Denominations have been split over the inspiration of Scripture. Fundamentalists, conservatives, moderates, progressives, and liberals cannot agree on the nature of divine inspiration. They argue over whether or not God dictated the exact words of the prophetic writers. They hassle over the possibility that a Bible writer might have included factual errors.

We could easily fall into the same pitfalls except for evidence that "God has not put Himself in words, in logic, in rhetoric, on trial in the Bible" (Selected Messages, book 1, p. 21). The people who wrote the Bible were in- spired, but not word for word.