The Holy Bible:

The "Word of God", inspired by the Holy Spirit

Inspiration    Illumination

    "No prophecy ever came by human will, but men and women moved by the Holy Spirit spoke from God" (2Pet.1:21)… not one word of the Holy Scriptures ever came from human initiative; when people spoke for God it was the Holy Spirit that moved them. "All Scripture is inspired by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness" (2Tim3:16)… that's why the Bible is the "Word of God" (Heb.4:12, Act.6:2, 8:14, 11:1, 13:44).

    The difference between the Bible and the writings of St. Augustine for example is that the Bible is the Word of God "inspired" by the Spirit of God and the writings of St. Augustine are "illuminated" by the Spirit but they are not "the Word of God", they were not "inspired" by the Spirit.

    The Holy Spirit is the Speaker in the Old Testament (Act.1:16, 28:25, Heb.3:7), and in the New Testament (Rev.2:7), using different men and women. The Book of Hebrews quotes from the Psalms, the Law, and the prophets, in each case attributing authorship to the Holy Spirit (Heb.3:7-10, 9:6-8, 10:15-17). And the Apostles also spoke in words taught by the Spirit (1Cor.2:13).

    All of this, of course, in accordance with the teachings of Jesus: "The Holy Spirit… will teach you all things, and bring you to remembrance all that I said to you… He will guide you into all the truth" (Jn.14:26, 16:13)… and again, the Holy Spirit is using men and women of the people of God, of the Church of Christ.

    The Holy Spirit was also instrumental in the selection of the Books that comprise the Bible. For it, he also used men and women: In this case twice: In the Council of Rome, under the holy and wise Pope Damasus I, in the year 382: At that time, 66 Books were listed as the Canon of the Bible. In the Council of Trent, in 1546, another 7 books were added to the Bible by the same authority of the Church, under the same Holy Spirit…. at the time of Luther, the Bible had only the 66 books, those listed by Pope Damasus I, and they are the same ones published in all the Protestant Bibles. But, honestly, if the Pope is no good, the Bible is no good, because it was a Pope who gave the list of the Books of the Bible, to Catholics, Orthodox, and Protestants. But the Bible is good because the Pope is good!, acting with the unique authority of infallibility given to Peter and his successors, and to the Church under the Pope, in Mt.16:19, 18:18, "I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven".

    It was not Jesus who gave us the Bible. Jesus didn't even order to write the Bible. At the time of Jesus all the New Testament was not even writen. It was the Church of Christ who gave us the Books of the Bible, moved by the Holy Spirit, as one of the different ways to preach the Word of God. The Word of God was preached even before any Book of the New Testament was written: It was taught by Jesus Himself, when the NT was not written yet, and by the Apostles in Pentecost and later on, when no one Book of the New Testament was written yet (Acts 2, 6:2, 8:14, 11:1, 13:44)… in those quotations, we see the Word of God preached without even the existence of the NT, and, of course, Jesus did the same!. And until the fifteenth century there were very few books printed, only a handful of Christians could read the Bible until the discoveries of Gutenberg, who printed the first Latin Bible in 1450.

    The Church gave us the Bible, and only the Church has the authority of God to interpret the same Bible, "First of all you must understand this, that no prophecy of the scripture is a matter of one's own interpretation" (2Pet.1:20)… The Church who gives us the Bible is the only one who has also the authority of God for the right interpretation (Mt.16:19, 18:18). And, by the way, I have read some books written by Protestants, and they all quote 2Pet.1:21, but none of them quote the previous verse 2Pet.1:20, which is also written in all of their Bibles..

Inspiration by the Spirit:

    This is one of the most controversial question of the ages.

    In the "Inspiration" can be considered several factors:

    1- God, who produces it: He can do it, and did it (2Pet.1:21).
    2- Man, who is its object, without loosing his freedom, his memory, intellect and will.
    3- The text, which is its term. I was chosen also by God, using the expressions and customs of each writer.
    4- The translations. Also produced by the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. There is an exception here: Those adulterating the word of God of 2Cor.2:17. Stay away from the translations of the Mormons and the Jehovah's Witnesses, so adulterated. When I have a doubt on the translations, I always consult the only Bible approved in an Ecumenical Council, in the Council of Trent in 1546, which is the Latin Vulgate of St Jerome; its English Translation is the "Holy Bible" of Douay and Rheims.

    These, are two statements of the Catholic Church on this issue:

    1- "These books are held by the Church as sacred and canonical, not as having been composed by merely human labour and afterwards approved by her authority, nor merely because they contain revelation without error, but because, written under the inspiration of the Holy Ghost, they have God for their author, and have been transmitted to the Church as such." (Concil. Vatic., Sess. III, const. dogm, de Fide, cap. ii, in Denz., 1787).

    2- "The Holy Ghost Himself, by His supernatural power, stirred up and impelled the Biblical writers to write, and assisted them while writing in such a manner that they conceived in their minds exactly, and determined to commit to writing faithfully, and render in exact language, with infallible truth, all that God commanded and nothing else; without that, God would not be the author of Scripture in its entirety" (Encycl. Provid. Deus, in Dena., 1952).

    The Bible is the Word of God, inspired by the Holy Spirit in its totality, plenary inspiration, including every Word in the Bible. If some parts or words in the Bible would not have been the Word of God, it would require an inspiration even more difficult in order to find out which parts or words in the Bible are the Word of God.

    So, all the Biblical books are inspired in every part. I am bound to admit that, in the books or parts of books which are canonical (approved by the Church), there is absolutely nothing, either as regards the matter or the form, which does not fall under the Divine inspiration, "For prophecy came not by the will of man at any time: but the holy men of God spoke, inspired by the Holy Ghost" (2Pet.1:21).

    The Bible is not only inspired by God, but also "authoritative", meaning that it is God's binding revelation to us. Jesus never once told us to doubt the difficult passages of the Old Testament. He accepted as fact, not fiction, the stories of Jonah and the fish, Noah and the ark, and the creation of the world and Adam and Eve. Time after time, Jesus and the New Testament writers quoted the Scriptures as authoritative and as the very Word of God.

The "Illumination of the Spirit":

    Still more. In addition, the Holy Spirit illuminates the minds and opens the hearts of the readers of the Bible. God uses the Bible as an instrument for speaking to our hearts. We always should start reading the Bible with the Psalmist's prayer: "Open my eyes, that I may behold wonderful things from Your Law" (Ps.119:18). When we pray, we speak to God; when we read the Bible, God speaks to us…. speaks to us, and touches our lives, giving us his power of faith and love and hope, with the mysterious power of the Word of God… it is the work of the Holy Spirit to reveal us the whole truth, and to fill our hearts with his love, and it is our role to be diligent students of the Word of God, and faithful to the his Church.

Bible and Traditions
    - Prophecies of Jesus Christ in the Bible -  1,093 Prophecies and Types of Christ and His church
    - The Bible and the Church
    - Each book of the Bible quick survey
    - Jesus in each Book of the Bible
     - 189 Miracles in the Bible
     - Bible prayers