Page 27 - Bibliology - Textbook w videos short

Mysticism
This view states that the books of the Bible were written by natural geniuses
who were mystically inspired by God to write a great work, much like the
writings of other great Christian books. There is a wide range of Christian
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literature from the 5 to the 17 century which can with propriety be
described as inspired writings. For example, John Bunyan’s, Pilgrim’s Progress,
has inspired thousands who have read it to walk a clear path to God. In this
view, any Christian, if illuminated by the Holy Spirit, could author inspired
Scripture. Those who hold this view teach that it is the writers who are
inspired, not the writings themselves.

Neo-orthodoxy
This view holds that the Bible is not the Word of God, but the Bible becomes
the Word of God through a special encounter when God speaks to a person in
some kind of subjective experience. In other words, the Bible witnesses to the
Word of God, but is not the Word of God. They believe that the historicity of
the events in unimportant. For example, whether or not Christ actually rose
from the dead in time and space is really not important. The import thing is the experiential encounter
that is possible even though the Bible may be tainted with factual errors. The authority of Scripture is in
the subjective experience of the individual rather than in the Scriptures themselves.

Basically, neo-orthodoxy teaches us that the Bible points to Christ, whether he is real or not. They
believe Christ comes from the Bible and experiencing Him is all that is important.

In response to this argument, if the Bible has errors in it, then the portrait of Christ is erroneous. And
regardless of whether a person responds or has an encounter with Christ through the Bible, the Bible
remains the objective and authoritative Word of God. The Bible is outside of us. It is the objective truth
whether we believe it or not, or whether we experience it or not. The revelation of God to man can be
experienced, but whether man experiences it or not, it remains true.

Conceptual Inspiration
This view says that the big concepts or ideas present in the Bible are inspired, but not the words. He left
the words up to the authors of each book. The problem with this view is that it flies in the face of both
Jesus and Paul as they affirmed the concept of verbal inspiration in Matthew 5:18 and Galatians 3:16.

Partial Inspiration
The partial inspiration theory teaches that some parts of the Bible are inspired and some parts are not.
Normally the person who holds this position makes the decision of what is not inspired based on what
his personal preferences are. The person holding this view generally relates the matters of salvation and
faith as inspired, but the parts that deal with history, science, chronology, and other “non-faith” matters
may be allegorical or perhaps in error.

The partialists reject both verbal and plenary inspiration, but hold that the Bible holds significance in
guiding mankind to salvation or knowing who God is. However, this position has real problems. Charles
Ryrie writes (Charles C. Ryrie, Basic Theology, Victor Books, Wheaton, IL, 1987):

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