding inspiration is that God breathed his Holy Spirit into the
authors of scripture, filling them up with exactly everything that God
wanted them to put in their various books, and the authors ‘breathed
out’, as it were, by writing down exactly what the Spirit had given
them, no more, no less, and no room for error.

But I think that such a view misses something very important.
Breathing is not something you do just once. It is not an event – it is
a process. When God put the spirit of life in the first creatures, and
the first human beings, they did not just breathe once – they started
breathing, and continued doing so until they died.

When Jesus breathed on his disciples and said "receive the Holy
Spirit", he was not giving a once- and- for- all gift to those
particular disciples gathered there in the upper room; he was fulfilling
his promise that the Spirit of God would come upon the Church as
comforter and guide, and be with us forever.

When the Holy Spirit inspired the authors of the Bible, both the
ancient Jewish prophets and the apostles and other authors of the New
Testament, he began a process of writing, authorising, promulgating and
interpreting the Scriptures which continues to this day. The authors
wrote about what they had experienced, and their understanding of God.
The Priests of the Temple, Jewish Rabbis, and councils of the Church,
decided which books should be regarded as "scripture", and the
work of interpreting the Scriptures goes on in Churches, Synagogues,
classrooms, lecture theatres, across dining room tables, on the
internet, and in the private study and prayers of people of faith to
this day.

The inspiration – the breath of God – was not a single event
experienced solely by the Biblical authors; rather it is something which
goes on, like breathing, and keeps the faith of those who read the
Scriptures alive to this day.

If inspiration is the source of our Scriptures, prophecy is the word
we use for a significant part of what is contained in the various books
of the Bible. In common English the word "prophecy" is usually
understood as meaning the same thing as "predicting the
future", but in the Bible the word refers to proclaiming the words
and will of God. Sometimes Prophecy involves promises and warnings in
relation to future events, but it is never a straight-out, non-
negotiable "this is what is going to happen". An easy way of
remembering the distinction is to say that Prophecy is not so much
FORE-telling as FORTH-telling.

When the author of the second letter of Peter wrote about prophecy,
s/he was not referring to the source of prophecy, but rather to the way
that it should be interpreted.

We are reminded (verse 19) that prophecy is like a lamp shining in a
dark place – it is given to us by God to lead us home. But the crucial
thing is that no-one can hear or read the words of prophecy and claim
that they have a full and perfect understanding. One person’s
interpretation is just that; one person’s interpretation.

It is not the interpretation of one person that matters, but that of
_people_ (note the plural – men in the original Greek, men and women in
the politically correct NRSV) moved by the Holy Spirit which proceeds
from God. (some of the oldest surviving manuscripts have "Holy men
of God spoke" in verse 21).

In other words, it is the church, the community of faith, the holy
ones of God, who interpret and expound scripture, and forthtell the
words of God to the world. This is what happened in history – once the
authors of the New testament had written their letters and books, it
took nearly 400 years for the Church to reach a consensus on which books
should be included, and which books should be excluded from the Bible.

Prophecy is not something that stopped in the Hebrew Scriptures, nor
did it stop after the ministry of Jesus or the writing of the book of
revelation. The work of prophecy – forthtelling the words and will of
God – is the vocation of every Christian. Prophecy is proclaiming the
word of God – Jesus Christ to the world. The written text of the Bible
is one of the most important tools and resources in this proclamation,
but the community of faith and the ongoing breathing of the Holy Spirit
in the Church are also essential to make prophecy real in the world
today.

This is the draft of a sermon I will be preaching at Solemn Evensong
on Sunday 16 August at 5:00 pm in St George’s Cathedral, Perth. If you
are in Perth and you want to come along and see me sing, wave incense
about, and preach, you would be very welcome.

I will also be using this material as the basis of a talk on
"The Ancient Vocation of Prophecy" with the UWA branch of the
Australian Student Christian Movement at 1pm, on Tuesday 18 August in
the New Prayer Room, 2nd floor, Guild Building, UWA. I am assuming that
the meeting will follow the usual ASCM pattern of talk, discussion, and
further discussion over a few drinks at the Uni Tavern.

Constructive comments are welcome. Deconstruction, cries of
"rationalistic liberal rubbish", mouse-pouncing, etc. are
welcome too (as if I had any choice).

Cheers

N+

Nigel B. Mitchell