The Narrow Path Ministries

i believe in the full inspiration of the scriptures.old and new testaments.as a caller asked on the radio broadcast .steve believes in the new testament as a reliable history account which it is but not inspired by the holy spirit as was the old testament.any one else hold this view.and your reasons why.or am i going insane to belive that the whole of scripture is divine in its origanal manuscripts.?surley god new the new testament would be written.

steve believes in the new testament as a reliable history account which it is but not inspired by the holy spirit as was the old testament.any one else hold this view.and your reasons why.

No, I don't hold that view. I believe you are mistaken about Steve's view. I am sure he believes in the inspiration of the New Testament. As you do, I too believe the writers of the New Testament were inspired by the spirit of God. Sometimes I have wondered about the book of Revelation, however. It has not been established that the apostle John was even the author. The author may have been some other John.

Now let me ask YOU a question. Clement (A.D. 30-100) was the apostle Paul's fellow laborer in the gospel (See Philippians 4:3). He wrote a powerful letter to the Corinthian Church shortly after the deaths of Paul and Peter. Was Clement inspired by the spirit of God to write that letter? If not, what is your reason for thinking so? Is it simply because the church in later centuries didn't include it in their "canon of Scripture"?

In the early church there was considerable disagreement about which books should be included in the "canon." Check out the following site:
http://www.bible-researcher.com/canon.html

It may be a subtle difference, but it is an important distinction. I think Steve would say that the N.T. isn’t inspired in the same way that the OT was in the sense that they don’t claim to be speaking the very words of God as a prophet. So, they might be inspired but are not incapable of error as a prophetic writing would be. They are inspired men writing from their hearts and memories guided by the Spirit but are capable of error and often speak specifically from their own perspective (informed by their witness and the HS) and occasionally are demonstrably wrong on non-doctrinal issues. He would say that their authority doesn’t come as prophets but as apostles. So, even when they speak from their own fallible wisdom they have the authority of Christ but the OT authors’ authority came from their prophetic nature.

Darin, weren't all of Jesus' teachings, instructions, and predictions prophetic? Weren't they the very words of God? The following is but one of many examples of Jesus' prophetic words that could be given:

For as Jonah became a sign to the people of Nineveh, so will the Son of Man be to this generation. The queen of the South will rise up at the judgment with the men of this generation and condemn them, for she came from the ends of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon, and behold, something greater than Solomon is here. The men of Nineveh will rise up at the judgment with this generation and condemn it, for they repented at the preaching of Jonah, and behold, something greater than Jonah is here. (Luke 11:30-32)

Paidion wrote:Darin, weren't all of Jesus' teachings, instructions, and predictions prophetic? Weren't they the very words of God? The following is but one of many examples of Jesus' prophetic words that could be given:

For as Jonah became a sign to the people of Nineveh, so will the Son of Man be to this generation. The queen of the South will rise up at the judgment with the men of this generation and condemn them, for she came from the ends of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon, and behold, something greater than Solomon is here. The men of Nineveh will rise up at the judgment with this generation and condemn it, for they repented at the preaching of Jonah, and behold, something greater than Jonah is here. (Luke 11:30-32)

Yes. But the N.T. wasn’t written by Jesus. The quotes of Jesus, like the OT prophets quoted (though often interpreted or paraphrased) were prophetic, but the other words of the Apostles themselves don’t claim to be.

I listen to Steve as often as I can. He must say all this wacky stuff when he knows I'm not by my radio.

I recently listened to Steve's lectures on Luke, and I believe he said something along the lines that the NT writers were not simply "taking dictation" from the HS. They wrote about what they witnessed directly or were told by someone else. Of course they had the witness of the HS to also guide them. Their accounts are exceedingly reliable for various reasons, but this does not mean they might not make a factual error or slip of the pen