<p>1:21 <i>For no prophecy ever came by the will of man, but men spoke from God, being moved by the Holy Spirit</i>- According to our understanding of the inspiration process, so we will respect God's prophetic word. Men did not think up what they were going to say, or will themselves to prophecy. They were moved, carried or driven along, by the Spirit, so that the words they spoke were of God, of His will rather than theirs. This explains why so many of the inspired writers in the Old Testament were of themselves unwilling; they spoke according to God's will and not their own.</p><p>But we need to clear up the misconception that the prophets were merely fax machines, dispassionately forwarding God&rsquo;s message to men. Their words were indeed the words of God, they were inspired, but they also had emotional involvement. All Scripture is indeed God-breathed, but this involved the prophets in breathing in of that Spirit and exhaling it, as it were (2 Tim. 3:16). The passage in 2 Pet. 1:19-21 has been somewhat misunderstood. Holy men of God indeed spoke as they were &ldquo;moved&rdquo; by the Holy Spirit; but, contrary to what is repeated parrot fashion by so many, the Greek for &ldquo;moved&rdquo; doesn&rsquo;t necessarily mean &lsquo;irresistibly carried along&rsquo;, as if the prophets had no personal input into what they said and were just treated as machines. The Greek word <i>phero</i> appears several times in 2 Peter:</p><p>-&nbsp;&ldquo;The grace that is to be <i>brought</i> unto you&rdquo; (2 Pet. 1:13)<br />- &ldquo;There <i>came</i> such a voice to Christ from the excellent glory&rdquo; (2 Pet. 1:17)<br />- &ldquo;This voice which <i>came</i> from heaven&rdquo; (2 Pet. 1:18)<br />-&nbsp;&ldquo;The prophecy <i>came </i>not in old time by the will of man: but holy men of God spake <i>phero </i>&lsquo;as they were&hellip;&rsquo; is not in the original- it&rsquo;s in italics in the AV the Holy Spirit&rdquo; (2 Pet. 1:21)<br />Clearly enough, <i>phero</i> in 2 Pet. 1 doesn&rsquo;t mean &lsquo;irresistibly carried along by&rsquo;. The context of 2 Pet. 1:21 is a warning that as there were false prophets in Old Testament times amongst the people of God, so there will be in the new Israel (2:1). Peter&rsquo;s stress is that the Old Testament prophets were <i>holy</i>, they spoke according to the will of <i>God</i> and not the will of <i>man</i>; their words came from the Holy Spirit, and not the spirit of the flesh- in distinction to the false prophets who spoke of the flesh.</p>