Authenticity of the Bible by L. L. CAVINESS

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D.C. · Jul 23, 1914

Authenticity of the Bible

By L. L. CAVINESS

L. L. CAVINESS

These are days of skepticism and infidelity; and it is well for us from time to time to consider the reliability of the hope which in us lies. The greatest proof of Christianity and of the Bible is the transformation which is wrought in the lives of those who receive and believe it; yet it may be interesting and helpful to consider some of the many other proofs.

William E. Gladstone, one of England's greatest statesmen, in speaking of the books of the Pentateuch, said:—

“The main facts of history they contain have received strong confirmation from Egyptian and Eastern research.”—The Impregnable Rock of Holy Scripture, London, Wm. Isbister, 1890, pages 14, 15.

Not only in the facts themselves, but even in the manner of telling them, there is proof of the authenticity of the Bible.

“There is another evidence of its veracity, and it is this: In other histories we see the great tendency to hero worship. The historian has some favorite character. He wants to show what a grand man that was. The Bible never wants to show what a grand man anybody was. There is no hero worship in the Bible.”—Adolph Saphir, The Divine Unity of Scripture, London, Hodder and Stoughton, 1894, page 214.

One of the most common attacks on the Scriptures is on the Mosaic authorship of the Pentateuch, although “the unanimous tradition of the Jews ascribes the Pentateuch to Moses, and among Christians the Mosaic authorship was not called into question until a comparatively recent period. The evidence of the genuineness of the Pentateuch rests on direct testimony. If it had perished, most of its ordinances could have been gathered from the later books of the Bible; and the chain of evidence is completed by the testimony of Christ and his apostles, who without hesitation ascribe the composition of the Pentateuch to Moses.”—Walter A. Copinger, The Bible and Its Transmission, Henry Sotheran and Company, London, 1897, page 10.

The historical faithfulness is not found alone in the writings of Moses, but is present throughout the entire Bible.

“Here is a book which, unlike any other contemporary history, records the sins of rulers and people, the divine condemnations and punishments visited upon them for their sins, their numerous defeats at the hands of their enemies, faithfully preserved by this people, though it is historically a fraud [the critics tell us] from beginning to end. You ask me to believe the monstrous, the impossible. That is not all, this fraudulent compilation of writings [as they call it] claims from the beginning to the end to be from God. It is always saying, ‘Thus saith the Lord.’ It also teaches the most perfect morality that the world ever received. Its doctrine of the Godhead is the sublimest ever taught to man: he is eternal, all-seeing, everywhere present, all-powerful, just, holy, true, merciful, long-suffering, and tender in mercy. The most ancient of these writings, even according to the critics, are filled with these sublime teachings. What wonderful teachers were Amos, Micah, Hosea, Joel, Isaiah! Yet we are told that more than two hundred and fifty years after their times a wily priest reversed Israel's history, and made that first which was last, and that which begun in the spiritual end in the merely ritual, and overslaughed the great teachings of the prophets with the ritualism of the Levitical system.”—T. McK. Stuart, Divine Inspiration Versus Higher Criticism, Jennings and Graham, Cincinnati, pages 70, 71.

John Stuart Mill says:—

“It is of no use to say that Christ, as exhibited in the Gospels, is not historical. Who among his disciples or among their proselytes was capable of inventing the sayings ascribed to Jesus, or of imagining the life and character revealed in the Gospels? Certainly not the fishermen of Galilee; as certainly not St. Paul.”—Essays, page 233; quoted in The Bible, Its Origin and Nature, Marcus Dods, D. D., Scribner's Sons, New York, 1905, page 208.

In concluding this article, two short quotations from that well-known anti-infidel writer, H. L. Hastings, are given:—

“I do not believe that a good man lies; and I do not believe that a man who lies is a good man. Perhaps you do; but if so, you were brought up in a different way from that in which my father brought me up. So I do not believe that a book packed with lies from one end to the other is a good book; and I do not want any one to come and tell me that Jesus Christ was a good man, and the Bible a good book, but that neither of them tells the truth. I join issue there. This book is what it professes to be, or it is a swindle; Jesus of Nazareth was what he professed to be, or he was an impostor. . . .”

“The Bible is a book which has been refuted, demolished, overthrown, and exploded more times than any other book you ever heard of. Every little while somebody starts up and upsets this book; and it is like upsetting a solid cube of granite. It is just as big one way as the other; and when you have upset it, it is right side up; and when you overturn it again, it is right side up still. Every little while somebody blows up the Bible; but when it comes down, it always lights on its feet, and runs faster than ever through the world. They overthrew the Bible a century ago, in Voltaire's time—entirely demolished the whole thing. ‘In less than a hundred years,’ said Voltaire, ‘Christianity will have been swept from existence, and will have passed into history.’ Infidelity ran riot through France, red-handed and impious. France still feels the curse and blight of its influence. The century has passed away. Voltaire has ‘passed into history,’ and not very respectable history either; few infidels would care to read publicly Voltaire's biography as written by a fellow infidel; but the Word of God ‘liveth and abideth forever.’”—Will the Old Book Stand? pages 4, 5.