Inspiration
The following paragraph is taken from www.ellenwhiteanswers.org/bible/inspiration/ and summarizes well our believe on how inspiration works.
- Seventh-day Adventists have a high view of the Bible and regard it to be the revealed and inspired Word of God. Their view of inspiration is holistic, embracing the different processes of inspiration found in Scripture, such as: theophanic (Exod. 3:1-5), prophetic (Rev. 1:1-3), verbal (Exod. 31:18), historical (Luke 1:1-3), wisdom (Pro. 1:1-7;Ecc. 1:1) existential (Lam. 3:1), epistle (Phil. 1:1-2), and praise-worship (Ps. 34:1). As such, their understanding of inspiration is best described as plenary-thought rather than verbal. “Plenary” emphasizes Scripture in its entirety and “thought” suggests that the biblical writers thoughts, rather than their words, were inspired. This view endeavors to capture the dynamics of both the divine and the human in the experience of revelation-inspiration. Ellen White expressed this view best: “It is not the words of the Bible that are inspired, but the men that were inspired. Inspiration acts not on the man’s words or his expressions but on the man himself, who, under the influence of the Holy Ghost, is imbued with thoughts. But the words receive the impress of the individual mind. The divine mind is diffused. The divine mind and will is combined with the human mind and will; thus the utterances of the man are the word of God” (Selected Messages, vol. 1, 21).
The same Spirit that inspired the prophets to write the Bible, is the same Spirit that speaks to us as we study the Bible. That is why the Bible is so powerful and continues to impact lives today.
-Throstur