1. By what terms does Jesus designate the Old Testament Scriptures?
"The law of Moses, and the prophets, and the Psalms." Luke 24:44.
"And beginning from Moses and from all the prophets, He interpreted to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning Himself." Verse 27.
2. What did He say to the Jews?
"Ye search the Scriptures, because ye think that in them ye have eternal life; and these are they which bear witness of Me." John 5:39.
3. How does Paul, when writing to Timothy, refer to them?
"From a child thou hast known the Holy Scriptures, which are able to make thee wise unto salvation thru faith which is in Christ Jesus." 2 Tim. 3:15.
NOTE.—The Holy Scriptures, or Holy Writings, of the Jews consisted of the Old Testament books which we have to-day. They divided them into the Law, the Prophets, and the Hagiographa (Holy Writings), sometimes called the Psalms, because the Psalms is the first book in the latter division. The Law includes the first five books of the Bible; the Prophets,—Joshua, Judges, 1 and 2 Samuel, 1 and 2 Kings, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, and Hosea to Malachi inclusive; the Holy Writings,—Psalms, Proverbs, Job, Song of Solomon, Ruth, Lamentations, Ecclesiastes, Esther, Daniel, Ezra, Nehemiah, 1 and 2 Chronicles. These, as the above scriptures and many others clearly show, were approved and endorsed by our Lord and His apostles.
4. What promise did Jesus give His apostles as to their teaching?
"But the Comforter, even the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name, He shall teach you all things, and bring to your remembrance all that I said unto you." John 14:26; 16:13-15.
5. What does Paul say of the apostolic writings?
"Which things also we speak, not in words which man's wisdom teacheth, but which the Spirit teacheth." 1 Cor. 2:13.
6. How does the apostle Peter class the writings of Paul?
"Even as our beloved brother Paul . . . wrote unto you; as also in all his epistles, speaking in them of these things; wherein are some things hard to be understood, which the ignorant and unsteadfast wrest, as they do also the other Scriptures, unto their own destruction." 2 Peter 3:15, 16.
NOTE.—In this text the apostle Peter classes the writings of the apostle Paul among the "other Scriptures," the Old Testament Scriptures. And the words of the apostle Paul place the New Testament writings with the Holy Scriptures.
II. The Inspiration of the Scriptures.
1. What is said of the inspiration of the Scriptures?
"All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable." 2 Tim. 3:16.
NOTE.—A more literal rendering would be, "All Scripture is GOD-BREATHED." Whether we take "all Scripture" as in the Common Version, or "Every Scripture inspired of God," as in the Revisions, we are at no loss, if we regard the context, as to the meaning of the term. The apostle refers to the Holy Scriptures which Timothy the Jew had known from a child, the Old Testament Scriptures. See the previous verse. Note also that it is NOT the writers which are inspired, or God-breathed, but the Scriptures, the writings.
2. What does another say as to how these Scriptures came to us?
"Holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost." 2 Peter 1:21.
"Concerning which salvation the prophets sought and searched diligently, who prophesied of the grace that should come unto you: searching what time or what manner of time the Spirit of Christ which was in them did point unto, when it testified beforehand the sufferings of Christ, and the glories that should follow them." 1 Peter 1:10, 11.
NOTE.—This last scripture shows clearly that it was the Spirit of Christ as well as the Father which inspired the word. Therefore He is called the Word, the One thru whom the Father gave all things. John 1:1-3; 1 Cor. 8:6. The whole Bible is therefore "the word of Christ" which ought to "dwell richly" in the souls of His children.
3. What other instances may be mentioned as to the claim of inspiration for the word?
"The Spirit of Jehovah spake by me, and His word was upon my tongue." David, in 2 Sam. 23:2.
"Which the Holy Spirit spake before by the mouth of David concerning Judas." Acts 1:16.
"Wherefore even as the Holy Spirit saith, To-day if ye shall hear His voice." Quotation from the Psalms. Heb. 3:7.
