The Scriptures | AdventAI

Pacific Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Oakland, California · Oct 28, 1875

The Scriptures.

THERE are some things that are worse for being old, but the Old Testament is not one of these things; and yet attempts are made to disparage it, because of its antiquity. A Michigan pastor speaking of its excellencies, remarks:

“Christ said, “Search the Scriptures, for in them ye think ye have eternal life; and they are they which testify of me.” What scripture are we here exhorted to search? What scriptures did the Jews, the Apostles, and Christ have? Not the New, but the Old Testament. This, and this alone. This it was, even when not completed, that David and the ancients delighted to meditate in. This was a “lamp to their feet and a light to their path.” This was the “very pure word” they loved. This was the perfect law of God which “converted the soul.” Yes, this same Old Testament, so much now spoken against, as being out of date, behind the times, suited to a dark dispensation, and the childhood of the race. This, and no other, is the blessed old book of Scriptures we are required to search diligently to find eternal life. These are the Scriptures which young Timothy was taught and which were “able to make wise unto salvation.” And it is a pity that so many modern ministers and professing Christians presume to speak and write derogatorily of them. This dividing the Bible is unchristian-like, unapostolic, and baneful. The Bible is one and indivisible—a perfect whole. So let us have it. So let us study it. So let us practice it. The Old Testament cannot be understood without the New Testament, Nor can the New Testament be understood without the Old Testament.”