The Fundamentals: Volume 7, Chapter 3: The Testimony of the Scriptures to Themselves

8/20/2019 The Fundamentals: Volume 7, Chapter 3: The Testimony of the Scriptures to Themselves

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CHAPTER III

THE TESTIMONY OF THE SCRIPTURES TOTHEMSELVES

BY REV. GEORGE S. BISHOP, D. D.

EAST ORANGE, NEW JERSEY

My subject is, The Testimony of the Scriptures to Themselves-their own self-evidence-the overpowering, unparticipated witness that they bring.

Permit me to expand this witness under the followingheads:

I. Immortality2.

Authority3 Transcendent Doctrine4 Direct Assertion 1. IMMORTALITY-" have written f All other book s die.

Few old books survive, and fewer of those that surv ive haveany influ ence . Most of the books we quote from have be enwritten within the last three or even one hundred years.

But here is a Book whose antemundane voices had grownold, when voice s spake in 1 den. ·A Book which has survived not only · with continued but increasing lustre, vitality,vivadty, popularity, rebound of influ ence . A Book whichcomes through alI the shocks without a wrench, and all thefurnaces of all the ages- like an iron safe-with every doctt .ment in every pigeon-hole, without a warp upon it, or the sme llof fire. Here is a Book of which it may be said, as of Immor~tal Christ I-Iimseif: "Thou hast the dew on Thy youth froJ:11the womb of the morning." A Book dating from days asancient as those of the Anc~ent of Days, and which when allthat makes up what we see and call the universe shall be dis ...solved , will st ill speak on in thunder-tones of majesty, and

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Testiniony of the Scriptures to Themselves 39

Whisper-tones oi light, and music-tones of love, for it is wrapping in itself the everlasting past, and opening and expanding·from itself the everlasting fut~re; and, like an all·irradiatingsun, will still roll on, while deathless ages roll, the one un ...changing, unchangeable Revelation of God.

2. Immortality is on these pages, and AUTHORITY SETS·lIERE HER SEAL. This is the second point. A Standard.

Useless to talk about no standard. Nature points to one.Conscience cries out for one-conscience which, without alaw, constantly wages the internal and exctuciating war ofaccusing or else excusing itself.

There must be a Standard and an Inspired Standard-forInspiration is t.he Essence of Authority, and authority is inproportion to inspiration- . the more inspired the greater the

authority-the less, the less. Even the rationalist Rothe,tnost intense opponent, has admitted that that in the Bi~lewhich is not the product of direct inspiration has no bindingpower.

Verbal and direct inspiration is, therefor~, the Thertnopylae of Biblical and Scriptural . faith. No breath, nosyllable; no syllable, no word; no word, no Book; no Book,no religion. '

. We hold, from first to last, that there can be no possibleadvance in Revelation-no new light. What was written atfirst, the same thing stands written today, and will stand forever. · The emanation of the .mind of God-it is complete,perfect. No thing can be put to it, nor anything taken from ·it''; its ips e d i 1:it is peremptory, final. If any man ·shall addunto these thing s, God shall add unto him the plagues that areWritten in this B ook; and if any man shall take away fromthe words of the Book of this prophecy, God shall take awayhis part out of the Book of life, and out of the Holy City,and from the .things which are written in this B99k.

The Bible is the Word of God, and not simply CONTAINS

IT. This is clear.


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40 • The Fundamentals•

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Because the Bible sty1es itself tl1e W ,ord of God. ''T 'he

Word of the Lord is rigl1t," says tl1e Psalmis it. Again, ''ThyWord is · a lamp to my feet." ''Wl1erewithal shall a youngman cleanse his way? By taking heed thereto according toTJiy J,Vord. ''The grass withereth,'' says Isaiah, ''the flowert h 1ereof fadeth, but tlte Word of our God sl1all stand forever.''