"And the Scripture [alluding to a Psalm] can not be broken." John 10:35.
"Which was spoken thru Isaiah the prophet." Matt. 8:17.
"Well spake the Spirit thru Isaiah the prophet unto your fathers." Acts 28:25.
NOTE.—It is everywhere the word of Jehovah, the word of the Lord, the Holy Spirit. The man is God's willing instrument. God is the Master. While the words are the words of Moses, of David, of Jeremiah, of Ezekiel, of Hosea, of Paul, of James, of Peter, they are also the words of God. The words, the style, bear the impress of the character of the man thru whom God spoke, nevertheless they are the words of God. It is as tho a musician, wishing to affect a great mass of people, should play on various instruments, such as piano, organ, harp, guitar, cornet, drum, fife, bag-pipe, etc. Some souls would be affected by the harsher instrument who would not be9touched at all by the softer, more perfect one. The music would bear the stamp of the instrument, but it would also reveal that a master was producing the best music of which the various instruments were capable. So God has used learned and ignorant men, great men and small men. The work has different standards of excellence; but it is always the best which can be produced from the men God has used. By using men of all kinds of temperaments and all walks of life, He reaches men of all classes.
III. The Sufficiency of the Scriptures.
1. What is said of the sufficiency of the Scriptures?
"All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness: that the man of God may be perfect, thoroly furnished unto all good works." 2 Tim. 3:16, 17.
2. What plea does Jesus make for His disciples as to that word?
"Sanctify them thru Thy truth: Thy word is truth." John 17:17.
3. How did He Himself meet the fierce temptations of the enemy?
By "It is written," meeting each suggestion of the enemy by words in Deuteronomy. Matt. 4:1-11.
NOTE.—It is worthy of note that Jesus used in His own personal experience in meeting the onslaughts of the adversary, weapons drawn from the book of Deuteronomy, a portion of Scripture which the "higher critics" have little or no use for. It is better to follow the "Man of Nazareth."
4. What did the psalmist declare God's word to be?
"Thy word is a lamp unto my feet, and a light unto my path." Ps. 119:105.
5. From what did that word hid in the heart save him?
"Thy word have I hid in mine heart, that I might not sin against Thee." Ps. 119:11.
6. How was he kept from the paths of the destroyer?
"Concerning the works of men, by the word of Thy lips I have kept me from the paths of the destroyer." Ps. 17:4.
7. Of what is that word the basis?
"So then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God." Rom. 10:17.
8. What is said of its might?
"For the word of God is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart." Heb. 4:12.
9. To what is it likened?
"Is not My word like as a fire? saith the Lord; and like a hammer that breaketh the rock in pieces?" Jer. 23:29.
10. How does it compare with the word of men?
"The prophet that hath a dream, let him tell a dream; and he that hath My word, let him speak My word faithfully. What is the chaff to the wheat? saith the Lord." Jer. 23:28.
NOTE.—How futile and foolish it is in the light of the above scriptures to form human creeds and endeavor to establish by decree or anathema, or ordain by civil law some human conception of God's word. All that a creed can express are human ideas of God's ever-living word. A creed seeks to confine, circumscribe, and bind about the truth of God. It holds men to the dead past instead of to the living present. It leads men to turn from the Spirit and power of God, promised to unify His church, and to seek that unity in human means, pledges, resolutions, federations, civil power. The creed and federation spirit is born of lack of faith in the word of God and a fear that God can not or will not care for His own. God's word is all-sufficient.
11. How long will that word endure?
"The word of our God shall stand forever." Isa. 40:8.
"Heaven and earth shall pass away; but My word shall not pass away." Luke 21:33.
12. How does God regard His word?
"I will worship toward Thy holy temple, and praise Thy name for Thy loving-kindness and for Thy truth: for Thou hast magnified Thy word above all Thy name." Ps. 138:2.