The Spiritual Test of Scripture

Pacific Press Publishing Association · Mountain View, California · May 28, 1912

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 39, No. 21.

The Spiritual Test of Scripture

The "historical" process and the "inductive method" of the Higher Critics applied to the Holy Scriptures leave out one important test stated by the Messiah Himself to the higher critics of His time: "If any man willeth to do His [God's] will, he shall know of the teaching." This is the one infallible test. It is unscientific not to respect it. It is a spiritual test, we admit, but the Christian Book comes to us as a spiritual Book, with a spiritual law, and a salvation which is spiritual. If it be not this, it is nothing but a book of incomplete history and marvelous ethics. He who ignores its higher purpose, its spiritual life power, loses all. True criticism meets its test and finds it not wanting.