JESUS CHRIST: GOD-MAN - Vital Christianity

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This is called the "classical" view because it has been held by the church until the
eighteenth century, when higher criticism started and theologians denied this view in order to
make room for their own critical approach. Church history is clear that this classical view was
held by the church fathers during the patristic era, by the theologians of the Middle Ages, by the
Reformers and the fathers of the post-Reformation period and by conservative and evangelical
theologians of today. It is also the view held by the Roman Catholic Church. In its Dogmatic
Constitution on Divine Revelation, Vatican II declared:
"The divinely revealed realities, which are contained and present in the text of
sacred Scripture, have been written down under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit.
For holy mother Church, relying on the faith of the apostolic age, accepts as
sacred and canonical the books of the Old and New Testaments, whole and
entire, with all their parts, on the grounds that, written under the inspiration of
the Holy Spirit (cf. Jn 20:31; 2 Ti 3:16; 2 Pe 1:19-21; 3:15-16), they have God
as their author, and have been handed on as such to the Church herself."5
Protestants regard this view of Scripture as weakened by other authorities that are added
to the Bible, namely, the apocryphal books and the Magisterium (the church's teaching function)
to give an authentic and infallible interpretation of Scripture. It is the Roman Catholic position
that such a view is not weakened in that it does not believe that it can have a magisterial teaching
that contradicts Scripture. Yet history testifies that the Roman Catholic Church has in fact
changed some theological positions that were previously considered infallible.
The Classical or Evangelical View
In Scripture we see a unity of thought and purpose suggesting that one Mind inspired
the writing and compilation of the whole series of books (a library of 66 books). It bears on its
face the stamp of its Author. It is the Word of God in a unique and distinctive sense.
The Bible is not a record of man's attempts to find God (liberalism), but of God's divine
self-revelation to man.
The church's doctrine of inspiration obviously must start with the self-witness of the
Bible itself. The Bible teaches that the Bible was "inspired" by the Holy Spirit:
"Above all, you must understand that no prophecy of Scripture came about by the
prophet's own interpretation. For prophecy never had its origin in the will of man,
but men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit."
(2 Pe 1:20-21)
Both the Law and the prophetic writings of the Hebrew Scriptures purport to come from
God. The New Testament links the giving of messages through human speakers or writers with
the activity of the Holy Spirit. Inspiration thus takes place naturally from the divine source and
authority—the inworking of the Holy Spirit.