The Genuineness and Credibility of Our English Bible

The Genuineness and Credibility of Our English Bible THE GENUINENESS AND CREDIBILITY OF OUR ENGLISH BIBLE
CLARENCE C. MORGAN

Introduction:
RECENTLY I RECEIVED from the “American Association For the Advancement Of Atheism” a large package of tracts, pamphlets, and leaflets, all of which contained venomous attacks upon the genuineness and credibility of the Bible. In the package was also a catalogue of some 2,000 books of like character. The 4A, as it is generally called, is the largest organization of its kind in the world; having branch organizations in every nation and in many institutions of higher education in our own country. Mr. Charles Smith, President of the 4A, has published and distributed millions of copies of a tract entitled, “The Bible In The Balance,” in which he sets forth many alleged errors and contradictions of the Bible and which are very representative of all Bible critics. Following I quote from his opening and closing remarks. “To a candid world, we submit this document. If it is true the church ought to go out of business. If the clergy can disprove it, we shall cease attacking the Bible. This folder indicts the Bible as inauthentic, incredible and immoral, supporting each charge with evidence. Refute it, Christians, if you can, or confess that your religion is false. * * * A single error refutes the dogma of infallibility. We have proved that the Bible abounds with contradictions and falsehoods, and is immoral. * * The Bible is the greatest hoax in all history, * * * If bad books are burned, the largest bonfires should consist of Bibles.” In his denunciation of the Bible our critic says, “ A single error refutes the dogma of infallibility.” I will grant the truthfulness of this statement, and also affirm that the same rule apply to his alleged discrepencies of the Bible. If we can prove the unreliability of one or more of the critic’s charges, then, by his own rule of reasoning, their whole structure of criticism falls to pieces. The very existence of the Bible demands an explanation of its authorship, as to which there are only two contentions, its friends claim Divine authorship while its enemies proclaim it the spurious work of man.

PROPOSITION: “The Genuineness and Credibility of Our English Bible."

There are many reasons why I believe in the genuineness and credibility of the Bible, but the brief time alloted for this address will not permit even the mentioning of them all, neither an exhaustive study of any of them, but we shall refute the critics charges and produce enough positive evidence to prove to any honest man of normal intelligence, that the Bible is the inspired and infallible record of living God and not the “spurious work of man.”

I. PECULIARITIES.
“Peculiar” means diverse from, entirely and altogether different. The fact that in many ways the Bible is peculiar to all other books in the world is evidence of its genuineness and credibility. The Bible is peculiar to all other books, in that it is the only book dealing with life, past, present and future. It begins with eternity, covers all of time and ends with eternity. It begins with chaos and ends in perfection. It begins in a.beautiful garden and ends in a beautiful city. It begins with the introduction of life and ends with per* petuation of life. It begins with the introduction of sin and ends with the destruction of sin. It begins with the only satisfactory explanation of whence came man and ends with the only satisfactory explanation of whither man is bound.

II. UNITY.
The wonderful unity of the Bible constitutes one of the very strongest bits of evidence extant, concerning its genuineness and credibility. The writing of the Bible covers a period of about sixteen hundred years. It was written, primarily, in two languages, on three continents and by about forty different men, men from all walks of life, some learned and some unlearned; there were lawyers, doctors, farmers, fishermen, capitalists, paupers, kings and sheep-herders, and yet, with all this diversity of time, place, language and people, there is not a single error or contradiction in it. Every single statement of a scientific, historical or prophetic nature, agrees perfectly with known facts. In spite of all these seeming handicaps in its preparation, its unity is so wonderfully perfect, that every reasonable doubt as to its genuineness and credibility is completely eliminated.

