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 foundations be destroyed, what can the righteous do?" (Ps.
11:3). 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 - "For ever, O Lord, Thy Word is settled in heaven" (Ps.
119:89).
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 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.