Bible Believing Fundamentalist

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THE DIVINE INSPIRATION

OF THE BIBLE

ARTHUR W. PINK

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INTRODUCTION

Christianity is the religion of a Book. Christianity is based upon the

impregnable rock of Holy Scripture. The starting point of all doctrinal

discussion must be the Bible. Upon the foundation of the Divine inspiration

of the Bible stands or falls the entire edifice of Christian truth. — “If the

Surrender the dogma of verbal inspiration and you are left like a rudderless

ship on a stormy sea-at the mercy of every wind that blows. Deny that the

Bible is, without any qualifications, the very Word of God, and you are left

without any ultimate standard of measurement and without any supreme

authority. It is useless to discuss any doctrine taught by the Bible until you

are prepared to acknowledge, unreservedly, that the Bible is the final court

of appeal. Grant that the Bible is a Divine revelation and communication of

God’s own mind and will to men, and you have a fixed starting point from

which advance can be made into the domain of truth. Grant that the Bible is

(in its original manuscripts) inerrant and infallible and you reach the place

where study of its contents is both practicable and profitable.

It is impossible to over-estimate the importance of the doctrine of the Divine

inspiration of Scripture. This is the strategic center of Christian theology,

and must be defended at all costs. It is the point at which our satanic enemy

is constantly hurling his hellish battalions. Here it was he made his first

attack. In Eden he asked, “Yea, hath God said?” and today he is pursuing

the same tactics. Throughout the ages the Bible has been the central object

of his assaults. Every available weapon in the devil’s arsenal has been

employed in his determined and ceaseless efforts to destroy the temple of

God’s truth. In the first days of the Christian era the attack of the enemy

was made openly — the bonfire being the chief instrument of destruction —

but, in these “last days” the assault is made in a more subtle manner and

comes from a more unexpected quarter. The Divine origin of the Scriptures

is now disputed in the name of “Scholarship” and “Science,” and that, too,

by those who profess to be friends and champions of the Bible. Much of

the learning and theological activity of the hour, are concentrated in the

attempt to discredit and destroy the authenticity and authority of God’s

Word, the result being that thousands of nominal Christians are plunged

into a sea of doubt. Many of those who are paid to stand in our pulpits and

defend the Truth of God are now the very ones who are engaged in sowing

the seeds of unbelief and destroying the faith of those to whom they

minister. But these modern methods will prove no more successful in their

efforts to destroy the Bible than did those employed in the opening centuries

of the Christian era. As well might the birds attempt to demolish the granite

rock of Gibraltar by pecking at it with their beaks —

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“For ever, O Lord, Thy Word is settled in heaven”

Now the Bible does not fear investigation. Instead of fearing it, the Bible

courts and challenges consideration and examination. The more widely it is

known, the more closely it is read, the more carefully it is studied, the more

unreservedly will it be received as the Word of God. Christians are not a

company of enthusiastic fanatics. They are not lovers of myths. They are

not anxious to believe a delusion. They do not desire their lives to be

molded by an empty superstition. They do not wish to mistake hallucination

for inspiration. If they are wrong, they wish to be set right. If they are

deceived, they want to be disillusioned. If they are mistaken, they desire to

be corrected.

The first question which the thoughtful reader of the Bible has to answer is,

What importance and value am I to attach to the contents of the Scriptures?

Were the writers of the Bible so many fanatics moved by oracular frenzy?

Were they merely poetically inspired and intellectually elevated? or, were

they, as they claimed to be, and as the Scriptures affirm they were, moved

by the Holy Spirit to act as the voice of God to a sinful world? Were the

writers of the Bible inspired by God in a manner no other men were in any

other age of the world? Were they invested and endowed with the power to

disclose mysteries and point men upward and onward to that which

otherwise would have been an impenetrable future? One can readily

appreciate the fact that the answer to these questions is of supreme

importance. If the Bible is not inspired in the strictest sense of the word

then it is worthless, for it claims to be God’s Word, and if its claims are

spurious then its statements are unreliable and its contents are

untrustworthy. If, on the other hand, it can be shown to the satisfaction of

every impartial inquirer that the Bible is the Word of God, inerrant and

infallible, then we have a starting point from which we can advance to the

conquest of all truth.

A book that claims to be a Divine revelation — a claim which, as we shall

see, is substantiated by the most convincing credentials — cannot be

rejected or even neglected without grave peril to the soul. True wisdom

cannot refuse to examine it with care and impartiality. If the claims of the

Bible be well founded then the prayerful and diligent study of the Scriptures

becomes of paramount importance: they have a claim upon our notice and

time which nothing else has, and beside them everything in this world loses

its luster and sinks into utter insignificance. If the Bible be the Word of God

then it infinitely transcends in value all the writings of men, and in exact

ratio to its immeasurable superiority to human productions such is our

responsibility and duty to give it the most reverent and serious

consideration. As a Divine revelation the Bible ought to be studied, yet, this

is the only subject on which human curiosity does not desire information.

Into every other sphere man pushes his investigations, but the Book of

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books is neglected, and this, not only by the ignorant, and illiterate, but by

the wise of this world as well. The cultured dilettante will boast of his

acquaintance with the sages of Greece and Rome, yet, will know little or

nothing of Moses and the prophets, Christ and His Apostles. But the

general neglect of the Bible verifies the Scriptures and affords additional

proof of their authenticity. The contempt with which the Bible is treated

demonstrates that human nature is exactly what God’s Word represents it to

be — fallen and depraved — and is unmistakable evidence that the carnal

mind is enmity against God.

If the Bible is the Word of God; if it stands on an infinitely exalted plane, all

alone; if it immeasurable transcends all the greatest productions of human

genius; then, we should naturally expect to find that it has unique

credentials, that there are internal marks which prove it to be the handiwork

of God, that there is conclusive evidence to show that its Author is

superhuman, Divine. That these expectations are realized we shall now

endeavor to show; that there is no reason whatever for any one to doubt the

Divine inspiration of the Scriptures is the purpose of this book to

demonstrate. As we examine the natural world we find innumerable proofs

of the existence of a Personal Creator, and the same God who has

manifested Himself thro’ His works has also revealed His wisdom and will

thro’ His Word. The God of creation and the God of written revelation are

One, and there are irrefutable arguments to show that the Almighty who

made the heavens and the earth is also the Author of the Bible.

We shall now submit to the critical attention of the reader a few of the lines

of demonstration which argue for the Divine inspiration of the Bible.

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CHAPTER 1

THERE IS A PRESUMPTION IN

FAVOR OF THE BIBLE

This argument may be simply and tersely stated thus — Man needed a

Divine revelation couched in human language. God had previously given

man a revelation of Himself in His created works — which men please to

term “nature” — but bears unmistakable testimony to the existence of its

Creator, and though sufficient is revealed of God thro’ it to render all men

“without excuse,” yet creation does not present a complete unveiling of

God’s character. Creation reveals God’s wisdom and power, but it gives us

a very imperfect presentation of His mercy and love. Creation is now under

the curse; it is imperfect, because it has been marred by sin; therefore, an

imperfect creation cannot be a perfect medium for revealing God; and

hence, also, the testimony of creation is contradictory.

In the spring of the year, when nature puts on her loveliest robes and we

see the beautiful foliage of the countryside and listen to the happy songs of

the birds, we have no difficulty in inferring that a gracious God is ruling

over our world. But what of the winter-time, when the countryside is

desolate and the trees are leafless and forlorn, when a pall of death seems to

be resting on everything? When we stood by the seashore and watched the

setting sun crimsoning the placid waters on a quiet eve, we had no

hesitation in ascribing the picture to the hand of the Divine Artist. But when

we stand upon the same seashore on a stormy night, hear the roaring of the

breakers and the howling wind, see the boats battling with the angry waves

and listen to the heart-rending cries of the seamen as they go down into a

watery grave, then, we are tempted to wonder if, after all, a merciful God is

at the helm. As one walks thro’ the Grand Canyon or stands before the

Niagara Falls, the hand and power of God seem very evident; but, as one

witnesses the desolations of the San Francisco earthquake or the deathdealing

effects of the volcanic eruptions of Mount Vesuvius, he is again

perplexed and puzzled. In a word then, the testimony of nature is

conflicting, and, as we have said, this is due to the fact that sin has come in

and marred God’s handiwork. Creation displays God’s natural attributes

but it tells us little or nothing of His moral perfections. Nature knows no

forgiveness and shows no mercy, and if we had no other source of

information we should never discover the fact that God pardons sinners.

Man then needs a written revelation from God.

Our limitations and our ignorance reveal our need. Man is in darkness

concerning God. Blot the Bible out of existence and what should we know

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about His character, His moral attributes, His attitude toward us, or His

demands upon us? As we have seen, nature is but an imperfect medium for

revealing God. The ancients had the same nature before them as we have,

but what did they discover of His character? Unto what knowledge of the

one true God did they attain? The seventeenth chapter of the Acts answers

that question. When the Apostle Paul was in the famous city of Athens,

famous for its learning and philosophical culture, he discovered an altar, on

which were inscribed the words, “To the unknown God”. The same

condition prevails today. Visit those lands which have not been illumined

by the light of the Holy Scriptures and it will be found that their peoples

know no more about the character of the living God than did the ancient

Egyptians and Babylonians.

Man is in darkness concerning himself. From whence am I? What am I?

Am I anything more than a reasoning animal? Have I an immortal soul, or,

am I nothing more than a sentient being? What is the purpose of my

existence? Why am I here in this world at all? What is the end and aim of

life? How shall I employ my time and talents? Shall I live only for today,

eat, drink, and be merry? What after death? Do I perish like the beasts of the

field, or is the grave the portal into another world? If so, whither am I

bound? Do these questions appear senseless and irrelevant? Annihilate the

Scriptures, eliminate all the light they have shed upon these problems, and

whither shall we turn for a solution? If the Bible had never been written

how many of these questions could have been satisfactorily answered? A

very striking testimony to man’s need of a Divine revelation was given by

the celebrated but skeptical historian Gibbon. He remarked — “Since,

therefore, the most sublime efforts of philosophy can extend no farther than

feebly to point out the desire, the hope, or, at most, the probability, of a

future state, there is nothing except a Divine revelation that can ascertain the

existence and describe the condition of the invisible country which is

destine to receive the souls of men after their separation from the body.”

Our experiences reveal our need. There are problems to be faced which our

wisdom is incapable of solving; there are obstacles in our path which we

have no means of surmounting; there are enemies to be met which we are

unable to vanquish. We are in dire need of counsel, strength, and courage.

There are trials and tribulations which come to us, testing the hearts of the

bravest and stoutest, and we need comfort and cheer. There are sorrows

and bereavements which crush our spirits and we need the hope of

immortality and resurrection.

Our corporate life reveals our need. What is to govern and regulate our

dealings one with the other? Shall each do that which is right in his own

eyes? That would destroy all law and order. Shall we draw up some moral

code, some ethical standard? But who shall fix it? Opinions vary. We need

some final court of appeal: if we had no Bible, where should we find it?

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Man then needs a Divine revelation; God is able to supply that need;

therefore, is it not reasonable to suppose He will do so? Surely God will

not mock our ignorance and leave us to grope in the dark! If it is harder to

believe that the universe had no creator, than it is to believe that “in the

beginning God created the heavens and the earth;” if it is a greater tax upon

our faith to suppose that Christianity with all its glorious triumphs is

without a Divine Founder, than it is to believe that it rests upon the Person

of the Lord Jesus Christ; then, does it not also make a greater demand upon

human credulity to imagine that God would leave mankind without an

intelligible communication from Himself, than it does to believe that the

Bible is a revelation from the Creator to His fallen and erring creatures?

If there is a personal God (and none but a “fool” will deny His existence),

and if we are the works of His hands He surely would not leave us in doubt

concerning the great problems which have to do with our temporal,

spiritual, and eternal welfare. If an earthly parent advises his sons and

daughters in their problems and perplexities, warns them of the perils and

pitfalls of life which menace their well-being; counsels them with regard to

their daily welfare and makes known to them his plans and purposes

concerning their future, surely it is incredible to suppose that our Heavenly

Father would do less for His children!

We are often uncertain as to which is the right course to pursue; we are

frequently in doubt as to the real path of duty; we are constantly surrounded

by the hosts of wickedness which seek to accomplish our downfall; and,

we are daily confronted with experiences which make us sad and

sorrowful. The wisest among us need guidance which our own wisdom

fails to supply; the best of humanity need grace which the human heart is

powerless to bestow; the most refined among the sons of men need

deliverance from temptations which they cannot overcome. Will God mock

us then in our need? Will God leave us alone in the hour of our weakness?

Will God refuse to provide for us a Refuge from our enemies? Man needs a

Counselor, a Comforter, a Deliverer. The very fact that God has a Father’s

regard for His children necessitates that He should give them a written

revelation which communicates His mind and will concerning them and

which points them to the One who is willing and able to supply all their

need.

To sum up this argument. Man needs a Divine revelation; God is able to

supply one; is it not, therefore, reasonable to suppose He will do so? There

is then, a presumption in favor of the Bible. Is it not more reasonable to

believe that He whose name and nature is Love shall provide us with a lamp

unto our feet and a light unto our path, than to leave us to grope our way

amid the darkness of a fallen and ruined world?

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CHAPTER 2

THE PERENNIAL FRESHNESS OF THE BIBLE

BEARS WITNESS TO ITS DIVINE INSPIRER

The full force of the present argument will appeal only to those who are

intimately acquainted with the Bible, and the more familiar the reader is with

the Sacred Canon the more heartily will he endorse the following

statements. Just as a knowledge of Latin is necessary in order to understand

the technique of a treatise on pathology or physiology, or just as a certain

amount of culture and academic learning is an indispensable adjunct to

intelligently follow the arguments and apprehend the illustrations in a

dissertation on philosophy or psychology, so a first-hand acquaintance with

the Bible is necessary to appreciate the fact that its contents never become

commonplace.

One of the first facts which arrests the attention of the student of God’s

Word is that, like the widow’s oil and meal which nourished Elijah, the

contents of the Bible are never exhausted. Unlike all other books, the Bible

never acquires a sameness, and never diminishes in its power of response

to the needy soul which comes to it. Just as a fresh supply of manna was

given each day to the Israelites in the wilderness, so the Spirit of God ever

breaks anew the Bread of Life to them who hunger after righteousness; or,

just as the loaves and fishes in the hands of our Lord were more than

enough to feed the famished multitude — a surplus still remaining — so the

honey and milk of the Word are more than sufficient to satisfy the hunger of

every human soul — the supply still remaining undiminished for new

generations.

Although one may know, word for word, the entire contents of some

chapter of Scripture, and although he may have taken the time to ponder

thoughtfully every sentence therein, yet, on every subsequent occasion,

provided one comes to it again in the spirit of humble inquiry, each fresh

reading will reveal new gems never seen there before and new delights will

be experienced never met with previously. The most familiar passages will

yield as much refreshment at the thousandth perusal as they did at the first.

The Bible has been likened to a fountain of living water: the fountain is ever

the same, but the water is always fresh.

Herein the Bible differs from all other books, sacred or secular. What man

has to say can be gathered from his writings at the first reading: failure to do

so indicates that the writer has not succeeded in expressing himself clearly,

or else the reader has failed to apprehend his meaning. Man is only able to

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deal with surface things, hence he cares only about surface appearances;

consequently, whatever man has to say lies upon the surface of his

writings, and the capable reader can exhaust them by a single perusal. Not

so with the Bible. Although the Bible has been studied more

microscopically than any other book (even its very letters have been counted

and registered) by many of the keenest intellects for the past two thousand

years, although whole libraries of works have been written as commentaries

upon its teachings, and although literally millions of sermons have been

preached and printed in the attempt to expound every part of Holy Writ, yet

its contents have not been exhausted, and in this twentieth century new

discoveries are being made in it every day!

