THE ROCK OF THE WORD

Pacific Press Publishing Company · Mountain View, California · Nov 1, 1905

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 31, No. 44.

THE ROCK OF THE WORD.

The Bible and Its Critics.

EVOLUTION and Evolutionists may come and go, but God's Word abides. The Higher Critics, with capital initials, may exalt themselves, but the Bible still remains God's message of salvation to a lost world.

AND this is the message of God to us: "For all flesh is as grass, and all the glory of man as the flower of grass. The grass withereth, and the flower thereof falleth away; but the word of the Lord endureth forever. And this is the word which by the Gospel is preached unto you." 1 Peter 1:24, 25. These sublime words, except the last sentence, are quoted from one of those parts of the Bible which is just now overgoing the fire of the higher critics, namely, the latter part of Isaiah. It is God's estimate of the "glory of man" as compared with His Word. They suppose themselves above the Word, are, indeed, higher critics; but they are below the Word after all—they are like dogs baying at the moon. It pleases and then wearies the dog, but the moon abides unchanged. Sometimes when a passing cloud hides its face the dog doubtless thinks that he has frightened it away; so it is with some of the higher critics and the Bible. But the obscuration of the Book is simply their own shadow.

AMONG the parts of the Bible thus attacked and criticized is the Pentateuch, or books of Moses. The story of Creation, Eden, and the Fall, is called a myth, a poem, an allegory—anything and everything but truth. Some of the men who make this claim professedly hold to the teaching of Christ and the apostles, not realizing that their rejection of the writings of Moses is logically a rejection of the teachings of Christ and His apostles. All through the writings of Paul we find references to the Pentateuch, not as a history to be questioned, but as the word of the living God to be heeded: "Saith not the law the same also?" (1 Cor. 9:8, 9), "as also saith the law" (1 Cor. 14:34); "the serpent beguiled Eve through his subtilty" (2 Cor. 11:3); "for Adam was first formed, then Eve. And Adam was not deceived, but the woman being deceived was in the transgression" (1 Tim. 2:13, 14); "by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin" (Rom. 5:12). These and other scriptures show that the books of Moses were regarded as God's Word, and the record they give of man's origin and fall were held as facts. In brief, the apostle Paul, in speaking of all the Old Testament scriptures together, says of them: "All Scripture is given by inspiration of God [God-breathed], and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness." 2 Tim. 3:16.

BUT in the life of our Lord reverence for the Scriptures, and for that part styled the Pentateuch, shines out pre-eminently. When Satan assaulted Christ in his three temptations, he met every attack with a quotation from the writings of Moses. "It is written" was sufficient to meet the power of the enemy, because the word written was God's. The scriptures quoted by Christ are as follows:

"It is written, Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God."

"It is written again, Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God."

"It is written, Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and Him only shalt thou serve."

The first of these is from Deut. 8:3; the second, Deut. 6:16; the third, Deut. 10:20. This is Christ's testimony in example to the writings of Moses.

BUT Christ bears direct testimony to the importance of belief in those writings. He not only shows by His references to the Inspired records, by the quotations He used, but He said in so many words, that rejection of what Moses said means rejection of what He said. Thus He spoke to the rabbis of His time:

"How can ye believe, which receive honor one of another, and seek not the honor that cometh from God only? Do not think that I will accuse you to the Father; there is one that accuseth you, even Moses, in whom ye trust. For had ye believed Moses, ye would have believed Me; for he wrote of Me. But if ye believe not his writings, how shall ye believe My words?" John 5:44-47. These words are as applicable now as then; for he who believes not in the creative power of God as especially recorded in the books of Moses, will not believe in the word of Christ to regenerate, recreate, cleanse, sanctify, and fit us for the kingdom of God. The power that does the one is the power that performs the other. The Spirit that was in the one is the Spirit that is in the other. He who does not believe the one will not, can not, believe the other.

Relation of Faith to It.—We are not saying by this that if a man believes the record of Genesis he will necessarily believe Christ; for he may, like the demons, "believe and tremble." He may believe, that is, give mere nominal assent to the facts, and it may profit him nothing. What God demands is faith, the soul's grasp of God's creative power, applied now to his own soul in the chaotic condition of sin. He who thus believes, who submits himself to God that God may work in him, who gives up all that he may obtain Christ, his Creator and Redeemer, will have the chaotic darkness of his soul changed to the cosmic beauty of the light of righteousness by the same power that brought light out of darkness in the beginning. "For God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, hath shined in our hearts, to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ." 2 Cor. 4:6.

Do Not Be Afraid.—The Christian, the regenerate child of God, need not fear. The Old Book still stands. He has not only all the internal and outward evidences of the Word itself, but he has added evidence in the regenerating power of Christ in his own character. That power has changed the carnal heart of hatred to God's law, and made of it a heart which delights in His statutes. Evolutionists and higher critics may come and go; man in his glory may blossom as the flower, but like the flower he will perish, while "the Word of the Lord endureth forever." The meteoric radiance of Bible critics will go out in darkness as oft before, but the light from the throne of God will shine on till the last soul is gathered into the heavenly garner. God desires that we shall abide with the Word; therefore "love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world. And the world passeth away, and the lust thereof; but HE THAT DOETH THE WILL OF GOD ABIDETH FOREVER." 1 John 2:15-17.