Carried Along

 

When it comes to how we understand the Bible, there are several different opinions. Some believe that the Bible is nothing more than the words of a handful of people who were starting a man made religion, while others believe the words of the Bible are nothing less than the words of God Himself. The latter position holds to the idea of inerrancy, that the Bible is absolutely free from errors (there are varying degrees of belief in inerrancy, but I am a firm believer that what is inspired is surely inerrant). 

 

Perhaps the best clue we have to the claim for inerrancy is found in II Peter 1. There we read “Knowing this first of all, that no prophecy of Scripture comes from someone's own interpretation. For no prophecy was ever produced by the will of man, but men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit (v.20-21).” The King James Version says these men spoke as they “were moved by” the Spirit. I want to focus on that word moved or “carried along” in the English Standard Version. 

 

One of the best ways to get an understanding of what a word means in this situation is to see how the same Greek word was used elsewhere. A good help to us is the word’s appearance in Acts 27:15 where Luke described their shipwreck: “And when the ship was caught and could not face the wind, we gave way to it and were driven along.” The “driven along” at the end of the verse is the same verb Peter used to describe the process by which men wrote the Bible. Derek Thomas wrote about this word, saying, “These men…were not simply prompted or led by Him, but by carried by Him. When someone is carried, he is set down at the destination of the carrier.” 

 

Benjamin Warfield added, “What is ‘borne’ (carried along) is taken up by the bearer and conveyed by the bearer’s power, not its own, to the bearer’s goal, not its own.” Luke and everyone else in the ship were completely at the mercy of the wind. They lost all control of themselves and would wind up only where the wind sent them (interestingly, the same word for wind gives us the Holy Spirit). 

 

Peter’s point, then, is that the men God used to write the Bible were the instrument in the hand of the Holy Spirit. Yes, their human hands physically penned the words on the paper, but the message came from God. The men who wrote knew they were writing; they were not in a trance or mere secretaries transcribing a dictation. But the finished product was exactly what God wanted recorded. It was not Paul’s opinions, Micah’s musings, or David’s daydreams. It is Holy Scripture, something breathed out by Almighty God, written by men, and preserved by the church for thousands of years. We can trust what we read because what we read was written by our Lord. 

 

In God’s Time

 

We often say that God does things in His time, not ours. Because we live in time we want things to happen right now; there have been plenty of times in my life that I wanted God to do something, and I wanted it done yesterday. We live by time. We keep calendars and make notes in planners. We know what time to punch in and what time to go home. Every morning when the alarm clock goes off we are reminded that the time to wake up is now, otherwise we will be late. Things start on time, and when we travel we like to make good time. We cannot separate ourselves from time because it is all around us. That has always been the case for civilization. The ancients made sundials because time was important even when there was no clock. 

 

We operate in time, but God exists outside of time. In fact, God created time to help us. He existed before there was time, and during the days of creation, God introduced the concept of time with the first evening and morning forming a literal day. Many stories begins “Once upon a time,” but the Bible begins “In the beginning [of time],” and God was already there. The point is, we want things done in our time, but God exists outside of time. 

 

This would be easier to understand if we were Greek. While the English language has supplied us with but a single word for time, the Greek language has twice as many. One word is chronos, which is the word associated with our understanding of time. It refers to the time of day, and gives us our word for chronology, the sequence of time. The other word is kairos, which refers to special moments in time. Chronos is quantity of time, while kairos is quality of time. You and I are always concerned with chronos time, but God is concerned with kairos time. This is why Peter could write, “But do not overlook this one fact, beloved, that with the Lord one day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day (II Peter 3:8).” Similarly, this is why Jesus so often told people, including his human mother, that His time (kairos) had not yet come. It was not the divinely appointed time to act.

 

This is why Paul could write, “We look not to the things that are seen but to the things that are unseen. For the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal (II Corinthians 4:18).” The things that are seen are temporary (chronos), and the things that are invisible, or occurring in the heavenly realm, are eternal (kairos). There is only one time zone in heaven, and it is KST, Kairos Standard Time. 

God’s time is not about the words on the calendar or the hands on the clock. God’s time is about accomplishing His will at the precise time, and in His sovereign control, He is able to work things out perfectly, based on factors that you and I cannot see. We can only look back in time, but God has our future in mind. So right now, in this moment in time, you may be wishing God would hurry up and do something, and maybe you are wondering what is taking Him so long. God will do what is best in His will and will work all things out for good, but He is going to do it in His perfect time. The time has not yet come, but that doesn’t mean that it wont, so don’t lose hope.