THE BIBLE DEFENDED by Editor

Publishing Committee · Battle Creek, Mich. · Oct 6, 1859

THE BIBLE DEFENDED.

By Editor

[The following eloquent extract from Dr. J. F. Berg, in a Discussion with the Infidel, Barker, on the subject of the Bible, will be of interest to all our readers.—Ed.]

According to the code which regulates public disputations, I am not at liberty to introduce any new topic in the closing speech. I shall, therefore, confine myself to some remarks, recapitulating the points of the discussion, and appealing to all within the sound of my voice, to cherish the Bible as a precious gift beyond all price that can be named in its influence upon the dearest interests of humanity.

The superiority of the Christian revelation over the traditional revelation of deism, is manifest in the fact that the one rests its hopes for the future on a positive basis, whilst the other is built upon a negation of every thing supernatural. This is not philosophical, as the very existence of nature establishes the fact of a supernatural and overruling power as the originator of this glorious frame-work, the government of the intellectual and moral part of the creation of God, would call for a corresponding indication of the divine will and purpose, in clothing it with those subtle attributes which are spiritual and immortal.

We have shown that man's nature leads him to worship; that his character becomes assimilated to the being which he worships; and that whenever man has been left merely to his own resources, his course has been a downward one of superstition, abominable idolatry and licentiousness. We have proved that man possesses no resources by which to extricate himself from this miry abyss—that art and science could not do it—that philosophy could not do it—that all philosophy ever effected towards the deliverance of the race was to make atheists of idolaters. I have shown that before any religion can challenge universal obedience or assent, it must be invested with the marks of superhuman authority—that it must be accredited of God by indications that shall attest its divine origin. Hence the necessity for miracles and prophecy is a philosophical necessity. The Bible, to be of God, must bear not only internal evidence of its divine origin, but external also. My opponent utterly denies the superhuman authority of the laws, doctrines and institutions of Christianity. Then I have shown that he has no foundation upon which he can build the authority of law at all. Laws of merely human origin, depending on no eternal principles of divinely revealed and divinely attested right, are no laws at all. Men may make, and men may unmake, them. Without a law from God, one man's authority is as good as any other's; and thus anarchy stalks forth upon her work of desolation, and, amid the ruins of civil freedom and social order, and the sad wrecks of domestic purity and peace, the grand negation of infidelity stand confessed as an accumulation of positive horror, desolation and woes—a calamity of direst influence upon all the relations of life. I have shown that to deny a superhuman revelation places the infidel in the sad predicament of utter inability to announce the name of a specific God, or to account for the harmony of the attributes ascribed to the deistical idea of a Supreme Being, or even to tell what those attributes are, or even to show, with any degree of certainty, what object the Supreme Being (if, indeed, there be one in his creed), proposed in the infidel's creation. I have endeavored to show you that the internal evidences of the Scriptures sustain its claims; that the alleged contradictions offered by infidel assailants are captious cavils; that these apparent discrepancies are often the result of the employment of language accommodated to human infirmity; and that the argument by which such accommodation is denounced as pernicious, is neutralized by the clear and positive declarations that God, as God, is not subject to the passions, or arrayed in the form of humanity, so that they who would pervert the Bible on this account, do it in the face of its own protest. I have shown that the more closely Bible history is studied, the more clearly is the verity of its facts established; for it has been manifest that the infidel objections against the Mosaic account of the deluge and the ark, paraded with so much pomp of authority, are idle and absurd. In short regarding the purity of its morals—the dignity of its style—the varied extent of its subjects—the harmony between the laws of the Bible and the operations of Providence—the clear and distinct explanations of phenomena, such as the introduction of sin, sickness, misery and death into the world, which, without the scriptural solution, are problems which infidelity can never unravel or reconcile with the idea of a God who governs in accordance with the laws of justice and mercy—regarding, I say, all these things and the want of man's nature which seeks for and feels after the light beyond the grave, furnished in the gospel; and then, above all, the glorious example of Christ, so pure, lovely and gentle, startling the world by a blaze of celestial glory, when the midnight darkness of corruption was blackest, and calling men to the faith of the gospel by the most wonderful attestations of divine power, in working miracles, and blessing the poor and the outcast with the sweet mercies of heaven, and offering to sinful man the wondrous plan of redemption through the blood of the cross, fulfilling the plainest predictions in the circumstances of his own life and sufferings, death and resurrection; and himself predicting events which were literally accomplished, not only in the terrestrial fulfillment of his mediatorial work, but after his ascension into heaven;—regarding all these things, and the consistent testimony of evangelists, disciples and apostles, who sacrificed all for Christ and the gospel, and lived and died in the defence and the faith of it, and gave the best practical testimony in the holiness of their lives, that they were the messengers of God and of Christ, I cannot conceive of any amount of rational doubt that must not yield before the pressure of this flood of testimony.

