How do we know the Bible is the word of God?
The Bible is the Word of God . Yet, within the conservative school there is a divergence of opinion regarding what is involved in inspiration. Thus there are the following conservative theories of inspiration: a) The Verbal Dictation Theory. This theory states that every word, even the punctuation, is dictated by God , much as a business executive would dictate a letter to his secretary. This is often called “mechanical inspiration” or “verbal dictation.” Fundamentalists are often accused of subscribing to this method of inspiration, but only a small percentage of them actually do. The great weakness of this theory is that it eliminates any possibility of a personal style in the writings of the divinely chosen author—a phenomenon which is clearly observable. b) The Inspired Concept Theory. In an endeavor to compensate for the dangers of the Verbal Dictation Theory, some conservatives have adopted the idea that God gave the thoughts to the men chosen, and left them to