Inspiration by Dr. Abidan Shah

INSPIRATION by Dr. Shah, Clearview Church, Henderson, NC

Introduction:  There’s an urban legend out there about a man, his car, and vanilla ice cream. By the way, an urban legend is a tall tale with a small truth. There is a small truth in this story. One day a famous car company received a complaint from a man that his car did not like vanilla ice cream. Of course, they dismissed it as a prank, but the man wrote back – the car does not start when he gets vanilla ice cream, but if it’s any other flavor, then its fine. So, just to play along, they sent an engineer to check on it. Sure enough, first day, he got vanilla and it didn’t start. Next day, he got chocolate/strawberry and it started right up! Day after, vanilla and it didn’t start! He called back to the head office and said that its true! The next day, he decided to investigate the matter further. He began to document every detail of the man’s routine. Then, he realized what was happening. The engine was experiencing a vapor lock, a problem that happened when liquid fuel became gas in the fuel delivery system of the old engines, unlike the fuel injection ones of todat. It would obstruct the fuel pump causing a loss of power. Given a few extra minutes, the obstruction would clear and it would start up. The reason it didn’t start right away when the man got vanilla ice cream was because vanilla ice cream being popular had plenty of tubs and easily accessible. He had to wait for the attendant to bring him the other flavors and it gave more time for the fuel to vaporize. It had nothing to do with the flavor of ice cream. The point is this – he sort of had a correct diagnosis of the problem, but a completely wrong prescription. We are in our apologetics series called CONTEND and we are looking at what makes the Bible different from other religious books. Main point: For a book to be inspired, it should provide more than just the correct diagnosis of the human problem. It should also provide the correct prescription. The Bible is the only book that provides both. It not only tells us that we are lost in sin, but it also points us to God’s Savior named Jesus.

2 Timothy 3:16 All Scripture is given by inspiration of God…”

Context: Paul wrote those very important words to Timothy, his son in the ministry. “All Scripture” = pasa graphe. Some scholars believe that this refers only to the Old Testament and others believe that it refers to both the Old and New Testament. I believe that even if Paul didn’t mean this at that point, by process of deduction from 2 Peter 3, we can claim that it includes both the Old and the New Testament – 15 “and consider that the longsuffering of our Lord is salvation—as also our beloved brother Paul, according to the wisdom given to him, has written to you, 16 as also in all his epistles, speaking in them of these things, in which are some things hard to understand, which untaught and unstable people twist to their own destruction, as they do also the rest of the Scriptures.” Here the questions are brought up:

• Can other religious books claim to be Inspired?
• Can there be truth in other religious books?

Keep in mind our chart in this miniseries. Last weekend, we focused on Revelation and the difference between how the Bible was given and how the Quran was given. This weekend, we will focus on INSPIRATION and whether there is any truth in the Hindu religious books.

Nature of the books:

1. Hindu Religious Books (taken from Timothy Tennent and others):

• No human authorship and historical origins of the most sacred texts.
• True knowledge is eternally reverberating through the universe as a resonating sound known as “anahata sabda” = unstruck sound. This is symbolized by the sound “Om.” It is the essence of ultimate reality or consciousness. It is the self. It is a sacred symbol that is chanted by itself or before and after times of worship.
• Is Om associated with God? Can be but not necessarily.
• Unlike Christianity and the Bible which has a linear time, Hinduism depicts the world as going through endless cycles of creation and destruction, with no beginning or end. At the dawn of each unending creation cycles (yug), the sages rehear the sacred sound which is converted into knowledge and that’s the sacred tradition.
• These traditions were passed down orally and later written down as the 4 Vedas (knowledge) – Rig (hymns), Sama (chants), Yajur (sacred formulas), and Atharva (spells). They are not 4 separate books, but 4 recensions of the same common core material.
• Next is the Brahamans, commentary on the Vedas. This is followed by the Aranyakas, to be read in the forest. Finally, the Upanishads, philosophical and speculative material. It means “to sit down near” the guru.
• All this is the Sruti, that which is heard. It is not rooted in history.
• There could be more, the mysterious “fifth Veda.”
• Then, there is the Smriti, that which is remembered. It is written by human authors and rooted in history.
• It is secondary to Sruti.
• This includes the philosophical Sutras, the Law books, the Puranas, the Mahabharata with the Bhagavat Gita, and the Ramayana.
• God revealing himself is found in the Smriti, especially the Gita where Krishna reveals himself to his follower Arjuna.

