The Double Authorship of the Bible - The View of John R. W. Stott
I wonder sometimes what it must of been like for the Apostles to write the New Testament. What it must of been like and how it all happened. We read the Scriptures and know that it is "God-breathed" and the very words of God, yet we also know that humans wrote it down. Therefore, in a sense, there is this double authorship of the Scriptures. John Stott explains it amazingly in his book "The Contemporary Christian:"
"The same Scripture which says 'the mouth of the Lord has spoken' also says that God spoke 'by the mouth of the holy prophets'. Out of whose mouth did Scripture come, then? God's or man's? The only biblical answer is 'both'. Indeed, God spoke through human authors in such a way that his words were simultaneously their words, and their words were simultaneously his. This is the double authorship of the Bible. Scripture is equally the Word of God and the words of human beings. Better, it is the Word of God through the words of human beings."
He goes on to say this: "Thus on the one hand God spoke, determining what he wanted to say, yet without smothering the personality of the human authors. On the other hand, human beings spoke, using their faculties freely, yet without distorting the truth which God was speaking through them."
Read the full story at www.VirtueOnline.org
I wonder sometimes what it must of been like for the Apostles to write the New Testament. What it must of been like and how it all happened. We read the Scriptures and know that it is "God-breathed" and the very words of God, yet we also know that humans wrote it down. Therefore, in a sense, there is this double authorship of the Scriptures. John Stott explains it amazingly in his book "The Contemporary Christian:"
"The same Scripture which says 'the mouth of the Lord has spoken' also says that God spoke 'by the mouth of the holy prophets'. Out of whose mouth did Scripture come, then? God's or man's? The only biblical answer is 'both'. Indeed, God spoke through human authors in such a way that his words were simultaneously their words, and their words were simultaneously his. This is the double authorship of the Bible. Scripture is equally the Word of God and the words of human beings. Better, it is the Word of God through the words of human beings."
He goes on to say this: "Thus on the one hand God spoke, determining what he wanted to say, yet without smothering the personality of the human authors. On the other hand, human beings spoke, using their faculties freely, yet without distorting the truth which God was speaking through them."
Read the full story at www.VirtueOnline.org
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