The Inspired Word

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Washington, D. C. · Jan 4, 1906

The Inspired Word

WHILE the attention of so many of our readers is being directed to the inspiration and authority of the Scriptures by the study of the Sabbath-school lessons upon that subject, it seems a fitting time to dwell upon this general theme. We need to have an intelligent and well-grounded faith in the divine authority of the Bible. We need to be fortified against the inroads of that skepticism which in the experience of so many is overthrowing the foundations of the Christian faith. We need to have our minds exercised concerning these fundamental principles so that we may be prepared to help others to get upon solid ground. Many will welcome such helps, but we must have clear convictions of our own in order to give it.

We present this week further extracts from the writings of Dr. Adolph Saphir, in which helpful thoughts are expressed concerning the general idea of inspiration. We emphasize the statement made by Dr. Saphir that “the inspiration of Scripture is a fact, not a theory,” and we desire to help all to receive the fact. When the Word of God is received as the Word of God, it works effectually. So may it be in the experience of all who read these lines. We quote again from Dr. Saphir’s book “Christ and the Scriptures:” —

If on the basis of this declaration (which is in harmony with the whole tone and teaching of Scripture) [that “inspired of God” means that the Spirit of God is the author of this Scripture, influencing the men who wrote in such a manner that their writings are pure and absolute truth], we distinguish between the inspiration of the prophets and apostles as men and their inspiration as writers; such a distinction is absolutely necessary, and confirmed by the facts. As writers, they were perfectly and adequately guided by the Holy Ghost to write what is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness; as men, they were eminent, but still on the same level with other disciples of Christ; and it was their work to meditate, pray, and watch, in order to appropriate for their own spiritual profit and growth that which was delivered to them. And that between these two elements there was not merely the difference of perfect and imperfect, but sometimes even of positive and negative, and is shown by the case of Peter. Fully enlightened by the Spirit as to the position of the Gentiles in the church, and their relation to the law, he was unfaithful to his own knowledge and testimony. And when Paul rebuked him, Peter acknowledged that his conduct had been erroneous, and that his apostolic teaching had been true. For the men, highly favored, and especially fitted for their position as they were, delivered a testimony which, in a special sense, was divine in its origin and substance, clothed in that form which God deems perfectly sure and adequate for all future generations.

If we believed the men inspired, and their writings worthy of our acceptance, because proceeding from them, then our faith would rest on the men, and for their sake we would believe their message. But our faith rests on a divine testimony, and our authority is the authority of God. Peter and Paul believed the testimony they received from God, and so do we, in believing through their writings, accept a divine testimony.

Still more explicit on this point is the teaching of Peter. He declares to us (1 Peter 1:10-12; 2 Peter 1:21) that holy men of old spoke as moved by the Holy Ghost; that this Spirit, who was in them, was the Spirit of Christ, in whom and for whom Israel was chosen; that he revealed to them the whole counsel (Christ’s sufferings and glory), and that they themselves did not fully understand their own writings, but searched diligently into them. How could we be taught more distinctly that the Holy Ghost (and not their own spirit) revealed to them what they wrote, and that their writings were high above their own measure of spiritual insight?

The quotations of Paul show, moreover, that he regarded this inspiration as extending to the very form of expression. To separate thought and word, spirit and embodiment, matter and manner, is at all times a very difficult and dangerous thing. In killing the body we lose the spirit. The boundary line between the idea and the word is very difficult to find. But especially on the ground of revelation is such an attempt dangerous; for this simple reason, that God reveals himself not in spirit, but in flesh—not in abstraction, but in embodiment. As Martin Luther, foreseeing the approaching rationalism and pseudospiritualism, remarked, “Christ did not say of his Spirit, but of his words, they are spirit and life.”

This is not deifying the letter as letter; apart from the indwelling Spirit, the letter throughout killeth. But God’s words are not merely letters, but spirit and life. Paul’s argument in Galatians (not to seeds, as many, but to the seed, as one) is not according to the taste of Japheth; Paul, who was determined not to be afraid of the offense and foolishness of the cross, has often been criticized as falling into Talmudical trifling, by men who little knew that their vaunted intellectualism and spirituality are allied to that rationalism by which Jewish, papal, and philosophical rabbis have made the divine truth of none effect. But the God, without whom not even a sparrow can fall to the ground, and who shows wisdom in the minutest words of his hand, may surely have watched over every expression used in his Scripture; and to discover the wonders of God’s Word by microscopic examination, is the sign not of a trifling but of a great mind.

But Paul derives an argument not merely from a word, but from the silence of Scripture. The circumstance that Scripture does not mention Melchizedek’s parentage, is in Paul’s estimation significant; and thus, even as in music, not only the notes, but also the pauses, are according to the mind and plan of the composer, and instinct with the life and spirit which breathe through the whole, the very omissions of Scripture, be they of great mysteries, such as the fall of the angels, or of minute detail, such as the descent of the king of Salem, are not the result of chance, or of the accidental ignorance of the writer, but according to, and in harmony with, the wisdom of that eternal Spirit who is the true author of the record.

The most common objection urged against this view is that it is inconsistent with the individuality of the writers. But whatever our difficulty may be in combining the two facts, the inspiration of the Holy Ghost and the liberty and individuality of the writers, both facts are sure and apparent. The books of Moses, the Psalms of David, the Proverbs of Solomon, the epistles of Paul, are all marked by very decided peculiarities. The prophets and apostles not merely wrote, but in their writings we see the influence of their history, character, disposition, and mode of thought. It is evident that the Spirit did not destroy men’s individuality, and that their peculiar history, experience, and conformation of mind, formed not an obstacle, but a medium. In this we can only admire the educating wisdom of God.

The inspiration of the Scripture is a fact, not a theory. We find great difficulty in framing a theory even of those influences of the Spirit which we ourselves have experienced, such as regeneration and conversion. How can we, with any degree of certainty, propound a theory of an influence of which we have no personal experimental knowledge? We receive the fact, asserted by the Scriptures themselves, and abundantly confirmed by them, that, though written by men, they are of God, and that the ideas they unfold are clothed in such words as he, in his wisdom and love, intended, so that they may be safely and fully received as expressing his mind, and the thoughts which he purposed to convey to us for our instruction and guidance.

In every portion of the Word (including those whose genuineness has been most doubted, as the epistles of Peter and Jude) there is a solemnity and an authority nowhere found except in writings God-inspired. The Word appeals directly to the soul, as light and life. It is pure, it is perfect. Out of the fulness of the whole counsel of God it speaks, and we feel that the Spirit of the eternal God is teaching us. And the same Spirit who convinced the early church of the authenticity of the books, convinces the believer in the present day. For our faith is not based on human testimony, though we honor and value it. In fellowship with the saints of all ages, we hear the voice of the Shepherd. The flock will not follow a stranger’s voice, nor will it fail to recognize the voice of the Son of God and the teaching of the Holy Ghost.