The third thing that the Bible makes perfectly clear as to the
inspiration of the Prophets and Apostles is, that _the revelation made
by God through His Holy Spirit to the Prophets was independent of the
Prophets' own thinking, that it was made to them by the Spirit of
Christ which was in them, and that they themselves oftentimes did not
thoroughly understand the full meaning of what the Spirit was saying
through them, and that what they said was a subject of diligent search
and inquiry to their own mind as to its meaning_. This comes out very
plainly in 1 Pet. 1:10-12, +"Concerning which salvation the prophets
sought and searched diligently, who prophesied of the grace that should
come to you; searching what time, or what manner of time the Spirit of
Christ which was in them did point unto, when it testified beforehand
the sufferings of Christ and the glories that should follow them. Unto
whom it was revealed, that not unto themselves, but unto you, did they
minister these things which now have been announced unto you through
them that preached the Gospel unto you by the Holy Spirit sent forth
from Heaven; which things angels desire to look into."+ Here again
the meaning is as clear as day and inescapable. We are told that the
prophets had a revelation made to them by the Holy Spirit, the meaning
of which they did not thoroughly comprehend, and that they themselves
"sought and searched diligently" as to the meaning of this revelation
which was made to them and which they recorded. The Spirit, through
them testified beforehand the sufferings of Christ (e.g. in Isa. 53:3,
Ps. 22) and the glories that should follow them. They recorded what the
Spirit testified, but what it meant they did not thoroughly understand.
It was not merely that their minds were made keen to see things
which they would not otherwise see, and which they therefore more or
less accurately recorded. No, there was a very definite revelation,
arising _not from their own minds at all_, but from the Spirit of God
Who made the revelation to them and this they recorded, but it was
not of themselves to that extent that they themselves wondered as to
what its meaning might be. What they recorded was not at all their
own thought, it was the thought of the Holy Spirit who spoke through
them. How utterly different this conception is from that which is so
persistently taught in many of our colleges and theological seminaries
and pulpits,—how utterly different it is from the conception that was
taught a week ago to-day in one of the pulpits of our own city.
IV. NO PROPHETIC UTTERANCE WAS OF THE PROPHET'S OWN WILL, BUT THE
PROPHET SPOKE FROM GOD AND THE PROPHET WAS CARRIED ALONG BY THE HOLY
SPIRIT AND NOT BY HIS OWN IMPULSE OR REASONING IN WHAT HE SAID
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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