The Orthodoxy, Modernism, And Neoorthodoxy: The Word Of God
Noah Webster defines inspiration as the process of being mentally stimulated to do or feel something, especially to do something creative. When it comes to inspiration for The Bible and how it came from God to us, there are a few theories. The three theological concepts are: orthodoxy, modernism, and Neoorthodoxy. Each of these movements arose in different successful times of the Church. For much of history, the Orthodox have held sway. The Orthodox believe The Bible is the word of God, while Modernist believe it is merely contains the word of God, and the Neoothodoxy believe scripture is fallible human witness to the word of God (who is Christ).
Looking deeper into the Orthodox belief, we come to understand they believe in God the Father, Jesus Christ the Son, and The Holy Spirit. The Orthodox Church was founded by Jesus Christ and described throughout the New Testament. For eighteen centuries it has prevailed. Orthodox believe scripture is verbally inspired; the written word came by God's own inspiration. With this belief, a question arises: How did God inspire the writers of The Bible? There are two viewpoints, verbal dictation, which …show more content…
means the authors only wrote what God dictated word for word, and inspired concept which means God simply gave the thoughts which the prophets were free to put into their own words. (24)
The second theory is Modernism, also known as liberalism. Modernist believe certain parts of The Bible are divine and true, but other parts are clearly human and in error. They also believe The Bible is a victim of its times, just like any other book. With the modernist belief, three ideas come forth: the illumination view, the intuition view, and the divine lure or resonance view. The illumination view believes "inspired sections" of The Bible result from a kind of divine illumination where God gave profound religious insight to spiritual man. The Intuition view believes there are no divine elements in The Bible; it is simply a Jewish scrapbook of legends, stories, and poems. Lastly, some believe revelation is not supernatural, but only a divine lure or an attempt to persuade man. They see God as an opportunist or improviser seeking everything to magnify His purpose. (25-26)
The last theory is Neoorthodoxy, which began in the twentieth century due to a turn of world events, and influence of the Danish father of existentialism. The two views under this theory are the Demythological view and the personal encounter view. The Demythological view believes The Bible was written in the mythological language of its day, which is passé. Passé means it is no longer fashionable or out of date. They believe The Bible has no revelation at all: it is a basic, mythological illustration where God is personally revealed when correctly demythologized. Those who believe in the view of personal encounter think scripture has some imperfections, but it is the place of God's revelation and He speaks through it. (26-27)
Now let’s take a look at what The Bible says about itself.
The Bible claims to be a divinely authoritative book resulting from a process where spirit-moved men wrote God breathed words (28). The inspiration is verbal, plenary, and it gives authority. The men who wrote scripture were authors and composers, not merely secretaries and stenographers (29). 2 Peter 1:21 says, “For prophecy never had its origin in the human will, but prophets, though human, spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit.” The truth is, much if The Bible is historical; it underlines facts, times, and dates. Things like creation, the virgin birth, the crucifixion, and the resurrection involve matters that are fact. The Bible is not a scientific textbook or a scholar history book, but it does speak of both scientific and historical
matters.
Honestly, if The Bible is not correct in factual and empirical matters which are verifiable, then how could it be trusted in spiritual matters which are subject to tests (34)? In John 3:2 Jesus states, “I have spoken to you of earthly things and you do not believe; how then will you believe if I speak of heavenly things?”
Looking deeper into the Orthodox belief, we come to understand they believe in God the Father, Jesus Christ the Son, and The Holy Spirit. The Orthodox Church was founded by Jesus Christ and described throughout the New Testament. For eighteen centuries it has prevailed. Orthodox believe scripture is verbally inspired; the written word came by God's own inspiration. With this belief, a question arises: How did God inspire the writers of The Bible? There are two viewpoints, verbal dictation, which …show more content…
means the authors only wrote what God dictated word for word, and inspired concept which means God simply gave the thoughts which the prophets were free to put into their own words. (24)
The second theory is Modernism, also known as liberalism. Modernist believe certain parts of The Bible are divine and true, but other parts are clearly human and in error. They also believe The Bible is a victim of its times, just like any other book. With the modernist belief, three ideas come forth: the illumination view, the intuition view, and the divine lure or resonance view. The illumination view believes "inspired sections" of The Bible result from a kind of divine illumination where God gave profound religious insight to spiritual man. The Intuition view believes there are no divine elements in The Bible; it is simply a Jewish scrapbook of legends, stories, and poems. Lastly, some believe revelation is not supernatural, but only a divine lure or an attempt to persuade man. They see God as an opportunist or improviser seeking everything to magnify His purpose. (25-26)
The last theory is Neoorthodoxy, which began in the twentieth century due to a turn of world events, and influence of the Danish father of existentialism. The two views under this theory are the Demythological view and the personal encounter view. The Demythological view believes The Bible was written in the mythological language of its day, which is passé. Passé means it is no longer fashionable or out of date. They believe The Bible has no revelation at all: it is a basic, mythological illustration where God is personally revealed when correctly demythologized. Those who believe in the view of personal encounter think scripture has some imperfections, but it is the place of God's revelation and He speaks through it. (26-27)
Now let’s take a look at what The Bible says about itself.
The Bible claims to be a divinely authoritative book resulting from a process where spirit-moved men wrote God breathed words (28). The inspiration is verbal, plenary, and it gives authority. The men who wrote scripture were authors and composers, not merely secretaries and stenographers (29). 2 Peter 1:21 says, “For prophecy never had its origin in the human will, but prophets, though human, spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit.” The truth is, much if The Bible is historical; it underlines facts, times, and dates. Things like creation, the virgin birth, the crucifixion, and the resurrection involve matters that are fact. The Bible is not a scientific textbook or a scholar history book, but it does speak of both scientific and historical
matters.
Honestly, if The Bible is not correct in factual and empirical matters which are verifiable, then how could it be trusted in spiritual matters which are subject to tests (34)? In John 3:2 Jesus states, “I have spoken to you of earthly things and you do not believe; how then will you believe if I speak of heavenly things?”