Your doctrine of inspiration and revelation should arise from the data of the Bible, not from somewhere else. And if the Bible doesn’t fit your doctrine of inspiration and revelation then the problem’s with your doctrine; the problem’s not with the Bible. So change your doctrine. Or adjust it. Don’t abandon it, but adjust it. Think about the question ‘what does it mean that the Bible is inspired and revelatory? Why am I having a problem with this or that theory about process?’

This is a quote of Iain Provan, Professor of Biblical Studies, Regent College. You can read about Regent College on Wikipedia also. The quote is from lecture #5 of Old Testament Foundations near the 21st minute. I’m learning quite a lot from working through this class. On my own, of course! The textbooks are An Introduction to the Old Testament: Second Edition by Longman and Dillard and A Biblical History of Israel by Provan, Long and Longman.

It’s not that I haven’t studied this stuff before, mostly through reading and often assisted by various R.C. Sproul’s lecture series (among others). It’s that having taught through the Bible several times now, I have better questions and a better context to understand what I’m learning. Regent College has a treasure-trove of good stuff at their online bookstore. Check it out.