Did the writers of the gospel only write down what the holy spirit told them?

[xdisciplex]

Or does every gospel also have the fingerprint of the writer?
When God dictated them everything which they wrote down then why did they even have to do any research? But the gospels mention that the writers did research,right?

 

[Bunyon]

And Paul mentions several times when the words are comming from himself.

 

[exscentric]

Do a little study on inspiration, dictation is probably not the most popular line of thought. It is more the thought of God moving the men as they were writing, allowing their own style etc. to come through, though the result being scripture.

 

[xdisciplex]

But the bible says that the scriptures are breathed in by God. This doesn't sound like God left them much space for individuality. This sounds like God had them write it down exactly the way he wanted to. But if he did it this way then why did the writers of the gospels even have to do research? If the whole gospels are breathed by God then even somebody who had no knowledge at all could have written it and could have been used by God to write it down.

 

[xdisciplex]

The doctrine of the inspiration of the sacred writings has been a subject of much discussion, and even controversy, among Christians. There are two principal opinions on the subject:

1.That every thought and word were inspired by God, and that the writer did nothing but merely write as the Spirit dictated.

2.That God gave the whole matter, leaving the inspired writers to their own language; and hence the great variety of style and different modes of expression.


What do you believe? 1 or 2?

 

[Jim1999]

The latter is closer to the generally accepted view on inspiration. Whilst the term "God breathed" is used, it does not include dictation. Holy men of God wrote, as they were inspired by God. I am inspired to write a book, but no one is dictating that book to me, else it would be someone else's book.

The greater question is whether each single word is important or is it the thought that tells the whole story. Some of our greatest controversies have come from singling out a particular word and dwelling on that word, when the overall thought of the text conveys a different concept.

Cheers,

Jim

 

[Joseph_Botwinick]

xdisciplex,

I would like to offer to you the following works for further study in the issue of Inerrancy:

The Chicago Statement of Inerrancy

and

Scripture Alone: The Evangelical Doctrine by R.C. Sproul

Sproul's book can be kind of hard to read at times, but if you endure and spend some time with it, I do think it will be profitable for answering some questions about inerrancy you may have.

Joseph Botwinick

 

[xdisciplex]

Yes, this is exactly the problem, Jim.
When the bible itself says that it's the word of God and that it's infallible then this isn't a problem with the original scriptures. But what about our bible translations today? Unless you believe they are also inspired you cannot really say that they are 100% God's word anymore.

Thanks for this link, Joseph.