By

Shelby G. Floyd

Simon Peter claims the authorship of his second letter written to the persecuted Christians who were scattered abroad:

2 Peter 3:1-2
This is now the second letter that I am writing to you, beloved. In both of them I am stirring up your sincere mind by way of reminder, 2 that you should remember the predictions of the holy prophets and the commandment of the Lord and Savior through your apostles,
ESV

Peter wants his readers to remember what was said by the Old Testament prophets and the apostles of Jesus Christ, as well as what the Lord spoke. It is always good to have our memory jogged.

One of the important issues that Peter reminded them was that we have “a more sure word of prophecy.” (2 Peter 1:19). The prophetic word did not come from a “private unloosing” of their mind to originate the message: “knowing this first, that no prophecy of Scripture is of any private interpretation, for prophecy never came by the will of man, but holy men of God spoke as they were moved by the Holy Spirit” (2 Peter 1:20-21 NKJV).

The key word here is “interpretation” from [epilusis], and is defined as “a loosening, unloosing” and metaphorically, “interpretation” (Thayer, page 240). If the prophets and apostles did not privately unloose the word of God, then their message was revealed and inspired as they “spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit” (2 Peter 1:21). This means that the Bible is the product of divine revelation and inspiration (2 Timothy 3:16-17).

The apostle Paul expressed the proper attitude which all men should hold toward the Holy Scriptures. Paul believed that what he taught the churches was the inspired word of God. When he wrote the church at Thessalonica, he thanked God without ceasing because they had received his teaching as the word of God: “For this cause also thank we God without ceasing, because, when ye received the word of God which ye heard of us, ye received it not as the word of men, but as it is in truth, the word of God, which effectually worketh also in you that believe” (1 Thessalonians 2:13, KJV). Paul’s teaching then was the word of God because Paul was inspired of God.

The Bible unequivocally claims to be the inspired word of God. However, the word inspiration conveys different ideas to different men. Modernists will tell one that the Bible is inspired, but they mean by this that the Bible is inspired only in the sense that it gives evidence of literary genius, such as, the writings of Milton, Shakespeare and Browning, and others who were truly outstanding men of literature.

Let us then accept, believe and obey the “more sure word of prophecy” vouchsafed to us by the Holy Spirit sent down from heaven.

Copyright © 2015 Shelby G. Floyd, All Rights Reserved

Shelby G. Floyd
Heartland Church of Christ
1693 West Main Street
Greenwood, Indiana