Not only is the Bible calle 1d the Wo rd of God, but it isdistinguished f r ,om all other 'books ·by that very tit le . It is sodistinguished in the 119th Psalm, and eve rywhere the con- trast between it and eve 1·y human book is ·(leepened arid sus-tain 1d. .

If we will not call the Bible the W ·ord of God, tl1en wecannot call it anything else. If w 1e insist upon a descriptionrigorously exact and unexposed to shafts of wanton criticis1 11,then the B .ook r 1emains anonymous. We cannot more consistently sa y, ' 'Holy Scripture," because the crimes recorded

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on its pages are not l1oly; b,ecat1,se 1expression 1s lilce ,"CurseGod and die," and others irom tl1e lip s of Satan and of wickedmen, are unhol y. The Bible, however, is ''holy'' because itsaim and its methods are holy. The Bible, likewi se , is theWor ·d of God, because it comes from God; because its every

word was penned by God; because it is the only exponent ofGod; the only rule of His procedure, and the Boole by whichw 1e must at last b ·e judged. .

( 1) TI1e Bible is authority because in it, from coverto cover, God is tlie Spe ,aker. Said a leader ,of our so-calledOFthodoxy to a crowded audience but a littl e while a,go: ''TI,eBible is true. , Any man n 1ot a foo l mus ,t believe what is true.What difference doe s it mak e who wrote it?'' This difference, brethren; tl1e solenin bea1'ing down of God on the so1,ilM .Y friend may tell n1e what is true; my wife may tell mewhat is true; but what they .say is not solemn. Solemnitycomes in when God Jooks into tny face God and bel1indHim everlastin .g destiny and ta 'lk s ,vitl1 n1e about my s.oul.

In the Bib1

1e God sp1

eaks, and God is ],istened to, .and men are•

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Testiniony of the Scriptures to T/iems~lves 41

born again by God's Word. "So then faith cotneth by hearing,and hearing by the Word of God." It is God's Revelation thatfaith hears, and it is on God revealed that faith rests.

(2) The Bible is the Word of God. It comes tp 1=1sannounced by miracles and herald ed with fire Take the OldTestament-Mount Sinai; take the New Testament-Pentecost. Would God Himself stretch out His hand and writeon tables in the giving, and send down tongues of fire or ·

the proclamation of a Revelation, every particle and shred ofwhich was not His own ? In other words, would He workmiracles and send down tongues of fire to signalize a workmerely human, or even partly human and partly Divine?How unworthy of God, how impi ous, how utterly impossiblethe supposition

( 3) The Bible comes clothed with authority in the i -handed and exalted terms of its add re ss God in the Biblespeaks out of a whirlwind and with the voice of Elias. Whatgrander proof of literal in spiration can be than in the highhanded method and imper ative tone of prophets and apostleswhich enabled them-poor men, obscure, and without aninfluence; fishermen, artisans, publicans, day-laborers-to ·

brave and boldly teach the world from Pha raoh and fromNero down? Was t his due to an y thing less than God speak·ing , in them-to th e overpowering impulse and seizure ofGod? Who can Leli eve it? Who is not struck with thepower and the wi sdom of God ? "Hi s word s were in mybones," cries one. "I could not stay. The lion hath roared,who will not fear; the Lord hath sp oken, who can butpr ophesy?"

(4) The Bible is the opti1ne of authority, because it isfrom first to last a glorious projection on the widest scale ofthe decrees of God The sweep of the Bible is from thecreation o f angels to a new heaven and new earth, across alake of fire. What a field for events What an expanse


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42 The Funda1nental s \•

beyond th ,e sweep 0 1r even reach o ,f human fore-thot1ght,,critici sm, or co-op ,eratio ,n What a laby rin ,th up ,on who ,se