The Bible is an inexhaustible mine of wealth: it is the El Dorado of heavenly

treasure. It has veins of ore which never “give out” and pockets of gold

which no pick can empty; yet, like earthly treasures, the gems of God must

be diligently sought if they are to be found. Potatoes lie near the surface of

the ground, but diamonds require much laborious digging, so also the

precious things of the Word are only revealed to the prayerful, patient and

diligent student.

The Bible is like a spring of water which never runs dry. No matter how

many may drink from its life-giving stream, and no matter how often they

may quench their thirst at its refreshing waters, its flow continues and never

fails to satisfy the needs of all who come and take of its perennial springs.

The Bible has a whole continent of Truth yet to be explored. A learned

scholar who died during the present year of grace had read through the

Bible no fewer than five hundred times! What other book, ancient or

modern, Oriental or Occidental, would repay even a fiftieth reading?

How can we account for this marvelous characteristic of the Bible? What

explanation can we offer for this startling phenomenon? It is only stating a

commonplace axiom when we affirm that what is finite is fathomable. What

the mind of man has produced the mind of man can exhaust. If human

mortals had written the Bible its contents would have been “mastered” ages

ago. In view of the fact that the contents of the Scriptures cannot be

exhausted, that they never acquire sameness or staleness to the devout

student, and that they always speak with fresh force to the quickened soul

that comes to them, is it not apparent that none other than the infinite mind

of God could have created such a wonderful Book as the Bible?

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CHAPTER 3

THE UNMISTAKABLE HONESTY

OF THE WRITERS OF THE BIBLE

ATTESTS TO ITS HEAVENLY ORIGIN

The title of this chapter suggests a wide field of study the limits of which

we can now only skirt here and there. To begin with the writers of the Old

Testament.

Had the historical parts of the Old Testament been a forgery, or the

production of uninspired men, their contents would have been very

different to what they are. Each of its Books was written by a descendant of

Abraham, yet nowhere do we find the bravery of the Israelites extolled and

never once are their victories regarded as the outcome of their courage or

military genius; on the contrary, success is attributed to the presence of

Jehovah the God of Israel. To this it might be replied, Heathen writers have

often ascribed the victories of their peoples to the intervention of their gods.

This is true, yet there is no parallel at all between the two cases.

Comparison is impossible. Heathen writers invariably represent their gods

as being blindly partial to their friends and whenever their favorites failed to

come out victorious their defeat is attributed to the opposition of other gods

or to a blind and unyielding fate. In contradistinction to this, the defeats of

Israel, as much as their victories, are regarded as coming from Jehovah.

Their successes were not due to mere partiality in God, but are uniformly

viewed as connected with a careful observance of His commands; and, in

like manner, their defeats are portrayed as the outcome of their disobedience

and waywardness. If they transgressed His laws they were defeated and put

to shame, even though their God was the Almighty. But we have digressed

somewhat. That to which we desire to direct attention is the fact that men

who were their own countrymen have chronicled the history of the

Israelites, and therein have faithfully recorded their defeats not to an

inexorable fate, nor to bad generalship and military failures, but to the sins

of the people and their wickedness against God. Such a God is not the

creation of the human mind, and such historians were not actuated by the

common principles of human nature.

Not only have the Jewish historians recounted the military defeats of their

people, but they have also faithfully recorded their many moral backslidings

and spiritual declinations. One of the outstanding truths of the Old

Testament is that the Unity of God, that God is One, that beside Him there

is none else, that all other gods are false gods and that to pay them homage

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is to be guilty of the sin of idolatry. Against the sin of idolatry these Jewish

writers cry out repeatedly. They uniformly declare that it is a sin most

abhorrent in the sight of heaven. Yet, these same Jewish writers record how

again and again their ancestors (contrary to the universal leaning towards

ancestral adoration and worship), and their contemporaries, were guilty of

this great wickedness. Not only so, but they have pointed out how some of

their most famous heroes sinned in this very particular. Aaron and the

golden calf, Solomon and the later kings being notable examples —

“Then did Solomon build a high place for Chemosh, the

abomination of Moab, in the hill that is before Jerusalem, and for

Molech, the abomination of the children of Ammon. And likewise

did he for all his strange wives, which burnt incense and sacrificed

Moreover, there is no attempt made to excuse their wrongdoing; instead,

their acts are openly censured and uncompromisingly condemned. As is

well known, human historians are inclined to conceal or extenuate the faults

of their favorites. A forged history would have clothed friends with every

virtue, and would not have ventured to mar the effect designed to be

produced by uncovering the vices of its most distinguished personages.

Here then, is displayed the uniqueness of Scripture history. Its characters

are painted in the colors of truth and nature. But such characters were never

sketched by a human pencil. Moses and the other writers must have written

by Divine inspiration.

The sin of idolatry, while it is the worst of which Israel was guilty, is not

the only evil recorded against them — their whole history is one long story

of repeated apostasy from Jehovah their God. After they had been

emancipated from the bondage of Egypt and had been miraculously

delivered from their cruel masters at the Red Sea, they commenced their

journey towards the Promised Land. Between them and their goal lay a

march across the wilderness, and here the depravity of their hearts was fully

manifested. In spite of the fact that Jehovah, by overthrowing their

enemies, had plainly demonstrated that He was their God, yet no sooner

was the faith of the Israelites put to the test than their hearts failed them.

First, their stores of food began to give out and they feared they would

perish from hunger. Trying circumstances had banished the Living God

from their thoughts. They complained of their lot and murmured against

Moses. Yet God did not deal with them after their sins nor reward them

according to their iniquities: in mercy, He gave them bread from heaven and

furnished them a daily supply of manna. But they soon became dissatisfied

with the manna and lusted after the flesh pots of Egypt. Still God dealt with

them in grace.

Shortly after God’s intervention in giving the Israelites food to eat, which

ought for ever to have closed their murmuring mouths, they pitched in

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Rephidim where “there was no water for the people to drink. Wherefore the

people did chide with Moses, and said, Give us water that we may drink.

And Moses said unto them, Why chide ye with me? wherefore do ye tempt

the Lord? And the people thirsted there for water; and the people murmured

against Moses, and said, Wherefore is this that thou hast brought us up out

of Egypt, to kill us and our children and our cattle with thirst? And Moses

cried unto the Lord, saying, What shall I do unto this people? they be

almost ready to stone me.” What was God’s response? Did His anger

consume them? Did He refuse to bear longer with such a stiff-necked

people? No:

“The Lord said unto Moses, Go on before the people, and take with

thee of the elders of Israel; and thy rod, wherewith thou smotest the

river, take in thine hand, and go. Behold, I will stand before thee

there upon the rock in Horeb; and thou shalt smite the rock, and

there shall come water out of it, that the people may drink”

The above incidents were but sadly typical and illustrative of Israel’s

general conduct. When the spies were sent out to view the Promised Land

and returned and reported, ten of them magnified the difficulties which

confronted them and advised the people not to attempt an occupation of

Canaan; and though the remaining two faithfully reminded the Israelites that

the mighty Jehovah could easily overcome all their difficulties,

nevertheless, the nation listened not but heeded the word of their skeptical

advisers. Time after time they provoked Jehovah, and in consequence the

whole of that generation perished in the wilderness. When the succeeding

generation was grown, under the leadership of Joshua they entered the

Promised Land and by the aid of God overthrew many of their enemies and

occupied much of their territory. But after the death of Joshua we read,

“There arose another generation after them, which knew not the

Lord, nor yet the works which He had done for Israel. And the

children of Israel did evil in the sight of the Lord God of their

fathers, which brought them out of the land of Egypt, and followed

other gods, of the gods of the people that were round about them,

and bowed themselves unto them, and provoked the Lord to anger.

And they forsook the Lord, and served Baal and Ashtaroth”

There is no need for us to follow further the fluctuating fortunes of Israel:

as is well known, under the period of the judges their history was a series

of returns to the Lord and subsequent departures from Him; repeated

deliverances from the hands of their enemies, and then returning

unfaithfulness on their part, followed by being again delivered unto their

foes. Under the kings it was no better. The very first of their kings perished

thro’ his willful disobedience and apostasy; the third king, Solomon,

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violated God’s law and married heathen women who turned his heart unto

false gods. Solomon, in turn, was followed by a number of idolatrous

rulers, and the path of Israel ran farther and farther away from the Lord,

until He delivered them over unto Nebuchadnezzar who captured their

beloved Jerusalem, destroyed their Temple, and carried away the people

into captivity.

In the repeated mention which we have in the Old Testament of Israel’s

sins, we discover, in light as clear as day, the absolute honesty and candor

of those who recorded Israel’s history. No attempt whatever is made to

conceal their folly, their unbelief, and their wickedness; instead, the corrupt

condition of their hearts is made fully manifest, and this, by writers who

belonged to, and were born of the same nation. In the whole realm of

literature there is no parallel. The record of Israel’s history is absolutely

unique. The careful reader would at first conclude that Israel as a nation was

more depraved than any other, yet further reflection will show that the

inference is a false one and that the real fact is that the history of Israel has

been more faithfully transmitted than that of any other nation. We mean the

history of Israel as it is recorded in the Holy Scriptures, for in striking

contrast thereto and in exemplification of all that we have written above, it is

noteworthy that Josephus passes over in silence whatever appeared

unfavorable to his nation!!

Coming now to the New Testament we begin with the character of John the

Baptist and the position that he occupied. John the Baptist is presented as a

most eminent personage. We are told that his birth was due to the

miraculous intervention of God. We learn that he was “filled with the Holy

himself the subject of Old Testament prediction. The office that he filled

was the most honorable which ever fell to the lot of any member of Adam’s

race. He was the harbinger of the Messiah. He was the one who went

before our Lord to prepare His way. He had the honor of baptizing the

blessed Redeemer. Now where would human wisdom have placed him

among the attendants of the Lord Jesus? What position would it have

ascribed to him? Surely he would have been set forth as the most

distinguished among our Lord’s followers; surely, human wisdom would

have set him at the right hand of the Savior! Yet what do we find? Instead

of this, we discover that he had no familiar discourse with the Savior;

instead, we find he was treated with apparent neglect; instead, we find him

represented as occupying the position of a doubter who, as the result of his

imprisonment, was constrained to send a message to his Master to enquire

whether or not He were the promised Messiah. Had his character been the

invention of forgery, nothing would have been heard of his lapse of faith.

Indeed, this is so opposed to the dictates of human wisdom, that many have

been shocked at the thought of ascribing doubts to the eminent forerunner

of Christ, and have taxed their ingenuity to the utmost to force from the

obvious meaning of the record some other and some different signification.

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But all these ingenuities of human sophistry are dissipated by the reply

reply which shows very plainly that the question was asked not for the

benefit of his disciples, but because the Baptist’s own heart was harassed

with doubts. Again, we say that no human mind could have invented the

character of John the Baptist, and the faithfulness of his biographers is

another proof that the writers of the Bible were actuated by something more

and something higher than the principles of human nature.

Another striking illustration of our chapter heading — one which many

writers have pointed out — is the treatment the Son of God received while

He tabernacled among men. For two thousand years Israel’s hopes had all

centered in the advent of their Messiah. The height of every Jewish

woman’s ambition was that she might be selected of God to have the honor

of being the mother of the promised Seed. For centuries, every pious

Hebrew had looked and longed for the day when He should appear who

was to occupy David’s throne and rule and reign in righteousness. Yet,

when He did appear how was the Promised One received? “He was

despised and rejected of men.” “He came unto His own and His own

received Him not.” Those who were His brethren according to the flesh

“hated” Him “without a cause.” The very nation which gave Him birth and

to which He ministered in infinite grace and blessing demanded that He

should be crucified. The startling thing which we desire to particularly

emphasize is, that the narrators of this awful tragedy are fellow countrymen

of those upon whose heads rested the guilt of its perpetration. It was Jewish

writers who recorded the fearful crime of the Jewish nation against their

Messiah! And, we say again, that in the recording of that crime no attempt

whatever is made to palliate or extenuate their wickedness; instead, it is

denounced and condemned in the most uncompromising terms. Israel is

openly charged with having taken and with “wicked hands” slain the “Lord

of Glory.” Such an honest and impartial recital of Israel’s crowning sin can

only be explained on the ground that what these men wrote was inspired of

God.

One more illustration must suffice. After our Lord’s death and resurrection,

He commissioned His disciples to go forth carrying from Him a message

first to His own nation and later to “every creature.” This message, be it

noted, was not a malediction called down upon the heads of His heartless

murderers, but a proclamation of grace. It was a message of good news, of

glad tidings — forgiveness was to be preached in His name to all men.

How then would human wisdom suppose such a message will be received?

It is further to be observed that those who were thus commissioned to carry

the Gospel to the lost, were vested with power to heal the sick and to cast

out demons. Surely such a beneficent ministry will meet with a universal

welcome! Yet, incredible as it may appear, the Apostles of Christ met with

no more appreciation than did their Master. They, too, were despised and

rejected. They, too, were hated and persecuted. They, too, were ill treated,

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imprisoned, and put to a shameful death. And this, not merely from the

hands of the bigoted Jews, but from the cultured Greeks and from the

democratic and freedom loving Romans as well. Though these Apostles

brought blessing, they themselves were cursed; though they sought to

emancipate men from the thraldom of sin and Satan, yet they were

themselves captured and thrown into prison; though they healed the sick

and raised the dead, they suffered martyrdom. Surely it is apparent to every

impartial mind that the New Testament is no mere human invention; and

surely it is evident from the honesty of its writers in so faithfully portraying

the enmity of the carnal mind against God, that their productions can only

be accounted for on the ground that they spake and wrote “not of

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CHAPTER 4

THE CHARACTER OF ITS TEACHINGS

EVIDENCES THE DIVINE AUTHORSHIP

OF THE BIBLE

Take its teachings about God Himself. What does the Bible teach us about

God? It declares that He is Eternal:

“Before the mountains were brought forth, or ever Thou hadst

formed the earth and the world, even from everlasting to

It reveals the fact that He is Infinite:

“But will God indeed dwell on the earth? Behold, the heaven and

Vast as we know the universe to be, it has its bounds; but we must go

beyond them to conceive of God —

“Canst thou by searching find out God? Canst thou find out the

Almighty unto perfection? It is as high as heaven; what canst thou

do? deeper than hell; what canst thou know? The measure thereof is

It makes mention of His Sovereignty:

“Remember the former things of old: for I am God, and there is

none else; I am God, and there is none like Me, declaring the end

from the beginning, and from ancient times the things that are not

yet done, saying, My counsel shall stand, and I will do all My

It affirms that He is Omnipotent:

“Behold I am the Lord, the God of all flesh: is there anything too

It intimates that He is Omniscient:

“Great is our Lord, and of great power: His understanding is

It teaches that He is Omnipresent:

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“Can any hide himself in secret places that I shall not see him? saith

the Lord. Do not I fill heaven and earth? saith the Lord”

It declares that He is Immutable:

Yea, that with Him “is no variableness, neither shadow of turning”

in all His dealings so that He can by “no means clear the guilty”

light inaccessible. So holy that even the seraphim have to veil their faces in

man’s conception as the heavens are above the earth. No man, and no

number of men, ever invented such a God as this. Ransack the libraries of

the ancient, examine the musings of the mystics, study the religions of the

heathen and nothing will be found which can for a moment be compared

with the sublime and exalted description of God’s character which is

furnished by the Bible.

The teachings of the Bible about man are unique. Unlike all other books in

the world, the Bible condemns man and all his doings. It never eulogizes

his wisdom, nor praises his achievements. On the contrary, it declares that

teaching that man is a noble character, evolving heavenwards, it tells him

that all his righteousnesses (his best works) are as “filthy rags,” that he is a

lost sinner, incapable of bettering his condition; that he is deserving only of

Hell.

