WTY-3 The Religious Need of the Bible

CHAPTER III THE RELIGIOUS NEED OF THE BIBLE

Though it is conceded by many that the Bible is in many respects a good book, it is not so readily granted that it is indispensably necessary—not even for religion. It is positively affirmed that there is but one revela­tion—the Book of Nature; that this revelation is sufficient, that its teach­ings are clear and ample, and that man needs no more.

Now what are the facts? Could man really dispense with the Bible? Would he without it come to any ade­quate conception of God, of the world, or of himself? The Attainable Knowledge

Nature is unquestionably a book which, if read with an understanding eye, will afford much instruction. Coming from the hand of God, it must everywhere reveal glimpses of His glory. Therefore men are admonished to investigate nature, “to seek God, if haply they might feel after Him and find Him" (Acts 17:27). The apostle to the Gentiles declares that “the in­visible things of Him since the crea­tion of the world are clearly seen, being perceived through the things that are made, even His everlasting power and divinity; that they might be without excuse; because that, knowing God, they glorified Him not as God, neither gave thanks” (Romans 1:20-21).

We may, through a rational con­templation of the works of nature, arrive at the knowledge of the exist­ence of God, a knowledge so complete that it deprives of all exculpation those who reject it. Furthermore, as to moral and religious knowledge, man through ra­tional contemplation is able to recog­nize himself as a dependent creature and to realize that it behooves him to worship God; which is abundantly demonstrated by the various forms of religion, however imperfect, of all heathen nations. In addition, man will find that he is falling far short of what he ought to be, the law in his heart bearing witness and accusing him, in consequence of which a cer­tain “fear of death” will take hold of him, and his life will be a life “subject to bondage” (Hebrews 2:15). The Unattainable Knowledge

Although there is a natural knowl­edge of God, which we arrive at through an intelligent investigation of nature, this knowledge is little more than an obscure presentiment. Being fully persuaded that there is a God, we would from nature learn little about this God. His essence would forever be hidden from our cognition. The June morning brim­ful of gladness, with the meadows glistening with the dew-drops of the morning, might tell us that God is loving and good. But what about the dark December night, when ships go down at sea? What about the hur­ricane that destroys and shatters? What about the Galveston flood? The Messina earthquake? The late world war? As nature leaves us entirely in the dark regarding God’s nature and es­sence, so it leaves us altogether at sea respecting God’s will toward us. Knowing instinctively that we ought to serve and worship Him, the harass­ing question would forever be: “How must I worship Him?” And in all eternity reason and nature would furnish no answer. Whence would we derive any information, for ex­ample, concerning the introduction of sin, the gift of the Savior, the doctrine of atonement by His death, the de­scent and work of the Holy Spirit, the provision and ordinances of the Gos­pel? Nature is dumb as to all these things. Nor can reason, without the aid of revelation, solve the enigma of our own existence. It is bold enough to allege that it can, but the history of philosophy gives it the lie. This science has ever desired, without the aid of revelation, to solve the ques­tions: “What am I?” “Whence am I?” “What am I here for?” “Whither am I and the world tending?” Till this day, in spite of all the labor ex­pended, no satisfactory answer has been supplied. Here is clearly ful­filled what the Scripture says: “The natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him; and he cannot know them, because they are spirit­ually judged” (1 Corinthians 2:14).

Perversions of the Heathen

Let us turn to the races of antiq­uity, destitute of a special revelation. Let us see where reason, apart from revelation, led. Let us look at the religions of the nations. Are they not a miserable compound of absurd­ity, superstition and corruption? Let us consider their divinities. Are they not, for the most part, monsters of wickedness, vindictive and sanguin­ary, jealous, wrathful, cruel, and obscene? The reason of the heathen world never attained to the simplest truth of all, namely, that God is and can be only One. It will not do to point to India. Its monotheism was attained only by the surrender of the living character and personality of God, and so was essentially pantheistic.

