We endanger ourselves when we think too much of the men who physically penned the Scriptures. Biblical critics would tell us the men who wrote the Scriptures were captives of their time. They ignore the possibility that God could use men to capture the Creator’s timeless truths. Some would say the present time represents a different culture than the past so we should not apply historical ethical writings to ourselves. Behind the issue is the assumption that Paul, not God, was the author of these words. Therefore, some would say, we do not have to accept them as scripture because God did not write them.
But we know the words on every page of the Bible are inspired by God, they are all his words. How did the men that God used to choose the canonical scriptures choose this or that letter from Paul as authentic? Was it not because Paul wrote it and it was very obvious to these men that Paul was God’s man (these men having lived closer to the time Paul actually worked and lived)? Maybe it was because of who the authors were - - Apostles of or “blood relatives” of the Lord Jesus.
Biblical days were days when public discourse was oral. Even written words were not dominant for most because the printing press was not yet invented. All discourse tended to be local. Yet the fame of Paul was widespread. His fame, if not a sign of God’s working through Paul, at least it is a sign of the magnitude of his importance. The words were copied and re-copied. There had to be something more behind them than simply the letter of a churchman.
It is inspiring that the Bible should come from God as a collection of books written by men because, as God has worked among men in the past for the purpose of inspiring us, so he today works to inspire us in the Church - - by men of the present. Then God was working in real live people who were doing things among their contemporaries. They wrote it down as, or soon after, it happened. If you were there, God was working among people you could have heard with your own ears, or touched.
Although what churchmen of today write will not be in the Bible, God is working still among the people of the Church.