The picture which the Scriptures give of man is deeply humiliating and

entirely different from all which are drawn by human pencils. The Word of

God describes the state of the natural man in the following language: —

“There is none righteous, no, not one. There is none that

understandeth, there is none that seeketh after God. They are all

gone out of the way, they are together become unprofitable. There is

none that doeth good, no, not one. Their throat is an open

sepulcher; with their tongues they have used deceit; the poison of

asps is under their lips; whose mouth is full of cursing and

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bitterness. Their feet are swift to shed blood: destruction and misery

are in their ways: and the way of peace have they not known. There

is no fear of God before their eyes”

Instead of making Satan the source of all the black crimes of which we are

guilty, the Bible declares,

“For from within, out of the heart of man proceed evil thoughts,

adulteries, fornications, murders, thefts, covetousness, wickedness,

deceit, lasciviousness, an evil eye, blasphemy, pride, foolishness:

all these evil things come from within and defile the man”

Such a conception of man — so different from man’s own ideas, and so

humilitating to his proud heart — never could have emanated from man

himself.

“The heart is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked”

is a concept that never originated in any human mind.

The teachings of the Bible about the world are unique. In nothing perhaps

are the teachings of Scripture and the writings of man at such variance as

they are at this point. Using the term as meaning the world-system in

contradistinction to the earth, what is the direction of man’s thoughts

concerning the same? Man thinks highly of the world, for he regards it as

his world. It is that which his labors have produced and he looks upon it

with satisfaction and pride. He boasts that “the world is growing better.”

He declares that the world is becoming more civilized and more humanized.

Man’s thoughts upon this subject have been well summarized by the poet in

the familiar language — “God is in heaven: All’s well with the world.” But

what saith the Scriptures? Upon this subject, too, we discover that God’s

thoughts are very different from ours. The Bible uniformly condemns the

world and speaks of it as a thing of evil. We shall not attempt to quote every

passage which does this, but shall merely single out a few specimen

Scriptures.

“If the world hate you, ye know that it hated Me before it hated you.

If ye were of the world, the world would love his own: but because

ye are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of the world,

This passage teaches that the world hates both Christ and His

followers. “The wisdom of this world is foolishness with God”

Certainly no uninspired pen wrote these words.

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“Ye adulterers and adulteresses, know ye not that the friendship of

the world is enmity with God? Whosoever therefore will be a friend

Here again we learn that the world is an evil thing, condemned by God, and

to be shunned by His children.

“Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any

man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that

is in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the

pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world”

Here we have a definition of the world: it is all that is opposed to the Father

— opposed in its principles and philosophy, its maxims and methods, its

aims and ambitions, its trend and its end “And the whole world lieth in the

hates Christ and His followers; why its wisdom is foolishness with God;

why it is condemned by God and must be shunned by His children — it is

under the dominion of that old serpent, the devil, whom Scripture

specifically denominates “The prince of this world.”

The teachings of the Bible about sin is unique. Man regards sin as a

misfortune and ever seeks to minimize its enormity. In these days, sin is

referred to as ignorance, as a necessary stage in man’s development. By

others, sin is looked upon as a mere negation, the opposite of good; while

Mrs. Eddy and her followers went so far as to deny its existence altogether.

But the Bible, unlike every other book, strips man of all excuse and

emphasizes his culpability. In the Bible sin is never palliated or extenuated,

but from first to last the Holy Scriptures insist upon its enormity and

heinousness. The Word of God declares that “sin is very grievous”

8:12). It regards our sins as being “as scarlet” and “red like crimson”

affirms that sin is more than a non-compliance with God’s law — it is

rebellion against the One who gave the law . It teaches that “sin is

anarchy, open defiance against the Almighty. Moreover, it singles out no

particular class; it condemns all alike. It announces that “all have sinned and

come short of the glory of God,” that “there is none righteous, no, not one”

What human mind ever invented such a description of sin as that discovered

in the Bible? Whoever would have imagined that sin was such a vile and

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dreadful thing in the sight of God that nothing but the precious blood of His

own beloved Son could make an atonement for it!

The teaching of the Bible about the punishment of sin is unique. A defective

view of sin necessarily leads to an inadequate conception of what is due sin.

Minimize the gravity and enormity of sin and you must proportionately

reduce the sentence which it deserves. Many are crying out today against

the justice of the eternal punishment of sin. They complain that the penalty

does not fit the crime. They argue that it is unrighteous for a sinner to suffer

eternally in consequence of a short life span of wrong- doing. But even in

this world it is not the length of time which it takes to commit the crime

which determines the severity of the sentence. Many a man has suffered a

life term of imprisonment for a crime which required only a few minutes for

its perpetration. Apart, however, from this consideration, eternal

punishment is just if sin be looked at from God’s viewpoint. But this is just

what the majority of men refuse to do. They look at sin and its deserts

solely from the human side. One reason why the Bible was written was to

correct our ideas and views about sin, to teach us what an unspeakably

awful and vile thing it is, to show us sin as God sees it. For one single sin

Adam and Eve were banished from Eden. For one single sin Canaan and all

his posterity were cursed. For a single sin Korah and his company went

down alive into the pit. For one single sin Moses was debarred from

entering the Promised Land. For a single sin Achan and his family were

stoned to death. For a single sin Elisha’s servant was smitten with leprosy.

For a single sin Ananias and Sapphira were cut off out of the land of the

living. Why? To teach us what an infinite evil it is to revolt against the thrice

holy God. We repeat, that did men but see the terribleness of sin — did

they but see that it was sin that put to a shameful death the Lord of Glory —

then they would realize that nothing short of eternal punishment would meet

the demands which justice has upon sinners.

But the great majority of men do not see the meetness or justice of eternal

punishment; on the contrary, they cry out against it. In lands which were

not illumined by the Old Testament Scriptures, where there existed any

belief in a future life, it was held that at death the wicked either passed thro’

some temporary suffering for remedial and purifying purposes or else they

were annihilated. Even in Christendom, where the Word of God has held a

prominent and public place for centuries, the great bulk of the people do not

believe in eternal punishment. They argue that God is too merciful and kind

to ban one of His own creatures to endless misery. Yea, not a few of the

Lord’s own people are afraid to take the solemn teachings of the Scriptures

on this subject at their face value. It is therefore evident that had the Bible

been written by uninspired men; had it been a mere human composition, it

certainly would not have taught the eternal and conscious torment of all who

die out of Christ. The fact that the Bible does so teach is conclusive proof

that it was written by men who spake not of themselves, but as they were

“moved by the Holy Spirit.”

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The teachings of God’s Word upon eternal punishment are as clear and

explicit as they are solemn and awful. They declare that the doom of the

Christ rejector is a conscious, never-ending, indescribable torment. The

Bible depicts the place of punishment as a realm where the “worm dieth

“the smoke of their torment ascendeth up for ever and ever: and they

It represents the world of the lost as a scene into which penetrates no light

by no ray of hope. In short, the portion of the lost will be unbearable, yet it

will have to be borne, and borne for ever. What mortal mind conceived of

such a fate? Such a conception is too repugnant and repulsive to the human

heart to have had its birth on the earth.

The teachings of the Bible about Salvation from Sin is unique. Man’s

thoughts about salvation, like every other subject which engages his mind

are defective and deficient. Hence the force of the admonition —

“Let the wicked forsake his way and

In the first place, left to himself, man fails to realize his need of salvation.

In the pride of his heart he imagines that he is sufficient in himself, and

thro’ the darkening of his understanding by sin he fails to comprehend his

ruined and lost condition. Like the self-righteous Pharisee, he thanks God

that he is not as other men, that he is morally the superior of the savage or

the criminal, and refuses to believe that so far as his standing before God is

concerned there is “no difference.” It is not until the Holy Spirit deals with

him that man is constrained to cry, “God be merciful to me a sinner.”

In the second place man is ignorant of the way of salvation. Even when

man has been brought to the place where he recognizes that he is not

prepared to meet God, and that if he died in his present state he would be

eternally lost; even then he has no right conception of the remedy. Being

ignorant of God’s righteousness he goes about to establish his own

righteousness. He supposes that he must make some personal reparation for

his past wrong-doings, that he must work for his salvation, do something

to merit the esteem of God, and thus win heaven as a reward. The highest

concept of man’s mind is that of merit. To him salvation is a wage to be

earned, a crown to be coveted, a prize to be won. The proof of this is to be

seen in the fact that even when pardon and life are presented as a free gift,

the universal tendency, at first, is to regard it as being “too good to be true.”

Yet, such is the plain teaching of God’s Word —

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“For by grace are ye saved through faith;

and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: not of works;

And again —

“Not by works of righteousness which we have done,

If it is true that man left to himself would never have fully realized his need

of salvation, and would never have discovered that it was by grace thro’

faith and not of works, how much less would the human mind have been

capable of rising to the level of what God’s Word teaches about the nature

of salvation and the glorious and marvelous destiny of the saved! Who

would have thought that the Maker and Ruler of the universe should lay

hold of poor, fallen, depraved men and women and lifting them out of the

miry clay should make them His own sons and daughters, and should seat

them at His own table! Who would ever have suggested that those who

deserve naught but everlasting shame and contempt, should be made “heirs

of God and joint-heirs with Christ”! Who would have dreamed that beggars

should be lifted from the dunghill of sin and made to sit together with Christ

in heavenly places! Who would have imagined that the corrupted offspring

of disobedient Adam should be exalted to a position higher than that

occupied by the unfallen angels! Who would have dared to affirm that one

day we shall be “made like Christ” and “be for ever with the Lord”! Such

concepts were as far beyond the reach of the highest human intellect as they

were of the rudest savage.

“But as it is written, eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have

entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared

for them that love Him. But God hath revealed them unto us by His

Spirit: for the Spirit searcheth all things, yea, the deep things of

Again we ask, what human intellect could have devised a means whereby

God could be just and yet merciful, merciful and yet just? What mortal mind

would ever have dreamed of a free and full salvation, bestowed on helldeserving

sinners, “without money and without price”! And what flight of

carnal imagination would ever have conceived of the Son of God Himself

being “made sin” for us and dying the Just for the unjust?

The teaching of the Bible concerning the Savior of sinners is unique. The

description which the Scriptures furnish of the Person, the Character, and

the Work of the Lord Jesus Christ is without anything that approaches a

parallel in the whole realm of literature. It is easier to suppose that man

could create a world than to believe he invented the character of our

adorable Redeemer. Given a piece of machinery that is delicate, complex,

exact in all its movements, and we know it must be the product of a

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competent mechanic. Given a work of art that is beautiful, symmetrical,

original, and we know it must be the product of a master artist. None but an

Angelo could have designed Saint Peter’s; none but a Raphael could have

painted the “transfiguration;” none but a Milton could have written a

“Paradise Lost.” And, none but the Holy Spirit could have produced the

peerless portrait of the Lord Jesus which we find in the Gospels. In Christ

all excellencies combine. Here is one of the many respects in which He

differs from all other Bible characters. In each of the great heroes of

Scripture some trait stands out with peculiar distinctness — Noah, faithful

testimony; Abraham, faith in God; Isaac, submission to his father; Joseph,

love for his brethren; Moses, unselfishness and meekness; Joshua, courage

and leadership; Job, fortitude and patience; Daniel, fidelity to God; Paul,

zeal in service; John, spiritual discernment — but in the Lord Jesus every

grace is found. Moreover, in Him all these perfections were properly poised

and balanced. He was meek yet regal; He was gentle yet fearless; He was

compassionate yet just; He was submissive yet authoritative; He was Divine

yet human; add to these, the fact that He was absolutely “without sin” and

His uniqueness becomes apparent. Nowhere in all the writings of antiquity

is there to be found the presentation of such a peerless and wondrous

character.

Not only is the portrayal of Christ’s character without any rival, but the

teaching of the Bible concerning His Person and Work is also utterly

incredible on any other basis save that they are part of a Divine revelation.

Who would have dared to imagine the Creator and Upholder of the universe

taking upon Himself the form of a servant and being made in the likeness of

men? Who would have conceived the idea of the Lord of Glory being born

in a manger? Who would have dreamed of the Object of angelic worship

becoming so poor that he had not where to lay His head? Who would have

declared that the One before whom the seraphim veil their faces should be

led as a lamb to the slaughter, should have suffered His own blessed face to

be defiled with the vile spittle of man, and should permit the creatures of

His hand to scourge and buffet Him? Whoever would have conceived of

Emmanuel becoming obedient unto death, even the death of the Cross!

Here then is an argument which the simplest can grasp. The Scriptures

contain their own evidence that they are Divinely inspired. Every page of

Holy Writ is stamped with Jehovah’s autograph. The uniqueness of its

teachings demonstrates the uniqueness of its Source. The teachings of the

Scriptures about God Himself, about man, about the world, about sin,

about eternal punishment, about salvation, about the Lord Jesus Christ, are

proof that the Bible is not the product of any man or any number of men,

but is in truth a revelation from God.

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CHAPTER 5

THE FULFILLED PROPHECIES OF THE BIBLE

BESPEAK THE OMNISCIENCE OF ITS AUTHOR

challenge to be found in the Bible. “Produce your cause, saith the Lord;

bring forth your strong reasons, saith the King of Jacob. Let them bring

them forth, and show us what shall happen; let them show the former

things, what they be, that we may consider them, and know the latter end of

them; or declare us things for to come. Show the things that are to come

hereafter, that we may know that ye are gods.” This Scripture has both a

negative and a positive value: negatively it suggests an infallible criterion by

which we may test the claims of religious impostors; positively, it calls

attention to an unanswerable argument for the truthfulness of God’s Word.

Jehovah bids the prophets of false faiths to successfully predict events lying

in the far distant future and their success or failure will show whether or not

they are gods or merely pretenders and deceivers. On the other hand, the

demonstrated fact that God alone grasps the ages and in His Word declares

the end from the beginning, shows that he is God and that Scriptures are

His Inspired Revelation to mankind.

Again and again men have attempted to predict future events but always

with the most disastrous failure, the anticipations of the most far-seeing and

the precautions of the wisest are mocked repeatedly by the bitter irony of

events. Man stands before an impenetrable wall of darkness, he is unable to

foresee the events of even the next hour. None knows what a day may

bring forth. To the finite mind the future is filled with unknown

possibilities. How then can we explain the hundreds of detailed prophecies

in the Scriptures which have been literally fulfilled to the letter, hundreds of

years after they were uttered? How can we account for the fact that the Bible

successfully foretold hundreds, and in some instances thousands of years

beforehand, the History of the Jews, the Course of the Gentiles, and the

Experiences of the Church? The most conservative of critics, and the most

daring assailants of God’s Word are compelled to acknowledge that all the

Books of the Old Testament were written hundreds of years before the

incarnation of our Lord, hence, the actual and accurate fulfillment of these

prophecies can only be explained on the hypothesis that “Prophecy came

not at any time by the will of men: but holy men of God, spake, moved by

the Holy Ghost.”

The Inspirer of the Scriptures has told us that

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“We have also a more sure word of prophecy; where unto ye do

well that ye take heed as unto a light that shineth in a dark place”

In the limited space at our command we shall appeal to but a few from

among the many fulfilled prophecies of God’s Word, and shall limit

ourselves to those which have reference to the Person and Work of the Lord

Jesus Christ. The cumulative force of these will be sufficient, we trust, to

convince any impartial inquirer that none other but the mind of God could

have disclosed the future and unveiled beforehand far distant events.

