The Pentecostal distinctive

 A lot has been written about the inerrancy of the Bible. On the one hand there are those who emphasise the fact that the 66 books of the Bible were written by fallible humans. On the other hand some say every word was inspired by God.

If my source is correct, Muslims believe that the Quran was dictated directly to Muhammad word for word by an angel. That would be why only the Arabic text is regarded as perfectly reliable. Bob Dylan claimed to have written the anthemic protest song ‘Blowin’ in the Wind’ in a matter of minutes. When asked by Ed Bradley in 2004 how he wrote the song he said it was from “that wellspring of creativity”.

All of us who regularly pray in a language unknown to ourselves know that at such a time our minds are “unfruitful”, in the words of Paul (1 Corinthians 14:14). We also know that when we prophesy, our minds are not completely unfruitful. That is the reason why Paul said prophesies need to be judged. When our brains are engaged we are prone to making mistakes.

Peter said the prophets of old tried “to find out the time and circumstances to which the Spirit of Christ in them was pointing” and that  “it was revealed to them that they were not serving themselves but you” (1 Peter 1:11-12). Clearly, those prophets did not understand everything they received from the Holy Spirit. A typical example would be David's words “they cast lots for my garment” (Psalm 22:18).

But Luke wrote his gospel after he had “carefully investigated everything from the beginning” (Luke 1:3). His mind was obviously very engaged in his endeavour  “to write an orderly account”. We have to conclude that there is a spectrum of possibilities when one speaks for God. In the Bible the human and the divine cannot always be distinguished.

I do think most Pentecostals and Charismatics will agree that the process by which the Canon of the Bible was compiled was inspired by God. There were and still are many books that have an element of inspiration, for example the apocrypha. I believe this very article I am now writing is inspired by the Almighty. But the 66 books we regard as final authority will not change.