INSPIRATION | AdventAI

International Tract and Missionary Society · Oakland, California · Mar 11, 1889

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 15, No. 10.

INSPIRATION.

THE battle-ground to-day between evangelical Christianity and the motley hosts of error is on the plenary inspiration of the Scriptures. Is the Bible from God? Is it all from God? Or is it only a venerable book in which certain divine communications are preserved in the midst of much that is merely human? This latter position is held by some who call themselves Christians, and who do not seem to see how fatal to Christianity are their theories of inspiration. Paul says emphatically, "All Scripture is given by inspiration of God." 2 Tim. 3:16. The Revised Version says, "Every scripture inspired of God." But this translation cannot be defended on critical grounds, and even the revisers had to put in the margin the rendering, "Every scripture is inspired of God and profitable," etc. Paul did not write nonsense, or even platitudes. To say that every scripture that is inspired is profitable would not be very valuable information for Timothy. But the statement that all "the holy Scriptures," in which he had been instructed from childhood (see verse 15), were inspired, was important, and would justify him in using them "for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, and for instruction in righteousness." Dr. Oosterzee, commenting on 2 Tim. 3:16, says:—

"Although the article is wanting here, nevertheless, by virtue of the connection, it is not to be doubted for a moment that the apostle is speaking decidedly and exclusively of the writings of the old covenant as of a well-completed whole. All Scripture is to be taken in the same sense as 'the whole building' (Eph. 2:21), 'the whole conversation' (1 Peter 1:15). . . . Had he wished to say only, Each scripture which is given by God is useful also, he would not only have written something very vague and of little importance, but also he would have lost sight of the whole distinction between sacred and profane Scripture, which in this place, least of all, could have been his purpose."

The canon of the Old Testament was complete when Christ was on the earth. He read from it in the synagogues; he quoted its prophecies concerning himself; he told his hearers to "search the Scriptures;" he knew that the books so called by the Jews were regarded by them as divine. It is incredible, therefore, that he, being a teacher from God, who came to bear witness to the truth, should not have told his disciples that these books were only inspired in part—that instead of being a revelation from God, they only contained a revelation, as certain quartz rock has in it veins of gold.

Then, Peter, an inspired apostle, who was with Christ three years, says that in the

Scriptures "holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost." 2 Peter 1: 21. He evidently refers to the Old Testament as a whole. And this same apostle, in the latter part of this same letter, classes the writings of Paul with "the other Scriptures."

No candid reader of the Bible can doubt that it claims to be, in the fullest sense, a divine book—a revelation from God. But if this claim means anything, it means plenary inspiration. If we give up the divinity of the Bible, as a whole and in all its parts, we are like the defenders of a fortress who permit a breach to be made in its walls. That breach may be narrow, and ninety-nine-hundredths of the wall may stand firmly, yet the fortress will fall. No wonder, then, that the enemies of evangelical Christianity of all arms assail this doctrine of plenary inspiration. If they can only get reason into the citadel of faith, they will make a Bible for themselves. They will use some of the divine material, of course, but they will so reconstruct the edifice that it will be human "from turret to foundation-stone."

But many excellent people, who want to believe in the Bible and the whole Bible, are troubled because there are so many things in it that they cannot understand or cannot see the value of. If God made this book for us, why did he fill page after page with long lists of names? Who reads at family worship, or in his private devotions, the first eight chapters of the first book of Chronicles? Who can fully understand the imagery in Ezekiel or in Revelation? If the Bible was inspired as the guide-book of the human race, should it not have been as brief and simple as a child's primer? Hoping to comfort a little such troubled disciples, we suggest:—

1. It does not follow because the whole Bible is inspired that it is all equally interesting and valuable to all persons and under all circumstances. The most illiterate finds much in it that he can fully comprehend and that is manna to his soul. But all are not illiterate. God wants to interest scholars in his book. He has put in it, therefore, deep things to attract them. If a man goes into a country rich in gold, and has only his two hands, his pick and shovel and wooden rocker, to work with, he ought to be satisfied as long as there is plenty of placer gold. Why should he complain that God, who gave him wealth in the sand, has put wealth also in the rocks for the capitalist to develop with costly shafts, hydraulic engines, and diamond drills? If the gold had all been scattered in the sand, it would have been gathered long ago, and the interest in the mines would have ceased. And so if God had placed the gold of revelation all on the surface. He made the Bible, not for one class only, but for all classes. He knew that men would arise who would study ethnology, and he recorded the origin and distribution of races. But he scattered pearls of spiritual truth all along the way by which he leads them as scientists, and thus many, seeking only human knowledge, have found that which is divine.

2. God made the Bible not only for men of all tastes and capacities, but for the men of all generations. It is not only for the world, but for all time. . . . How could it meet this requirement if we could exhaust its meaning? . . . The fact that biblical criticism is one of the most fascinating of all pursuits; that it engrosses the time and energies of some of the ablest intellects of the day; that they differ widely, and contend earnestly for their conflicting theories, does not prove that the Bible is not divine in every part, but that its Maker knew the race for which he made it, and so constructed it that the interest in it should never cease. One would think that men would weary writing commentaries on the Bible. Yet new ones are appearing every year. There is a wondrous charm about this old book. The very men who try to write down its plenary inspiration prove what they deny, by the earnestness and persistency of the denial. If the Bible did not impress them as no other book does, as no merely human book could, why spend so much time upon it? Why work so hard to minify its claim upon the conscience and the heart?

3. It must be remembered always that in the Bible God is speaking to us. It is the voice of the Infinite falling upon the ear of the finite. It is the revelation of the spiritual in the sphere of the sensual. It is the revolving in our sight of a great wheel, whose top is far above the clouds in the ethereal empyrean. It is the letting down of a ladder from heaven to earth. Of necessity, then, the Bible must be mysterious. It must present to us the lower arc of truths whose uppermost arc is far beyond our sight. A Bible free from mysteries, as easily understood as Shakespeare is, could not be divine. Then mysteries try our faith. And in that is their greatest value to us. By the shadowy glimpses they give of the infinite, they attract our thoughts and our affections upward. And as we look and ponder, and are tempted to repine, we hear a voice saying, "What I do thou knowest not now, but thou shalt know hereafter." Thank God for a Bible whose very mysteries and obscurities prove that it is all divine!—The Occident.