Complete acceptance of the Bible as God's Word is our plea in season and out of season. To suggest that the Bible is inspired in the same sense as are the writings of a Milton or Shakespeare we reject quickly and with finality. We reject "idea" or "thought" inspiration with Jehovah simply planting just the thought in the writer's mind and allowing him freedom to clothe it in words of his own choice. We do not speak of the Bible as the "thought" of God or the "idea" of God but as the WORD of God.

Verbal or word inspiration is our plea. Paul wrote, "Which things also we speak, not in the words which man’s wisdom teacheth, but what the Holy Ghost teacheth; comparing spiritual things with spiritual" (I Cor. 2:13). Nobody could affirm verbal inspiration any clearer or more forcefully than Paul does herein. Christ promised the apostles both the what (content of material) and the how (manner of presentation), in their preaching (Matt. 10:19-20).

We believe in the plenary (full, entire, complete) inspiration of the Sacred Scriptures. Partial inspiration with an admixture of myths, legends and folklore, as modernism and liberalism contend, is Satanic in origin and design. All Scripture is given by inspiration of God is the familiar Pauline affirmation of Second Timothy 3:16-17.

We plead for wholehearted acceptance of the supernatural events of the Bible. From the mighty creation at the beginning to the resurrection of the crucified Messiah, we accept it all. If God said it happened, that is good enough for the advocates of the old paths. The late and lamented Marshall Keeble used to say, "The Bible is right." That is our expressed sentiment all the way. Reject the Bible at the point of the miraculous and what guarantee could we possibly possess that the Scriptures are safe and secure in any realm? Jehovah never intended His creatures to accept His Book in piecemeal fashion. It is all or none!!

Robert R. Taylor, Jr., Ripley Bulletin, July 20, 2008