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least and minutest turning ,hangs ent .ire redemption, since achain is , never s ,tronger than its , sma ,llest link Who thenwi ,]1 dare to spe .ak till God has , spo ·ken? ''I wil 'l declare , ·tl1edecree '' Tl1,at pus 'hes everything aside that makes the declaration ,a .n extension, so to sa,y, of the D 1eclarer. ''I wi·lldeclare the decree f'' When we consider that the ·Bible ·is , anexact p,rojec ·tion of the ,decree s of God into the future, thisargum'.e11t is , seen to , lift, inde ,ed, to a climax; and, in f'act ., j,t1does reach to the . very crux of controversy; f or the hardest

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tl1ing for u .s to believe about God is to believe that He exac 'tl,y.,ab solutely knows, , because He has ordained, the future"

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Every att1~ibute of Go ,d is easier t ,o ,.gra ,sp than tha 't 1of an in -f,allible 10mniscience. ''I will declare the d,ecree,' '' therefore,calls for direct inspiration,

(5) The Bible is . the optime of authority, be ,cause tJie

ho :oks at tlie end of the 1hain prove the dictated i nsp,iration of- .

its every link. Compar ,e the ,f'al] in Genesis one t,nl< with

the resurrection in tl1e Apocalypse the ot he r. Comp ,are theold creation in the first ch~pters of the Old Testament Withthe new cr ,eation i11 the last ch apter s of t he New. ''\Ve open

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the fir st pages of the Bib le,'' says . Va ,llotton ,, ''and ' we findthere the recital of the creation of the world by the Word ofGod· of the fall of man, of his exi le far from God, far f ro1nParadise, and far f ro111 he tree of l'ife.. We open tl1e lastpages of tl1 ,e last 0 1£ the 66 bo 1oks d ating 4,000 years , laterj Godis st ill speaking. . He is still creating. He creates a newheaven and ·a ne ,v .earth. Man is found the1·e recovered~ Heis restored to coII:1-munion with God. He dwells again inPar ,adise, he 'neath the sha ,dow of the tr ,ee of 1ife. Wl10 is ,notst1uck by the strang 1e corr 1es·po ,n denc 1e of this end with tha tbeginning? Is not the one the prologue, , the ·other the epi:..,logue o·f ' a drama as vast as unique?' ''

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Testimo ny of tlie Scriptures to Themselves 43• •

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(6) Another argument for · the supreme authority ofScripture is the character of the investigation challenged forthe Word of God. The Bible courts the closest scrutiny. Its

. open pages blaze the legend, ''Search the Scriptures ''Ereunao "Search.'' It is a sportsman's term, and borrowedtrom the chase. ''Trace out," ''track out'' follow the word1

~ all its usages and windings. Scent it out t~ its remotest

meanings, as a dog the hare. ''They searched,'' again says St.Luke, in the Acts, of the Bereans. There it is another word,?nakrino ''they divided up,'' analyzed, sifted, pulverized, asin a mortar . to tl1e last thought.

What a solemn cha11enge is this f What book but a Divine

· Written by man, it is at tl1e mercy of men. Men can gothrough it, riddle it, sift it, and leave it behind them, wornout. But tl1e Bible, a Book dropped from heaven, is ''Godbreathed.'' It swells, it dilates, with the bodying fullness ofGod. God has written it, and none can exhaust it. ApplyYou~ microscopes, apply your telescopes, to tl1e material of

broaden out its nebulae, but find th em cJustered stars. They

touch on coarseness in tl1e fabric, nor on limitations irt hori- ·· zon, as alwa ys is the case when te sts of such a char.acter are

Water, or a fly's wing, under a microscope . . The stronger the

an ocean filled with sporting animalcules. The higher thepower, the more exquisite, the more silken, become the tissuesof the fly's wino-, until it attenuates almost to the golden andgossamer threads of a seraph's. So is it with the Word of

tion, the more perfection. We cannot bring to it a test tooPenetrating, nor a · light too tancinating, nor a touchstone tooexacting. · . · .

