The Bible as a Whole by Wilbert W. White

Pacific Press Publishing Association · Mountain View, California · Sep 9, 1913

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 40, No. 35.

The Bible as a Whole

By Wilbert W. White

Wilbert W. White, president Bible Teachers' Training-school, New York

THE mountains of Holy Scripture are being divested of their forests. Floods of infidelity and arid wastes in spiritual life must follow. We need a Christian conservation movement. . . .

It appears to me that there must soon come a return to new study of the evidences that the Bible as a whole is true; for if there is not good and sufficient reason for accepting the message of the Bible as a whole as supernatural, I for one have no particular interest in studying or teaching it. Let its trees be cut down. If, I say, its message in its entirety, as the Bible itself interprets itself, and, if you please, corrects itself—if, I say, there is not good and sufficient reason for accepting the message of the Bible as a whole as a unique revelation from God Himself, then there is no future for us. Let us eat and drink, for to-morrow we die, if the dead are not raised. Life and immortality are brought to light in the gospel, which I insist is the Bible as a whole, or the quest is vain. The church of Christ has accepted the apostolic teaching concerning God and Christ, and this as a whole is true or as a whole it is false.

Let Not the Issue Be Obscured

Let not the issue be obscured. It is the message as a whole with which we must deal. We always lose vantage-ground when we allow the adversary to limit us to this miracle or that, to this doctrine or that, in our defense of the gospel. Each part is to be defended in its setting. Reasons which might appear cogent against a doctrine or a statement in isolation may not be weighty in the light of the context. The context here is Genesis—Revelation. . . .

Again I say, let us not allow any one to confuse us as to the issue to-day. It is not, Is this doctrine or that doctrine true? It is this: Is the Bible as a whole true, or is it not true? Has God given a special, unique, supernatural, divine revelation, or has He not done so? That is the question. If God has given such a revelation, it is in the Bible, and I repeat it, the Bible as a whole is true or it is false as a whole.

The Bible Studied Brings About Belief that It Is of Supernatural Origin

Let me explain exactly what I mean. In doing so, I proceed in the direction of doing what I am continually advocating to be the thing to do to bring about belief that the Bible is of distinctly supernatural origin according to its own repeated allegation; namely, I proceed to study the Bible itself. It is its own best defender. What is the Bible?—It is a collection of threescore and six booklets, each of which is distinct and unique, each coming from a specific situation and having a distinct aim and message. What do these sixty-six booklets, which “by a happy solecism,” since the thirteenth century, have been called the Bible—what do they teach?—They “principally teach what man is to believe concerning God and what duty God requires of man.” To elucidate this and interpret it, we say, The Bible teaches that God the Father almighty, Maker of heaven and earth, through Jesus Christ, His only Son, our Lord, is the Redeemer from sin and destruction, and that therefore man is under obligation to love the Lord his God with all his heart and mind and strength, and his neighbor as himself. Recall the words of Exodus 20: “I am the Lord thy God, which have brought thee out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage. Thou shalt have no other gods before Me.”