Welcome to Bible Thoughts Today

Hi all,

Welcome to the newly formatted Bible Thoughts Today. The purpose of this blog is to explore the use of the Bible in contemporary evangelical Christianity, and to explore ways that it can be used more faithfully and effectively.

I will start by sharing a recent experience I had leading a discussion in a college class that I teach. We were talking about the inspiration of Scripture, and I was pleased that they grounded their discussion of inspiration in the role that Scripture played in their lives, that the Bible was our spiritual guide and that it was useful for teaching about how to live the Christian life, very much what 2 Timothy 3:16-17 talks about.

What the class did NOT talk about in almost all cases was the cornerstone to most conservative evangelical statements concerning the inspiration of scripture, that the scripture is inspired in the original manuscripts. The    students seemed to ground their view of inspiration in the infallible teaching authority of the Scriptures, not in the idea of its inerrancy, which seems to be the issue on which conservative evangelical statements concentrate.

I would like to start off the restart of Bible Thoughts Today with a question concerning what evangelical churches are teaching parishioners about inspiration, if anything. In many ways, the college class's approach to inspiration is helpful, as it sidesteps the sticky issue that we no longer have any of the original manuscripts and recognizes the idea that the Bible has made its largest impact on the world through translation.

What have you been taught about the inspiration of Scripture, or for you church leaders, what have you taught the people that God has put under your care?