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44 The Fundamentals , •••

The Bible i 1s beyond all attempts at not only exhaustion .,but

comprehension. No human mind can,by

searching,find

out the fullness of God. ''For what man knoweth the tl1ingso,f a man save the s ,pirit o,f mlan which is in him? even so thethings of God knoweth no man save the S,pirit of God.''

3. That leads up to the third point. The Scripturestestify to their Divine Original by their TRANSCENDENT DOCTRINE, THEIR OUTSHINING LIGHT., THEIR NAT 'IVE RADIANCE,

THE GLOW OF THE DT\ 7INE, THE WITNESS OF THE SPIRIT.

' We sho 1uld expect to find a Bo ,ok, that cam .e from God,penciled with points of jasper · and of sardine stone enh~loedwith a brightness from the everlasting hills. We shou ld lookfor that about the Book which, flashing convictio~ at once,slioutd carry overwhelmingly and everywhere by its bare,tta'ked witness - by wh .at it .s.imply is., That, ju .st as, God, bystretching out a 11and to write u ·pon the ''plaister'' of a Babylonian palace,' stamped, through mysterious and disjointedwords, conviction of Divinity upon Belshazzar, and each oneof his one thousand ''lords'' ; so, after that same analogue ,why not? God should stretch out His hand along the unrolling palimpsests of all the ages, . and write upon them largeirwords, wh ·ich, to the , secre ,t recognition of each human soul,should say, not only, ''This is Truth,'' but ''This , is Truth,God-spoken ''' .

The Bibl ,e is the Word o ,f God, be 1cause it is the ook ofInfinites the revelatio ,n of what 11ature, without it, never

c,ould have attained, and, coming short of the knowledge of. which, nature were lost.

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1T·t1e greatest need of the soul is salvation. It is such a•

knowledge of God as shall asst1re us of ''co ·mfo ·rt'• here an 1dhereaf ter. Su 1ch a knowledge, nature outsid 1 of . the Bibledoes not contain. Everywhere groping in his darlcness, man

is confronte4 by two changeless facts. One, his guilt, which,as b .e looks down, s inks deeper a11d deepe ,r. The o,ther, the ,•

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Testimot1,y of tlie Scriptures to Thetnsclves 45 '•

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justice of God, which as he looks up, lifts higher and higher.· Infinite against infinite infinite here, Infinite there no

bridge betWeen them Nature helps to no bridge. lt nowhere speaks o,f aton 1en1ent.

Standing with Uriel in the sun, we launch the propositionthat the Scriptures are Divine in their very message becausethey deal with three lnfi1iites: Infinite Guilt Infinite H oli ,ness; Infinite Atonement

A hook must itself be infinite w11ich deals wi,th infinites ,'and a book must be Divine which divinely reconciles infinites.

Infinite Guilt Has my guilt a11y bottom? Is Hell _anydeeper? Is · there, in introspection, a possiPle lower, morebottomle ss nadir? Infinite guilt I That is what opens, cavesaway under my feet, the longer, the more caref u]Iy I plumb

tny own heart my nature, .my record. Infinitely guilty That iswhat I a1n far, Oh, ]10 ,,v far, below the 11lane of self-apology,or ghastly ''criticism'' of the Book which testifies to this. In- .finitely guilty That is what I am. Infinitely sinking, and,

~ng Bib]e Divine. I I


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Then the third and wl1at co111pletes the Triangle, an .d .makes its sides .eternally, divinely equal:-..:.-lnfinite tonement

........n Infinite Saviour God on the cross making answer toGod on the thrones -my Jesus my Refuge my ·EverlastingJel1ova ,h.

