02.02. THE BIBLE - 02 - Why Do We Accept the Bible's Claim?

THE BIBLE – 02 - Why Do We Accept the Bible’s Claim?

It would need a volume to give a moderate outline of the many sound reasons which Christians give for their belief in the Bible as the Word of God. We have only room for a few headings. 1. The marvelous unity and harmony of the Bible, written by between thirty and forty men at intervals during a period of over fifteen centuries, witness to its divine origin. There is unity of purpose, to teach men God’s will and to help them to do it. There is unity in its treatment of sin and its cure. From the beginning to end we have the Savior. The seed of the woman of Genesis 3:1-24 appears in Revelation as the Lamb who redeemed. 2. The effect of the Bible on the lives of men proves its claim. Where the Bible is believed and taken as guide, there always men are elevated. As we see its results, we "cannot believe that such traits are wrought into human character by the belief of a book whose writers are impostors, and whose distinctive claim for itself is a falsehood"; ’the belief of a falsehood is injurious to men, while the belief of truth alone is truly and permanently beneficial." If so, the Bible justifies itself. 3. The superior morality of the Bible is only explicable on our acceptance of its claims. We have not got beyond the morality of the Bible. The best laws of civilised lands are framed according to its precepts. The Sermon on the Mount is unapproached and unapproachable in outside literature. Worldlings have as their chief objection, not that the Bible is not the best of books, but that Christians do not live up to the teaching of the Bible. 4. The Bible revelation of God is such that when we compare it with the theology of other books and systems, we are convinced of its transcendent excellence. There is no reason to believe that the actual men who wrote the Bible were geniuses, ahead of the best of the Greeks and Romans. Their purer theology is due to the fact that the Spirit of God directed them. 5. The character of Christ revealed in the New Testament could not possibly be the invention of men. The purity of that life is such, the delineation of the model character is so perfect, that we are compelled to believe that the writers drew from a holy original. Thus we pass to a belief in Jesus, and thence to a belief in his divine claims and the Scriptures he endorsed. 6. The Bible is adapted to man’s needs. It meets his wants; it satisfies his longings. Coleridge said he knew the Bible was inspired because it found him at greater depths of his being than did any other book. The Bible is its own witness. As we read it, we feel the truthfulness of its narrative, the honesty of its writers. The Bible, we have to acknowledge, knows the heart of man. 7. We can test the Bible by its fulfilled prophecies. Some of these we have in process of fulfilment. Read what the Bible says of the Jews and their separation, then lift up your eyes and look. The Jew is a living miracle. Read Isaiah 53:1-12 (certainly written centuries before Jesus came); we cannot believe that the prophecy and its fulfilment were in any way arranged by man. The prophecy and the claims of Jesus are both attested. 8. In various ways the Bible has been tested. It has withstood the assaults of the centuries. It has endured the keenest scrutiny, the test of history, geography, philosophy, science. Archaeology to-day proves the accuracy of its statements. Had the Bible been a human book, it must have been discarded. Instead, no book approaches it in living interest. It is circulated in more lands to-day than ever before; it is believed in by more people than ever before; more copies of it are being printed than ever. Why? There is one answer which is adequate: it is the word of God which liveth and abideth for ever (1 Peter 1:25).