Question:
In the New Testament there are many instances where Christ and/or the disciples are being questioned by the religious authorities. Then, in the absence of the disciples or Jesus, a dialogue takes place among religious leaders. How do we receive the account of those conversations when the authors of the books of the New Testament were not even present during the conversation?
Answer:
There are many places in the Bible, both Old and New Testaments, where the author could not have known the specifics of a situation except by divine inspiration.
Christians believe that the Bible is "God-breathed." Christians differ and disagree about how, the nature of inspiration – most fundamentalists believe that God virtually dictated the words of the Bible to the author who was in a trance-like state. However, that view is not the majority view, nor is it the view of Plain Truth Ministries.
On the other extreme, there are Christians who believe that the Bible is inspired like Shakespeare is inspired – no divine inspiration, simply the inspiration one finds in great human literature.
Plain Truth Ministries believes that the truth lies somewhere between. God did not fly over the earth and drop the Bible into our laps, wrapped in a red ribbon. He used human authors, and their culture, their personalities, etc. But he used them to give a message that was and is timeless, and a message that is as much his word for us today as it was for the audience to whom the original author spoke and wrote.
Christians do not worship a book, we worship the Author. The book means nothing, the message and the truth, the reality that lies behind the book is everything. Jesus Christ is Lord and Savior, the answer to our problems, and the way to eternal life. Jesus was not simply a human being, but God in the flesh, and he lives today. The Bible speaks to that great truth and reality, and serves to introduce us to a personal relationship with him.
So, in places like the ones to which you refer, Christians believe that this insight, knowledge, and factual information was given, by the inspiration of God, the divine Author, to the human author.
In
Christ,