By tl1ese three Infinites especially this last, --this InfiniteAtonement, for which my whole being cries out its last cryof exhaustion by this third side of the stupendous Triangle. -the ,side whicl1, left t 10 my self, I cou .1d never mal


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•Testimony of the Scriptur,es to Themselves 47

of the Bible on its simple presenta ,tion is e11ough 10 damn a.nytnan, and, if persist ,ed in, will damn hi1n for ·

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'' A glory gilds , 'tl1e sacr ,ed ·pag ,e,

•· Majestic, like the sun;

It gives a light to every age ;•

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· It give ,s, bu 't borr ,ows none.'' , ..•

4. Glory · spreads ,over the face of the Scriptures, but thisglory, when · scr uti niz ,e.d closely, is seen to c.ontain c,ertain

. features and outlines testimonies i11side of itself, direct as

sertions, which conspire to illustr~te aga i11 ts hign Divinity,and to c.on irm i't ,s claim. - .

•This is our fourth point: Tr-1E SCRIPTURES SAY OF THEM-

S'ELVES THAT THEY ARE DI\ TINF,. They not o·nly ass ,uine 'i't ;,tlie,y say it. And thi s, ''Thus saith the Lord, , is intrinsi 1c a

- .Witness inside 0£ the witness, and 011e upon which some~ in ,g

~ore th ,an conviction coizfid,e,nce, or S,pirit ·-born, and savin ,gfaitli depends. ·The argument from the selfpassertion , of Scripture is

cum l e·a,ive .(I) Tl1te Bible cl aims tlzat, as a Book, it comes fro 1trt G od .

In va rious ·ways it u .rges this claim.One thing: it says so. ''God in old times spake by the

Prophets ; God now speaks by His Son.'' The question of In~spiration is, i,n its first sta ,tement, th 1e q,ue ,stion of Revelatio ,n•. .itself. If the Book be Divine, then what it says of itself isll 'ivine. The Scriptures are inspired because tl1ey say tl1ey

· are inspired. The question is simply one of Divine testimony,and our business is, as sin1p1y, o receive ,h ·at testimony. ''In

sp~ration is a s much an assertion,'' says Haldane,1

''a ,s is jt1sti-6eation by faith. Both stand and equally, on the authority ofScripture, which is as much an ultimate authority upon thisPoint as upon any other.'' When God speaks 1 and when Hesays, ''I speak ?'' there is the ,vhole of it. He is bound to beheard a11d obeyed. · .

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In the Bible God speaks, and spealcs not only by p·roxy.Leviticus i .s a Signal example of tl1is" Cha .pter af 'ter chapter

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of Leviticus begins : '' And tl1e Lord spake, say ·ing ;'' a·nd so itru11s on 'through the c .hapter. Moses i,s simply a. 1istener, ascribe. The self-announc ed Speaker is God

In the Bible God Himse lf com 1es down an ,d s.pealcs, not inthe Old Testament alone, an ·d not alone by proxy. '"The NewTest ·ament presents us," says Dean Burgon, ''with t l1e augt1st

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spec tacle of the Ancient of Days ho1ding th ,e entire volurne ofthe Old Testament Scriptures in His hands, and int 1erpreting it

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of Himse 'lf. He, t ·he Incarnate Word, who was in the begin-ning with God, and who was God tl1at same Almighty One isset f'orth in th 1e Gospels as hol 1ding the 'volume 1of the Book 1

in His hands, as , opening a11d u11folding it, and explaining iteverywhere of Hin1self .''

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Chris .t everywher 1e r ,eceive ·s the sc ·1·ipture, and sp,eaks Orf theScriptures, in their entirety the Law, the Prophets, , arid ~hePsalms, the who 11e Q ,] 1d Testament 1c.a11on as the living Oracleof God. He a 1ccept s and He endorses , everything written, a11d

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Testi2nony of t'he Scriptures to Themselves 49

Mosaic rites, the auth 1or ad ,ds, The Holy Ghost this signify

ing.'' Further on, and quoting .words of Jeremiah, he• •enfo ,rces . the ·rn. with tl1e rernark, 1''.T 'l1e Holy 1 Gho .st is witnes ·sto tts also.'' Tl1e imper .ia] argument on Psalm 95 , ]1e clencheswith the application, ''Wherefore, as the Holy GI1ost saith,Today if ye will hear His voice.'' Throughout the entireEpistle, whoever tilay have been the writer quoted £tom, theWords of the quotation are · ref e1·red to God. ·

(2) But now let us come close ·r, to th e very exact and catego1,.ical and · unequivocal assertion. If t.lie Scriptures as aBook are Divine, , then w·lia,t t.hey say 1of the~nselv ,es is Divine.w ·11at do they say?

