The Bible from God by W. F. Hillman

Pacific Press Publishing Company · Oakland, California · Nov 7, 1895

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 21, No. 44.

The Bible from God.

By W. F. Hillman

BY W. F. HILLMAN.

Evidences of Its Divine Inspiration.

Every intelligent man sees and acknowledges in deed, if not by the words of his mouth, the being and creative attributes of the Almighty. “The heavens declare the glory of God.” Ps. 19:1. All nature, on land and in ocean, by day and by night, in the stillness of the calm and in the roar of the tempest, in light and in darkness, from the

infinitesimal germ and tiniest flower to the countless worlds that swiftly speed in their appointed orbits through the universe—all nature tells of a Being infinite in power, wisdom, and goodness. “The invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and godhead; so that they are without excuse.” Rom. 1:20.

God has implanted in every human being a conscience, which, if not seared by sinning, authoritatively urges to do the right and to shun the wrong. He has also implanted in every rational mind an intuitive judgment by which we know some fundamental truths more certainly and emphatically than can be known from any process of reasoning. For example, we know that we live and move; that the whole is greater than any of its parts, yea, that it is equal to the sum of all its parts; that we are free moral agents, that is, have the power of choice; that we are sinful creatures, and deserve punishment; that every one of us needs a helper, a saviour, mightier and better than is any human being.

Intuitively we believe that it will be well with us if we always do what is right, but every one knows that he fails so to do. If God be so great and wise as all nature emphatically testifies that he is, will he not in some way provide a saviour for us? Will he not be as merciful as he is great? Is he not as gracious as he is wise? Neither nature nor intuition positively tells us this. O, that God would reveal himself to us as One able and willing to save from sin! Surely the all-wise and good Creator will reveal to us what we so much need to know.

Many books claim to be of divine origin. Shall we believe any of them to be God-inspired? God might give us a more specific revelation of his character, and of our relations to him, than nature gives, but whether he has done so can not be positively told by nature or intuition. Much less can it be told in what manner such revelation would be made—whether in thunder tones or in the quiet of peaceful sleep, or in some unthought-of way. But if the Almighty should reveal himself to us, such revelation would surely be in harmony with his character as manifest in his works, and would be given in a way that would not be derogatory of himself. Whatever special revelation he may give to us will clearly show us that which we specially need to know, namely, what we must do to be saved.

Its Comprehensiveness.

As we carefully and candidly examine the Bible, we more and more see that it meets all our needs. The heavens do not so clearly and grandly manifest God’s glory as does this Sacred Volume. Intuition, as compared with the clear light of revelation, only just begins to show us our sinfulness and God’s abhorrence of everything unholy. While the Author of the Bible respects our moral freedom, and makes no effort to compel belief, yet he furnishes evidence so abundant, and so well fitted to every mind, in every condition of life, that all are sinners, lost and undone, and that we need the Saviour revealed—so clearly is this revealed that no person will doubt the divine inspiration of the Bible if he will candidly and thoroughly investigate this subject. The Bible reveals as the most marked characteristic of Jehovah that most blessed of attributes, love. How frequently and emphatically we are told that God is “merciful and gracious, . . . forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin.” Ex. 34:6, 7. No other pretended divine revelation so attractively, harmoniously, and gloriously sets forth God’s character as does the Bible.

There is power in electricity. We may have read and believed unquestionably that street cars are propelled by such power, before we had any definite ideas as to just how the power might be applied. Because we, short-lived creatures, could not tell beforehand how the all-wise Creator could reveal himself to us in words, it is no evidence that we can not perceive that word to be divinely inspired, if such revelation be given. According to the Bible, God has revealed his thoughts and purposes in regard to man in many ways,—by direct communication with Adam, and other holy men of old; by the thunder tones of Mount Sinai; by dreams and visions; by moving upon men to write his thoughts, and attesting to their inspiration in various ways, especially by miracles and prophecy; by the special gifts of the Holy Spirit; and most fully and graciously by the incarnation, life, teachings, death, and resurrection of his well-beloved Son, our adorable Redeemer. Who else than the heavenly Father would have thus made known his will?

