When we say that the Bible is the word of God we mean first of all that God is its author. That is to say God inspired human writers to compose the books which we call the Sacred Scriptures. But he did not dictate them: the human authors were not mere secretaries who had no words of their own to utter. But they were inspired, and inspired by the Holy Spirit who is the Truth itself. God used these men as his instruments: he respected, as it were, their own gifts and skill, their mental outlook and their individuality of style and diction. But he preserved them from error, for they were to write of God's own work—and in that there can be no lie. If God exists, then God can neither deceive nor be deceived: he is not merely truthful, he is the Truth, and so the words that are his are true.