Description of the Holy Bible – Part 24

Read 2 Pet. 1:16-21
This section is a strong statement on the inspiration of Scripture. Peter affirms that the Old Testament prophets wrote God’s messages. He puts himself and the other apostles in same category, because they also proclaim God’s truth. The Bible is not a collection of fables or human ideas about God. It is God’s very words given through people to people. Peter emphasized his authority as an eyewitness as well as the God-inspired authority of Scripture to prepare the way for his harsh words against the false teachers. If these wicked men were contradicting the apostles and the Bible, their message could not be from God.

“And so we have the prophetic word confirmed, which you do well to heed as a light that shines in a dark place, until the day dawns and the morning star rises in your hearts” (2Pet 1:19) NKJV.“We have also a more sure word of prophecy; whereunto ye do well that ye take heed, as unto a light that shineth in a dark place, until the day dawn, and the day star arise in your hearts” (2 Pet 1:19) KJV

“Day star,” This word (Gkphōsphoros, “bearing or bringing light”) is used only here in the NT. It was sometimes used of the planet Venus and sometimes of the sun itself. Peter uses the verb anatellō, which is used of the sun rising (Mark 16:2), thus confirming that the day star arises in our hearts. Because Jesus lives, a new day dawns in our hearts that becomes brighter and brighter until he comes again and puts an end to the darkness of sin and evil.

Christ is the “morning star,” and when he returns, he will shine in his full glory. Until that day, we have Scripture as a light and the Holy Spirit to illuminate Scripture for us and guide us as we seek the truth. For more on Christ as the morning star, see Luke 1:78; Ephesians 5:14; Revelation 2:28; 22:16.

“A more sure word of prophecy”. Peter contrasts humanistic ideas with God’s Word (v. 16). He goes on to attest to the divine origin of Scripture and affirms that all prophecy originated from God, not from humans (v. 21). This assures us that God’s message is infallible (incapable of mistakes or errors) and inerrant (free from error, falsehood or deceit).

Infallibility and inerrancy cannot be separated, for the inerrancy of Scripture is the result of the infallibility of God’s own word. Scripture in its entirety is true and reliable in all its parts (cf. 2 Sam 23:2; Ps 119:160; Jer 1:7-9; 1 Cor 14:37)
“20konwing this first, that no prophecy of Scripture is of any private interpretation, 21 For prophecy never came by the will of man, but holy men of God spoke as they were moved by the Holy Spirit” (2 Pet 1:20, 21)

“Holy men of God spoke as they were moved by the Holy Spirit” means that scripture did not come from the creative work of the prophets’ own invention or interpretation. God inspired the writers, so their message is authentic and reliable. God used the talents, education, and cultural background of each writer (they were not mindless robots); and God cooperated with the writers in such a way to ensure that the message he intended was faithfully communicated in the very words they wrote.No prophecy in Scripture came about by the writer’s own ideas or reasoning, but came from the Holy Spirit. Holy men of God spoke as they were moved by the Holy Spirit.
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