The Inspiration of the Prophets

Sabbath School Class—Life as Discovery and Hope

January 31, 2009
Larry R Evans 

Introductory Reflections 

Last week we introduced the subject of “The Gift of Prophecy and the Remnant Church” with a report from George Barna which indicates that we can no longer assume that our society is primarily Christian.  The rise of world religions and the trend for the majority to be eclectic makes the “sure word of prophecy”  and the appointment of prophets by God even more relevant albeit less popular in some circles.  As a continuation of this context I share some excerpts from the journal called, The Scientific American.

“Last weekend I traveled to Edinburgh to attend a small workshop on religion. The group consisted of a multidisciplinary group of scholars—psychologists, biologists, political scientists, philosophers, and anthropologists—each of whom were studying the natural (that is, Darwinian) foundations of religious belief and behavior. The meeting took place at a marvelously opulent hotel near Waverly Station on Princes Street, with distant glimpses of the castle and the Old Town district. Each morning, about ten of us, still bloated with wine and food from the evening before, sat around an enormous lion-pawed walnut table in a Victorian suite while the bitterly cold Scottish winds rattled the windowpanes and rushed down the flue of the chimney, where a coal fire quietly warmed us. Here, we hatched out a variety of ideas related to the evolutionary puzzle of religion. . . . Fortunately, the past decade has seen tremendous and quite rapid developments in the naturalistic study of religion. Topics such as God, souls and sin are no longer being treated as “outside science” but rather as biologically based emanations of the evolved human mind, subject to psychological scrutiny like any other aspect of human nature.  And I can only hope that soon these scientific discoveries will translate to real world intervention strategies in the reconciliation of spiritually based social conflicts. . . . As the resident psychologist, I reiterated my empirically based argument that belief in the afterlife is more or less an inevitable byproduct of human consciousness. Since we cannot conceptualize the absence of consciousness, even non-believers are susceptible to visions of the hereafter .  . . . This research committee in Edinburgh is one of three I’m currently serving on to investigate the evolutionary bases of religion. Another is the “Explaining Religion” project (EXREL) with its hub at Oxford University led by anthropologist Harvey Whitehouse. And there’s even a new sub-discipline in evolutionary biology called “Evolutionary Religious Studies” being spearheaded by David Sloan Wilson at SUNY-Binghamton. All of these projects promise to infuse new life into the tired old religion versus science debate by injecting actual data into the discussions  (Scientific American, January 19, 2009,  “Is Religion Adaptive? It's Complicated--A group of Darwinian theorists discuss religion in Edinburgh, Scotland, by Jesse Bering. 

I would like to state clearly that I am and have been an advocate of the continuing dialogue between science and religion.  Certain questions relevant to this week’s study do come to mind as I read the article. How are God’s messengers chosen? How do we discern God’s will when different voices claim to speak for Him or about Him?  How does this process differ from a scientific analysis?  What impact do beginning assumptions have upon the conclusions drawn?  Is it wrong to have a bias?  Do we have one when we study this lesson and if so should we? Is it important to be aware of the biases we have?  For now hold those questions as we review the outline of this week’s study. 

Reflective Quiz

1.    Every word of Scripture is inspired but this is not the case regarding the writings of Ellen White.  True or False?  [2 Tim 3:16; 2 Pet 1:20,21]

2.    The process the Holy Spirit used to reveal God’s will varied from prophet to prophet and from place to place.  True or False? [1 Pet 1:21]

3.    The apostles were aware that what they wrote was given by divine authority.  True or False? [1 Cor 2:13]

4.    God never used “verbal” inspiration but always used “thought” inspiration.  True or False?  [Jer 29:30,31; Rev 19:9]

5.    A physical manifestation of some kind is needed to confirm that the Lord is speaking.  True or False?  [Dan 10:7-9, 17,18; Rev 1:17; Gn 15:1-6; Ex 10:21;11:1;12:1; Gn 37:5; 41:16-37]

6.    Prophets were God’s scribes and not his quill.  True or False?

7.    Not all that is attributed to Jeremiah was written by him. True or False? [Jer 36:1-4]

8.    When a prophet writes out instruction from God, the correct grammar comes as part of the prophetic gift.  True or False?

9.    A sign  of a false prophet is he or she incorporates thoughts or wording from pagan authors.  True or False? [Acts 17:27,28; 

[Teaching Notes/Answers Will Come Later]

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