“The testimony of Jesus is the Spirit of Prophecy.” The Lamb of God is the

have the first word about the Coming of Christ. Speaking to the serpent,

Jehovah said, “And I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and

between thy seed and her seed; it shall bruise thy head, and thou shall

bruise His heel.” Note that the Coming One was to be the “woman’s seed,”

the Miraculous Character of our Lord’s Birth being thus foretold four

thousand years before He was born at Bethlehem!

Abraham, the angel of the Lord declared, “And in thy seed shall all the

nations of the earth be blessed.” Not only was the Savior of sinners to be

human as well as Divine, not only was He to be the “woman’s” seed, but in

the above Scripture it was declared that He should be a descendant of

Abraham — an Israelite. How this was fulfilled we may see by a reference

that Jesus Christ was “The Son of David, the son of Abraham.”

But still further was the compass narrowed down, for we have intimated in

the Old Testament Scriptures the very tribe from which the Messiah was to

issue — our Lord was to come of the tribe of Judah (the “kingly” tribe). He

was to be a descendant of David. Nathan the prophet was commanded by

God to go and say to David,

“I will set up thy seed after thee, which shall proceed out of thy

bowels, and I will stablish His kingdom. He shall build an house

for My name, and I will stablish the throne of His kingdom for

ever”

Messiah, “The Lord hath sworn in truth unto David; (He will not turn from

it) Of the fruit of thy body will I set upon thy throne.

Not only was our Lord’s nationality defined hundreds of years before His

we are informed, “But thou, Bethlehem Ephratah, though thou be little

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among the thousands of Judah, but out of thee shall He come forth unto Me

that is to be Ruler in Israel; whose goings forth have been from of old, from

the days of eternity.” Christ was to be born in Bethlehem, and not only in

one of the several villages which bore that name in Palestine, but Bethlehem

of Judea was to be the birth-place of the world’s Redeemer; and though

Mary was a native of Nazareth (far distant from Bethlehem) yet through the

providence of God, His Word was literally fulfilled by His Son being born

in Bethlehem of Judea.

Further, the very time of Messiah’s appearing was given through both

order to appreciate the force of these marvelous, super- natural prophecies,

let the reader seek to foretell the nationality, place and time of the birth of

some one who shall be born in the twenty-fifth century A. D., and then he

will realize that none but a man inspired and informed by God Himself

could perform such an otherwise impossible feat.

So definite and distinct were the Old Testament prophecies respecting the

Birth of Christ, that the hope of Israel became the Messianic Hope; all their

expectations were centered in the coming of the Messiah. It is therefore the

more remarkable that their sacred Scriptures should contain another set of

prophecies which predicted that He should be despised by His own nation

and rejected by His own kinsmen. We can only now call attention to one of

the prophecies which declared that the Messiah of Israel should be slighted

and scorned by His brethren according to the flesh.

“And when we (Israel) shall see Him, there is no beauty that we

should desire Him. He is despised and rejected of men; a Man of

sorrows, and acquainted with grief; and we hid as it were our faces

from Him; He was despised, and we esteemed Him not!”

We pause here for a moment to enlarge upon this strange and striking

phenomenon.

For more than fifteen centuries the Coming of the Messiah had been the one

great national Hope of Israel. From the cradle the sons of Abraham were

taught to pray and long for His advent. The eagerness with which they

awaited the appearing of the Star of Jacob is absolutely without parallel in

the history of any other nation. How then can we account for the fact that

when He did come He was despised and rejected? How can we explain the

fact that side by side with the intense longing for the manifestation of their

King, one of their own prophets foretold that when He did appear men

would hide their faces from Him and esteem Him not? Finally, what

explanation have we to offer for the fact that such things were predicted

centuries before He came to this earth and that they were literally fulfilled to

the very letter? As another has said, “No prediction could have seemed

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more improbable, and yet none ever received a sadder and more complete

fulfillment.”

We pass on now to those predictions which have reference to the death of

our Lord. If it was wonderful that an Israelitish prophet should foretell the

rejection of the Messiah by His own nation, what shall we say to the fact

that the Old Testament Scriptures prophesied in detail concerning the

manner or form of His death? Yet again and again we find this to be the

case! Let us examine a few typical instances.

First, it was intimated that our Lord should be betrayed and sold for the

“So they weighed for My price thirty pieces of silver.”

Who was it that was able to declare, centuries before the event came to

pass, the exact amount that Judas should receive for his dastardly deed? In

wisdom could not possibly have supplied — “He is brought as a lamb to

the slaughter, and as a sheep before her shearers is dumb, so He opened not

His mouth.” Who could have foreseen this most unusual sight, of a

prisoner standing before his judges with his life at stake, yet attempting and

offering no defense? Yet this is precisely what did happen in connection

nothing; so that Pilate marveled.” Again; who was it that knew seven

hundred years before the greatest tragedy of human history was enacted that

the Son of God, the King of the Jews, the gentlest and meekest Man who

ever trod our earth, should be scourged and spat upon? Yet such an

experience was foretold: “I gave My back to the smiters, and My cheeks to

them that plucked off the hair: I hid not My face from shame and spitting”

Further; the form of capital punishment reserved for Jewish criminals was

“stoning to death,” and in David’s time the experience of “crucifixion” was

inspired to write, “They pierced My hands and My feet!” Again; what

human foresight could have seen that in His thirst-agonies upon the cross

our Lord should be given gall and vinegar to drink? Yet it was declared a

thousand years before the Lord of Glory was nailed to the tree that,

“They gave Me also gall for My meat; and in My thirst they gave Me

Finally; we ask, how could David foretell, unless he was inspired by the

Holy Spirit, that our Lord should be taunted by His enemies and challenged

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“All they that see Me laugh Me to scorn: they shoot out the lip, they

shake the head, saying, He trusted on the Lord that He would

deliver Him: let Him deliver Him, seeing He delighted in Him.”

Such examples as the above might be multiplied indefinitely, but sufficient

illustrations have already been given to warrant us in saying that the fulfilled

prophecies of the Bible bespeak the omniscience of its Author.

Were it necessary, and had we the space at our command, scores of

additional fulfilled prophecies relating to the History of Israel, the Course of

the Gentiles, and the Experiences of the Church — prophecies just as

definite, accurate, and remarkable as those relating to the Person of the Lord

Jesus Christ — could be given, but our present limits and purpose forbid us

so doing.

Having examined a few of the startling prophecies which treat of the Birth

and Death of our Savior, it now only remains for us to apply in a word the

significance of this argument. Many have read over these Scriptures before

and perhaps have regarded them as being wonderfully descriptive of the

Advent and Passion of Jesus Christ, but how many have carefully weighed

the fact that each of these Scriptures were in indisputable existence more

than five hundred years before our Lord came to this earth?

Man is unable to accurately predict events which are but twenty-four hours

distant; only the Divine Mind could have foretold the future, centuries

before it came to be. Hence, we affirm with the utmost confidence, that the

hundreds of fulfilled prophecies in the Bible attest and demonstrate the truth

that the Scriptures are the inspired, infallible, inerrant Word of God.

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CHAPTER 6

THE TYPICAL SIGNIFICANCE

OF THE SCRIPTURES DECLARE

THEIR DIVINE AUTHORSHIP

the Key to the Scriptures. Said He,

“Search the Scriptures, they are they which testify of Me.”

and the “Scriptures” to which He had reference, were not the four Gospels

for they were not then written, but the writings of Moses and the prophets.

The Old Testament Scriptures then are something more than a compilation

of historical records, something more than a system of social and religious

legislation, something more than a code of ethics. The Old Testament

Scriptures are fundamentally a stage on which is shown forth in vivid

symbolism and ritualism the whole plan of redemption. The events recorded

in the Old Testament were actual occurrences, yet they were also typical

prefigurations. Throughout the Old Testament dispensations God caused to

be shadowed forth in parabolic representation the whole work of

redemption by means of a constant and vivid appeal to the senses. This was

in full accord with a fundamental law in the economy of God. Nothing is

brought to maturity at once. As it is in the natural world, so it is in the

spiritual: there is first the blade, then the ear, and then the full corn in the

ear. Concerning the Person and work of the Lord Jesus, God first gave a

series of pictorial representations, later a large number of specific

prophecies, and last of all, when the fullness of time was come, God sent

forth His own Son.

It is failure to discern the typical import of the Old Testament Scriptures

which has caused so great a part of them to be slighted by so many readers

of the Bible. To multitudes of people the Pentateuch is little more than a

compilation of effete and meaningless ceremonial rites, and if there is

nothing in them more excellent than their outward semblance, then, surely,

it is passing strange that they should find a place in the Word of God. Take

Christ out of Old Testament ritual and you are left with nothing but the dry

and empty shell of a nut. It is therefore a matter of small surprise that those

who see so little of Christ in the Old Testament Scriptures should

undervalue the instruction and edification to be derived from every part of

them, and that they entertain such degrading ideas of their inspiration. Deny

that there is a spiritual meaning in all the laws and customs of the Israelites

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and what food for the soul can be gathered from a study of them? Deny that

they are so many typical representations of Christ and His Sacrifice for sin

and you cast reproach on the name and wisdom of God by suggesting that

He instituted the carnal ordinances, the cumbrous ceremonies, the

propitiations by sacrifice of animals, which are recorded in the opening

Books of the Bible.

The typical import and the spiritual value of the Jewish economy, both as a

whole and in its many parts, is expressly affirmed in the New Testament.

The Apostle Paul, when referring to the narratives and events recorded in

the Old Testament, declares that,

“Whatsoever things were written aforetime

Later, when making mention of Israel’s exodus from Egypt and their

journey through the wilderness, he affirms,

“Now these things were our examples” and “Now all these things

happened unto them for ensamples: (marg. “types”) and they are

Again; when commenting upon, and while expounding the spiritual

significance of the Tabernacle, he declares that it was “the example and

declares, “The Tabernacle...was a figure for the time then present”

God Himself caused the Tabernacle to be erected exactly according to the

pattern which He had showed Moses, for the express purpose that it should

be a type for symbolizing heavenly things. Hence it becomes our privilege

and bounden duty to seek by the help of the Holy Spirit to ascertain the

meaning of the types of the Old Testament.

In addition to the express declarations of the New Testament quoted above,

there are a number of additional passages which also teach the same thing.

John the Baptist hailed our Savior as “The Lamb of God which taketh away

the sin of the world,” that is, as the great Antitype of the sacrificial lambs of

Old Testament ritual. In His discourse with Nicodemus our Lord alluded to

the lifting up of the Brazen Serpent in the wilderness as a type of His own

lifting up on the Cross. Writing to the Corinthians the Apostle Paul said,

the Galatians the same Apostle makes mention of the history of Abraham,

his wives and his children, and then states “which things are an allegory”

significance of these things, but who refuse to acknowledge that anything

else in the Old Testament has a typical meaning save those which are

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expressly interpreted in the New. But this we conceive to be a mistake and

to place a limit upon the scope and value of the Word of God. Rather let us

regard those Old Testament types which are expounded in the New

Testament as samples of others which are not explained. Are there no more

prophecies in the Old Testament than those which, in the New Testament,

are said to be “fulfilled”? Assuredly. Then let us admit the same concerning

the types.

Several volumes would be filled were we to dwell upon everything in the

Old Testament which has a typical meaning and spiritual application. All we

can now attempt is to single out a few illustrations as samples, leaving our

readers to pursue further this entrancing study for themselves.

The very first chapter of Genesis is rich in its spiritual contents. Not only

does it give us the only reliable and authentic account of the creation of this

world, but it also reveals God’s order in the work of the new creation. In

beginning”. From the next verse we infer that some dreadful calamity

followed. The handiwork of God was marred, “the earth became (not

“was”) without form and void” — a desolate waste and empty ruin. The

earth was submerged. A scene of dreariness and death is introduced —

“and darkness was upon the face of the deep.” Not only was this the history

of the earth, but it was also the history of man. In the beginning he was

created by God — created in the image and likeness of his Maker. But a

terrible calamity followed. An enemy appeared on the scene. The heart of

the creature was seduced, unbelief and disobedience being the consequence.

Man fell, and awful was his fall. God’s image was broken: human nature

was ruined by sin: desolation and death took the place of God’s likeness

and life. In consequence of his sin, man’s mind was blinded and darkness

rested upon the face of his understanding.

Next, we read in Genesis 1, of the work reconstruction. The order followed

is profoundly significant — “The Spirit of God moved upon the face of the

waters. And God said, Let there be light: and there was light” (vs. 3-4).

The parallel holds good in regeneration. In the work of the new birth which

is performed within the darkened and spiritually dead sinner, the Spirit of

God is the prime mover, convicting the soul of its lost and ruined condition

and revealing the need of the appointed Savior. The instrument that He

employs is the written Word, the Word of God, and in every genuine

conversion God says, “Let there be light,” and there is light.

“For God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, hath

shined in our hearts, to give the light of the knowledge of the glory

The parallel might be followed much further, but sufficient has been said to

show that beneath the actual history of Genesis 1 may be discerned by the

anointed eye the spiritual history of the believer’s new creation, and as such

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it bears the stamp of its Divine Author and evidences the fact that the

opening chapter of the Bible is no mere human compilation.

In the coats of skin with which the Lord God clothed our first parents we

have an incident that is full of spiritual instruction and which could never

have been invented by man. To obtain these skins life had to be taken,

blood had to be shed, the innocent (animals) must die in the place of Adam

and Eve who were guilty, so as to provide a covering for them. Thus, the

Gospel truths of redemption by blood-shedding and salvation thro’ a

substitutionary sacrifice, were preached in Eden. Be it noted that man did

not have to provide a covering for himself any more than the “prodigal son”

did, nor were they asked to clothe themselves any more than was he: in the

one case we read, “The Lord God made coats of skins and clothed them”

In the offerings which Cain and Abel presented to the Lord, and in the

response which they met with, we discover a foreshadowing of New

testament truths. Abel brought of the firstlings of the flock with their fat. He

recognized that he was alienated from God and could not draw nigh to Him

without a suitable offering. He saw that his own life was forfeited thro’ sin,

that justice clamored for his death, and that his only hope lay in another (a

lamb) dying in his stead. By faith Abel presented his bloody offering to

God and it was accepted. On the other hand, Cain refused to take the place

of a lost sinner before God. He refused to acknowledge that death was his

due. He refused to place his confidence in a sacrificial substitute. He

brought as an offering to God the fruits of the ground — the product of his

own labors and in consequence, his offering was rejected. Thus, at the

commencement of human history we have shown forth the fact that

salvation is by grace thro’ faith and altogether apart from works

In the great Deluge and the ark in which Noah and his house found shelter,

we have a typification of great spiritual verities. From them we learn that

God takes cognizance of the doings of His creatures; that He is holy and sin

is abhorrent to Him; that His righteousness requires Him to punish sin and

destroy sinners. Yet, here also we learn that in judgment God remembers

mercy, that He has no pleasure in the death of the wicked; that His grace

provides a refuge if only His sinful creatures will avail themselves of His

provision. Yet only in one place can deliverance from the Divine wrath be

found. In the ark alone is safety and security. And, in like manner, today,

there is only one Savior for sinners, and that is the Lord Jesus Christ,

“Neither is there salvation in any other: for there is none other name

under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved”

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In the deliverance of Israel from Egypt and their wilderness journey we see

portrayed the history of God’s people in the present dispensation. We, too,

were living in a world “without God and without hope.” We, too, were in

bondage to the cruel taskmasters of sin and Satan. We, too, were in

imminent danger of falling beneath the sword of the avenging Angel of

Justice. But, for us, too, a way of escape was provided. For us, too, a

Lamb was slain. Unto us, too, was given the precious promise, “When I

redeemed by Almighty power and were

“delivered from the power of darkness and translated into the

After our exodus from Egypt there lies before us a pilgrim journey thro’ a

barren and hostile wilderness as we journey toward the Promised Land. We

have to pass thro’ a strange country and meet with enemy forces, that we

are unable to overcome in our own strength. For these tasks our own

resources — the things we brought with us out of Egypt — are altogether

inadequate, and thus we, too, are cast upon the sufficiency of Israel’s God.

