If God were to speak to us with the “language of heaven” would we be able to understand such a revelation? Could it ever be translated or would it be mystical and sublime, suitable only for incantation?[2] Many world religions approach spiritual concepts with the presumption that they must be esoteric and hard to understand.[3] But in the case of the Scripture, the emphasis is on their clarity and intelligibility to all who open them with a humble heart (Deut 6:6–7; Ps 19:7; Mat 11:25–26). Because of God’s graciously accommodating himself to our human languages and brain activity, he has made himself knowable to us.
Is the Bible too human to be a perfect divine revelation? Recently I (re-)watched the video of the 2016 debate between Dr Bernie Power of Melbourne School of Theology and Islamic scholar Shaykh Soner Coruhlu.[1] Toward the end of the debate, Shaykh Coruhlu raises the issue of the reliability of the New Testament, given that it is written by human hands. Dr Power didn’t have opportunity to reply in the time left for the debate, but this provoked me to think through what could have been said.
How can we respond to those, who assert that Scripture is an altogether too human book? In this article I want to explore a range of answers to that question. Although I will often be in dialogue with Islam, I am confident that it will be helpful to a wider audience, as this is an objection that many people raise, and even a doubt Christian themselves sometimes entertain.
The Divine-Human Scriptures Point to God’s Power
Our secular friends and our Muslim friends who refuse to accept the Bible as God’s infallible word do so because they cannot imagine God could ensure a piece of literature be both fully human and fully divine. Ironically both the secular person and the Muslim thereby limit what it is possible for God to do.
It comes as no surprise that our friends who deny that God could inhabit a human body would also deny that God’s words could also be human words. To deny the character of Scripture as a divine-human book is, by extension, to deny that God could ever come into our world, our times, our lives, but must inevitably be detached from us. To affirm the divine-human word is to affirm God’s immanent involvement in our everyday, often ordinary, lives.
What Form Should a Book of Direct Revelations Take?
If God were to speak to us with the ‘language of heaven’ would we be able to understand such a revelation? Could it ever be translated or would it be mystical and sublime, suitable only for incantation?[2] Many world religions approach spiritual concepts with the presumption that they must be esoteric and hard to understand.[3] But in the case of the Scripture, the emphasis is on their clarity and intelligibility to all who open them with a humble heart (Deut 6:6–7; Ps 19:7; Mat 11:25–26). Because of God’s graciously accommodating himself to our human languages and brain activity, he has made himself knowable to us.
The human nature of Scripture thus encourages comprehension and translation. As Paul emphasises in 1 Corinthians chapter 14 verse 19: ‘in the church I would rather speak five intelligible words to instruct others than ten thousand words in a tongue.’