In this i11quiry, let u s lceep our fingers on two words, andalways on two words, the apostolic keys to the whole Church

• •pos1t1on: ·''Gra .pl 1e'' wr ,i.ting, , w1 iting,

something baclc of the Writing ..hat was inspired.

th .e ·W1·iti11g- 11ot som 1bcidy,IThe Writing, ~'He Grapl1e;''

And what is meant by inspired? ''Theopneustos, God-breatl1 ,ed. . .

' 'God br1

eatl1e ,d I'' Tl1at sw1

eeps tl·1e wl10le ground.1

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od•comes do wn as a blast on tl1e pipes of an organ i11 voice likea whirlwind, or in still ,vhi spers like Aeolian tones, and saying the Word, I-le seiz 1es the haad, and makes that hand in

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Ii .is own the , pen of a most 1·eady wri ·ter. ,•

Pasa Graphe Theopneustos I ''All sacred writing.', More ·e:x:actly, 'Every sacred writing, e,rery mark on the parchn1ent,•is ''God-breathed, So says S,t. Paul. . · -

Pasa Grap he Theopne1.estos T11e sacred . assertio11 is not01f the i11strun1ent s,, b.ut of the Au .thor ; ·not of the ag 1ents, but ,of the product. It is the sole and sove1·eign vindication ofwhat has been left on th.e page wlien 1ispi1,ation gets through.''What is written,'' says Jesus, ' 1'how readest thou?'' i-1:an can

on]y read what i ,s written. · .

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Pasa Graphe The1

opneustos God in spires no ·t men, bu1~language. The p,11ta s,e,, ''in s·pire ·d m en , is 1 not fo ,und in theBible. The Scrip ture never employs it. The Scripture s ·ay ~that ''ho 1ly me ·n w,ere moved' pherotnenoi but that th 1ei:rwriting, . their manu scr ·ipt, what they put down and left on the

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page, w as 1God-breathed. You b,re a the upon a pane o f glas .s . .Your b 1reath · congeals there; f re ,ezes th ,ere; stays th .ere; fixesan ice -picture there. 'That is ·the notion. · The wr ·iting on th 1epage beneath the hand ,o.f P ',aul was just as mu~h br ,eathed 10n,breathed int o that p .age, as wa s His soul breathed into Adam.

\ The cl1ir ·o,grapl1 wa s Go ,d's 'i7nca ·rna ·te voice, as truly as theflesh of Jesus ,slee p ing 0 1n the ''pillow'' was incarnate God.

We take the grou n d that on tl ie o·riginal parclime11t the

membr ,ane eve1y sentence, word, line , mark, point, pen-stroke•jot, tittle wa s put t'he re by· God.On the origi1ial parchme1it. There i,s no question ,of other,

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ante .rior parc hment s .. · E ven were W ·e to indulge ·the violentextra ~Scriptura] noti on tha t M ,oses 01· Matthew transcribedf1·om mem o ry or fr om othe r book s the things tl1ey . have ·'teftus; stillt in .any, in e·very ca se, the S1election, t]1e expression ,the shapi ng and tu1·n 0 1f the phra se on t .he membrane was th ework of an una ided God. ·

But w h at? Le t u s have d one witl1 ex tra -Scriptural, presumptous , sup 1po sit ions .. The b ttrni:ng Isaia ·h, the ·perf ervid,wheel- gaz ing Eze k iel ; tl1e ard ent , S eraphic St. Paul, caughtup , up, up , up in to th iat Par adi s1 which h .e him self calls t.he

' ttl1ird l1eaven'' -w ,er e th ese m en only ' 'copyi sts, mere ,selfmo ,ved ''r eda ct ors ' ' ? I tro w n ot. T h eir pen s urge d , sway 1ed,

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. moved hither and thit l1er by the sweep of a heavenly curr 1ent,·stretched their f e·a~l1ered t .o,ps , lil{e that 1of Luke upon S t .Peter's dome , into th ,e far-o ff E mpy r ean, , winged f'ro 1.m thetl1rone .of God. .