And blessed be His name, ample provision is made for us and grace is

furnished for every need. For us there is heavenly manna in the exceeding

great and precious promises of God. For us there comes water out of the

refreshes our souls by taking of the things of Christ and showing them unto

us and who strengthens us with might in the inner man. For us too, there is

a pillar of cloud and fire to guide us by day and by night in the Holy

Scriptures which are a lamp unto our feet and a light unto our path. For us,

too, there is One to counsel and direct us, to intercede for us and help us

overcome our Amalekites in the Captain of our salvation who has said, “Lo,

I am with you alway, even unto the end.” And, at the close of our

pilgrimage we shall enter a fairer land than that which flowed with milk and

honey for we have been begotten “to an inheritance incorruptible and

undefiled, and that faded not away, reserved in heaven” for us.

Let the careful and impartial reader weigh thoroughly what has been said

above, and surely it is evident that the numerous resemblances between the

story of Israel and the spiritual history of God’s children in this

dispensation cannot be so many coincidences, and can only be accounted

for on the ground that the writings of Moses were inspired by the Living

God.

The history of Israel in Canaan as the professed people of God corresponds

with the history of the professing church in the New Testament

dispensation. After Moses, the one who led Israel out from their Egyptian

bondage, came Joshua who led Israel in their conquest of Canaan. So after

our Lord left this earth, He sent the Holy Spirit who through the Apostles

caused the Jericho’s and Ai’s of Paganism to be overthrown and the greater

part of the world to be evangelized. But after their occupancy of Canaan

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Israel’s history was a sad one, being characterized by spiritual declination

and departure from God. So it was with the professing church. Very

quickly after the death of the Apostles heresy corrupted the Christian

profession, and just as Israel of old grew tired of a theocracy and demanded

a human head and king, like the nations which surrounded them, so the

professing church became dissatisfied with the New Testament form of

church government and submitted to the domination of a pope. And just as

Israel’s kings became more and more corrupt until God would bear with

them no longer and sold His people into captivity, so after the setting up of

the Papal See there followed the long period of the Dark Ages when Europe

was subjected to a spiritual bondage and when the Word of God was bound

in chains. Then, just as God raised up Ezra and Nehemiah to recover the

living oracle and to lead out of their captivity a remnant of His people, so in

the sixteenth century, A. D., God raised up Luther and honored

contemporaries to bring about the great Reformation of Protestantism.

Finally: just as after the days of Ezra and Hehemiah the Jews in Palestine

witnessed a marked spiritual declination, ultimately lapsing into the

ritualism of the Pharisees and the rationalism of the Sadducees from which

God’s elect were delivered only by the appearing of His own Son, so has

history repeated itself. Since Reformation and the last of the Puritans,

Christendom has moved swiftly in the direction of the predicted apostasy,

and today we have reproduced the ancient Phariseeism in the rapid spread

of Roman Catholicism, and the ancient Sadduceeism in the far-reaching

effects of the infidelistic Higher Criticism: and as it was before, so it will be

again — God’s elect will be delivered only by the reappearing of our Lord

and Savior Jesus Christ.

Thus we see how wonderfully and accurately the Old testament history runs

parallel with and anticipated the history of the professing church in the New

Testament dispensation. It has been truly said that “Coming events cast their

shadows before them,” and who but He who knows the end from the

beginning and who upholds all things by the word of His power, could

have caused the shadow of the Old Testament to have taken the shape they

did, and thus give a true and comprehensive parabolic setting forth of that

which has taken place thousands of years later!

But not only do the broad outlines of Old Testament history possess a

typical meaning, everything in the Old Testament Scriptures has a spiritual

value.

Every battle fought by the Israelites, every change in the administration of

their government, every detail in their elaborate ceremonialism, and every

personal biography narrated in the Bible, is designed for our instruction and

edification. The Bible contains nothing that is superfluous. From beginning

to end the Scriptures testify of Christ. Inanimate objects like the ark, which

tells of security in Christ from the storms of Divine wrath; like the manna,

which speaks of Him as the Bread of Life; like the brazen Serpent uplifted

on the pole, of the Tabernacle, which presents Him as the meeting place of

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God and men — all foreshadowed the Redeemer. Living creatures like the

Passover Lamb, the sacrificial bullocks, goats and rams, all pointed

forward in general and in detail to the great Sacrifice for sins. Institutions

like the Passover which prefigured His death; like the waving of the firstfruits,

which forecast His resurrection; like the fast of Pentecost with its

two loaves baken with leaven, telling of the uniting into one Body of the

Jew and the Gentile; like the Burnt, the Meal and the Peace “sweet savor”

offerings, which proclaimed the excellency of Christ’s person in the esteem

of God — all emblemized our blessed Savior. And, many of the leading

personages of Old Testament biography gave a remarkable delineation of

our Lord’s character and earthly ministry.

Abel was a type of Christ. His name signifies vanity and emptiness which

foreshadowed the Lord Jesus who “made Himself of no reputation,”

was a shepherd, and it was in his shepherd character he brought an offering

to God, namely, the firstlings of his flock — speaking of the Good

Shepherd who offered Himself to God. The offering which Abel brought to

forward to the precious blood of Christ, the value of which cannot be

estimated in silver and gold. Abel’s offering was accepted by God, God

“testifying” His approval of it; and, in like manner, God publicly witnessed

to His acceptance of Christ’s sacrifice when He raised Him from the Dead

12:24). Though guilty of no offense, Abel was hated by his brother and

cruelly slain at his hand, foreshadowing the treatment which the Lord Jesus

received at the hands of the Jews — His brethren according to the flesh.

Isaac was a type of Christ. he was the child of promise. His nativity was

announced by an angel. He was supernaturally begotten. He was born at an

“seed” to whom the promises were made and thro’ whom they were

secured. He became obedient unto death. He carried on his own shoulder

the wood on which he was to be offered. He was securely fastened to the

alter. He was presented as a sacrifice to God. He was offered on Mount

Moriah — the same on which, two thousand years later, Jesus Christ was

offered. And, it was on the “third day” that Abraham received him back “in

Joseph is a type of Christ. He was Jacob’s well-beloved son. He readily

responded to his father’s will when asked to go on a mission to his

brethren. While seeking his brethren he became a “wanderer in the field”

He found his brethren in Dothan which signifies the law — so the Lord

Jesus found His brethren under the bondage of the law. His brethren

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mocked and refused to receive him. His brethren took counsel together

against him that they might put him to death. Judah (Judas is the Greek

form of the same word) advised his brethren to sell Joseph to the

Ishmaelites. After he had been rejected by his brethren, Joseph was taken

down into Egypt in order that he might become a Savior to the world. While

in Egypt, Joseph was tempted, not without any compromise he put from

him the evil solicitation. He was falsely accused and thro’ no fault of his

own was cast into prison. There he was the interpreter of dreams — the one

who threw light on what was mysterious. In prison he became the savor of

life to the butler, and the savor of death to the baker. After a period of

humiliation and shame, he was exalted to the throne of Egypt. From that

throne he administered bread to a hungering and perishing humanity.

Subsequently Joseph became known to his brethren, and in fulfillment of

what he had previously announced to them, they bowed down before him

and owned his sovereignty.

Moses was a type of Christ. Moses became the adopted son of Pharaoh’s

daughter — so that legally he had a mother but no father, thus typifying our

Lord’s miraculous birth of a virgin. During infancy his life was endangered

by the evil designs of the ... ruler. Like Christ’s, his early life was spent in

Egypt. Later, he renounced the position of royalty, refusing to be called the

son of Pharaoh’s daughter; and he who was rich, for the sake of his people,

became poor. Before he commenced His life’s work, a long period was

spent in Midian in obscurity. Here he received a call and commission from

God to go to deliver his brethren out of their terrible bondage. The

credentials of his mission were seen in the miracles which he performed.

Though despised and rejected by the rulers in Egypt, he, nevertheless,

succeeded in delivering his own people. Subsequently, he became the

leader and head of all Israel. In character he was the meekest man in all the

earth. In all God’s house he was faithful as a servant. In the wilderness he

sent twelve men to spy out Canaan as our Lord sent out the twelve Apostles

to preach the Gospel. He fasted for forty days. On the mount he was

transfigured so that the skin of his face shone. He acted as God’s prophet to

the people, as as the people’s intercessor before God. He was the only man

mentioned in the Old Testament that was prophet, priest and king. He was

the giver of a Law, the builder of a Tabernacle, and the organizer of a

Samson was a type of Christ — see the Book on Judges. An angel

separated to God. Before he was born it was promised that he should be a

(15:11-13). He was delivered up to the Gentiles by his own countrymen

25) yet he was a mighty deliverer of Israel. His miracles were performed

38

stronghold; the gates were barred, and a watch was set; yet, rising up at

midnight, in the early hours of the morning — “a great while before day”

— he burst the bars, broke open the gate, and issued forth triumphant — a

remarkable type of our Lord’s resurrection. He occupied the position of

“judge,” as our Lord will in the last great day.

David was a type of Christ. He was born in Bethlehem. He is described as

“of a beautiful countenance and goodly to look upon.” His name means “the

beloved.” By occupation he was a shepherd. During his shepherd life he

entered into conflict with wild beasts. He slew Goliath — the opposer of

God’s people and a type of Satan. From the obscurity of shepherdhood he

was exalted to Israel’s throne. He was anointed as king before he was

coronated. He was preeminently a man of prayer (see the Psalms) and is the

only one in Scripture termed “The man after God’s own heart.” He was a

man of sorrows and acquainted with grief, suffering chiefly from those of

his own household. Repeated attempts were made upon his life by Israel’s

ruler. When his enemy (Saul) was in his power he refused to slay him,

instead, he dealt with him in mercy and grace. He delivered Israel from all

their enemies and vanquished all their foes.

Solomon was a type of Christ. He was Israel’s king. His name signifies

“Peaceable,” and he foreshadows the millennial reign of the Lord Jesus

when He shall rule as Prince of Peace. He was chosen and ordained of God

before he was crowned. He rode upon another’s mule, not as a warrior, but

homage which Christ shall receive during the millennium. The Cherethites

and Pelethites were soldiers, so that Solomon was followed by an army at

Solomon began his reign by showing mercy to and yet demanding

characteristics of Christ’s millennial government. Solomon was the builder

Solomon was the one who offered sacrifices unto the Lord: thus the king

“fame” went abroad far and wide and “all the earth sought to Solomon”

enjoyed rest and peace. The glory and magnificence of Solomon’s reign has

never been equaled before or since —

“And the Lord magnified Solomon exceedingly in the sight of all

Israel, and bestowed upon him such royal majesty as had not been

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In the above types we have not sought to be exhaustive but suggestive by

singling out only the leading lines in each typical picture. There are many

other Old Testament characters who were types of Christ which we cannot

now consider at length: — Adam typified His Headship; Enoch His

Ascension; Noah as the provider of a Refuge; Jacob as the one who served

for a Wife; Aaron as the great High Priest; Joshua as the Captain of our

salvation; Samuel as the Faithful Prophet; Elijah as the Miracle worker;

Jeremiah as the despised and rejected Servant of God; Daniel as the Faithful

Witness for God; Jonah as the One raised from the dead on the third day.

In closing this chapter let us apply the argument. Of the many typical

persons in the Old Testament who prefigure the Lord Jesus Christ, the

striking, the accurate, and the manifold lights, in which each exhibits Him

is truly remarkable. No two of them represent Him from exactly the same

viewpoint. Each one contributes a line or two to the picture, but all are

needed to give a complete delineation. That an authentic history should

supply a series of personages in different ages, whose characters, offices,

and histories, should exactly correspond with those of Another who did not

appear upon earth until centuries later, can only be accounted for on the

supposition of Divine appointment. When we consider the utter

dissimilarity of these typical persons to one another; when we note that they

had little or nothing in common with each other; when we remember that

each of them represents some peculiar feature in a composite Anti type; we

discover that we have a literary phenomenon which is truly remarkable.

Abel, Isaac, Joseph, Moses, Samson, David, Solomon (and all the others)

are each deficient when viewed separately; but when looked at in

conjunction they form an harmonious whole, and give us a complete

representation of our Lord’s miraculous birth, His peerless character, His

life’s mission, His sacrificial death, His triumphant resurrection, His

ascension to heaven, and His millennial reign. Who could have invented

such character? How remarkable that the earliest history in the world,

extending from the creation and reaching to the last of the prophets —

written by various hands thro’ a period of fifteen centuries — should from

start to finish concentrate in a single point, and that point the person and

work of the blessed Redeemer! Verily, such a Book must have been written

by God — no other conclusion is possible. Beneath the historical we

discern the spiritual: behind the incidental we behold the typical: underneath

the human biographies we see the form of Christ, and in these things we

discover on every page of the Old Testament the “watermark” of heaven.

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CHAPTER 7

THE WONDERFUL UNITY OF THE BIBLE

ATTESTS ITS DIVINE AUTHORSHIP

The manner in which the Bible has been produced argues against its unity.

The Bible was penned on two continents, written in three languages, and its

composition and compilation extended through the slow progress of sixteen

centuries. The various parts of the Bible were written at different times and

under the most varying circumstances. Parts of it were written in tents,

deserts, cities, palaces and dungeons; in times of imminent danger and in

seasons of ecstatic joy. Among its writers were judges, kings, priests,

prophets, patriarchs, prime ministers, herdsmen, scribes, soldiers,

physicians and fishermen. Yet despite these varying circumstances,

conditions and workmen, the Bible is one Book, behind its many parts

there is an unmistakable organic unity. It contains one system of doctrine,

one code of ethics, one plan of salvation and one rule of faith.

Now if forty different men were selected today from such varying stations

and callings of life as to include clerks, rulers, politicians, judges, clergy,

doctors, farm laborers and fishermen, and each was asked to contribute a

chapter for some book on theology or church government, when their

several contributions were collected and bound together, would there be any

unity about them, could that book truly be said to be one book; or would

not their different productions vary so much in literary value, diction and

matter as to be merely a heterogeneous mass, a miscellaneous collection?

Yet we do not find this to be the case in connection with God’s Book.

Although the Bible is a volume of sixty-six Books, written by forty

different men, treating of such a large variety of themes as to cover nearly

the whole range of human inquiry, we find it is one Book, the Book (not

the books), the Bible.

Further; if we were to select specimens of literature from the third, fifth,

tenth, fifteenth and twentieth centuries of the Christian era and were to bind

them together, what unity and harmony should we find in such a collection?

Human writers reflect the spirit of their own day and generation and the

compositions of men living amid widely differing influences and separated

by centuries of time have little or nothing in common with each other. Yet

although the earliest portions of the Sacred Canon date back to at least the

fifteenth century, B. C., while the writings of John were not completed till

the close of the first century, A. D., nevertheless, we find a perfect

harmony throughout the Scriptures from the first verse in Genesis to the last

verse in Revelation. The great ethical and spiritual lessons presented in the

Bible, by whoever taught, agree.

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The more one really studies the Bible the more one is convinced that behind

the many human mouths there is One overruling, controlling Mind. Imagine

forty persons of different nationalities, possessing various degrees of

musical culture visiting the organ of some cathedral and at long intervals of

time, and without any collusion whatever, striking sixty-six different notes,

which when combined yielded the theme of the grandest oratorio ever

heard: would it not show that behind these forty different men there was

one presiding mind, one great Tone master? As we listen to some great

orchestra, with an immense variety of instruments playing their different

parts, but producing melody and harmony, we realize that at the back of

these many musicians there is the personality and genius of the composer.

