The phrase “verbal inspiration” refers to the process by which God the Holy Spirit guided the Bible writers as they wrote, by selecting from their vocabularies the exact words needed to convey God’s thoughts to mankind. God guided them verbally, that is he selected the words himself, not leaving it to chance or possibility that the writer would pick the correct words.

-Central Church of Christ
Martinburg, WV

Speak Where The Bible Speaks;
Be Silent Where The Bible Is Silent.

The Holy Spirit revealed in the New Testament “For I testify to everyone who hears the words of the prophecy of this book: If anyone adds to these things, God will add to him the plagues that are written in this book; and if anyone takes away from the words of the book of this prophecy, God shall take away his part from the Book of Life, from the holy city, and from the things which are written in this book.”  Rev. 22:18-19

-Central Church of Christ

What is “plenary verbal inspiration” and what is “dynamic thought inspiration”? plenary verbal inspiration- ( God inspired or even dictated every word of scripture) dynamic thought inspiration- (God inspired the ideas behind Scripture and people expressed these thoughts in their words and styles)

– Susan Pope
teachtoinspire.net

The term, Verbal Inspiration means that the very words of the Bible are those which the Holy Spirit directed the writers of the Sacred Volume to select in conveying God’s will to man’s mind.

This statement was by J.C.Brewer. Then he stated,

That does not mean that the writers were mere amanuenses in the writing of the Bible, styled by some, the Mechanical Theory of inspiration. God has never circumvented the natural faculties of man.

(But that is exactly what it does mean! -rw)

The eminent J. W. McGarvey rejected this theory for additional reasons:

The theory fails to account for the writer’s human feelings; and for the obvious fact that in recalling to their memory what Jesus had said the Spirit only recalled what they did not already remember; and in guiding them into all truth He did not guide them into that which they already possessed (Evidences Of Christianity, Part IV, Ch. 7, p. 212).

The article continues to immediately say,

Neither does verbal inspiration allow for the selection of words by the writers themselves. The theory of Thought Inspiration holds that the writers were given God’s thoughts, and allowed to select the words by which His thoughts were expressed. But words are vehicles of thought, and it would have been impossible for finite men to select the words by which the mind of the Infinite God could be adequately conveyed.

-The Gospel Preceptor
Jerry C Brewer

VERBAL INSPIRATION

What do we mean when we speak of the “verbal inspiration” of the Holy Scriptures? Frank E. Gaebelein has suggested that a sound view of inspiration holds that “the original documents of the Bible were written by men, who, though permitted the exercise of their own personalities and literary talents, yet wrote under the control and guidance of the Spirit of God, the result being in every word of the original documents a perfect and errorless recording of the exact message which God desired to give to man”(1950, p. 9).

The article goes on to say,

In his classic work, Theopneustia—The Plenary Inspiration of the Holy Scriptures, L. Glaussen, professor of systematic theology, Oratoire, Geneva, defined inspiration as “that inexplicable power which the Divine Spirit put forth of old on the authors of holy Scripture, in order to their guidance even in the employment of the words they used, and to preserve them alike from all error and from all omission” (n.d., p. 34).

-Apologetics Press

When we dive into the Bible, the orthodox approach has been to view the text through the lens of verbal plenary inspiration.
In the simplest terms, verbal plenary inspiration means that everything in the Bible is true and inspired by God. The historic view of the church is that the Bible is divinely inspired and inerrant.
Let’s dive deeper into what that means.

What Is Verbal Inerrancy?

 

The first part of verbal plenary inspiration to parse is the word “verbal.”
Verbal refers to the words themselves. The idea here is that each word written in the Bible is exactly and specifically the word God chose to use.

-Christianity.com

The term “verbal inspiration” takes these biblical truths, about these biblical truths, to a whole new, yet far more fantastic and specific level. “Verbal Inspiration” is the term we use to define the fact that every single word, letter, and grammatical construction contained in the Scriptures, are specifically, perfectly and precisely, exactly what God divinely desired and directed them to be – without exception, exemption, or expiration (Psa. 119:89).

The article goes on to say

Now, yes it is true that God used different men, from different backgrounds, with different perspectives and experiences, to write down His holy word. Perhaps one of the reasons for this was so that the vast variety of readers that would come along down through the centuries might feel a closer connection to, or identification with, the particular perspectives presented. But the fact that different writers wrote, utilizing and reflecting their own specific styles, perspectives and experiences, does not for a second nullify or negate the fact that God still specifically and divinely inspired every single word they wrote.

– Douglas E. Dingley
evangelist for the Cleveland, Oklahoma church of Christ

Definition of verbal inspiration:

the theological doctrine that a divine inspiration extends to every word of a particular text

-Merriam-Webster dictionary