Here we pause to give attention to the critic’s allegations to the contrary. They disclaim the unity of the Bible, alleging that it abounds with contradictions and offer as proof, First; Creation. They claim the two accounts of creation, as recorded in the first two chapters of Genesis are contradictory. To this alleged contradiction, I reply; There is not a single contradictory statement in the two accounts. Chapter One and the first three verses of chapter two, give a brief outline of the order of creation by days, and chapter two, beginning with verse four, gives1 more in detail how creation was accomplished. In other words, Genesis One is the “what” chapter of creation and Genesis Second chapter beginning with the fourth verse, is the “how” chapter, but there is no contradiction, because no statement of fact conflicts with the other.

Second; Animals in the Ark. Another alleged contradiction is in regard to the animals take into the Ark. The critics claim that in one place the Bible says God told Noah to take two of every kind of animals into the ark and in another place he told him to take seven. An examination of the record leaves the critic suspended by the brittle cord of ignorance. In “one place,” Genesis 6:19, God gave a general order effecting all creation, and in “another place,” Genesis 7:2, he simply clarifies his general instruction by specifying that of the unclean beasts there was to be only two of each kind, one male and one female; and of the clean beasts and birds there was to be fourteen of each kind, seven males and seven females. What God wanted in the Ark was clearly stated and easily understood, and no Bible critic can state the proposition in more understandable language than the Bible records. And so, we might consider each of the alleged 2000 contradictions of the Bible, as Bible scholars have done, and without a single exception, the allegations will be found to be false.

III. HISTORICAL:
The genuineness and credibility of the Bible is stronglj' evidenced by its historical perfection. No world history has ever been compiled by mortal man, but that, sooner or later, it had to be revised and changed because of the discovery of new facts. But not so with the Bible. While the Bible is not, primarily an historical book, yet it contains more and older history of the human race that all other histories of the world combined, but not one word or statement has ever had to be changed in order to conform to newly discovered facts. Of course, I know the Bible critics deny these statements and stoutly affirm that the Bible contains hundreds of errors and false statements. An examination of a few of their alleged errors will serve to discredit all of their diabolical allegations.

First: They charge that the “entire story of the flood is nohing but an old Babylonian Myth.” To the contrary, theirs is an old worn out theory, for most of the world greatest scientists have long since accepted the Bible record as necessarily true. Dr. George Frederick Wright, one of the world’s most noted geologists, says that, “In no other way can we account for the presence of the bones of the plains country, marsh land and sea life in the caves and crevices of the highest mountains of Europe and Asia.” “Hundreds of thousands of tons of such bones have been found in caves and crevices, high in the mountains of all lands indicating that at some time in the earth’s history, there was a great exodus of low land life to the mountain tops, what else but a flood of waters could have driven them hence?” Let the critics answer.

Second: Four Kings of Genesis 14. Four Kings of Genesis 14. The older writings of the Bible critics reveal their claims that the four Eastern Kings mentioned in Genesis 14 were mythical characters. But now, that through archeological and other scientific research, with but one exception, these kings have been identified and recognized by world historians and that Amraphel, one of these four kings, has been definitely identified as none other than the great Hammurabi of ancient Babylon, whose code of civil laws antedates the Ten Commandments by centuries, they have ceased their prating about this “Bible error” and have withdrawn from the market and revised all books and liters* ture containing the allegation.

Third: “Egyptian Bondage a Jewish Fable.” Again, our critics used to say, “The Jews never were in Egyptian bondage, history does not record it.” This allegation of error has also been withdrawn from their literature, because the Bible record has been confirmed by the finding of the Egyptian store city of Pithom in the land of Goshen, with its buildings constructed of brick, the lower stratas of which were of brick made clay and good straw and the upper of brick made with clay, stubble and reeds. So, again, history is changed, but the Bible still stands.

Fourth: “Sargon, the creation of a mad man ” The Bible critics used to scoff at Isaiah 20 :, when they could not find in secular history, “Sargon,” the Assyrian King mentioned by the prophet of God, and said he was only “the creation of a mad man, who thought he was inspired.” But again their vile prating ceased, when a few years ago the excavators at work in Mlesopotamia, uncovered the ruins of a great temple, the building and ground of which covered twenty-five acres, and to their amazement, they found that they had uncovered the ruins of the temple of King Sargon, mentioned by the prophet.