And when we enter the halls of the Divine Academy and listen to the

heavenly choirs singing the Song of Redemption, all in perfect accord and

unison, we know that it is God Himself who has written the music and put

this song into their mouths.

We now submit two illustrations which demonstrate the unity of the Holy

Scriptures. Certain grand conceptions run through the entire Bible like a

cord on which are strung so many precious pearls. First and foremost

among them is the Divine Plan of Redemption. Just as the scarlet thread

runs through all the cordage of the British Navy, so a crimson aura

surrounds every page of God’s Word.

In the Scriptures the Plan of Redemption is central and fundamental. In

Genesis we have recorded the Creation and Fall of man to show that he has

the capacity for and is in need of redemption. Next we find the Promise of

the Redeemer, for man requires to have before him the hope and expectation

of a Savior. Then follows an elaborate system of sacrifices and offerings

and these represent pictorially the nature of redemption and the condition

under which salvation is realized. At the commencement of the New

Testament we have the four Gospels and they set forth the Basis of

Redemption, namely, the Incarnation, Life, Death, Resurrection and

Ascension of the Redeemer. Next comes the Book of the Acts which

illustrates again and again the Power of Redemption, showing that it is

adequate to work its great results in the salvation of both Jew and Gentile.

Finally, in the Revelation, we are shown the ultimate triumphs of

redemption, the Goal of Salvation — the redeemed dwelling with God in

perfect union and communion. Thus we see that though a large number of

human media were employed in the writing of the Bible, yet their

productions are not independent of each other, but are complementary and

supplementary parts of one great whole; that one sublime truth is common

to them all, namely, man’s need of redemption and God’s provision of a

Redeemer. And the only explanation of this fact is, that “All Scripture is

given by inspiration of God.”

Secondly; among all the many personalities presented in the Bible, we find

that one stands out above all others, not merely prominent but preeminent.

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Just as in the scene unveiled in the fifth chapter of the Revelation we find

the Lamb in the center of the heavenly throngs, so we find that in the

Scriptures also, the Lord Jesus Christ is accorded the place which alone

befits His unique Person. Considered from one standpoint the Scriptures

are really the biography of the Son of God.

In the Old Testament we have the Promise of our Lord’s Incarnation and

Mediatorial work. In the Gospels we have the Proclamation of His Mission

and the Proofs of His Messianic claims and authority. In the Acts we have a

demonstration of His saving Power and the execution of His missionary

Program. In the Epistles we find an exposition and amplification of His

Precepts for the education of His People. While in the Apocalypse we

behold the unveiling or Presentation of His Person and the Preparation of

the earth for His Presence. The Bible is therefore seen to be peculiarly the

Book of Jesus Christ. Christ not only testified to the Scriptures but each

section of the Scriptures testify of Him. Every page of the Holy Book has

stamped upon it His photograph and every chapter bears His autograph. He

is its one great theme, and the only explanation of this fact is that, the Holy

Spirit superintended the work of each and every writer of the Scriptures.

The unity of the Scriptures is further to be seen on the fact that they are

entirely free from any real contradictions. Though different writers often

described the same incidents — as for example the four evangelists

recording the facts relating to our Lord’s ministry and redemptive work —

and though there is considerable variety in the narrations of these, yet there

are no real discrepancies. The harmony existing between them does not

appear on the surface, but, often, is only discovered by protracted study,

though it is there nevertheless. Moreover, there is perfect agreement of

doctrine between all the writers in the Bible. The teaching of the prophets

and the teaching of the Apostles on the great truths of God’s righteousness,

the demands of His holiness, the utter ruin of man, the exceeding sinfulness

of sin, and the way of salvation, is entirely harmonious. This might appear

a thing easily effected. But those who are acquainted with human nature,

and have read widely the writings of men, will acknowledge that nothing

but the inspiration of the writers can explain this fact. Nowhere can we find

two uninspired writers, however similar they may have been in their

religious sentiments, who agree in all points of doctrine. Nay, entire

consistency of sentiment is not to be found even in the writings of the same

author at different periods. In his later years Spurgeon’s statement of some

doctrines was much more modified than the utterances of his earlier days.

Increasing knowledge causes men to change their views upon many

subjects. But among the writers of Scripture there is the most perfect

harmony, because they obtained their knowledge of truth and duty not by

the efforts of study, but from inspiration by the Holy Spirit of God.

When therefore we find that in the productions of forty different men there

is perfect accord and concord, unison and unity, harmony in all their

43

teachings, and the same conceptions pervading all their writings, the

conclusion is irresistible that behind their minds, and guiding their hands,

there was the master- mind of God Himself. Does not the unity of the Bible

illustrate the Divine Inspiration of the Bible and demonstrate the truth of its

own assertion that

“God (who) at sundry times and in divers manners spake in time

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CHAPTER 8

THE MARVELOUS INFLUENCE OF THE BIBLE

DECLARES ITS SUPER-HUMAN CHARACTER

The influence of the Bible is world-wide. Its mighty power has affected

every department of human activity. The contents of the Scriptures have

supplied themes for the greatest poets, artists and musicians which the

world has yet produced, and have been the mightiest factor of all in shaping

the moral progress of the race. Let us consider a few examples of the

Bible’s influence as displayed in the various realms of human enterprise.

Take away such sublime oratorios as “Elijah” and “The Messiah,” and you

have taken out of the realm of music something which can never be

duplicated; destroy the countless hymns which have drawn their inspiration

from the Scriptures and you have left us little else worth singing. Eliminate

from the compositions of Tennyson, Wordsworth and Carlisle every

reference to the moral and spiritual truths taught in God’s Word and you

have stripped them of their beauty and robbed them of their fragrance. Take

down from off the walls of our best Art Galleries those pictures which

portray scenes and incidents in the history of Israel and the life of our Lord

and you have removed the richest gems from the crown of human genius.

Remove from our statute books every law which is founded upon the

ethical conceptions of the Bible and you have annihilated the greatest factor

in modern civilization. Rob our libraries of every book which is devoted to

the work of elaborating and disseminating the precepts and concepts of

Holy Writ and you have taken from us that which cannot be valued in

dollars and cents.

The Bible has done more for the emancipation and civilization of the

heathen than all the forces which the human arm can wield, put together.

Someone has said, “Draw a line around the nations which have the Bible

and you will then have divided between barbarism and civilization, between

thrift and poverty, between selfishness and charity, between oppression and

freedom, between life and the shadow of death.” Even Darwin had to

concede the miraculous element in the triumphs of the missionaries of the

cross.

Here are two or three men who land on a savage island. Its inhabitants

posses no literature and have no written language. They regard the white

man as their enemy and have no desire to be shown “the error of their

ways.” They are cannibals by instinct and little better than the brute beasts

in their habits of life. The missionaries who have entered their midst have

45

no money with which to buy their friendship, no army to compel their

obedience and no merchandise to stir their avarice. Their only weapon is

“the Sword of the Spirit,” their only capital “the unsearchable riches of

Christ,” their only offer the invitation of the Gospel. Yet somehow they

succeed, and without the shedding of any blood gain the victory. In a few

short years naked savagery is changed to the garb of civilization, lust is

transformed into purity, cruelty is now kindness, avarice has become

unselfishness, and where before vindictiveness existed there is now to be

seen meekness and the spirit of loving self-sacrifice. And this has been

accomplished by the Bible! This miracle is still being repeated in every part

of the earth! What other book, or library of books, could work such a

result? Is it not evident to all that the Book which does exert such a unique

and unrivaled influence must be vitalized by the life of God Himself?

This wonderful characteristic, namely the unique influence of the Bible, is

rendered the more remarkable when we take into account the antiquity of the

Scriptures! The last Books which were added to the Sacred Canon are now

more than eighteen hundred years old, yet the workings of the Bible are as

mighty in their effects today as they were in the first century of the Christian

era.

The power of man’s books soon wane and disappear. With but few

exceptions the productions of the human intellect enjoy a brief existence. As

a general rule the writings of man within fifty years of their first public

appearance lie untouched on the top shelves of our libraries. Man’s writings

are like himself — dying creatures. Man comes onto the age of this world,

plays his part in the drama of life, influences the audience while he is

acting, but is forgotten as soon as the curtain falls upon his brief career; so

it is with his writings. While they are fresh and new they amuse, interest or

instruct as the wise may be, and then die a natural death. Even the few

exceptions to this rule only exert a very limited influence, their power is

circumscribed; they are unread by the great majority, yea, are unknown to

the biggest portion of our race. But how different with God’s Book! The

written Word, like the Living Word, is “The same yesterday, and today,

and for ever,” and unlike any other book it has made its way into all

countries and speaks with equal clearness, directness and force to all men in

their mother tongue. The Bible never becomes antiquated, its vitality never

diminishes and its influence is more irresistible and universal today than it

was two thousands years ago. Such facts as these declare with no uncertain

voice that the Bible is endued with the same Divine life and energy as its

Author, for in no other way can we account for its marvelous influence

through the centuries and its mighty power upon the world.

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CHAPTER 9

THE MIRACULOUS POWER OF THE BIBLE

SHOWS FORTH THAT ITS INSPIRER

IS THE ALMIGHTY

peculiar characteristic of the Bible —

“For the Word of God is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any

two edged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and

spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the

thoughts and intents of the heart.”

The writings of men may sometimes stir the emotions, search the

conscience, and influence the human will, but in a manner and degree

possessed by no other book the Bible convicts men of their guilt and lost

estate. The Word of God is the Divine mirror, for in it man reads the secrets

of his own guilty soul and sees the vileness of his own evil nature. In a way

absolutely peculiar to themselves, the Scriptures discern the thoughts and

intents of the heart and reveal to men the fact that they are lost sinners and in

the presence of a Holy God.

Some thirty years ago there resided in one of the Temples of Thibet a

Buddhist priest who had conversed with no Christian missionary, had

heard nothing about the cross of Christ, and had never seen a copy of the

Word of God. One day while searching for something in the temple, he

came across a transcription of Matthew’s Gospel, which years before had

been left there by a native who had received it from some traveling

missionary. His curiosity aroused, the Buddhist priest commenced to read

pondered over it: “Blessed are the pure in heart: for they shall see God.”

Although he knew nothing about the righteousness of his Maker, although

he was quite ignorant concerning the demands of God’s holiness, yet he

was there and then convicted of his sins, and a work of Divine grace

commenced in his soul. Month after month went by and each day he said to

himself, “I shall never see God, for I am impure in heart.” Slowly but

surely the work of the Holy Spirit deepened within him until he saw himself

as a lost sinner; vile, guilty, and undone.

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After continuing for more than a year in this miserable condition the priest

one day heard that a “foreign devil” was visiting a town nearby and selling

books which spoke about God. The same night the Buddhist priest fled

from the temple and journeyed to the town where the missionary was

residing. On reaching his destination he sought out the missionary and at

once said to him, “Is it true that only those who are pure in heart will see

God?” “Yes,” replied the missionary, “but the same Book which tells you

that, also tells you how you may obtain a pure heart,” and then he talked to

him about our Lord’s atoning work and how that “the blood of Jesus Christ

His Son cleanseth us from all sin.” Quickly the light of God flooded the

soul of the Buddhist priest and he found the peace which “passeth all

understanding.” Now what other book in the world outside of the Bible,

contains a sentence or even a chapter which, without the aid of any human

commentator, is capable of convincing and convicting a heathen that he is a

lost sinner? Does not the fact of the miraculous power of the Bible, which

has been illustrated by thousands of fully authenticated cases similar to the

above, declare that the Scriptures are the inspired Word of God, vested with

the same might as their Omnipotent Author?

A single incident which was brought before the notice of the writer must

suffice to illustrate the above mentioned truth.

Some forty years ago a Christian gentleman stood upon the quay of the

Liverpool docks distributing tracts to the sailors. In the course of his work

he handed one to a man who was just embarking on a voyage to China, and

with an oath the sailor took it, crumpled it up and thrust it into his pocket.

Some three weeks after, this sailor was down in his cabin and needing a

“spell” with which to light his pipe felt in his pocket for the necessary paper

and drew out the little tract which he had received in Liverpool. On

recognizing it he uttered a terrible oath and tore the paper in pieces. One

small fragment adhered to his tarry hand and glancing at it he saw these

words, “Prepare to meet thy God.” When relating the incident to the writer

he said, “It was at that moment as though a sword had pierced my heart.”

“Prepare to meet thy God” rang again and again in his ears, and with a

strickened conscience he was tormented about his lost condition. Presently

he retired for the night, but sleep he could not. In desperation he got up and

dressed and went above and paced the deck. Hour after hour he walked up

and down, but try as he might he could not dismiss from his mind the

words, “Prepare to meet thy God.” For years this man had been a helpless

slave in the grip of strong drink and knowing his weakness he said: “How

can I prepare to meet God, when I am so powerless to overcome my

besetting sin?” Finally, he got down upon his knees and cried: “O God,

have mercy on me, save me from my sins, deliver me from the power of

drink and help me prepare for the meeting with Thee.” More than thirty-five

48

years after, this converted sailor told the writer that from the night he had

read that quotation from God’s Word, had prayed that prayer, and had

accepted Christ as his Savior from sin, he had never tasted a single drop of

intoxicating liquor and had never once had a desire to craving for strong

drink. How marvelous is the power of God’s Word to deliver men from

sin! Truly, as Dr. Torrey has well said, “A Book which will lift men up to

God must have come down from God.”

In thousands of instances men and women have been stretched upon the

“rack,” torn limb from limb, thrown to the wild beasts, and have been

burned at the stake rather than abandon the Bible and promise never again to

read its sacred pages. For what other book would men and women suffer

and die?

More than two hundred years ago when a copy of the Bible was much more

expensive than it is in these days, a peasant who lived in the County of

Cork, Ireland, heard that a gentleman in his neighborhood had a copy of the

New testament in the Irish language. Accordingly he visited this man and

asked to be allowed to see it, and after looking at it with great interest

begged to be allowed to copy it. Knowing how poor the peasant was the

gentleman asked him where he would get his paper and ink from? “I will

buy them,” was the reply. “And where will you find a place to write?” “If

your honor will allow me the use of your hall, I’ll come after my day’s

work is over and copy a little at a time in the evenings.” The gentleman was

so moved at this man’s intense love the Bible that he gave him the use of his

hall and light and provided him with paper and ink as well. True to his

purpose and promise, the peasant labored night after night until he had

written out a complete copy of the New Testament. Afterwards a printed

copy was given to him, and the written Testament is preserved by the

British and Foreign Bible Society. Again, we ask, what other book in the

world could obtain such a hold upon the affections and win such love and

reverence, and produce such self- sacrificing toil?

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CHAPTER 10

THE COMPLETENESS OF THE BIBLE

DEMONSTRATES ITS DIVINE PERFECTION

The antiquity of the Scriptures argues against their completeness. The

compilation of the Bible was completed more than eighteen centuries ago,

while the greater part of the world was yet uncivilized. Since John added

the capstone to the Temple of God’s Truth there have been many wonderful

discoveries and inventions, yet there have been no additions whatever to the

moral and spiritual truths contained in the Bible. Today, we know no more

about the origin of life, the nature of the soul, the problem of suffering or

the future destiny of man than did those who had the Bible eighteen

hundred years ago. Through the centuries of the Christian era, man has

succeeded in learning many of the secrets of nature and has harnessed her

forces to his service, but in the actual revelation of supernatural truth

nothing new has been discovered. Human writers cannot supplement the

Divine records for they are complete, entire, “wanting nothing.”

