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Bible Infallibility

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Review and Herald Publishing Association · Washington, D.C. · Dec 14, 1905

FromReview and Herald, Vol. 82, No. 50.

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Bible Infallibility

By L. A. S.

THERE is a vast difference between the position of those who accept the Bible as wholly the word of God, and that of those who say that it simply contains the word of God. At first glance these positions appear to be similar, but on investigation it appears that, judged by their results, they are directly opposed to each other.
The one is the position of the true Christian, the man of faith, who looks for salvation to a source altogether outside of himself; the other is the position of the man who essays to be his own savior.
If I say that the Bible merely contains the word of God, it is left for me to determine what portions of the Bible are inspired and what are not. I must do this by the exercise of my own judgment. My own human, erring judgment, therefore, comes first; that is made the foundation, and upon that rests my faith. But true faith, saving faith, must rest upon a divine foundation.
Naturally, I will select as inspired such portions of the Bible as commend themselves to, or which do not cut across, my own ideas, feelings, and tendencies, and reject those which would oblige me to give up my own ideas or to change my habits of life. I would have a Bible conforming to myself, instead of conforming myself to the Bible. I would cast away the very things that were most essential—the part which, by faith, would bring to me the experience of the new birth.
The very essence of the idea of salvation by faith is that the natural, carnal heart must surrender its own ideas and tendencies, and accept a teaching which cuts directly across that which human wisdom and impulses would approve. It is the idea of crucifixion of the natural man, resulting in his death.
The only possible position consistent with the idea of salvation by faith is that which accepts the whole Bible as the infallible word of God, and those portions which most directly cut across our own ideas, which bring to us reproof and correction, as the most necessary portions of all. And what is true of the Bible in this respect is true also of the Testimonies of the spirit of prophecy. They must be either wholly accepted or wholly rejected. L. A. S.