Welcome to Defenders, the teaching class of Dr. William Lane Craig. Today, the Doctrine of Revelation

Part 7. For more information and resources from Dr. Craig, go to reasonable faith.org.

We've been talking about the doctrine of the inspiration of scripture, and last time I presented a model for the inspiration

of Scripture which enables us to affirm that scriptural inspiration is plenary, verbal,

and confluent. And the key to this was God's so-called middle knowledge. That is to say,

God knows what every person would freely do if he were placed in any circumstances in which God might

create him.

So by choosing a certain set of circumstances and placing people like Paul or Luke or John

in those circumstances, God knew exactly what they would write.

And then he appropriates this human writing to become His Word

to us. It is via that human speech that God speaks to us as His inspired word. Is there

any question or discussion about that model for understanding inspiration before we go on

to look at the subject of the authority of Scripture?

All right, then we'll proceed to the next point on your outline, which is the authority

of Scripture. If God has appropriated these human

writings like the Gospels and the Epistles of the New Testament to be His Word to us,

then that means that God's word carries the authority of God itself. It is God's

communication to us and therefore speaks to us with divine authority. And therefore, what God says

to us is true.

God communicates to us what He wants us to believe and think about these matters that

are important to him and that He wants to communicate to us.

One of the implications of this would be the inerrancy of the Bible.

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