The Phenomena of Scripture and Inspiration

So far we have examined what the Scripture says about itself and the contribution of the writings of E. G. White to the topic of revelation/inspiration. Some prefer to define the doctrine of revelation/inspiration primarily on the basis of the phenomena of Scripture (the characteristics of the Bible), that is to say, their approach is inductive. ^{37On this topic, see Ekkehardt Mueller, “The Revelation, Inspiration, and Authority of the Scripture,” Ministry, April 2000, 21-25.} They concentrate on what they consider to be the human aspect of Scripture, the apparent mistakes and the strong presence of cultural elements in the biblical text, and conclude that the divine element is found behind the text itself (e.g., in the thoughts inspired by God or in the values that the text promotes). Any other information found in the Bible is suspect.GOP 93.1

We began with the self-testimony of Scripture concerning its nature, and we formulated our understanding of revelation/inspiration on the basis of those claims. However, we cannot ignore the phenomena of Scripture, what we find there as we read it. We need to take into consideration both elements without making the phenomena our primary source of information for defining the revelation/inspiration process. ^{38Ibid., 22.} It is important to deal with the fact that in the Bible we do find some minor discrepancies and difficulties. Since those elements are found in the Scripture as we have received it, we must acknowledge that the revelation/inspiration process does not always exclude them. That being the case, we need to examine the phenomena of Scripture in order to determine whether or not, or to what extent, they impact our understanding of the revelation/inspiration of the Bible as defined by Scripture itself. ^{39It could be suggested that the presence of discrepancies belong to the realm of biblical hermeneutics and not to the doctrine of revelation/inspiration. But wherever we assign them for analysis, we will argue that they should not. be used to identify and distinguish between what is inspired and what is not inspired in the Bible. It would appear that “the human and the divine in Scripture are not complementary. They are integrated” (ibid., 24).}GOP 93.2