Last week we covered the Revelation of the Bible...this week,Inspiration and Illumination.
Inspiration means...
that God wrote the Bible through people (they are His words)
that the Holy Spirit is the author
that God's word is the final authority (when you're in conflict...God's word always wins out)
that the Bible is completely inerrant
Illumination - supernatural ministry and influence of the Holy Spirit that enables believers to understand the Bible.
This does not mean that non-believers do not understand the words of the Bible, just that the Holy Spirit does not live within them therefore, they will not understand the words' meaning in their life.
Illumination always begins with God, but you have to be sensitive to it.
There was also a question from last week about the apocrypha - what it is and why it is in the Catholic Bible but not the Christian Bible.
The apocrypha is a "set" of history books and writings that were written in the 400 years between the Old Testament and the New Testament. They were not inspired by God and are not included in the Christian Bible because (#1) the Jews never accepted these writings, (#2) the apocrypha never claims to be inspired by God, and (#3) is is never quoted as authoritative in scripture.
I can't wait until next session when we dive into God. How do we know he exists? and questions like that.
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