Again the critics were compelled to admit that the Bible record was true and they were the ones in error, and so would end the study of every alleged error in the Bible.

IV. TEST OF THE AGES.
The fact that the Bible has withstood every test of all ages is evidence of its genuineness and credibility.

First: Skepticism. The Bible has stood the test of skepticism. Every color and hue of skepticism, represented my some of the brainiest men of all time, has attacked the Bible from every conceivable angle, but to no avail; it has stood the test of the onslaught.

Second: Honest Genius and Intellectuality. The history of man is a history of progress. It matters not into what realm of human activity we delve, we discover one glaring truth, that man has never produced anything which could not be duplicated or improved upon by some other man. But not so with the Bible. Man has written more than two thousand volumes in contradiction and condemnation of the Bible, and the Bible still excels and outweighs them all, but let man produce one volume that surpasses or even equals the Bible and the influence of the Bible will vanish in a decade.

Third: Astronomy. The Bible has stood the test of Astronomy, for as the so-called wise men of the earth were teaching that the world was flat and rested upon some super foundation the man of God was saying, “He hangeth the earth upon nothing.”

Fourth: Geology. The Bible has stood the test of Geology, for while man, in his wisdom, was trying to discredit the Bible story of creation, the science of Geology was piercing the bowels of the earth to discover that the facts revealed do but confirm the Bible order of creation. The Bible says the first life on the earth was plant life and the last thing created was man, and between these were fish, bird, and animal life respectively, and to this order, from the various stratas of the earth, geology answers, so it was, so it was.

Thus we see that,
"The heavens declare the glory of God;
And the firmament showeth his handiwork.
Day unto day uttereth speech,
And night unto night showeth knowledge." Psalms 19:1-2.

While we are meditating upon the failure of the skeptics to discredit the Bible, I am reminded of this little poem.
Hast eve I passed the blacksmiths door,
And heard the anvil ring the vesper chimes;
And gazing in, I saw upon the floor,
Old hammers, worn with beating years of time.
How many anvils have you had? said I,
To wear and batter all the hammers so,
Just one, said he, with a twinkling eye The anvil wears the hammers out, you know.
And so though I, the anvil of God’s word,
For ages skeptic blows have beat upon,
And though the sound of falling blows was heard,
The anvil is unworn, the hammers gone.

Yes, the Bible has withstood the test of the ages and it will continue to stand until time shall be no more.

V. CONTRARY TO HUMAN NATURE.
That the Bible is the word of God and not the work of man is evidenced by the fact that it is contrary* to human nature. Had the Bible been the work of man, many of its teachings would have been left out, because they are contrary to human nature. Where is the man, or when did he live, and who was he, who, if he were writing the Bible would say, “Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself,” or "Love your enemies and pray for them that persecute you and despitefully use you?”

VI. OFFERS THE ONLY HOPE.
The fact that the Bible is the only book in the world that offers man any hope beyond this life is evidence of its genuineness and credibility.

There has never been found on the face of the earth a race or tribe of people, where there was not also found evidence of their faith in a supreme being and in life after death. Call this universal characteristic of man instinct, intuition or what you may, I call it God,—God living in the soul of man, the zenith of his creative power. The Bible is the only book, revealing to man the object of his deepest yearnings and telling him that "God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, that whoever believeth on him should not perish but have everlasting life.” The Bible is the only book that says, “Let not your heart be troubled, ye believe in God, believe also in me: in my Father’s house are many mansions, if it were not so I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you, and if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you unto myself, that where I am there ye may be also.”

"Holy Bible, Book divine,
Precious treasure, thou art mine;
Mine to tell me whence I came,
Mine to teach me what I am.
Mine to chide me when I rove,
Mine to show a Savior’s love;
Mine thou art to guide and guard;
Mine to punish or reward.
Mine to tell of joys to come,
And the rebel sinner’s doom.
O thou holy book divine,
Precious teasure, thou art mine.
Anon