2. Bible

“All Scripture is given by inspiration of God…” We are familiar with the words “inspire” or “inspiring,” but they mean very different things than what Paul meant here. The former imply filling someone with the urge or ability to do something good or creative. You can feel inspired by reading a good book. You can inspire others to take on a challenge in their life, but inspiration here is “theopneustos” = God breathed or God’s spiration. Here the word is referring to something that God did 2 other times in history:

• Creation of the world – Psalm 33:6 “By the word of the LORD the heavens were made, and all the host of them by the breath of His mouth.”
• Creation of human beings – Genesis 2:7 “And the LORD God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living being.”

So also, the creation of his word is the supernatural influence of the Holy Spirit on the writers of the Scriptures that resulted in their writings being an accurate record of the special revelation, i.e., the Word of God (this discussion based on Erikson).

(Note: Revelation vs Inspiration = God to human writer vs human writer to others, then and now.)

How did God breathe his word? Did the writers have a much deeper walk with God than the rest of the people? Did the writers have a heightened sense of God’s thoughts? By inspiration we mean that God directed the thoughts of the writers so that they were exactly his thoughts. God used the personalities, gifts, trainings, and experiences of the writers, but the final choice of the words was exactly what he wanted in his providential guidance in the writer’s life and his purposes in the world. 2 Peter 1:21 “for prophecy never came by the will of man, but holy men of God spoke as they were moved by the Holy Spirit.” Hence, we hold to the verbal-plenary view of inspiration, i.e., words and the whole message.

Bottom line: there is a big difference between how the Bible was given and how the Hindu religious books came together.

Purpose of the books:

1. Hindu Religious Books:

• There is wisdom found here and there, but there is no atonement or redemption.
• There is the promise to find God within oneself but it does not deal with sin.
• Based on fear of gods, spirits, never-ending rituals, and a billion reincarnations to escape the circle of life.
• It has oscillated between monotheism, henotheism, polytheism, and animism.
• Overall, accept the Vedas, caste system, and worship of different gods and goddesses and protection of cows.
• The scriptures can be divided into 3 ways: 1. The way of works (karma marga); 2. The way of knowledge (gyana marga); and 3. the way of devotion (bhakti marga). The first 2 are Sruti and the last one is Smriti. Therefore, the Hare Krishna movement leans heavily on the Gita, which is Smriti. Some of this was espoused by the Beatles, Beach Boys, and others.
• The point is that Hinduism deals with the problem of sin but has no solution for it.
• There is karma (what you sow is what you reap), samsara (cycle of life), and moksha (liberation out of life into the Brahman and nothingness/emptiness) through many reincarnations.
• There’s so much more that I do not have time to go into here.

2. Bible:

Why did God breathe the scriptures? Back up to verse 14 “But you must continue in the things which you have learned and been assured of, knowing from whom you have learnedthem, 15 and that from childhood you have known the Holy Scriptures, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus.” 16 All Scripture is given by inspiration of God and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness, 17 that the man of God may be complete, thoroughly equipped for every good work.” The Scriptures not only make us wise unto salvation, but also help us to mature and become equipped for every good work.

In my opening illustration, I mentioned that the diagnosis is there but no prescription.

“From the unreal, lead me to the real! From darkness, lead me to the light! From death, lead me to immortality!” (Brihad-Aranyaka Upanishad 1.3.28)

John 14:6 Jesus said to him, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.” In that statement, you have the Way (Karma Marga), Truth (Gyana Marga), and Life (Bhakti Marga).

Invitation: What are you searching for? Are you saved? Have you met Jesus Christ?