We tak ,e the gr ,ot1nd that 011 the original par ch1nent . th lemembr a ne a ,ever y sentenc e, word, line, marl< , point , pe n-strokejot, 'tittle wa s pu t th ere by God ~ · .

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On t~e original Parcliment Men n1ay destroy tl1at parch-me ,nt. Time may destroy it. To say that th .e membranes ha ·vesuffered in the hands of men, is 'but to say that everythingDivine must suffer, as the pattern Tabernacle stiffered, when

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Committed to o ,ur hands .. To say, ho vcve1·, 'that the writinghas suffere ,d the wor ·ds and letter s is to say tha t Jehovalih.as f aile 1d.. · ·

. The writing . remains, . Lil


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they themse1ves being only recipien ·t, only concurre n t with

God, as God moved upon them. . \Some 1of the speakers of the Bible, as Balaam, tl1e Old•

Prophet o ,f Bethe], Caiaphas ,, are seized and 1nade to speak inspite of thems~]ves; ar:id, with the greatest reluctance, to ut ·terwh .at is farthest fr ,om tl1eir minds and h.earts. Other .s infact all are purblind to the very oracles, , in st ructi .ons, vi:sions,they announce. ''Searching what, , or what manner of ' time,the Spirit of ,Christ which was in tl1em did signi fy 1'' i. e.', th ,eprophets th 1em ,se.lves did not kn .ow wl1at tl1,ey wrot ·e. Whatpictu ·r ,e can be more impres ive than tl1at of the prop 1he :t himse lf hanging over and c,ontemplating in surprise ., in wonder, inamaz eme nt , his own autograp 1l1 as if . it had be 1en left uponth e table there = the re ·tict of some st1·ange and s;uper11atural

l1and? How .do1

es , that pict ur e lift away th ,e Bible f·ro1n ,allhuman hands and place it back, .as His or ·igi11 l deposi t , int l1e hands of .God.

Again ; it is .said that ''the Word of the Lor ,d came'' tos11ch an ,d su .cl, a writer. It . is not sa id that the . Spirit came, .,,1hich is true . but that the W ·ord itself cam 1e, the Daba ·r-J ho ·vah. , And it is said: H ay ,o Haya Dabar, . that it .sub- .stantially came, es sen ti a lly catne; ''essendo fuit'' so say Pag~n inus, Montanus ., Polantts i . e., it came germ, s,ee.d .and huskand blossom in its total ity . 1.vo,rds wl1ich tl1e Holy Gl1ostteacheth the ''word ,s.'' '

Again; it is denied, and most emphatically, that the w 1ords,a.re the w,ords of the ma ,n of the ag 1ent. '''The word was i11my tongue''. St. Paul asserts that ''Ch~ist spake in him'' 1(2Cor. 13 :3). ''Who hath n1ade man's mouth? Have not I·,the Lord? I will put My wo 1rd s into thy mo uth.'' T .l1at looksvery much li.ke w 'hat has ·been stigmatized as th·e ''mechanicalthe ·ory.'' It surely makes tl1e writer a mere organ, altl1oughnot an unconscious, or unwilling , uns ·ponta11eous or 'gan. Could.

language more p1

lainly as1

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Testi m ony of the S crip h tr es to T h en1sel v es 53

In the li.ne with the fact, again it is said that the word came

to the writers without any study- suddenly -as to Amoswhere he is taken from following the flock.

