Culture has a huge impact on everything. It would be hard if not impossible to separate religion from culture. Our culture is the prism through we which view everything, whether we realize it or not.
And that gets us to the role of inspiration. (Though, dear friend, Malaikah, I think I am about to make it more confusing for you, not less so.)
As Keltoi has said, culture is the prism through which we view everything. Imagine that one has colorblindness so that one is able to see perfectly well, but cannot distinguish between red and orange. Both look the same to you. Simple things like the old saw about mixing apples and oranges would mean something different to you than everyone else. Likewise a significant portion of the human population cannot discriminate between blue and green. This is so common that there are actually whole cultures that do not have separate words for the two colors. Everything is sort of an aqua for them. The color of the sky and of the grass is the same. Now imagine if someone with the first type of color blindness was to read a travel guide written by someone from the second culture, or if soneone of the second culture was to read a fashion magazine published by someone with the first type of colorblindness. There is much that would be misunderstood by both, and yet they would not even realize that they were talking about/seeing the world completely differently from one another.
So two, some people read the Bible and when God is described as Father, Master, or Lord because of their own life experiences that effect how they relate to those words, they hear something different than the rest of us. It has to do with the filter in place in their lives through which they hear and thus understand/interpret the scriptures. It is hard to comprehend God as a loving Father figure if your own father was a violent tempered man always looking to blame you for his own failings. It is hard to appreciate God as a loving provider if your own father disappeared before you were ever born and you had to fend for yourself all of your life.
Now if these things are true of the readers of scripture, could they also be true for the writers of it?
Well, that depends. That depends on one's view of their role in the composition of scripture. There are some who see those who put pen to paper in writing the Bible as nothing more than automatons. Like robots God spoke to them what needed to be written, and they then wrote it down. The whole process was supervised by the Holy Spirit who worked to prevent the authors from actually including any of their own mind in the text, thus the Bible is wholly and totally the mind of God and not of man at all.
At the other end, you have those who think of the Bible as a piece of art. The artist (or writer in this case) receives inspiration from something in life and then responds to that in a written work that somehow speaks to us about God, but also speaks to us as much about the author as it does about God. In this view we can only get to know the God of the individual author. With many different authors of scripture, there is not one consistent view but many views of God contained therein.
Most Christians fall someplace in between these two extremes. There is one and only one God who makes himself known to people in diverse circumstances of life. Though on occassion he may dictate, in general he simply discloses himself to people who see and report him as they best understand him to be. The Holy Spirit is the one who gives the message, so there is just one author to all of scripture, the author is God. But the message is transmitted through men, men who do have different life experiences and have different people in mind to whom they desire to communicate the message of/from God that has been revealed to them. So it is that some might see the hand of a vengeful God punsihing his disobedient children with the exile of the nation of Israel to Babylon, and others might see in the same event a God who redeems a remnant keeping them pure. Both know that the hand of God is at work in the event, but their personal filter interprets it to bring meaning to the event.
Paul knows that God desires order and unity, not discord in the church. He receives some specifics and some principles. He knows that Holy Spirit has gifted the Church in many ways. He knows that they are for the building up of the body. And so he shares a love principle received from God and his own application as he sees it might be applied in the particular church to which he is writing.
Thus the message is from God. The event observed is God at work. But the interpretation or the application provided also reflects the unique circumstances from or reasons for which the author wrote.
Now that is where I come from. It is probably more liberal than many would accept. For a more common view I share with your the writing of Rick Warren, a famous Baptist minister:
REVELATION -- Revelation means that Gpd has chosen to reveal his nature and his will to us through the Bible. The Bible was written so that God could show us what he is like and what he wants us to be like. An understanding of God comes solely through his decision to reveal himself to us.
INSPIRATION -- Inspiration is the process through which God gave us the Biblel God worked in the hearts of human writers to inspirt them to write down his words. God's words written through these people are perfect, infallible, and trustworthy.
If what I read in the Bible were only the ideas of men, I could take it or leave it. Being convinced that God said these words, what I read takes on the ring of authority.
ILLUMINATION -- Illumination is the Holy Spirit's work of bringing light to the words of the Bible as we read them. Illumination is the means by which we understand the Bible.
Inspiration does not mean simply that the writer felt enthusiastic, like Handle composing "The Messiah." Nor does it mean that the writings are necessarily inspiriing, like an uplifting poem. As a process, it refers to the writers and the writings being controlled by God. As a product, it refers to the writings only, as documents that are God's message.
--Norman Geisler, noted Chritian author
More from Rick Warren:
Inspiration means God wrote the Bible through PEOPLE.
The deatails of how God inspired the Bible are a matter of great debate and conjecture. One things is obvious as you read the Bible: he didn't use people as robots. You can clearly see people's personalities and passions in what they wrote. God created a perfect Bible through real people. He can move them internally to creat a Word that will last eternally.
For those who doubt whether God could create something perfect through a fallible human being, I would remind you that Jesus was born into this world through a faith-filled but imperfect woman named Mary. And Jesus was perfect.
Inspiration means the Holy Spirit is the AUTHOR.
Who wrote the Bible? God did! He worked through people, but ultimately he is the author. The fact that God created a perfect book through so many imperfect people is one of his greatest miracles. Splitting the Red Sea is nothing compared to with that!
We have to be careful, of course, to see that the authority is in God's words and not in our opinions about his Word. God always has a way of humbling us when we try to speak for him rather than allowing himself. A church bishop of a century ago pronounced from his pulpit and i the periodical he edited that heavier-than-air flight was both impossible and contrary to the will of God. His name was Bishop Wright.... You've already guessed that his two sons were named Orville and Wilbur!
With regard to God's authorship it was both VERBAL and PLENARY.
Verbal: God inspired the WORDS, not just the ideas.
Plenary: God inspired ALL, not just part.
Inspiration means God's Word is to be our FINAL AUTHORITY.
Whenever there is conflict between what the Bible says and the way I feel or what I've been taught or the opinions of others or what seems reasonable to me--whenever I have a difference of opinion with the Bible for any reason--the Bible is always right!
