A Message from God

No prophecy of Scripture comes from someone’s own interpretation. For no prophecy was ever produced by the will of man.

2 Peter 1:20-21

Peter wants us to know how the Scripture came to be written. Where did the Old Testament come from?

Peter begins by telling us where the Scriptures did not come from: “No prophecy of Scripture…” (1:20). He is distinguishing “prophecy of Scripture” from all other prophecy.

If you lived in ancient Israel, you’d think twice about getting up and saying, “I have a message from God.” The penalty for being a false prophet (claiming you had a message from God, when it was really your own idea) was stoning.

The severity of this law reminded people of the seriousness of claiming the authority of God for your own ideas. People in ancient Israel knew that there was a world of difference between the thoughts of men and the Word of God.

How did the millions of books on Amazon come to be written? The authors felt that they had something to say. These books come from man’s will, man’s insight, man’s initiative, man’s creativity… and women’s too.

Postmodernism has recognised that the world is full of ideas people want to push on us. The history of the world is littered with interpretations of life and truth. There’s the communist view, the new age view, the liberal view, the conservative view, and many more.

Peter says, “The Scripture doesn’t belong in this line-up. It’s not another bunch of men pushing their own ideas of life on us.” If you want to understand the Bible, you need to know that it is fundamentally different from any other writing the world has ever known.

What makes the Bible different from other books?