regarding Christ. Doubt is really unbelief, and unbelief is the one sin that cuts a person

off from God (Heb. 11: 6; I John 5: 10-12).  It is therefore in Satan's interest to keep

man in a perpetual state of unbelief. In contrast the holy Scripture, the written Word of

God, reveals the living Word, the Lord Jesus Christ Who can meet every problem and

need of man. He has given Himself and therefore given His all for him and because of

this is utterly worthy of man's faith and confidence.

As Timothy had known the holy Scriptures from his earliest days and evidently

believed them, there was no need for the sudden `right about turn' that was necessary for

Christ-opposing Saul of Tarsus. In the O.T. Scriptures Christ is portrayed by type and

shadow, all being prophetic of the One Who was to be the Saviour of mankind. Old

Testament believers therefore looked forward to Him by faith as we today look back with

that same faith. We will consider the supremely important words Paul gave concerning

the inspiration of the Scriptures in our next study.

In the context of this epistle which we are studying, we have seen that in

II Tim. 3: 14-17 the Apostle Paul, in order to combat the evil effect of the false teachers

and degenerates, now refers Timothy to the written Word of God as the antidote.

He assures him that all of it is inspired by God and fully sufficient to equip the man of

God for all his needs. This most important passage needs careful attention, for it is

dealing with one of the fundamentals of the Christian faith. First of all, we must be

careful with the word `inspired' and not import into it modern ideas. Men can look at a

work of art or listen to a symphony written by one of the great masters and call these

`inspired', that is to say, they are of superb quality. But Paul does not use the word

`inspiration' in this way. The word theopneustos, is very rare, being found only three

times in secular literature up to this period. It means "God-breathed", literally, and puts

the Scriptures in a class by themselves as does the adjective `holy' in the previous verse.

The `holy letters', hiera grammata, and the God-breathed `scripture' (graphe) are one

and the same, and of all the millions of books written by men, not one can truthfully be

said to have the imprimatur of Deity on it and so be described as `holy', which is God's

prerogative alone.

Much controversy has raged concerning the proper translation of the opening words of

verse 16. The R.V. reads "Every Scripture inspired of God is also profitable" etc. and

puts in the margin as an alternative, "Every Scripture is inspired of God, and profitable".

The modernist, and all who reject the plenary inspiration of Scripture, find that by pulling

verse 16 of the R.V. out of its context, they have a basis for teaching that only the

inspired parts of the Bible are profitable, assuming this context allows that some parts are

not inspired. But to be fair to the Revisers, we have seen that the `sacred writings' of the