Whatever pertains to salvation from sin, to a future life, to our relations to God—truths that every rational being most needs to know, and which can not be found out from nature or intuition,—these are the truths for which the Bible was given. These are so variously, abundantly, and harmoniously blended with the facts of history and the laws of nature which we may to a certain extent learn from outside of the Bible, that it is evident that the one omnipotent and all-wise Being who created us and all else that we see, is also the real Author of the Bible. Did our knowledge of God depend on external nature alone, we might seriously question our understanding of it; did it depend upon our intuitive knowledge, we, so insignificant and polluted by sin, might well fear lest our intuitions were faulty; but when all nature around us, our own physical and mental being, and those wonderful writings which we know of as the Holy Scriptures, like three competent and independent witnesses, all testify of God’s greatness and goodness, of man’s sinfulness, and of many kindred truths, we can but conclude that the Bible is from God.

Its Evidences, Fruits, and Unity.

The Bible claims to be divinely inspired. “Holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost.” 2 Peter 1:21. “The Revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave unto him.” Rev. 1:1. “And God spake all these words.” Ex. 20:1. If it be what is thus claimed, good will result from it. If these claims are false, it will be productive of evil, for a corrupt tree can not bring forth good fruit. Matt. 7:18. But everybody knows that those who study, and live in accordance with the teachings of, this blessed Book are good people. Civilization and all its refining influences are sure to follow the prevalence of Bible knowledge. This is universally true of individuals, and hence of communities and of nations.

Two chief means by which God has authenticated his servants are miracles and prophecy. If one be cast into a fiery furnace and comes out unscathed, if another heals by a word diseases that by ordinary means are incurable, if still another restores the dead to life, all who witness these things know that these men are indeed the servants of Jehovah. As time passes and the miracles of such men are more and more forgotten, their teachings are more and more called in question. But if God’s servants foretell events scores and hundreds of years before they take place, events that no one expects, and that mere fancy would not be likely to even suggest, as these minutely told prophetic events are accurately fulfilled, and that, too, by persons who knew nothing of the things predicted, the evidence grows more and more convincing that those prophecies were divinely inspired. If with those prophecies we find doctrines so interblended that to separate them is to destroy both, we must conclude that the doctrines also are divinely inspired. Such is the case with the Bible, but not with other pretended revelations, except so far as they are manifestly taken from the Bible.

The Holy Bible, the Christian Scriptures, teaches more history, and more reliably, than any other book of its size devoted wholly to history. It teaches more genuine biography, more and truer morality, and more and better of much else, than other books of greater size, devoted entirely to these subjects. Not only so, but its teachings are more readily comprehended by everybody—by the scholarly and by those who can scarcely read, by princes and by peasants, by philosophers and by the feeble minded. Whence its superiority to other books in these respects?—Because divinely inspired.

The Bible is a collection of sixty-six different books, written by thirty or forty different persons, living at different times during sixteen centuries, in different countries, in different circumstances in life,—princes, poets, philosophers, warriors, shepherds, fishermen, in prison, and on the throne, and with different immediate objects in view; yet with all this strange diversity, all its teachings harmonize with one another, and with what we otherwise learn of the Creator. Moreover, there is running through this wonderful Book prophecies, allusions, and more direct information in regard to the one central Figure of the whole book, the Son of God, who became man, who did such works and imparted such knowledge as has never had a parallel, and who died of a broken heart on the cross, that we might receive forgiveness of sins and eternal life through faith in him. Whence this wondrous unity and these marvelous teachings of the Holy Scriptures? The Creator and Upholder of all must have moved these men to write as they did.

Would you know what the Bible really teaches?—Do not expect to fathom the infinite riches of a God-inspired Book by cursorily reading it once or twice, especially if you give more heed to the opinions of those who reject it than to the book itself. Seek daily and diligently to understand it; take no interpretation as authoritative that you do not see to be correct; live up to all the light that you have; pray earnestly that its Author will open your eyes to see its blessed truths, that you may do them, and you will know its doctrine. Then will your life make known its blessedness more convincingly than tongue can tell.

“Blessed Bible, book divine, Precious treasure, thou art mine.”