06.0.3. A Foreword

A Foreword

Primers of the Faith, as the title indicates, are written not for scholars but for what Abraham Lincoln had used to call the “plain people,” the average layman. They are intended to help Sunday School teachers, Y.M.C.A. and Y.W.C.A. workers, and students of the grade found in such Bible institutes as that with which the author is connected. Some of these will wish to pursue their inquiries further, but for the great majority this is not likely to be true. It is the need of this majority that will be especially kept in view.

We have a book called the Bible, for which the claim is made that it is a revelation from God. We want to know how it came into our possession; also whether its statements of fact and truth are to be relied upon; and finally, if they are to be re­lied upon we need to inquire into their source and the influence they should exert upon our daily con­duct and our hope for the life to come. The first of these inquiries will be considered in Part I (page 1) under the general title, “How We Know the Bible is Genuine.” The second in Part II (page 177), under the title, “How We Know the Bible is Cred­ible.” And the last, in Part III (page 277), “How We Know the Bible is Divine.” The author prepared an earlier work on this same general subject entitled, The Bulwarks of the Faith; but discoveries have been made in various branches of study and research which make it desirable to deal with it anew, and in more detail than was contemplated then. References may be made to that work and quotations taken from it from time to time, but otherwise the con­tents of the “Primers of the Faith” will be new.

Let us pray for the blessing of God to accom­pany our study together for the strengthening of our faith and our better equipment as his servants in dealing with honest inquirers after truth.

James M. Gray
The Moody Bible Institute, Chicago