We love this Bible! We can conceive no direr calamity to the race than to be deprived of its pure morality! and we know of no blacker gloom, even in imagination, than that which pours its shadow over the soul when the weary spirit is breaking through the dissolving walls of its earthly house, unsolaced by this light of life. No Bible! Oh! horrid deprivation! No Bible!! Then is this world one grand enigma—a tangled tissue of contradictions, unanswered and irreconcilable.

I see the flowers springing from the warm bosom of the earth, and lifting their meek eyes towards heaven, and I say—surely there is a God, and this fragrance is earth's incense of praise! I hear the birds singing among the branches, happy and free, rejoicing in the pure air and sunlight of the bright heaven, and I say—surely there is a God, and this music is nature's anthem of thanksgiving.

I look out upon the furrowed field, and the springing corn smiles its blessing upon the God who sends the soft showers in their season. I see the joy of the harvest, and the golden sheaves praise him, and the fruitful trees praise him, and in full concert all his works declare that he is good.

But I hear a cry of anguish—it is the moaning of an infant gasping in its mother's arms—I see it pale and quivering in its agony—I hear the wail of sorrow which woman alone can utter, as she bows to weep over the dead whom she has borne. This world—what is it? A wilderness of graves! a mighty charnel house! from which groans of pain and sorrow are forever rising to the heavens; and I ask, "Is this world governed by one God who is good, and by another who is evil?" And is the evil mightier than the good? Wretched man that I am! How shall I appease the wrath of the malignant being who wars thus continually against human happiness, and finally prevails, so that men die; and dying, shall they ever live again?

What answer shall I give? Shall they live again? and if they do, will that life be a blessing or a curse? What can I say? There is no Bible! and every grave confounds me—the joys of life perplex me—its sorrows depress me. I am afraid to live—I dare not die! Oh! what can I do without the Bible? What can I know without it, that shall still the eager questionings of the restless spirit, that is beating like a caged bird against these earthen walls—struggling after the purer, wider range of its immortal sphere? I know nothing, except that I am a child of sorrow and an heir of death. I can do nothing but regret my existence, and submit to my fate!

So says the infidel but not so the Christian. This world is no enigma to him. He cannot explain every detail, but he can see a glorious harmony between the operations of Providence and the testimony of the Bible. He knows that God is good. He knows that God is holy—that moral law has its penalty for transgression as surely as natural laws have theirs; and therefore he knows there will be sorrow where there is sin; but then, he learns this is not remediless. Christ has repaired the ruin and provided the remedy. It is faith in him as the author of a new life that is mightier than the power of death. It is faith which binds the soul to Christ, and raises it through all these scenes of sorrow to the joy of the heavenly inheritance! Let us cherish this Bible! Let us read it—its words are as pure as silver refined. Its precepts are as apples of gold; and, in keeping its commands there is infinite reward.

Let America keep the Bible, and the Bible will keep America. It will be the salt of divine truth that shall rectify the tendencies to moral corruption, whether in the family, in society, or in civil government, and it shall save the land from infidel licentiousness and misrule. Remember that God no sooner caused any part of his will or word to be written, than he also commanded it to be read, not only in the family, but also in the congregation, "that they might hear, and that they might learn, and fear the Lord their God, and observe to do all the words of this law." Defend! protect! and love the Bible, and the God of the Bible will cause his presence to be your glory; and upon that glory shall be the defence of his own Almighty arm! God grant to you all the blessings promised in his word, to them that love his truth; and ever save our country from the blasting mildew of infidel folly and falsehood.

My opponent may deride the faith of Christians as sheer submission to the frauds of a Protestant priesthood, but so long as ministers of the gospel enjoin upon all men the duty of searching the Scriptures, we can let this assertion pass with others alike unfounded, and leave our faith and character to the ordeal of that day, when the fire shall try every man's work what it is; and the ways and the word of God shall be finally and forever vindicated.—pp. 253-258.