The Bible needs no addendum. There is more than sufficient in God’s

Word to meet the temporal and spiritual needs of all mankind. Though

written two thousand years ago, the Bible is still “up-to-date,” and answers

every vital question which concerns the soul of man in our day. The Book

of Job was written three thousand years before Columbus discovered

America, yet it is as fresh to the heart of man now as though it had only

been published ten years ago. The majority of the Psalms were written two

thousand five hundred years before President Wilson was born, yet in our

day and generation they are perfectly new and fresh to the human soul.

Such facts as these can only be explained on the hypothesis that the Eternal

God is the Author of the Bible.

The adaptation of the Scriptures is another illustration of their wonderful

completeness. To young or old, feeble or vigorous, ignorant or cultured,

joyful or sorrowful, perplexed or enlightened, Orientalist or Ocidentalist,

saint or sinner, the Bible is a source of blessing, will minister to every

need, and is able to supply every variety of want. And the Bible is the only

Book in the world of which this can be predicted. The writings of Plato

may be a source of interest and instruction to the philosophic mind, but they

are unsuitable for placing in the hands of a child. Not so with the Bible: the

youngest may profit from a perusal of the Sacred Page. The writings of

Jerome or Twain may please, for an hour, the man of humor, but they will

bring no balm to the sore heart and will speak no words of comfort and

consolation to those passing through the waters of bereavement. How

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different with the Scriptures — never has a heavy heart turned in vain to

God’s Word for peace! The writings of Shakespeare, Goethe, and Schiller

may be of profit to the Western mind, but they convey little of value to the

Easterner. Not so with God’s Word; it may be translated into any language

and will speak with equal clearness, directness and power to all men in their

mother tongue.

To quote Dr. Burrell:

“ In every heart, down below all other wants and aspirations, there

is a profound longing to know the way of spiritual life. The world is

crying, “What shall I do to be saved?” Of all books the Bible is the

only one that answers that universal cry. There are other books

which set forth morality with more or less correctness; but there is

none other that suggests a blotting out of the record of the mislived

past or an escape from the penalty of the broken law. There are

other books that have poetry; but there is none that sings the song of

salvation or gives a troubled soul the peace that floweth like a river.

There are other books that have eloquence; but there is no other that

enables us to behold God Himself with outstretched hands pleading

with men to turn and live. There are other books that have science;

but there is none other that can give the soul a definite assurance of

the future life, so that it can say, “I know whom I have believed,

and am persuaded that He is able to keep that which I have

committed unto Him against that day.”

Though other books contain valuable truths, they also have an admixture of

error; other books contain part of the truth, the Bible alone contains all the

truth. Nowhere in the writings of human genius can a single moral or

spiritual truth be found, which is not contained in substance in the Bible.

Examine the writings of the ancients; ransack the libraries of Egypt,

Assyria, Persia, India, Greece, and Rome; search the contents of the

Koran, the Zend — Avesta, or the Bagavad-Gita; gather together the most

exalted spiritual thoughts and the sublimest moral conceptions contained in

them and you will find that each and all are duplicated in the Bible! Dr.

Torrey has said, “If every book but the Bible were destroyed not a single

spiritual truth would be lost.” In the small compass of God’s Word there is

stored more wisdom which will endure the test of eternity than the sum total

of thinking done by man since his creation. Of all the books in the world,

the Bible alone can truly be said to be complete, and this characteristic of the

Scriptures is another of the many lines of demonstration which witnesses to

the Divine inspiration of the Bible.

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CHAPTER 11

THE INDESTRUCTIBILITY OF THE BIBLE IS A

PROOF THAT ITS AUTHOR IS DIVINE

The survival of the Bible through the ages is very difficult to explain if it is

not in truth the Word of God. Books are like men — dying creatures. A

very small percentage of books survive more than twenty years, a yet

smaller percentage last a hundred years and only a very insignificant

fraction represent those which have lived a thousand years. Amid the wreck

and ruin of ancient literature the Holy Scriptures stand out like the last

survivor of an otherwise extinct race, and the very fact of the Bible’s

continued existence is an indication that like its Author it is indestructible.

When we bear in mind the fact that the Bible has been the special object of

never ending persecution the wonder of the Bible’s survival is changed into

a miracle. Not only has the Bible been the most intensely loved Book in all

the world, but it has also been the most bitterly hated. Not only has the

Bible received more veneration and adoration than any other book, but it

has also been the object of more persecution and opposition. For two

thousand years man’s hatred of the Bible has been persistent, determined,

relentless and murderous. Every possible effort has been made to

undermine faith in the inspiration and authority of the Bible and

innumerable enterprises have been undertaken with the determination to

consign it to oblivion. Imperial edicts have been issued to the effect that

every known copy of the Bible should be destroyed, and when this measure

failed to exterminate and annihilate God’s Word then commands were given

that every person found with a copy of the Scriptures in his possession

should be put to death. The very fact that the Bible has been so singled out

for such relentless persecution causes us to wonder at such a unique

phenomenon.

Although the Bible is the best Book in the world yet is has produced more

enmity and opposition than has the combined contents of all our libraries.

Why should this be? Clearly because the Scriptures convict men of their

guilt and condemn them for their sins! Political and ecclesiastical powers

have united in the attempt to put the Bible out of existence, yet their

concentrated efforts have utterly failed. After all the persecution which has

assailed the Bible, it is, humanly speaking, a wonder that there is any Bible

left at all. Every engine of destruction which human philosophy, science,

force, and hatred could bring against a book has been brought against the

Bible, yet it stands unshaken and unharmed today. When we remember that

no army has defended the Bible and no king has ever ordered its enemies to

52

be extirpated, our wonderment increases. At times nearly all the wise and

great of the earth have been pitted together against the Bible, while only a

few despised ones have honored and revered it. The cities of the ancients

were lighted with bonfires made of Bibles, and for centuries only those in

hiding dare read it. How then, can we account for the survival of the Bible

in the face of such bitter persecution? The only solution is to be found in the

promise of God. “Heaven and earth shall pass away, but My Words shall

not pass away.”

The story of the Bible’s persecution is an arresting one. During the first

three centuries of the Christian era the Roman Emperors sought to destroy

God’s Word. One of them, named Diocletian, believed that he had

succeeded. He had slain so many Christians and destroyed so many Bibles,

that when the lovers of the Bible remained quiet for a season and kept in

hiding, he imagined that he had made an end of the Scriptures. So elated

was he at this achievement, he ordered a medal to be struck inscribed with

the words, “The Christian religion is destroyed and the worship of the gods

restored.” One wonders what that emperor would think if he returned to this

earth today and found that more had been written about the Bible than about

any other thousand books put together, and that the Bible which enshrines

the Christian faith is now translated into more than four hundred languages

and is being sent out to every part of the earth!

Centuries after the persecution by the Roman Emperors, when the Roman

Catholic Church obtained command of the city of Rome, the Pope and his

priests took up the old quarrel against the Bible. The Holy Scriptures were

taken away from the people, copies of the Bible were forbidden to be

purchased and all who were found with a copy of God’s Word in their

possession were tortured and killed. For centuries the Roman Catholic

Church bitterly persecuted the Bible and it was not until the time of the

Reformation at the close of the sixteenth century that the Word of God was

again given to the masses in their own tongue.

Even in our day the persecution of the Bible still continues, though the

method of attack is changed. Much of our modern scholarship is engaged in

the work of seeking to destroy faith in the Divine inspiration and authority

of the Bible. In many of our seminaries the rising generation of the clergy

are taught that Genesis is a book of myths, that much of the teaching of the

Pentateuch is immoral, that the historical records of the Old Testament are

unreliable and that the whole Bible is man’s creation rather than God’s

revelation. And so the attack on the Bible is being perpetuated.

Now suppose there was a man who had lived upon this earth for eighteen

hundred years, that this man had oftentimes been thrown into the sea and

yet could not be drowned; that he had frequently been cast before wild

beasts who were unable to devour him; that he had many times been made

to drink deadly poisons which never did him any harm; that he had often

53

been bound in iron chains and locked in prison dungeons, yet he had

always been able to throw off the chains and escape from his captivity; that

he had repeatedly been hanged, till his enemies thought him dead, yet when

his body was cut down he sprang to his feet and walked away as though

nothing had happened; that hundreds of times he had been burned at the

stake, till there seemed to be nothing left of him, yet as soon as the fires

were out he leaped up from the ashes as well and as vigorous as ever — but

we need not expand this idea any further; such a man would be superhuman,

a miracle of miracles. Yet this is exactly how we should regard the

Bible! This is practically the way in which the Bible has been treated. It has

been burned, drowned, chained, put in prison, and torn to pieces, yet never

destroyed!

No other book has provoked such fierce opposition as the Bible, and its

preservation is perhaps the most startling miracle connected with it. But two

thousand five hundred years ago God declared, “The grass withereth, the

flower fadeth, but the Word of our God shall abide for ever.” Just as the

three Hebrews passed safely through the fiery furnace of Nebuchadnezzar

unharmed and unscorched, so the Bible has emerged from the furnace of

satanic hatred and assault without even the smell of fire upon it! Just as an

earthly parent treasures and lays by the letters received from his child, so

our Heavenly Father has protected and preserved the Epistles of love

written to His children.

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CHAPTER 12

INWARD CONFIRMATION OF

THE VERACITY OF THE SCRIPTURES

We are living in a day when confidence is lacking; when skepticism and

agnosticism are becoming more and more prevalent; and when doubt and

uncertainty are made the badges of culture and wisdom. Everywhere men

are demanding proof. Hypotheses and speculations fail to satisfy: the heart

cannot rest content until it is able to say, “I know.” The demand of the

human mind is for definite knowledge and positive assurance. And God has

condescended to meet this need.

One thing which distinguishes Christianity from all human systems is that it

deals with absolute certainties. Christians are people who know. And well it

is that they do. The issues concerning life and death are so stupendous, the

stake involved in the salvation of the soul is so immense, that we cannot

afford to be uncertain here. None but a fool would attempt to cross a frozen

river until he was sure that the ice was strong enough to bear him. Dare we

then face the river of death with nothing but a vague and uncertain hope to

rest upon? Personal assurance is the crying need of the hour. There can be

no peace and joy until this is attained. A parent who is in suspense

concerning the safety of his child, is in agony of soul. A criminal who lies

in the condemned cell hoping for a reprieve, is in mental torment until his

pardon arrives. And a professed Christian who knows not whether he shall

ultimately land in Heaven or Hell, is a pitiable object.

But we say again, real Christians are people who know. They know that

of this tabernacle were dissolved, they have a building of God, a house not

John 3:2). In the meantime they know whom they have believed, and are

persuaded that He is able to keep that which they have committed unto Him

answer is, they have proven for themselves the trustworthiness of God’s

Word which affirms these things.

The force of this present argument will appeal to none save those who have

an experimental acquaintance with it. In addition to all the external proofs

that we have for the Divine Inspiration of the Scriptures, the believer has a

55

source of evidence to which no unbeliever has access. In his own

experience the Christian finds a personal confirmation of the teachings of

God’s Word. To the man whose life which, judged by the standards of the

world, appears morally upright, the statement that “the heart is deceitful

above all things and desperately wicked” seems to be the gloomy view of a

pessimist, or a description which has no general application. But the

119:30), and in the light of God’s Word and beneath the illuminating power

of God’s Spirit who indwells him, he has discovered there is within him a

sink of iniquity. To natural wisdom, which is fond of philosophizing about

the freedom of the human will, the declaration of Christ that

“No man can come to Me, except the Father

seems a hard saying; but, to the one who has been taught by the Holy Spirit

something of the binding power of sin, such a declaration has been verified

in his own experience. To the one who has done his best to live up to the

light which he had, and has sought to develop an honest and amiable

character, such a statement as, “All our righteousnesses are as filthy rags,”

seems unduly harsh and severe; but to the man who has received “an

unction from the Holy One,” his very best works appear to him sordid and

sinful; and such they are. The Apostle’s confession that “in me (that is, in

absurd to him, the believer now acknowledges to be his own condition. The

description of the Christian which is found in Romans ... is something

which none but a regenerate person can understand. The things there

mentioned as belonging to the same man at the same time, seem foolish to

the wise of this world; but the believer realizes completely the truth of it in

his own life.

The promises of God can be tested: their trustworthiness is capable of

verification. In the Gospel Christ promises to give rest to all those who are

weary and heavy laden that come unto Him. He declares that He came to

seek and to save that which was lost. He affirms that “whosoever drinketh

of the Water that I shall give him shall never thirst.” In short, the Gospel

presents the Lord Jesus Christ as a Savior. His claim to save can be put to

the proof. Yea, it has been, and that by a multitude of individuals that no

man can number. Many of these are living on earth today. Every individual

who has read in the Scriptures the invitations that are addressed to sinners,

and has personally appropriated them to himself, can say n the words of the

well- known hymn: -

Should these pages be read by a skeptic who, despite his present unbelief,

has a sincere and earnest desire to know the truth, he, too may put God’s

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Word to the test and share the experience described above. It is written,

“Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved,” — believe, my

reader, and thou, too, shalt be saved.

“We speak that we do know, and testify that we have seen”

The Bible testifies to the fact that “all have sinned and come short of the

glory of God,” and our own conscience confirms it. The Bible declares that

it is “not by works of righteousness which we have down, but according to

His mercy” God saves us; and the Christian has proven that he was unable

to do anything to win God’s esteem: but, having cried the prayer of the

Publican, he has gone down to his house justified. The Bible teaches that

“if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away;

behold, all things are become new;” and the believer has found that the

things he once hated he now loves, and that the things he hitherto counted

gain he now regards as dross. The Bible witnesses to the fact that we “are

kept by the power of God thro’ faith,” and the believer has proven that

though the world, the flesh, and the devil are arrayed against him, yet the

grace of God is sufficient for all his need. Ask the Christian, then, why he

believes that the Bible is the Word of God, and he will tell you, Because it

has done for me what it professes to do (save); because I have tested its

promises for myself; because I find its teachings verified in my own

experiences.

To the unregenerate the Bible is practically a sealed Book. Even the cultured

and educated are unable to understand its teachings: parts of it appear plain

and simple, but much of it is dark and mysterious. This is exactly what the

Bible declares —

“The natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for

they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because

But to the man of God it is otherwise:

“He that believeth on the Son of God hath the witness in himself”

As the Lord Jesus declared,

“If any man will do His will, he shall know of the doctrine”

While the infidel stumbles in darkness, even in the midst of light, the

believer discovers the evidence of its truth in himself with the clearness of a

sunbeam.

“For God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, hath

shined in our hearts, to give the light of the knowledge of the glory

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CHAPTER 13

VERBAL INSPIRATION

Not only does the Bible claim to be a Divine revelation but it also asserts

that its original manuscripts were written

“not in the words which man’s wisdom teacheth,

The Bible nowhere claims to have been written by inspired men — as a

matter of fact some of them were very defective characters — Balaam for

example — but it insists that the words they uttered and recorded were

God’s words. Inspiration has not to do with the minds of the writers (for

with the writings themselves. “All Scripture is given by inspiration of

God,” and “Scripture” means “the writings.” Faith has to do with God’s

Word and not with the men who wrote it — these are all dead long since,

but their writings remain.

A writing that is inspired by God self-evidently implies, in the very

expression, that the words are the words of God. To say that the inspiration

of the Scriptures applies to their concepts and not to their words; to declare

that one part of Scripture is written with one kind or degree of inspiration

and another part with another kind or degree, is not only destitute of any

foundation or support in the Scriptures themselves, but is repudiated by

every statement in the Bible which bears upon the subject now under

consideration. To say that the Bible is not the Word of God but merely

contains the Word of God is the figment of an ill-employed ingenuity and

an unholy attempt to depreciate and invalidate the supreme authority of the

Oracles of God. All the attempts which have been made to explain the

rationale of inspiration have done nothing toward simplifying the subject,

rather have they tended to mystify. It is no easier to conceive how ideas

without words could be imparted, than that Divinely revealed truths should

be communicated by words. Instead of being diminished the difficulty is

increased. It were as logical to talk of a sum without figures or a tune

without notes, as of a Divine revelation and communication without words.

