Study Questions

1-1) What do we mean by the term “canon”? How did people know or decide which books belonged in the Bible? A canon is a standard by which texts are measured to determine if they are divinely inspired and should be included in Christian teachings (Arnold & Beyer, 2008). In itself, the word means measuring stick or standard and can be applied to our own actions and behaviors toward God. Tests for canonicity are used to determine whether religious texts are to be included in the Bible and/or utilized in religious teaching. Determination is based upon who authored the texts, if they are written for all generations or are time sensitive, and if they promote or contradict previously included texts (Arnold & Beyer, 2008). The books of the Old and New Testaments and the order of the texts were determined using biblical canonicity.

1-2) Identify the different theories of inspiration. What do evangelicals mean when they use the term “plenary verbal inspiration”? What are the implications of plenary verbal inspiration? The four major theories of inspiration are the neo-orthodox, dictation, limited inspiration and plenary verbal inspiration. The neo-orthodox theory proposes that God is beyond our comprehension and, therefore, the bible is not the word of God but a witnessing of the word of God (Arnold & Beyer, 2008). Dictation theory states that the Bible was transcribed from direct dictation from God whereas limited inspiration theory relies on the words of man to relate the thoughts God inspired. Finally, the plenary verbal inspiration theory states that God inspired the entire Bible to include the wording yet gave some flexibility, in the style and personality of the text, to the writers.

Because evangelicals believe the Bible to be the word of God versus an interpretation of the acts of God, they believe that God told man what to write and man did so in his own words (Arnold & Beyer, 2008). This is not to say