Quotable Quote: Gordon H. Clark on Verbal/Plenary Inspiration

The Neo-orthodox writers, as well as the modernists, intend to deny that the Bible is the Word of God. Moses and Jeremiah may have received revelations, these writers say; but these revelations may have consisted only of historical events, or possibly of subjective emotions, but not of words. Thus the Bible becomes a record of Moses’ experience rather than a verbally inspired message.  -- Gordon H. Clark

Toward the end of the nineteenth century a phrase came into use for the purpose of minimizing and in fact denying plenary inspiration. The modernists often said that the Bible “contains” the Word of God. Of course in one sense this is true. The Bible contains the Gospel of John, for example, and this Gospel, or at least chapter 14, is God’s Word. Thus the Bible contains the Word of God. But this is not what the modernists meant. They meant that some of the Bible is not God’s Word. And because the phrase was true in one sense, it served as a diplomatic disguise for modernistic intention. Few Bible believers are any longer deceived by this language. They know that “the Bible contains the Word of God” is intended as a denial that “the Bible is the Word of God.”

But now in the middle of the twentieth century, modernism has become somewhat antiquated, and Neo-orthodoxy has taken its place. This movement has invented a new deceptive phrase. The Neo-orthodox people say that the Bible is a record of God’s revelation. This phrase is also true in a sense. God revealed himself to Moses and to Jeremiah, and the Bible is the record of those events. This true sense, however, is a deceptive disguise to cover a repudiation of the Biblical position. The Neo-orthodox writers, as well as the modernists, intend to deny that the Bible is the Word of God. Moses and Jeremiah may have received revelations, these writers say; but these revelations may have consisted only of historical events, or possibly of subjective emotions, but not of words. Thus the Bible becomes a record of Moses’ experience rather than a verbally inspired message.

At the present time many people are still deceived by this Neo-orthodox phrase. No doubt, in the future, recognition of its anti-Biblical meaning will become common. In the meantime, attention must be patiently called to all the passages quoted above. They show that the Bible does not regard itself as a mere record of a past revelation. It is the revelation itself. It is itself the Word of God. It is the written words that God inspired. It is the Writings that cannot be broken.

Gordon Clark (2011-07-02T18:48:21+00:00). God's Hammer: The Bible and Its Critics (Gordon Clark) (Kindle Locations 338-355). The Trinity Foundation. Kindle Edition.