Can You Prove that the Bible Is Inspired?
By G. D. Ballou
SUPPOSE a stranger moves into your community with the purpose of making it his future home. The question is in every mind, What kind of man is he? His friends may refer to his reputation, and show that he has always borne a good character, and this would be sufficient to admit him into good society. But no matter how good his reputation, no one would be quite ready to take him at once into full confidence. If he should want to borrow a thousand dollars you would be sure to ask for security. Now what more is needed to lead you to trust him implicitly? Simply a thorough acquaintance gained by dealing with him for a year or so and scrutinizing his actions until you see that none but pure motives actuate him. So with the Bible. It comes to us with a good reputation. The best men of earth have honored its name and exalted its principles. Its influence has been good, and only good, upon those who have conformed their ways to its teachings. The noblest characters of earth, those whose names have been immortalized in the pages of history, have been developed by conformity to the moral principles taught in the Word. True, the Bible has had enemies, but the best of its enemies have owned at last the folly of their opposition to it. The celebrated Ethan Allen, whose wife was an earnest Christian, was asked by his weeping daughter at his death-bed: "Whose teaching shall I follow, yours or mother's?" The reply came promptly, "Follow your mother's." This reputation which the Bible has ever sustained ought to be sufficient to recommend it to your careful consideration. What you need to prove to you that the Bible is inspired, is to become acquainted with its teachings, and with the Spirit that prompted those who wrote its pages. Every book ever made breathes the spirit of its author, and the only way to come in contact with the Spirit that inspired the Bible is to earnestly study the book itself. In this way only will you ever become thoroughly convinced that it is indeed the word of God. Like all the works of God in nature this book gives internal evidence of having been produced by infinite power and wisdom. External evidence does not prove it to be of divine origin, but internal evidence does. Would you know those truths which will develop symmetry and perfection of character, and be possessed of that hope which has sustained the noblest and best of earth, drink deep at this fountain of truth, and let the Spirit which opened this fountain flow into your heart and life, and you will then have confidence in the Bible and its author, like that which unites earthly friends; only it will be more complete and perfect.