Again, reason left to itself never arrived at those other fundamental truths, that God is and must be ab­solutely good and holy. The divinities of the heathen, being the creations of their fancy, were subject to all the temptations and passions of man, and were without number. Every phase of nature, sky, sea and earth, every phase of human life, its habits, acci­dents, and impulses, was in time pro­vided with a special guardian and controlling deity. As no people can be expected to be better than their gods, the moral life of the heathen was and is miserably defective. They, having changed the glory of the incorruptible God for the likeness of an image of corruptible man, and of birds, and four-footed beasts, and creeping things, God gave them up in the lusts of their hearts unto uncleanness. Their sensuous hearts were darkened. They wal­lowed in vice. They became so per­verted as to think it an acceptable form of worship for virgins in the very temples of their gods to sur­render their virtue! Ponder over the fearful description of heathen vices in Romans 1:21-32.

Regarding the conception of the right worship of God, we find that the ignorance and perversion is indescrib­able. One heathen aims at deliver­ance from sin by means of a bath; another thinks to purify his heart by the use of an emetic (North Ameri­can Indian); a third sets prayer-mills in motion; a fourth pours out libations of wine or tea; again, another offers his darling child as the most accept­ able sacrifice. In consequence of the labors of missionaries this subject is from year to year better understood. Not a missionary journal or paper is published, touching the religious rites of the heathen nations, which is not a standing testimony of their need of a revelation from heaven.

Confessions of the Heathen That nature and reason and con­science are not sufficient sources of knowledge is apparent from the con­fessions of many a heathen philoso­pher. Plato complains that it is hard to find the Father of the universe. Socrates, though deeming it the greatest happiness for man to know the will of the gods, nevertheless de­spairs of its ever being discovered. A. prayer in Aeschylus reads: “Zeus, whoever thou art, and by whatever name it please thee to be named, I call on thee and pray.”

Sextus Empiricus declares nothing to be more certain than the uncer­tainty of everything, including the existence of the gods. Some of the impressive songs of the Indian Rigveda have the ever-recurring refrain, “Who is the God to whom our gifts belong?”

Everywhere we find established what the ancient Greek poet says: “Except the gods themselves to thee unveil,—search as thou wilt the world, thou seek’st in vain!” Consider the altar at Athens, dedicated “To an Unknown God” (Acts 17:23). But even if the heathen philosopher might in some measure recognize the will of the gods, whence would he de­rive the power to put it into practice? Lacking the efficacious influence of the gospel to restrain and curb and subdue the power of sin, his actions always fall short of his knowledge. Says Marcus Aurelius: “I should have lived better than I have done, had I always followed the monitions of the gods!”

Thus it has always been in the case of everyone who has rejected the aid of revealed religion in his moral con­flicts. No one has been able to get beyond a feeling of guilt, which, in consequence of the contradiction ex­isting between our knowledge and our actions, is ever asserting itself. Even so free-thinking a theologian as Dr. Schwartz of Gotha allows this: “Oh, do not tell me that to act up­rightly, and to do one’s duty, and to have a good conscience, is sufficient. I ask you, ye virtuous ones, who among us does his duty and has good conscience in the highest sense of the word? Not one among us all. We all are and remain striving and strug­gling ones, who in manifold ways err, and stumble, and fall short.” The Bible Indispensable

Now let us condense and summar­ize what we have found. Our invest­igation proved that though reason and nature supply us with many a valuable hint as to God and the world and our religious life, they are ab­solutely inadequate to satisfy our spiritual need. They leave us ignor­ant of many a subject most essential to our spiritual happiness in this world and the next. They do not afford the strength necessary to resist the evil and to perform the good.

It follows, therefore, that the Scrip­ture is right in denying to the natural man the power to perceive the things of the Spirit of God, and in demand­ing that he must be born again, “not of corruptible seed, but of incorrupt­ible, through the word of God, which liveth and abideth forever” (1 Peter 1:13). Says John: “No man hath seen God at any time; the only be­gotten Son, who is in the bosom of the Father, He hath declared Him!”

He who rejects this eternal truth will forever remain in ignorance and grope in darkness. In confirmation of the statement let me conclude with the testimony of a man who is noted as a great opponent of all revelation. Revising his opinion, Fichte declares: “A higher Being undertook the charge of the first members of our race, just as an old and venerable document, containing the deepest and sublimest truths, represents Him to have done; and to this testimony all philosophy must in the end revert.”