The Bible is the greatest book ever written. It claims inspiration. Some twenty five hundred times the term "thus saith the Lord" or a similar phrase is found in the Bible. Yet attacks have always been made against it. Some have been open and outright; others, more subtle. Either the Bible is divine in its origin or it is simply human in origin. There is no other possibility. If it came from man, then it either came from bad men or from good men. It is false that it came from bad men. The Bible condemns the thief, the liar, the hypocrite, etc. from beginning to end. It is not man's nature to be self-condemning. It is not possible that it came from uninspired good men. If uninspired men wrote it they lied, because it claims from beginning to the end to be the word of God. Liars are not good men! Since there are no other possibilities, we know that it is from God.
It is not reasonably possible that forty uninspired men, from varying backgrounds, and scattered across some sixteen hundred years in time, could have designed some sixty-six books which accidentally came together in such a way as to become the Bible. Therefore, we know these authors, from a variety of cultural and educational backgrounds, writing in three different languages (Hebrew, Aramaic, Greek), to produce the Bible were inspired of God. So when we read: "All scripture is given by inspiration of God..." (II Tim. 3:16-17), we know that there is no scripture that is not inspired of God. To say that the Bible is verbally inspired, is to say that inspiration extends to every word of the Bible.
None of the men that have translated the Bible into different languages were inspired. But if it fully and accurately reflects the mind of the Spirit as revealed to those chosen by the Lord, it is as inspired as the original text. Unfortunately some of the modern speech translations (not all) fail on this point. Some cunningly insert the creeds and doctrines of men and call it the Bible.
The design of this study is to do as the inspired John instructed in I John 4:1. "Beloved, believe not every spirit, but try the spirits whether they are of God...." Christ instructed: "Take heed that no man deceive you" (Matt. 24:4). To try a person as instructed, we compare what he teaches with what God said. If it is found to be false we must reject. When one fails to compare, he is easily "deceive."
I have a copy of a tract, entitled "Baptismal Regeneration and Bible Salvation," written by Dennis W. Costella, and put on the internet by Kelly Condron. It is available from the Fundamental Evangelistic Association, Los Osos, CA. When it is tried by the word of God, it comes up short of the truth.
Mr. Costella states: "I Peter 3:21 is another verse often used by the baptismal regenerationist. But notice carefully the actual wording and the context. Noah and his family were not saved by water...". Peter said in I Peter 3:20: "...Noah, while the ark was a preparing, wherein few, that is, eight souls were saved by water." I Pet. 3:21 says "...baptism doth also now save us...". In Gen. 2:17, we read where God commanded: "But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for the day thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die." But the serpent told Eve: Ye shall not surely die." We all know the results of her eating of the tree. Mr. Costella says: Noah was NOT saved by water!!! Peter said he was saved by water, and he also said, "We ought to obey God rather than men" (Acts 5:29).
"If any man speak, let him speak as the oracles of God" (I Pet. 4:11).
Don H. Noblin
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