Again; when the word thus came to the prophets they h dnot the power to cottceal it. It was like a fire in their boneswhich must speak or write, as Jeren1iah says, or consume its

·human receptacle.And to make this n1ore clear, it is said that holy n1en were

pheromenoi, moved, or rather carr ied along in a supernatural ecstatic current-a delectatio scribendi. They werenot left one instant to their wit, wisdom, fancies, memories,or judgn1ents either to order, or . arrange, or dispose, or writeout. They were only reporters, intelligent, conscious, passive,plastic, docile, exact, and accurate reporters. They were like

men who wrote with different kinds of ink. They coloredtheir work with tints of their own personality, or rather Godcolored it, having made the writer as the writing, and thewriter for that special writing; and because the work ranthrough them just as the same water, running through glasstubes, yellow, green, red, violet, will be yellow, violet andgreen, and red.

God wrote the Bible, the whole Bible, and the Bible as awhole. He wrote each word of it as trul y a s He wrote theDecalo g ue on the tables of ston e.

Hi gher criticism tells u s- the New Departure tells usthat Mo ses was inspired, but the Decalogue not. But Exodusand Deuteronomy seven times over declare that God stretcheddown the tip of His finger from heaven and left the 1narks,the gravements, the cut characters, the scratches on the stones.(Ex. 24 :12.) I will give thee tables of stone, commandments, which I have written (Ex. 31 :18). And He gaveunto Mo ses, upo ·n Mount Sinai, two tables of testimony, tablesof stone iuritten with the finger of God (Ex. 32 :16). Thetables ~vere the work of God and the writing was the writing

of God, gra ve n u po n the table s. ( Deut. 4 :12). The Lord


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54 The Fundamentals , •••

spa ke unto you ou·t of the midst of tl1e fire, and He declaredunto ,y 1ou His covenant, 1even ten commandments and He wrote

tlieni upon two tabl 1es 0 1£ stone'' ( De ,ut. 5 :22). ''These words'the Lord .spake, and He wrote them in two tables of sto ne, anddelivered them unto me'' (Deut. 9 1 :10). ''And the Lo ,rd de-livered unto me two tables of stone written with the finger ofGod ~ .

Seven times, and to 1nen to whom writing is instinct; to

beings who are mo st of all impres sed, not by vagµe vanishingvoices, but by words arrested, fixed, set down ; and .who tl1em-S1lves cannot resist the impuls 11 to commit . theit ' own wo 1ds 1 o,some written deposit,. even of stone, or of bark, if they havenot the paper; seven times, to men, to whom writing is instinctand who are inclined to r 1ely for their highest convi 1ct ,jon O'nwhat t11ey hav ,e sty ,ted ''docu1nentary evidence, i. e., on books;God comes in an ,d declares, ''I l1ave written'

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Th ,e Scriptures, whetI1er Wit 'h the ht11nan instrument or .withottt the human instrument, with Moses or without Moses,were written by God . When God had finished, Moses hadnothing else to do but carry down God's autograph. That isour doctrine. Th 1e Scriptitres if t 1en words, then a ·II the words

~ if the law, then the Gospels the writing, the writings; He .Grap he Hai Graphai ex pressions repeated . more than .fiftytimes in the New Tes ta ment a lone this, these were inspired.

Brethren, the danger of our present day the ''down .grade'' as it has be ,en ca.lle 1d, of 1doctrine ,, o·f co 1nvi 1ction, of themoral sentiment a decline niore constantly patent, as it ismore blatantly proclaimed does it not find its fir st step in our101t hold upon th le v~ry in s,pirat iio,n 01 th 1e Word 0 1 Glod ?1

D'oes not a fre s11 conviction here lie at the root of everyremedy which we desire, as its s,ad lac ·k lies at the r 1oot ofevery ruin we dep 1lore?

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Documents

The Fundamentals: Volume 7, Chapter 3: The Testimony of the Scriptures to Themselves