By Rev. George S. Bishop, D.D., East Orange, New Jersey.
My subject is, The Testimony of the Scriptures to Themselves - their own self-evidence - the overpowering, unparticipated witness that they bring.
Permit me to expand this witness under the following heads:
- Immortality.
2 Authority.
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Transcendent Doctrine.
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Direct Assertion.
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IMMORTALITY - “I have written!” All other books die. old books survive, and fewer of those that survive have any influence. Most of the books we quote from have been written within the last three or even one hundred years,
But here is a Book whose antemundane voices had grown old, when voices spake in Eden. A Book which has survived not only with continued but increasing lustre, vitality, vivacity, popularity, rebound of influence. A Book which comes through all the shocks without a wrench, and all the furnaces of all the ages - like an iron safe - with every document in every pigeon-hole, without a warp upon it, or the smell of fire. Here is a Book of which it may be said, as of Immortal Christ Himself: “Thou hast the dew on Thy youth from the womb of the morning.” A Book dating from days as ancient as those of the Ancient of Days, and which when all that makes up what we see and call the universe shall be dissolved, will still speak on in thunder-tones of majesty, and whisper-tones of light, and music-tones of love, for it is wrapping in itself the everlasting past, and opening and expanding from itself the everlasting future; and, like an all-irradiating sun, will still roll on, while deathless ages roll, the one unchanging, unchangeable Revelation of God.
- Immortality is on these pages, and AUTHORITY SETS HERE HER SEAL. This is the second point. A Standard.
Useless to talk about no standard. Nature points to one. Conscience cries out for one - conscience which, without a law, constantly wages the internal and excruciating war of accusing or else excusing itself.
There must be a Standard and an Inspired Standard - for Inspiration is the Essence of Authority, and authority is in proportion to inspiration - the more inspired the greater the authority - the less, the less. Even the rationalist Rothe, a most intense opponent, has admitted that “that in the Bible which is not the product of direct inspiration has no binding power.”
Verbal and direct inspiration is, therefore, the “Thermopylae” of Biblical and Scriptural faith. No breath, no syllable; no syllable, no word; no word, no Book; no Book, no religion.
We hold, from first to last, that there can be no possible advance in Revelation - no new light. What was written at first, the same thing stands written today, and will stand forever. The emanation of the mind of God - it is complete, perfect. “Nothing can be put to it, nor anything taken from it”; its ipse dixit is peremptory, final. “If any man shall add unto these things, God shall add unto him the plagues that are written in this Book; and if any man shall take away from the words of the Book of this prophecy, God shall take away his part out of the Book of life, and out of the Holy City, and from the things which are written in this Book.”
The Bible is the Word of God, and not simply contains it. This is clear. Because the Bible styles itself the Word of God. “The Word of the Lord is right,” says the Psalmist. Again, “Thy Word is a lamp to my feet.” “Wherewithal shall a young man cleanse his way? By taking heed thereto according to Thy Word.” “The grass withereth,” says Isaiah, “the flower thereof fadeth, but the Word of our God shall stand forever.”
Not only is the Bible called the Word of God, but it is distinguished from all other books by that very title. It is so distinguished in the 119th Psalm, and everywhere the contrast between it and every human book is deepened and sustained.
If we will not call the Bible the Word of God, then we cannot call it anything else. If we insist upon a description rigorously exact and unexposed to shafts of wanton criticism, then the Book remains anonymous. We cannot more consistently say, “Holy Scripture,” because the crimes recorded on its pages are not holy; because expressions like “Curse God and die,” and others from the lips of Satan and of wicked men, are unholy. The Bible, however, is “holy” because its aim and its methods are holy. The Bible, likewise, is the Word of God, because it comes from God; because its every word was penned by God; because it is the only exponent of God; the only rule of His procedure, and the Book by which we must at last be judged.
(1) The Bible is authority because in it, from cover to cover, God is the Speaker. Said a leader of our so-called orthodoxy to a crowded audience but a little while ago: “The Bible is true. Any man not a fool must believe what is true. What difference does it make who wrote it?” This difference, brethren; the solemn bearing down of God on the soul! My friend may tell me what is true; my wife may tell me what is true; but what they say is not solemn. Solemnity comes in when God looks into my face - God! and behind Him everlasting destiny - and talks with me about my soul. In the Bible God speaks, and God is listened to, and men are born again by God’s Word. “So then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God.” It is God’s Revelation that faith hears, and it is on God revealed that faith rests.