Instead of speculation our duty is to receive and believe what the Scriptures

say of themselves.

What the Bible teaches about its own inspiration is a matter purely of Divine

testimony, and our business is simply to receive the testimony and not to

speculate about or seek to pry into its modus operandi. Inspiration is as

much a matter of Divine revelation as is justification by faith. Both stand

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equally on the authority of the Scriptures themselves, which must be the

final court of appeal on this subject as on every question of revealed truth.

The teaching of the Bible concerning the inspiration of the Scriptures is

clear and simple, and uniform throughout. Its writers were conscious that

their utterances were a message from God in the highest meaning of the

word.

“And the Lord said unto him (Moses), Who hath made man’s

mouth? or who maketh the dumb, or deaf, or the seeing, or the

blind? Have not I the Lord? Now therefore go, and I will be with

thy mouth, and teach thee what thou shalt say”

“The Spirit of the Lord spake by me,

“Then the Lord put forth His hand, and touched my mouth. and the

Lord said unto me, Behold, I have put My words in thy mouth”

The above are only a sample of scores of similar passages which might be

sighted.

What is predicted of the Scriptures themselves, demonstrates that they are

entirely and absolutely the Word of God. “The law of the Lord is perfect,

the Bible for human infirmities and imperfections. “Thy Word is very pure”

superintended the composition of the Bible and so “moved” its writers that

all error has been excluded. “Thy Word is true from the beginning”

on the Book of Genesis, particularly on its opening chapters!

The teaching of the New Testament agrees with what we have quoted from

the Old.

“Take ye no thought how or what thing ye shall answer, or what ye

shall say: for the Holy Spirit shall teach you in the same hour what

— the disciples were the ones who spake, but it was the Holy Spirit who

“taught them what to say.” Could any language express more emphatically

the most entire inspiration? and, if the Holy Spirit so controlled their

utterances when in the presence of “magistrates,” is it conceivable that He

would do less for them when they were communicating the mind of God to

all future generations on things touching our eternal destiny? Assuredly not.

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“But those things, which God before had showed by the mouth of

all His prophets, that Christ should suffer, He hath so fulfilled”

Here the Holy Spirit declares thro’ Peter that it was God who had revealed

by the mouth of all His prophets that Israel’s Messiah must suffer before

the glory should appear.

“But that I confess unto thee, that after the way which they call

heresy, so worship I the God of my fathers, believing all things

These words clearly evidence the fact that the Apostle Paul had the utmost

confidence in the authenticity of the entire contents of the Old Testament.

“And my speech and my preaching was not with enticing words of man’s

2:4). Could any man have used such language as this unless he had been

fully conscious that he was speaking the very words of God?

“The prophecy came not at any time by the will of man: but holy

men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Spirit”

Nothing could possibly be more explicit.

Dr. Gray has strikingly and forcefully stated the necessity of a verbally

inspired Bible in the following language: — “An illustration the writer has

often used will help to make this clear. A stenographer in a mercantile house

was asked by his employer to write as follows:

“Gentlemen: we misunderstood your letter and will not fill your

order.”

Imagine the employer’s surprise, however, when a little later this was set

before him for his signature -

“Gentlemen: we misunderstood your letter and will not fill your

order.”

The mistake was only of a single letter, but it was entirely subversive of his

meaning. And yet the thought was given clearly to the stenographer, and the

words, too, for that matter, Moreover, the latter was capable and faithful,

but he was human, and it is human to err. Had not his employer controlled

his expression, down to the very letter, the thought intended to be conveyed

would have failed of utterance.” So, too, the Holy Spirit had to superintend

the writing of the very letter of Scripture in order to guarantee its accuracy

and inerrancy.

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Many proofs might be given to show the Scriptures are verbally inspired.

One line of demonstration appears in the literal and verbal fulfillment of

many of the Old Testament prophecies. For example, God made known

thro’ Zechariah that the price which Judas should receive for his awful

case where God communicated to one of the prophets not merely an abstract

concept but a specific communication. And the above case is only one of

many.

Another evidence of verbal inspiration is to be seen in the fact that words

are used in Scripture with the most exact precision and discrimination. This

is particularly noticeable in connection with the Divine titles. The names

Elohim and Jehovah are found on the pages of the Old Testament several

thousand times, but they are never employed loosely or used alternately.

Each of these names has a definite significance and scope, and were we to

substitute the one for the other the beauty and perfection of a multitude of

passages would be destroyed. To illustrate: the word “God” occurs all thro’

Genesis 1, but “Lord God” in Genesis 2. Were these two Divine titles

reversed here, a flaw and blemish would be the consequence. “God” is the

creatorial title, whereas “Lord” implies covenant relationship and shows

God’s dealings with His own people. Hence, in Genesis 1, “God” is used,

and in Genesis 2, “Lord God” is employed, and all thro’ the remainder of

the Old Testament these two Divine titles are used discriminatively and in

harmony with the meaning of their first mention. One or two other

examples must suffice. “And they went in unto Noah into the ark, two and

two of all flesh, wherein is the breath of life. And they that went in, went in

male and female of all flesh, as God had commanded him” — “God”

because it was the Creator commanding, with respect to His creatures, as

such; but, in the remainder of the same verse, we read, “and the Lord shut

based upon covenant relationship. When going forth to meet Goliath David

said,

“This day will the Lord deliver thee into mine hand (because David

was in covenant relationship with Him); and I will smite thee, and

take thine head from thee; and I will give the carcasses of the host of

the Philistines this day unto the fowls of the air, and to the wild

beasts of the earth; that all the earth (which was not in covenant

relation with Him) may know that there is a God in Israel. And all

this assembly (which were in covenant relationship with Him) shall

know that the Lord saveth not with sword and spear” etc.

Once more:

“And it came to pass, when the captains of the chariots saw

Jehoshaphat, that they said, It is the king of Israel. Therefore they

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compassed about him to fight: but Jehoshaphat cried out, and the

Lord helped him; and God moved them (the Syrians) to depart from

And thus it is all thro’ the Old Testament.

The above line of argument might be extended indefinitely. There are

upwards of fifty Divine titles in the Old Testament which are used more

than once, each of which has a definite signification, each of which has its

meaning hinted at in its first mention, and each of which is used

subsequently in harmony with its original purport. They are never used

loosely or interchangeably. In every place where they occur there is a

reason for each variation. Such titles are the Most High, the Almighty, the

God of Israel, the God of Jacob, the Lord our Righteousness, etc., etc., are

not used haphazardly, but in every case in harmony with their original

meaning and as the best suited to the context. The same is true in connection

with the names of our Lord in the New Testament. In some passages He is

referred to as Christ, in others as Jesus, Jesus Christ, Christ Jesus, Lord

Jesus Christ. In every instance there is a reason for each variation, and in

every case the Holy Spirit has seen to it that they are employed with

uniform significance. The same is true of the various names given to the

great adversary. In some places he is termed Satan, in others the devil etc.,

etc.; but the different terms are used with unerring precision throughout. A

further illustration is furnished by the father of Joseph. In his earlier life he

was always termed Jacob, later he received the name of Israel, but after

this, sometimes we read of Jacob and sometimes of Israel. Whatever is

predicted of Jacob refers to the acts of the “old man;” whatever is postulated

of Israel were the fruits of the “new man.” When he doubted it was Jacob

who doubted, when he believed God it was Israel who exercised faith.

Accordingly, we read, “And when Jacob had made an end of commanding

his sons, he gathered up his feet into the bed, and yielded up the ghost”

commanded his servants the physicians to embalm his father: and the

marvelous verbal precision and perfection of Holy Scripture.

The most convincing of all the proofs and arguments for the verbal

inspiration of the Scriptures is the fact that the Lord Jesus Christ regarded

them and treated them as such. He Himself submitted to their authority.

When assaulted by Satan, three times He replied, “It is written,” and it is

particularly to be noted that the point of each of His quotations and the force

of each reply lay in a single word — “Man shall not live by bread alone”

etc.; “Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God;” “Thou shalt worship the

Lord thy God, and him only shalt thou serve.” When tempted by the

Pharisees, who asked Him, “Is it lawful for a man to put away his wife for

To the Sadducees He said, “Ye do err, not knowing the Scriptures”

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7:13). On another occasion, when speaking of the Word of God, He

been adduced to show that the Lord Jesus regarded the Scriptures as the

Word of God in the most absolute sense. In view of this fact let Christians

beware of detracting in the smallest degree from the perfect and full

inspiration of the Holy Scriptures.

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CHAPTER 14

APPLICATION OF THE ARGUMENT

What is our attitude towards God’s Word? The knowledge that the

Scriptures are inspired by the Holy Spirit involves definite obligations. Our

conception of the authority of the Bible determines our attitude and

measures our responsibility. If the Bible is a Divine revelation what

follows?

If it were announced upon reliable authority that on a certain date in the near

future an angel from heaven would visit New York and would deliver a

sermon upon the invisible world, the future destiny of man, or the secret of

deliverance from the power of sin, what an audience he would command!

There is no building in that city large enough to accommodate the crowd

which would throng to hear him. If upon the next day, the newspapers

were to give a verbatim report of his discourse, how eagerly it would be

read! And yet, we have between the covers of the Bible not merely an

angelic communication but a Divine revelation. How great then is our

wickedness if we undervalue and despise it! And yet we do.

We need to confess to God our sin of neglecting His Holy Word. We have

time enough — we take time — to read the writings of fellow sinners, yet

we have little or no time for the Holy Scriptures. The Bible is a series of

Divine love letters, and yet many of God’s people have scarcely broken the

seals. God complained of old, “I have written to him the great things of My

God’s gift is to despise the Giver. To neglect God’s Word is virtually to tell

Him that He made a mistake in being at so much trouble to communicate it.

To prefer the writings of man is to insult the Almighty. To say that human

writings are more interesting is to impugn the wisdom of the Most High and

is a terrible indictment against our own evil hearts. To neglect God’s Word

is to sin against its Author, for He has commanded us to read, study, and

search it.

If the Bible is the Word of God then -

It is not a question of what I think, or of what any one else thinks — it is,

What saith the Scriptures? It is not a matter of what any church or creed

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teaches — it is, What teaches the Bible? God has spoken, and that ends the

matter: “Forever, O Lord, Thy Word is settled in heaven.” Therefore, it is

for me to bow to His authority, to submit to His Word, to cease all

quibbling and cry, “Speak, Lord, for Thy servant heareth.” Because the

Bible is God’s Word, it is the final court of appeal in all things pertaining to

doctrine, duty, and deportment.

This was the position taken by our Lord Himself. When tempted by Satan,

He declined to argue with him, He refused to overwhelm him with the force

of His superior wisdom, He scorned to crush him with a putting forth of

His almighty power — “It is written” was His defense for each assault. At

the beginning of His public ministry, when He went to Nazareth where

most of His thirty years had been lived, He performed no wonderful

miracle but entered the synagogue, read from the Prophet Isaiah and said,

In His teaching upon the Rich Man and Lazarus, He insisted that

“If they hear not Moses and the prophets, neither will they be

— thus signifying that the authority of the written Word is of greater weight

and worth than the testimony and appeal of miracles. When vindicating

of John the Baptist (vs. 32), to His own works (vs. 36), to the Father’s

own witness — at His baptism (vs. 37), and then — as tho they were the

climax — He said — “Search the Scriptures ** they are they which testify

of Me” (vs. 39).

This was the position taken by the Apostles. When Peter would justify the

When seeking to prove to the Jews that Jesus of Nazareth was their

Messiah, and that He had risen again from the dead, he appealed to the

before the “counsel” he did little more than review the teaching of Moses

and the prophets. When Saul and Barnabas set out on their first missionary

journey they “preached the Word of God in the synagogues of the Jews”

clear utterance upon the subject under discussion that ended the matter:

against their testimony there was no appeal.

If the Bible is the Word of God — then

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How can man be just with God? or how can he be clean that is born of a

woman? What must I do to be saved? Where is true and lasting peace and

rest to be found? Such are some of the inquiries made by every honest and

anxious soul. The reply is — Search the Scriptures: Look and see. How

shall I best employ my time and talents? How shall I discover what is wellpleasing

to my Maker? How am I to know what is the path of duty? And

again the answer is — What teaches the Word of God?

No one who possesses a copy of the Bible can legitimately plead ignorance

of God’s will. The Scriptures leave us without excuse. A lamp has been

provided for our feet and the pathway of righteousness is clearly marked

out. A chart has been given to the sailors on time’s sea, and it is their own

fault if they fail to arrive at the heavenly port. In the day of judgment the

Books will be opened and out of these Books men will be judge, and one of

these Books will be the Bible. In His written Word God has revealed His

mind, expressed His will, communicated His requirements; and woe to the

man or woman who takes not the necessary time to discover what these are.

If the Bible is the Word of God then -

Man craves for certainty. Speculations and hypotheses are insufficient

where eternal issues are at stake. When I come to lay my head upon my

dying pillow, I want something surer than a “perhaps” to rest it upon. And

thank God I have it. Where? In the Holy Scriptures. I know that my

Redeemer liveth. I know that I have passed from death unto life. I know

that I shall be made like Christ and dwell with Him in glory throughout the

endless ages of eternity. How do I know? Because God’s Word says so,

and I want nothing more.

The Bible gives forth no uncertain sound. It speaks with absolute

assurance, dogmatism, and finality. Its promises are certain for they are

promises of Him who cannot lie. Its testimony is reliable for it is the

inerrant Word of the Living God. Its teachings are trustworthy for they are

a communication the Omniscient. The believer then has a sure foundation

on which to rest, an impregnable rock on which to build his hopes. For his

present peace and for his future prospects he has a, “Thus saith the Lord,”

and that is sufficient.

If the Bible is the Word of God then -

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A unique book deserves and demands unique attention. Like Job, we ought

to be able to say, “I have esteemed the words of His mouth more than my

necessary food.” If history teaches us anything at all, it teaches that those

nations which have most honored God’s Word have been most honored by

God. And what is true of the nation is equally true of the family and of the

individual. The greatest intellects of the ages have drawn their inspiration

from the Scripture of Truth. The most eminent statesmen have testified to

the value and importance of Bible study. Benjamin Franklin said: “Young

man, my advice to you is that you cultivate an acquaintance with and firm

belief in the Holy Scriptures, for this is your certain interest.” Thomas

Jefferson gave it as his opinion, “I have said and always will say, that the

studious perusal of the Sacred Volume will make better citizens, better

fathers, and better husbands.”

When the late Queen Victoria was asked the secret of England’s greatness,

she took down a copy of the Scriptures, and pointing to the Bible she said,

“That Book explains the power of Great Britain.” Daniel Webster once

affirmed, “If we abide by the principles taught in the Bible, our country will

go on prospering and to prosper; but, if we and our posterity neglect its

instructions and authority, no man can tell how sudden a catastrophe may

overwhelm us and bury all our glory in profound obscurity. The Bible is

the Book of all others for lawyers as well as divines, and I pity the man

who cannot find in it a rich supply of thought and rule of conduct.”

When Sir Walter Scott lay dying he summoned to his side his man in

waiting and said, “Read to me out of the Book.” Which book? answered his

servant. “There is only one Book,” was the dying man’s response — “The

Bible!” The Bible is the Book to live by and the Book to die by. Therefore

read it to be wise, believe it to be safe, practice it to be holy. As another has

said: “Know it in the head, store it in the heart, show it in the life, sow it in

the world.”

“All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for

doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness:

that the man of God may be perfect, thoroughly furnished unto all

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