Inspiration of the Scriptures

The Bible—Its Unity
If a friend handed to us a ponderous volume consisting of sixty-six books, written by thirty or forty persons, and at different times extending over fifteen hundred years, would we not be astonished? Notwithstanding all their differences, there is a remarkable unity throughout. As a matter of fact, there is no book like the Bible in this respect, nor could there be, unless all the writings it contained had been under the guidance of One mind, and its communications throughout given by the One Spirit.
One thing which would be likely to strike some persons in considering the principle of unity in a book would be to compare the end with the beginning and see if there were any connection as to similarity or contrast. In the Bible it is written, "Known unto God are all His works from the beginning of the world." Acts 15:18. Let us examine a few scriptures as to this.
The first words we find in the Bible are, "In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth." As a matter of fact, much of the Bible is about God's heavenly and earthly people. It also concerns things in connection with the present heaven and earth, and in the end of the Book we read of "a new heaven and a new earth." (Gen. 1:1; Rev. 21:1.) In the beginning of the Book it is said, "Let there be light: and there was light." Afterward we are told that Christ is "the light of the world" and in the end of the Book we read that "the Lamb is the light thereof.” In the beginning, we read of a tree of life in the Garden of Eden, from which man was afterward excluded through his sin. In the end we find "the tree of life, which bare twelve manner of fruits," and are taught that the faithful will "eat of the tree of life, which is in the midst of the paradise of God." (Gen. 2:9; Rev. 22:2; 2:7.)