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Tom said:
One thought I had about this issue, is that I don’t know of any Conservative theologians that hold to his view. If I am correct only liberal theologians have his view.
Am I correct about this?
I know of no conservative Christian, never mind theologian who denies verbal plenary inspiration.

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Then, Tom has One more thing to add
He said he believes the word "inspired" should be taken in the same manner that someone would be inspired to write someone’s life story. In this case God "inspired" the writers of scripture to write what they are told down, in their own words and with their own human faults.

Personally I think this view make the Bible somehow less than "God's Word".
Yet he is more comforted by it than the verbal plenary inspiration view, or as he would call it "the dictation view".
His definition of the historic Christian Church in regard to "inspiration" is woefully in error. The Scriptures are more than clear what "inspiration" means:


2 Peter 1:19-21 (ASV) "And we have the word of prophecy [made] more sure; whereunto ye do well that ye take heed, as unto a lamp shining in a dark place, until the day dawn, and the day-star arise in your hearts: knowing this first, that no prophecy of scripture is of private interpretation. For no prophecy ever came by the will of man: but men spake from God, being moved by the Holy Spirit."


Peter makes clear that those men who wrote Scripture did not do so out of an "inner desire and/or motivation", but rather they wrote as the Holy Spirit "moved" them, i.e., they were guided by the Holy Spirit to write those things which God determined should be revealed. His view sounds very much neo-orthodox; the writers of Scripture are simply "witnesses" of what they saw and experienced and nothing more. Thus, their writings are fallible. How far he embraces Barthianism (neo-orthodoxy) cannot be known at this point.

It is true that God did "dictate" certain portions of holy writ, e.g., the creation and much of what took place before Moses. But the majority of Scripture certainly wasn't dictated.

For the historic Christian view on inspiration and related subjects, see the articles located here: Sola Scriptura.

In His grace,

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simul iustus et peccator

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